armored beasts

sculpting organic and non-organic forms in zbrush

01 Lizard by Bruno Camara - Page 04

02 bear by Borislav Kechashki - Page 20

03 Chicken by Jose Alves da Silva - Page 26

04 Gorilla by Miro Petrov - Page 46

05 rhino by Jose Alves da Silva - Page 52

06 Cat by Christopher Brändström - Page 64

 01
Lizard by Bruno Camara
Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard

Chapter 01: Lizard

Software used: ZBrush 4.0

Hi, my name is Bruno Câmara and over the next

few pages I’ll be explaining the process I used
to create my lizard character. I hope you like it!

The Idea
The main idea for this tutorial was to come up
with an armored creature of some kind, so I
decided to create a reptilian beast that lived a
long time ago, in a fantasy kind of era where
there were few resources and constant conflict.
The beast wasn’t very intelligent and basically
lived by fighting for food. He was always one of
the first on the battlefield and his armor wasn’t
particularly strong or thick because of the lack
of resources and the fact that the lizards can’t
forge metal. It was basically made of things he
found or collected from dead enemies.

With this idea in my head I started to sketch

some rough ideas (Fig.01). I created some
messy silhouettes and then the character began
to form out of these.

Generally the first sketches you make are

the most cliché ones. The more options and
variations you sketch, the more interesting and
original they become. In Fig.02 you can see the
option I chose as the concept for my character,
which I then developed into the final concept
shown in Fig.03.

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts
It is here that I defined everything. You don’t
need to do a detailed sketch or concept for your
images, but getting some ideas down on paper
may help. It helps me a great deal when I start
the sculpting, as I already know what I plan to
do and have things like scale and pose decided
in advance. I always gather references at this
point as well, as it helps sell the image and
make it more accurate.

Modeling
Then it was time to start the hard work. For the
modeling I separated the character into three
main parts: the head, body and props. Before
anything else though, I started on the main base Sculpting the Head 1. Create a ZSphere and hit Edit
using ZSpheres (Fig. 04). On this mesh I had already defined the shapes 2. In Tool > Rigging, click Select Mesh
of the head, but I hadn’t detailed it yet so I did a 3. Select the mesh you will use to create the
After building the structure I converted it to simple retopology to have a better base to start new topology
a mesh (Tool > Make PolyMesh 3D). I then from (Fig.06). 4. Go to Tool > Topology > Edit Topology
started to define the proportions and general 5. Turn Symmetry on (if needed) and click on
shape of the muscles (Fig.05). To make the retopology of any mesh, do the the model to begin creating new geometry
following: 6. Press A to see the new mesh
7. When you are done, press Tool > Make
PolyMesh 3D.

That’s the process I used to make the new mesh

for the head. This new mesh had some basic
edge loops for a better flow and easy detailing
in the future. Once the new topology was done
I started to detail the head using a reference of
a blue-tongued lizard and a Komodo dragon to
help me.

The first one stands out among all other lizards

because of his nice body texture and weird
tongue. Since my armored lizard was going

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard
to be huge, at three or four times the size of a
human, his skin would be more like a Komodo
dragon’s or a dinosaur’s than a little lizard. Other
references were used too, like iguanas and
other lizards.

After gathering several references, I also

downloaded several alphas related to lizard
skin. You can find great alphas on Pixologic’s
website.

I started defining the main muscles on the head

and neck and the folds of skin. I then moved on
to the gums and tongue (Fig.07). The eyes were
a simple Sphere3D object and the tongue was
made from ZSpheres.

To make the teeth I masked the position of the

teeth on the gums and used Extract to create a
new subtool. Then using the Inflat tool and the
Pinch brushes, I pulled and shaped each tooth
(Fig.08). Like the tongue, the drool was also
made from ZSpheres (Fig.09).

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts

Finally I detailed the scales around the mouth

and eyes manually. Basically I masked the
mouth region where the scales would be,
inverted the mask and used a combination of
the Standard brush and Inflat brush to highlight
the scales (Fig.10). I used this process for the
major scales; the others I did with skin alphas
(Fig.11).

I didn’t spend much time on the shoulders as

they were going to be hidden behind the leather
clothes. In Fig.12 you can see the completed
head.

Detailing the Body

The lizard’s body demanded a mixture of human
and lizard anatomy. To tackle this I collected as
many references of human muscles and lizards
as possible. I tried to create a strong body that
looked balanced enough to carry the weight of
the armor.

As I had already modeled a base for the body,

I used it to begin to define the muscles of the

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard

limbs, but before I did that I deleted all of the

head geometry as it was no longer necessary.
I started with the arms and hands, and defined
the muscles and veins (Fig.13). I then moved on
to the legs (Fig.14), and finally the torso and tail
(Fig.15). Some parts were not detailed as they
were going to be covered by cloth and armor.

For the scales I used the same process as I did

for the head. I manually modeled the main parts
like the elbow and joints. For the rest I used a lot
of alphas and adjusted any problems that arose.

The final body can be seen in Fig.16. At this

point I had seven subtools: the head, body, Ctrl key pressed, I masked the rags of leather bit with the Move brush, to make them fall on the
eyes, tongue, drool, upper teeth and lower teeth. that I wanted to extract (Fig.17). body, simulating gravity. I created three different
rags of leather for the torso (Fig.18).
Modeling the Props Once they were masked I clicked Extract. I
There are several props on this character. I set the parameters for Edge Smoothness to 0,
divided them into five different parts and created Surface Smoothness to 0 and Thickness to 0.3.
them in this order: cloth, armor, shield, leather Depending on the model you make these values
straps and weapons. For both parts of cloth I may vary. After extracting them I softened the
used Extract (Tools > Subtool > Extract). Extract edges of the extracted model manually, so I
is just great and really speeds up the workflow. could have a better range of smoothness. It was
At the lowest level of subdivision and with the necessary to separate the cloth from the body a

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts
For the lower clothes I had to extract a base
geometry and mask over it to make out the final
cloth. I created two rags (Fig.19).

The Armor
I thought this metal armor would be useful as
the lizard would have to defend against frontal
attacks. It would be very old and worn, with
pieces of chains and wires around. The fastest
way to create it was with ZBrush’s ShadowBox.

This is the quickest way to model using

ShadowBox:
1. Create a Sphere (Sphered3D primitive)
and tap the T key to edit
2. Click Tool > Make PolyMesh3D to
transform it from a primitive to polymesh
3. Now click Tool > Subtool > ShadowBox
4. Hold Ctrl and click and drag on the canvas
to clear the mask and erase the sphere
5. Now you have what you need to start
working in ShadowBox.

With a resolution of 300 for ShadowBox

(ReMesh Resolution parameter) and the X
axis symmetry turned on, I drew the mask to
generate the armor’s base (Fig.20).
to improve the curvature. Then with the Slash1 After this I used some metal alphas for minor
It’s even better to build props like this to the and Slash2 brushes I made marks all over it as details, such as rust and wear and tear (Fig.22).
correct scale (Fig.21). Simple as that! Now the if it had been involved in plenty of wars. Another
base of the armor was ready to be detailed. I great tool I used was the Polish brush, which With the armature complete, I moved on to
started bending the armor with the Move brush allowed me to flatten some areas. modeling the wires and chains hanging from it.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard

For the wires I used ZSpheres, which I patiently Shield

rolled one by one until I had the correct For the lizard I created three different shields.
thickness. For the chains I used a Ring3D One of them is the medusa shield. I started in
primitive. I modified it until I had the shape of ShadowBox by creating the basic shape (Fig.
a chain’s ring and multiplied it until I had the 25). After the mesh was generated I used the
length I required for my chain. Using the Subtool MatchMaker brush to get the contours of the
Master plugin I merged the rings to create a cylinder. This new brush is perfect when making
single object (Fig.23). one surface conform to the contours of another.

Using Transpose to move and rotate, I To use the MatchMaker brush do the following:
positioned the chains just like the concept and, 1. Tool > Subtool (this should already
using the Move brush, I bent them to give them contain the object you want to deform) 2. Now you have two subtools: the main one
a sense of movement. You can see the finished click Append and choose the object to use and the reference for the contour
piece of armor in Fig.24. as the contour 3. Position the reference object below the
object to be deformed
4. With the main one selected, choose the
MatchMaker brush in the brush palette
5. Click the center of the object and drag;
now the object will deform in accordance
with the object underneath.

After getting the contour of the cylinder I

subdivided the shield a couple of times,
turned on Symmetry and started sculpting the
Medusa’s face. For the snakes I masked their
shape on the mesh and used the Inflat brush
to pull them out. For the ornaments I used the
Stitch brush with a round alpha and modeled
some screws around the border. Finally I
destroyed the shield using the ClayTubes and
Slash1 brushes.

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To create another shield I used the same metal with screws and creases, and made them
process as I did on the previous one, only I old and broken (Fig.27).
changed the format and used a sphere as the
contour (Fig.26). I then placed the shields and created more wires
with ZSpheres to tie them to the body (Fig.28).
For the third shield I basically used Extract to
create each of the pieces. From a cylinder I Leather Straps
created a disk and subdivided it to be the wood I modeled the leather straps using Extract to
part. Then one by one I masked the edge, match the concept. I masked around the body
center and arrow-shape, and used the Extract and limbs, but erased a small piece where I
(Tool > Subtool > Extract) to create the metal could connect the loop with a Ring3D primitive
parts. I then detailed the piece of wood and (Fig.29).

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard
I repeated this a few times until I had this
(Fig.30).

Weapons
There are many weapons on this character,
consisting of the secondary ones that hang
on him and the main one he uses to attack.
The secondaries are the remains of weapons,
swords and broken spears of past battles.
For the swords I made one complete sword
and from it created some variations. I used
ShadowBox to create the base mesh (Fig.31)
and used Symmetry to create them. Once they
were made I used the Move and Polish brushes
to detail them. I created variations using clipping
brushes to break them into different parts.

To cut any object in ZBrush using Clipping

brushes, do the following:
1. With your object on the screen and in Edit
mode (T key) hold Ctrl + Shift.
2. The Brush and Stroke palettes have now
changed. Choose a Clipping brush like
ClipCurv and a stroke, like Curve.
3. Still holding Ctrl + Shift, click and drag to
start drawing the cut.
4. To make a curve just tap the Alt key. When
you have finished, release Ctrl + Shift to
cut the mesh.

I used the same method for the spear (Fig.32).

There is also a broken axe, which again I

created by using the same method as before.

The blade and the handle are the same mesh. Texturing and Posing
The Polish brush was essential here to make With the hard work done it was time to put some
the details really sharp. I also used rusty metal color on the character. As the head and body
alphas to make it look worn (Fig.33). were different subtools, I focused on finishing
the texture of the head to give the final look
The other main weapons are a machete and a for the body. I started by filling the head of the
cleaver. These were all created in the same way lizard with a yellow tone, which also complied
(Fig.34 – 35). with the main reference of the blue-tongued

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts

lizard. I then used a lighter tone for areas like

under his chin and chest. I like to use an alpha
for the transition of tones to match the texture of
the skin (Fig.36). In this case I chose to use a
scales alpha.

With the Standard brush and FreeHand stroke

I added some dark stripes at the beginning of
the back, as they were on the reference. I also
polypainted some more random scales of the
same color on the stripes. For the tongue and

teeth I used several references of human teeth Before proceeding with the texture I broke the
and the mouths of some lizards like the Komodo symmetry and posed the character. For the
dragon. pose I tried to follow the concept, but with some
differences in the pose of the limbs to create a
For the eyes I used the DragRect stroke. I better silhouette. I deleted hard objects such as
projected a picture of a chameleon’s eye as I the armor and shields, and used the Transpose
found them much more expressive than other Master to pose him (Fig.39).
lizards. For the drool I used a reference image
of a Komodo dragon, which has very thick and Once I was happy with the silhouette, I started
white drool. After the head was ready and the to place the props and used the Transpose
final look was okay, I painted the body in the Masters to make it all work together. This part
same style. The final body can be see in Fig.37. took some time because of the large amount of
props. I also had to be careful to make sure no
For the cloth I used different images and leather parts intersected with each other.
tones that had been treated in Photoshop. Using
the DragRect stroke and Alpha 01 I projected With the pose ready, I continued to finish the
the images onto the sculpt (Fig.38). texturing. I used the same texture for the leather

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard
straps, varying the tones between them, and I face and the rusted gray metal for the rest.
also applied some metal textures to the rings I didn’t use a texture here. For the wooden
(Fig.40). shield I applied the worn silver matcap for the
metal part, and a wood texture for the middle.
The next step was to polypaint the armor and Finally for the round shield I modified the deep
wires. I searched for textures such as rusted bronze matcap (Material > Modifiers) to a darker
metal and rope wires, and applied them with the version and applied it.
DragRect stroke tool. For both I used a darker
version of the textures to vary the tone in some Weapons
areas. For the secondary weapons on his back I used
a single material. Maybe I should have used
For the shields I basically just used metal some variation of hue to achieve a better look.
matcaps, which are freely available on the Again the deep bronze matcap was changed to
Pixologic website (http://www.pixologic.com/ a grayer version, like steel. This matcap is great
zbrush/downloadcenter/library/). On the because it creates a sense of texture. It darkens
website, under the option MATCAP METAL, I the cavities and highlights the bumps so the
downloaded Deep Bronze, Rusted Gray and weapons have a very old look (Fig.42).
Worn Silver Metals (Fig.41).
For the main weapons I also used a modified
The only texture I used was for the wooden matcap for the metal parts. I used the
part of the shield. For Medusa’s shield I used SketchShaded2 matcap for the wood, along with
two matcaps: the deep bronze for the Medusa’s a few textures (Fig.43).

And that’s it. The texturing process was now

finished and it was time for my PC to work on
the render passes.

Rendering
For the final image I wanted a very dark mood,
with low light, as if he were in a cave. Nine
render passes were used: Color Pass, Ambient

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts
Occlusion, Main Light, Specular, Right Rim
Light, Left Rim Light, Depth of Field, Mask and a
SSS pass (Fig. 44).

Before rendering all the passes I saved a

view using ZAppLink (Document > ZAppLink
Properties). This was to ensure that all the
passes would be rendered at the same angle.
I also applied a black background to all the
passes and increased the FocalAngle to 140
(Draw > FocalAngle) to give more depth to the
scene.

Color Pass
The first pass I exported was the Color pass,
which is where all the colors were. To do this I
simply applied the Flat Color Standard material
to the entire scene. By just using this material,
I would have lost the metal shaders, so I kept
the matcaps of the weapons and all metal parts
by going to Color > Fill Object, with only the M
(Material Channel) button on (Fig.45).

Ambient Occlusion
For the Ambient Occlusion I also used the Flat
Color Standard material, but with all the textures hold Shift and click on the brush-shaped I only put the AOcclusion button on and in
and polypaints off. To turn off the materials and icon. Now you can use any color or matcap. Render > BPR AO, I used the following values:
textures of all the subtools, go to Tool > Subtool, Regarding the parameters in the Render palette, - Strength:1
- Rays: 100
- Res: 4000
- Angle: 360
- Blur: 2
- VDepth: 0
- LDepth: -1
- Gamma: 3

And that’s it. The resulting image is in Fig.46.

Then in Photoshop I used Levels to highlight a
few details.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard

Main Light
The Main Light pass was a simple sun light
coming from the right. I used a white light so
I could change the color in Photoshop at will.
I set Intensity to 0.7, Ambient to 0 and the
BasicMaterial as a matcap.

I turned Shadows on in the Render palette and

the BPR Shadows option and set them like this:
- Strength: 1
- Rays: 100
- Res: 4000
- Angle: 20
- Blur: 6
- VDepth: 0
- LDepth: -1

I clicked the BPR button and made the Main

Light pass (Fig.47).
difference is that the light source was behind the Mask at the same time if you want it to. I used
Specular Pass object. To do this I simply double-clicked on the the same parameters for the Fog tab as I did in
For the Specular pass I used the ReflectedMap point of light in the Light palette. I also increased the Depth of Field tab (Depth Cue). This way
matcap and in Material > Modifiers I set Ambient Intensity to 2, because it gets weaker when it’s I could see in real-time how the depth of field
and Diffuse to 0 and also adjusted the specular behind the object. I made some adjustments would blur the final image.
curve based on references. For the light I used in Photoshop to highlight these rim lights even
the same position and the same parameters as more (Fig.49). The Depth Cue parameters were as follows:
I’d used for the Main Light pass, and hit BPR - Intensity: 100
(Fig.48). Depth of Field and - Softness: 4
Mask - Depth 1: -0.22
Left and Right Rim These two passes were created simultaneously - Depth 2: 0.16
Lights using the Create Maps button (Render > Create
For these two passes I used the same Maps). This can generate the main image, With the Create Maps button enabled, I clicked
parameters as the Main Light pass. The Depth of Field, Shadow, Ambient Occlusion and BPR and created these two passes (Fig.50).

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 Chapter 01 | Lizard Armored Beasts

SSS the render passes in Photoshop. Fig.52 shows mode. These fitted perfectly, but I duplicated
For Subsurface Scattering I used the all the passes in order of assembly. I started the right rim light layer to highlight some areas a
DoubleShade1 matcap. In Material > Modifiers, by opening the Color pass of the character and little more.
for both the S1 and S2 slots, I set Specular to applied the Occlusion pass using it in Multiply
0. In Tool > Subtool I hid all the objects except layer mode. Finally there was the SSS pass over all the
the head, body and drool and I turned off the layers in Screen mode. A lot of this layer was
brush-shaped icon to disable the polypainted I then applied the Main Light pass, which was erased leaving it in some parts, like the mouth,
textures. I chose a reddish color as the main given a yellow tint in Photoshop using Hue and hands and tail.
color and in the Light palette double-clicked on Saturation. This was applied using the Soft Light
the point of light to put it behind the character. I layer option. After I had assembled this I flattened the image
then set Intensity to 2, Ambient to 0 and turned and started a new one. In this second version
on SSS. Finally, in the Render palette, I also The Specular pass was then added in Screen I applied the background using the Mask pass.
enabled Shadows and SSS. I pressed the BPR mode. In this pass I deleted some areas such Then I highlighted the center of the scene,
button and the SSS pass was ready (Fig.51). I as on the pieces of leather and on some metals darkened the edges of the image and used
adjusted this slightly with Levels in Photoshop. because it doesn’t make sense to have specular the Depth of Field pass in the Lens Blur filter
there. to achieve the blur effect. That’s it! Finally the
Final Composition armored lizard was done (Fig.53).
Finally we have reached the last part of this Immediately on top of the Specular pass I
tutorial. Now all I needed to do was assemble all applied the Rim Light passes using Screen layer

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Armored Beasts Chapter 01 | Lizard

Conclusion
At the end of a project like this you learn a lot as
there’s always room for improvement. If I went
back in time and started again I would change
several things to make it better. I think that
everyone should leave their comfort zone from
time to time to learn and evolve further. I can’t
wait to start an even bigger project.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. For me it was

an honor to write for 3DCreative and if you have
any questions or feedback feel free to contact
me.

Bruno Camara
For more from this artist please visit:
http://bruno-camara.blogspot.com/
Or contact him at:
[email protected]

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 02
bear by Borislav Kechashki
Armored Beasts Chapter 02 | Bear

Chapter 02 - Bear
Software used: ZBrush

I was really excited about the idea of making an

armored bear, so from the very start I had plenty
of ideas in my head. I began by collecting all
kinds of reference that could be useful at some
point. I knew I was going with a polar bear so
I started gathering images of real polar bears,
plus different types of armor I found interesting.
I also looked for different types of artwork, both
2D and 3D, that could serve as an inspiration.

As it is a creature living in a cold and unfriendly

environment I thought it would be cool if the
armor is like the protection used by hockey
players, so I was inspired by Casey Jones and
Jason Voorhees. So that was my starting point
and the main inspiration for the armor. I began
by doing some fast sketches just to focus the
idea before going to ZBrush, although I try not
to spend too much time working in 2D because
I’m not that good at it .So this is what I came up
with (Fig.01).
I tried not to go into the details at all, playing real polar bear photos I tried to capture all the
When I was happy with the concept I moved mainly with a large Move brush on a very distinct features of the animal, like the profile of
into ZBrush to continue concepting directly in large scale, just trying to make the forms and the head, their unique eyes, bulky paws and the
3D using ZSpheres and DynaMesh. At this point silhouette more interesting. By looking at a lot of overall body proportions (Fig.02).

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 Chapter 02 | Bear Armored Beasts

It’s good to know from the very start what the

final pose will be and the feeling you want to
achieve as this will help you plan your modeling
and posing more efficiently. I also did some
really fast mock-ups of the main armor plates
to see how they change the overall silhouette.
I did that by masking where the plate would be,
extracting it, adding some more loops and then
polishing it (Fig.03 – 04). As always, I worked
from larger to smaller forms.

When all the main forms were there and I

was happy with how they worked together, I
decimated all the different elements and moved
to 3ds Max to retopologize. Although this step
is not really necessary I prefer working with
better topology and polygon distribution. It will
be a lot easier when making UVs if you use
this approach. I still find 3ds Max a lot easier
and more precise for making hard surface
models, so I made the armor plates there. I
started with a clean and simple retopology over
the decimated meshes from ZBrush using the
Graphite tools and then, using the Shell modifier
with a spline for the profile, made the separation
of the different elements more precise (Fig.05).

For some of the plates I made very fast UVs,

just separating the elements which were made
from different materials so I could polygroup

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Armored Beasts Chapter 02 | Bear
them by UV later in ZBrush (Fig.06). I also
retopologized the bear itself (Fig.07).

When I was done with that I brought all the

newly created meshes into ZBrush and
projected the details on them before I continued
sculpting. At this point I pretty much knew
what the final pose would be so I transposed
the model, because posing it later on with all
the fine elements and hard rigid parts would
eventually lead to stretching and unwanted
overlapping. It’s important when transposing a
model with hard surface elements to keep them
from deforming. This is easily done by isolating
them before or after the topological masking
(Ctrl + drag over the model) and by Ctrl +
clicking on the canvas to mask or unmask them
fully (Fig.08).

When I was designing and detailing it I tried

to keep in mind that the armor should look
believable and functional, and to think about
how the different parts attached to one another
and the bear. Another thing for better realism
was to change the fur behavior around the
armor to make it look like it is actually being
affected by its pressure. For all the straps I used
extracts from the bear’s mesh, using the same
method as described earlier.

At this point I polymodeled all the weapons,

cords and tiny elements that make the armor
look more functional. The cords are just splines
with thickness made over the decimated
model as a guide. For the dog tag’s chain I
used a spline and a sphere, which was path
constrained to it, and then played with the
snapshot tool until I had the amount of balls I
wanted on it (Fig.09).

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 Chapter 02 | Bear Armored Beasts

I mainly used the Dam Standard brush to make

a final pass and to add all the scratches and
damage on the armor. I also used it with the
SnakeHook brush to make the clusters of fur
on the bear’s body. To keep all the holes on
the plate the same I made two alphas, starting For the texturing I first quickly mapped the Cavity parameters and the specular curve, just
with a plane in ZBrush, then used the radial body using the UV Master so I could adjust to enhance the hairs a bit more. The texturing
symmetry to sculpt the detail I wanted. I then the texture in Photoshop later if needed. I itself was quite simple. I just worked from larger
grabbed the alpha and placed it using DragDot began by filling the bear with a slightly modified to smaller details and used a lot of Cavity masks
(Fig.10). SketchShaded2 material. I only changed the with a brush using spray stroke and different
alphas to add a bit of variety.

At some point I opened the texture in Photoshop

for some color correction then moved it back to
ZBrush to polypaint from the texture. Texturing
the plates was really simple, I just masked the
cavities, inverted them and then painted some
dirt in the cracks. The UV splitting of some of
the plates came in really handy here because I
easily polygrouped them by UV and then very
precisely and easily isolated the half I wanted
to paint on. I also made a couple of dirt alphas
from photos to add some more variety and noise
to the textures.

The first thing I always do before beginning the

rendering of the different passes is save my final
view on a file (under the ZAppLink properties),
so if ZBrush crashes I can always return to the
exact view I began my rendering on. I began by
rendering a BPR render with all the armor filled
with the mah_modeling_01 matcap and the bear
with my modified sketchshaded2 material with
no shadows or AO (I prefer to have them on a
separate pass so I can have more control over
the intensity and color) (Fig.11).

I rendered the whole model with flat color and

with Diffuse on, which I multiplied later over the
BPR render. Because I needed very precise
masking for the different elements for my

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compositing I did some render passes that I
used later on for selections (Fig.12).

Using a flat color material and with inactive

subtool dimming put down to 0.1, I rendered all
the masks for the armor, all the straps, the bear
itself and the snow base. I created three new
lights in ZBrush: two rim lights and one fill light,
which I rendered on a basic material filled with
a black color with a slightly modified specular
intensity and curve.

From this point on in Photoshop everything was

just about experimenting with blending modes
and adjustment layers, using the masks created
earlier to have greater control over the different
passes. At the end I added some photo effects
like vignetting, noise and chromatic aberration
to make the image look a little less CG (Fig.13).
And that’s it. I really hope you found my tutorial
useful.

Borislav Kechashki
For more from this artist visit:
http://galero.cghub.com/
Or contact him at: [email protected]
 03
Chicken by Jose Alves da Silva
Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken

Chapter 03 - Chicken As ZBrush will be used for the materials and

Software used: ZBrush render, the good news is that we won’t need to
set UVs and we will have zillions of polygons to
Introduction work with! Prepare your hard drive for some big
As part of this series dedicated to the creation of files!
armored animals in ZBrush, I have been given
the task of creating an armored chicken! I have The Chicken
always been a fan of humor, so I am sure I will My first step was to sketch my subject – the
have great fun developing this. chicken. We all think that we know how a
chicken looks until we try to draw one. Suddenly
In this tutorial, we will be using ZBrush 4 for the questions start to rise, like how many fingers
whole project with the exception of compositing, does a chicken have? What is the shape of the
which will be handled in Photoshop. ZBrush beak? What is the position of the eyes in relation
4 brought us the tools that were missing in to the head? All of these are easily answered
previous versions to handle non-organic models with an internet search for chicken images.
and angular shapes. Even though ZBrush works Drawing is a great exercise because early on
very differently from other 3D packages, which you are forced to answer all your doubts about
provide greater precision and a lot more tools chicken anatomy (Fig.01a – b).
to edit polygons, the capability of exploring a
concept is ZBrush’s greatest advantage. Make Armor for the Chicken
sure that you have installed the Subtool Master What armor is most appropriate for a chicken?
and Transpose Master plugins, which are free to I thought that Roman armor would suit her
download from Pixologic’s website. perfectly. The idea came from the chicken’s

comb, which works really well as part of a

Roman helmet, replacing the traditional feathers
on top. To test the concept I sketched the armor
on top of my first chicken sketch.

Even though I plan to make a more cartoony

chicken than the one in the sketch, I will leave
the decisions on the proportions for later as
ZBrush allows me to study and modify the form
with ease. The strategy I used to design some
of the armor pieces was to create a very simple
chicken shape and build the armor on top of
it. Also as we will be using ZBrush to apply
different materials I prefer to separate some of
the chicken’s parts. If you look at Fig.02 you can
see my chicken butchering strategy!

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

Basic Form between the chest and the rear to create the while using the Clay Buildup brush carves the
Start ZBrush, choose ZSphere from the Tool belly. Also, create two ZSpheres originating at orbits of the eyes. Press Shift while using the
palette and drag it onto the center of screen the tip of the neck to define the head form, and a brush to smooth the area after adding volume.
to create it (press Shift while dragging to smaller ZSphere at the rear where the tail will be With the same brush, make the thighs rounder
keep the ZSphere horizontal). Press Edit (or placed. To finalize the base, create a ZSphere and distinct from the main body. Also mark the
T on keyboard) to enter Edit mode. Activate for the eyes and another originating at the belly back of the chicken and the base of the neck
Symmetry by pressing X. to create the thighs (Fig.03). (Fig.05).

While in Draw mode, drag on a ZSphere surface In the Tool menu, under Adaptive Skin, press Wings
and a new, connected ZSphere will be created. Make Adaptive Skin. A new tool will be created Select a Standard brush. While pressing Ctrl,
If you drag at the symmetry line, a single with the prefix Skin_. Choose the Skin_ tool and paint a mask on the body marking a very simple
ZSphere will be created; if you drag on any other continue working on this tool as we won’t be wing shape. In the Tool menu, under Subtool
point of the ZSphere then two new, symmetrical needing the ZSpheres anymore. near the Extract button, set the E Smt (Edge
ZSpheres will be created. Use the Move and Smoothness) value to 41 and the Thick value
Scale modes to position the ZSpheres. If you Turn on Symmetry (X). Select the Move brush to 0.67. Press the Extract button. A new subtool
click the chain between two ZSpheres while in from the Brush menu and make the chicken’s will be created with the rough form of the wings
Draw mode, a new ZSphere is created at that body rounder. Push the eyes inward so that they (Fig.06).
point. lie on the same plane as the head (Fig.04).
Select the wings subtool. Deselect the mask on
To create the form of the body, assume that the In the Tool menu, under Geometry, press the the wings by pressing Ctrl and dragging on the
first ZSphere is the chest and create a new one Divide button twice to subdivide the model two background. Select the Move Elastic brush and
to define the neck, and another to set the length levels. Use the Clay Buildup brush to mark the reshape the wings. Also, make sure to move the
of the body. Create a new, larger ZSphere eyebrows and cheeks on the head. Pressing Alt tips of the wings away from the body.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
Choose the Clay Buildup brush. In the Auto
Masking submenu in the Brush menu, enable
BackfaceMask in order for your strokes not to
influence the other side of the surface on thin
surfaces. Isolate the wings layer by pressing the
Solo button. Smooth the edges on the inside of
the wings by pressing Shift while sculpting, and
fill the inside of the wings to make them thicker
(Fig.07).

Subdivide the wings subtool once. Work on the

exterior of the wings using the Smooth brush
extensively along the edges to make them
rounder. Alternate the Clay Buildup and Smooth
brushes to add volume to the wings, especially
at the shoulder area. Make sure that you end up
with a nice soft surface (a simplified version of a
wing) (Fig.08).

Beak
To create the base of the beak, click on
Append in the Subtool submenu and choose
the ZSphere. Select the ZSphere subtool and
activate the Transp button so that you can
see the ZSphere inside the chicken’s body.
Activate Symmetry (X). Move and scale the
ZSphere to place it at the mouth area of the
head. Extend one ZSphere to the inside of the
head and another to the outside, scaling it down
to form the tip of the beak. Add two ZSpheres
along the beak and move them to set the curve
of the beak. In the Adaptive Skin submenu,
press Make Adaptive Skin. A new tool named
Skin_ZSphere1 will be created. In the Subtool
submenu click on Append and choose the Skin_
ZSphere1 tool. Now you have the beak model
as a subtool of the chicken tool. You can delete
the ZSphere subtool (Fig.09).

Activate Symmetry (X). Select the Move brush,

change the form of the beak so that it adapts
to the head and subdivide it twice. Choose the
Dam Standard brush (you can find it by opening
Lightbox and choosing the Brush folder) and
create a cut that separates the upper and lower
parts of the beak. Using the Clay Buildup brush,
carve the nostrils.

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

To create the spheres for the eyes, click on Choose the eyes subtool and click on Duplicate. projection on the front wall with a front view of
Append and choose the PM3D_Sphere3D tool. A new subtool with a copy of the eyes will be the comb. You will notice that a volume resulting
The sphere will be added to your subtools. created. Click on the Shadowbox button in the from the two projections has formed. Click on
Move and scale the sphere to position it on the Subtool submenu. A cube with three walls is Shadowbox and the volume will be converted to
right eye orbit. In the ZPlugin menu choose created with a mask painted on each wall, which geometry that you can sculpt. Using the Move
Subtool Master (free plugin downloadable from corresponds to the projection of our subtool brush, adjust the form and thickness of the
Pixologic’s website). Pick Mirror. Activate the object. Press the Trans button to keep the object comb (Fig.11).
Merge into one Subtool option and press OK. transparent and have a clear view of the cube’s
Now you will have two mirrored spheres placed walls. Also make sure that the Ghost option for Wattles
on the eye orbits. Activate Symmetry (X) on this transparency is enabled. We will be using Shadowbox again for this part.
subtool (Fig.10). Duplicate the comb subtool, press Shadowbox
Choose the Standard brush. Press Ctrl and and clear the cube’s wall masks. Paint the
Comb drag on the background to clear the masks on wattles mask on the side and front views. The
The comb will be created with Shadowbox. the cube. On a side view, while pressing Ctrl, back part of the wattles (which are actually
This technique requires you to already have mask the form of the comb on the side wall of the chicken’s earlobes) will be inside the head
a subtool in order to initialize it, so we will the cube, keeping the chicken model visible as volume. Press Shadowbox to create the mesh.
duplicate the eyes subtool and start from there. a guide. Change to the front view and mask the With the Move tool, move the earlobes out of
the head volume. Using the Move and Smooth
brushes, make the wattles thinner and concave
(Fig.12).

Legs
ZSpheres are great for modeling bony legs.
Press Append and choose ZSphere. Scale
and position it at the lowest point of the thighs.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
Extend one ZSphere up into the thigh and
extend another one down to create the bone
of the leg. Add two ZSpheres along the bone
to make it thinner at the central part and
thicker at the ends. Extend one ZSphere and
scale it up a bit to make the palm. Grow three
fingers from the palm and another from the
heel. Add ZSpheres along the fingers to create
their curvature. Finally, create some smaller
ZSpheres at the tip of each finger to create
the nails. Go to Adaptive Skin and press Make
Adaptive Skin. A new tool with the prefix Skin_
will be created. Append it to your tool and delete
the ZSpheres subtool. Using the Subtool master
from the ZPlugins, mirror the leg into the same
subtool and activate Symmetry (X) (Fig.13).
subdivision level so that we can edit them value to 1, so that we can preview the geometry
Proportions together and then apply those changes to each accurately without any smoothing. In the
As we have created each part of the chicken of the subtools individually. In order to have Topology submenu enable Edit Topology and
separately it might be necessary to make some more detail to work with on the body, select the activate Symmetry (X). Now when you click on
adjustments because this is the first time we see body subtool, go to subdivision level three and the chicken’s surface, a new vertex is created.
all the elements together. Also I want to give the press Del Lower. Now we have a lot more detail Each time you create polygons with three or
chicken some more exaggerated proportions. In at the first level, which is the one to be exported four sides they are closed. By Ctrl + clicking
order to work on the proportions of all elements to the Transpose Master. on a vertex you define that you want to create
at the same time we will be using the Transpose a new edge originating at that vertex. Alt +
Master plugin (free plugin downloadable from From the ZPlugin menu, choose Transpose clicking on a vertex deletes it. If you want to
Pixologic’s website). Master. Press TposeMesh. Using the Move move the vertexes, change from Draw mode to
brush, rework the proportions. Each subtool Move mode. However, bear in mind that when
When using the Transpose Master, ZBrush will is identified with a different polygroup so you you move them they are no longer sticking to
temporarily merge all the subtools at their lowest can easily hide/mask parts of the model. I have the surface! Every time you need to see the
enlarged the breast area and marked more geometry press A to toggle between wire and
clearly some of the changes of direction in the preview.
silhouette. I’ve also made the neck a bit longer
and reduced the length of the beak. When you Start by clicking at the center of the chest where
are satisfied with the overall proportions, press the neck ends (a small green circle should show
Tpose > SubT from the Transpose Master up indicating that you are at the symmetry line)
menu. All the changes will then be transferred to and create a loop of quads that passes over
the original model (Fig.14). the shoulder and meets at the back. Create
new quads at the front covering the chest and
Chest Armor ending at the waist line. Create quads at the
With the chicken’s base complete we will use it back covering the back up to the waist line.
as a mold for the chest armor. We will use the Hide the wings and create quads connecting
Topology tool to create new geometry that sticks the waist line, leaving a hole for the shoulder to
to the surface. pass through. Create a new tight loop of quads
around the shoulder area. Create one tight loop
Append a new ZSphere tool. Under the of quads at the neck line and another at the
Adaptive Skin submenu, lower the Density waist line (Fig.15).

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

Under Topology, increase the Skin Thickness

value to 0.025. Now, as you press A to see
the Adaptive skin you will notice that it has a
thickness. Change from Draw mode to Move
mode. Some areas (due to the fact that they
stick to the surface) will need to be adjusted.
For example, the part of the armor behind
the neck is concave and it should be convex.
Now you can move the vertexes freely. I have
repositioned the vertexes around the shoulder
to let the wing pass with less intersections and
adjusted the back of the armor to be convex.

Under Topology, raise the PreSubdiv value to

three to add subdivisions to the mesh result.
Press A to check if you like the result. Press
Make Adaptive Skin and a new tool with Skin_ the comb. Extend the quads along the comb. Also create an edge at the frontier between
prefix is added to the tools. Append it to your Create polygons surrounding the eye area and the back of the helmet and the neck protection.
chicken tool. You can discard the topology covering the back of the head. Below the eye, Check Fig.17 to follow the modeling sequence.
subtool. Use the Move brush to rectify any extend the quads to create the lateral face
intersections. I have also adjusted the curve of protection. Extend the polygons at the back to Under Topology, set PreSubdiv to 3 and Skin
the waist line, lowering it on the area between create the neck protection. Thickness to 0.02. Press Make Adaptive Skin. A
the legs (Fig.16). new tool with Skin_ prefix is added to the Tools.
As the polygons are sticking to the surface we Append it to your chicken tool. You can discard
Helmet need to change to Move mode to lift the neck the topology subtool (Fig.18).
The helmet base will also be made using the and lateral face protections. In order to preserve
Topology tools, following the design of the initial some of the sharp angles of the helmet we need Shoulder Pads
sketch. Repeat the procedure for the chest to create some edge loops. In Draw mode, click Once again, the Topology method will be used.
armor, appending the ZSphere and using the on the edges to create a new vertex at that Append a ZSphere and activate Symmetry.
same settings. With Symmetry on, create a point. Create an edge loop starting at the border Turn on Edit Topology and create a loop of
quad starting at the beak in the area in front of of the nose protection and surrounding the eye. quads at the limit of the shoulders, where they
meet the existing chest armor. Create another
loop inside the first one and then fill the area
between the loop to close the shoulder pad. At
the edge, create some separate quads that will
work as feather tips. With a PreSubdiv value of
3 and a Skin Thickness of 0.02, make Adaptive
Skin. Append the Skin_ subtool and delete the
topology base. With the Move brush adjust the

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
shape in order for the shoulder pad to overlap
the chest armor a bit. Create some space
between the pad and the wing. I have also made
the tips of the feathers rounder (Fig.19).

Leg Protection
ZBrush has got some very powerful parametric
primitives. We will use them to create the leg
protection. From the Tool menu choose the
Cylinder3D. Under Initialize you can adjust all
the cylinder’s parameters. Set the X and Y Size
to 30. Set Inner Radius to 76, Hdivide to 10 and
Vdivide to 20. We have created a tube divided
in squares.

Select the chicken tool and append the cylinder

you have created. It will be automatically
converted to Polymesh3D. Using the Move
tool, rotate and scale this to position it on the
tube on the lower leg. In Draw mode, using the
Move brush, shape the tube as a shin protector
(larger at the top and bottom). Using the Subtool
Master plugin, mirror the leg armor to the other
leg keeping it in the same subtool. Activate
Symmetry (Fig.20).

Detailing the Armor

The base is completely set and now we
can start detailing each of the armor parts.
Choose the chest armor and subdivide it twice.
Select the Clay Buildup brush and enable
BackfaceMask under Auto Masking. Start by
marking the pectorals at the center and add
volume to make them rounder. Then add the rib
cage below, followed by the abs. Then use the
Smooth brush to achieve a more polished look.
Repeat the procedure on the back, creating
some muscle structures, and then smooth the
result (Fig.21).

Subdivide the chest armor twice more. Select

the Dam Standard brush. In the Stroke menu
increase the LazyRadius to 30. Mark a thin
line near the edge of every opening. Select
the Magnify brush and stroke at the edges of
the armor to make them rounder; also, use the
Smooth brush to even them out.

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

For the decorative elements I created two

chicken motifs (egg and wings). With the Clay
buildup brush I sketched the egg and wings.
Then I added another subdivision level and
refined the motifs with the Clay Buildup and
Smooth brushes. Above the sternum I created
an indent with the Move brush to break the line
of the neck (Fig.22).

For the detail on the shoulder pads, subdivide

the model twice, pick the Clay Buildup brush
and roughly mark the layout of the feather
structure. Also, using the Smooth brush, try
to tighten the detail as much as possible at
this resolution. Subdivide twice more. With the
mPolish brush polish the edges of the feathers
to remove the roughness. Subdivide once more,
finalize the edges with the Clay Buildup and
use the Smooth Stronger brush to smooth the
central area of the feathers. Using the Standard
brush with a Brush Modifier value of 54 and
LazyStep of 0.05, mark the central division of
the feathers (Fig.23).

To connect the shoulder pads with the chest

armor we will create a leather strap nailed to
the chest piece. Using the topology technique
described previously, create a strap of quads
at the shoulder area of the chest armor. Create
a new edge splitting the strap horizontally. In
Move mode pull the lower vertexes so that they
are placed under the shoulder pads. Create an
additional edge loop at both ends. Lower the
Adaptive Skin Density to 1. Under Topology,
set PreSubdiv to 3 and Skin Thickness to 0.02.
Make Adaptive Skin and append the Skin_
tool. Delete the topology. Turn on Symmetry.
Subdivide the leather strap four times. With the
Clay Buildup brush, create some folds. Using
the Dam Standard brush, create a line at the
edge of the strap. With the Standard brush set
to DragRect and Alpha 06, create the nail heads
(Fig.24).

To detail the leg protectors, subdivide once and,

with the Move brush, raise the back and lower
the front. This seems to be more ergonomic

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
for a chicken as this articulation bends in the
opposite direction of the human knee. Also
extend the lower part back and forward to cover
a bit of the chicken’s feet. Subdivide twice and
create a thicker border with the Clay Buildup
brush. I have also decided to extend the border
thickness down to create a decorative element
on the shin. Subdivide twice more. Use the
mPolish brush to accent the edges of the border
elements. Working with the Clay Buildup and
Smooth brushes, create some feather elements
on the shin protectors (Fig.25).

Select the helmet and subdivide it four times.

Use the Slash2 brush with Lazy Mouse on to
create a plane difference around the eye area. on the Tool menu for all metal pieces. I have
As the Slash2 brush is actually raising one half tweaked the Strength, Noise Scale and Noise
of the brush and lowering the other half, you curve to achieve a pleasantly worn look on
will have to use the Smooth brush to remove each. In the image you can check the values
the marks on each side of the cut. To add some and noise curve for each piece. It is important to
decorative nail heads, select the Standard brush tweak the values with a metal MatCap applied,
and set the stroke to DragDot. Then choose because the values are very subtle and will
brush Alpha 06, set the correct brush size and look different with other materials. I have used
intensity, and place some evenly spaced nail the Zeoyn_Gold MatCap, which I have created
heads. As in the previous armor pieces, I have and can be downloaded for free at my website
used the Clay Buildup brush to create some (www.artofjose.com under Goodies/ZBrush).
feathers on the cheek protection. The same Detailing the Body
brush was used to dig a hole for the nostrils For the straps, which are made of leather, I’ve Back to the chicken body, subdivide it four
(Fig.26). used the Standard brush in DragRect mode times. Using the Move and Clay buildup
(loading the Leathery Skin 15 alpha from the brushes, adjust the volumes of the head and
To add some textural detail to the armor surface ZAlpha folder of the ZBrush installation) to add a detail the connection with the beak. Mark the
I’ve activated the Noise option under Surface bit of leather texture (Fig.27). eyebrow, cheekbones and eyelids. I have used
some strokes that overlap the beak and wattles
to give the idea that the head is covered with
small feathers.

Subdivided the beak five times. With the Dam

Standard brush, define the beak opening. Use
the Clay Buildup brush to define the nostril and
draw some subtle strokes along the length of
the beak to suggest its structure.

Subdivide the comb and wattles four times.

Using the Standard brush in DragRect mode,
load the Leathery Skin 15 alpha from the ZAlpha
folder of the ZBrush installation. While pressing
Alt (to subtract), drag over parts of the model

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

to add the leathery texture to the surface. With in DragRect mode, select Alpha 48. Set the
the Dam Standard brush, add a few cuts at the Z Intensity to 75 and Focal Shift to -54. Drag,
borders (Fig.28). starting at the pole of the sphere, to create the
recessed iris. Change the alpha to Alpha 14 and
We will now create the iris of the eyes. Rotate drag from the pole to create the pupil (Fig.29).
the spheres so that the topology is coincident
with the iris and the pupil is placed at one of To start working on the body feathers, use the
the sphere’s poles. With the Standard brush Clay buildup brush. I started by marking the flow
of the feathers with soft strokes to guide myself.
I also added a bit more volume at the tail to
suggest some raised feathers. Then using the
Clay Buildup brush, I sculpted all the feathers
roughly, starting by marking the outline of the
feathers, filling the inside and then smoothing
the result. I only created the feathers on the
areas that are not covered by armor and on the
wings (Fig.30).

Then I subdivided the body twice more. Always

using the Clay Buildup brush, I refined the head
feathers and detailed the orbit area. To create
the fleshy texture around the eye, a Standard
brush in DragRect mode with Alpha 24 was
used.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
A highly painstaking technique was used to
add detail to the feathers. With the Clay buildup
brush, every single feather was detailed by
stroking the center of the feather followed by
strokes that represented the fur of the feather
(Fig.31).

If you don’t need so much control over each

individual feather (or are not feeling like a
glutton for punishment) I suggest a more
practical technique. Start by selecting the
Plane3D tool. Press Make PolyMesh3D. In the
Geometry submenu, disable the Smt button
and press Divide a couple of times. Sculpt a
single feather on the plane. Make sure that the
part of the feather connecting with the body is
at a lower height than the tip of the feather (to Subdivide more and sculpt the scales covering
create a ramp). From a front view, with the plane the top of the fingers and the leg in the areas
covering the full view, press GrabDoc from the that are not covered by the armor.
Alpha menu. You have captured an alpha with
the depth of the feather. Choose the Layer To model a single feather, which will be used to
brush, set the stroke to DragRect and pick the create the tail, use the Shadowbox technique
feather as an alpha. Save the brush for future described previously. Mark the center of the
use. feather, as well as the fur, with the Clay Buildup
brush. Use the Move brush to adjust the global The center of the visible selection is now the
The Layer brush has a very useful characteristic. shape and the ClipCurve to cut little spaces pivot. Unhide the rest of the feather. Under the
If you store a Morph Target (press Store MT) between the fur to add more detail (Fig.33). Deformation submenu move the Sbend slider
the height of the applied strokes is relative to the to bend the feather in various axis, creating
surface stored as Morph Target. This allows you Duplicate the feather, create variations and a variation of the original feather. Under
to create feathers under other feathers (Fig.32)! place the feathers on the tail. Start by pressing Transform press C.Pivot (Clear Pivot point).
Duplicate to create a copy of the feather. To Move the feather and place it on the tail among
To detail the legs, subdivide and use the Clay set a pivot point for the deformations we will the sculpted feathers. Keep duplicating the
Buildup brush once again. Start by defining the apply, select the central part of the feather, original feather and creating variations until you
border between the nails and fingers. Sculpt making the rest hidden. In the Transform menu have a nice tail. The model is now complete
around the fingers to simulate the fleshier areas. press the S.Pivot (Set Pivot Point) button. (Fig.34).

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Color
When starting painting and applying custom
materials it is good to start saving your project
instead of just your tool. The project file will hold
all the information regarding camera views,
lights and materials. Go to the File menu and
choose the Save As option to save as a project.

Start by applying a white color to the full model.

To do this quickly go to the Subtool Master
(under ZPlugins) and choose the Fill option,
then select Color. It will fill all the visible subtools
with the selected color.

Download the Zeoyn_Gold MatCap from my

website (www.artofjose.com under Goodies/ subdivided it twice, because the color is stored The beak was straightforward. I filled it with
ZBrush). In the Material menu choose Load to at each vertex and this way I could paint more pale yellow, painted it unevenly with spray and
load the material. Make sure that only the metal detail. Then I painted the iris in red and the pupil marked the mouth and nostrils with dark brown.
armor pieces are visible. In Subtool Master, in black. To finalize it, I used a lighter orange
choose Fill and then Material. The golden at the lower iris and marked the outline of the For the feathers, I started by filling the body,
material will now have been applied to all the iris with a darker red. The white of the eye was wings and feathers with a light gray. Then I
armored pieces. painted with a reddish gray color (Fig.35). made a Cavity mask, inverted it and painted
the borders of the feathers with a darker gray.
Choose SkinShade4 from the Material palette, For the wattles and comb I used a dark red as a With the same red color as the comb, I carefully
so the rest of the model is displayed with this base. Then I changed the paint mode to Spray painted the area around the eyes to make a
material. SkinShade4 is a white material with a and the alpha to Alpha 07, and painted the good transition between the feathers and the
bit of specular and is great for polypainting. wattles with a lighter value of red to make the bare skin. Some black strokes were used to
color uneven. Under Masking I chose Mask by enhance the cavities around the eye (Fig.36).
To paint, choose the Standard brush, enable Cavity to create a mask for all the cracks on the
RGB and disable Zadd so that it doesn’t sculpt skin, then inverted it and painted with a darker I picked a caramel brown and painted around
while you paint. I started with the eye. First, I red to enhance the cracks. the feathers loosely, trying to create a gradient
from the white head to the brown body. Then I
used a darker brown to cover the whole body,
leaving a darker color around the feathers. The
tail and the individual feathers were left with a
lighter color to make some contrast with the rest
of the body.

The legs started with a pale yellow base. Then

I have sprayed them with a slightly darker color
and painted the nails in a lighter yellow. A cavity
mask was used to paint the skin details with a
darker color.

The shoulder straps were painted with a dark

brown. Some strokes in a darker brown were

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken
painted to make it uneven. As I wanted to give With the big breast and the shiny armor the
the nails a different material, I started by filling chicken has got a really cocky look, so I thought
the strap with the SkinShade4 material, then that it would be funny to put her in a situation
I disabled the RGB button and enabled the M where she was surprised and broke that
button, which paints the material on the surface. cockiness.
Then I chose the Zeoyn_Gold material and
painted the chicken’s nails to make them golden For posing a full body made of several subtools,
(Fig.37). the Transpose Master is the way to go. Select
TposeMesh and a new tool with all the subtools mode, by placing the Transpose tool at the joints
Pose at its lowest subdivision level are created. and rotating, as if using a temporary bone.
So far we have been busy creating the character Remember that each subtool will have a
in a neutral pose, mainly to take advantage of different polygroup, which will make it easy to I started by masking the right leg up to the
symmetrical editing. The pose will give us more hide parts while making the masks/selections. thigh and rotated the rest of the body to put
information about the character’s personality. All the posing can be made using the Rotate all the weight on the right leg. Then I masked
everything except the left leg and rotated it
forward to use the foot as protection. The left
fingers were masked one by one and posed to
give more expression. I masked everything from
the neck up and inverted the mask, then rotated
the neck to make it vertical and counterbalance
the weight. Keeping the same mask, I rotated
the neck to the chicken’s left. Then I left only
the head and all the elements that connect with
it unmasked, and rotated the head further left.
The planting foot was posed as if the chicken
was standing on its toes. To finalize, I tilted the
head forward as if the chicken was looking at
the ground.

In the Transpose Master choose Tpose >

SubT and your original model will be posed
(Fig.38). Then you will need to start fixing
any intersection problems you might have with
the Move brush. In my case I had the wattles
intersecting the neck and the leg intersecting the
shin armor.

To give the chicken a more desperate look I

gave a bit of variation to the curvature of the
comb. I selected the comb subtool and masked
the parts that were supposed to stay in place,
then used the Rotate mode and the Transpose
tool to bend the comb. With the Move brush I
lifted the eyebrows for a surprised look. I also
rotated the eyes in the direction of the lifted foot
(Fig.39).

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

Worm
To surprise the chicken I chose an earthworm
jumping out of a hole. A shouting/laughing
worm came to my mind, even though the
chicken might have the last laugh. The worm
was made using techniques that have already
been described here. I started with a ZSphere
chain and then sculpted it with the Clay Buildup
brush, adding detail with each subdivision. For
the tongue, the Shadowbox was used to create
the basic form and then it was sculpted with the
Clay Buildup brush. Everything was polypainted
and the SkinShade4 material was used (Fig.40).

Ground
The tutorial is about a chicken and its armor so
I opted for a very simple scene. I appended a
Sphere3D to the tool and scaled it up as if it was
a hill under the chicken’s feet. Then I deleted To add some texture to the ground I used Standard brush in Spray mode using alpha
the bottom part of the sphere and subdivided it. the FractureB brush that you can find in the Alpha08 and varied tones of brown. A Cavity
With the Clay Buildup tool I sculpted a hole in program’s directories (load it with Lightbox in mask was also used to emphasize the details
the ground from which the worm is jumping. the Brush dir). The painting was made with the with darker colors (Fig.41).

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken

Composition To store the camera position, in the Movie highlights separately, they can also be layered
All the elements are complete, so it is time menu under Timeline, press Show. The timeline using the Add mode, allowing us to control their
to frame the image. In the Document menu, is displayed. If you click on the timeline a key brightness and color.
disable the Pro (proportional) button and set frame is created with the current view position.
Width to 1000 and Height to 1500 (this will If you change your view, every time you click The strategy is to create a material without
be the render resolution, so set it to the final on that key frame you go back to the camera specular highlights for the base and three
resolution you’d like). Choose Resize. Press position you have set. You can keep several different specular settings (broad, medium,
Ctrl and N to clear the screen and drag on the points of view by creating other key frames on sharp) that can be composited in Photoshop
background for the model to show up. Activate the timeline. To delete a key frame, press Alt using the Layer Dodge (Add) blending mode.
Edit mode. and drag the key out of the timeline (Fig.42).
I will just explain the theory behind each material
Set the background color to black by choosing Materials as all the settings can be found in the images.
black on the color picker and then pressing the Light is additive. What this means is that if I started all the materials from the SkinShade4
Back button in the Document menu. If you have you render three separate images, each with material. Start by copying and pasting the
a background gradient, also set the Range slider a different light source, and put them together SkinShade4 material to another slot (using the
to 0 to remove it. using Add mode, you get the same result Copy Mat and Paste Mat buttons in the Material
as rendering a single image with the three menu). After preparing each material do not
Having the final image in mind, frame the lights turned on. Why is this so important? forget to save it (Material > Save) as the project
characters inside the document area and Because you can place each light source in file will only keep the materials that are applied.
position the view. Enabling the Persp button so a different image layer (with Add blending For the base material I have set the Ambient
you can have a camera view. The camera field mode) and manipulate its intensity (opacity) to 0, the Diffuse to 100 and the Specular to 0
of view can be set in the Draw menu with the as well as its color, allowing you to light the (under Material > Modifiers). This eliminates
Focal Angle slider. scene interactively. If you render the specular the specular highlights and the Ambient light,

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

only keeping the diffuse color. I saved it as

SkinShade4_NoSpecular.

Then I created three specular materials, each

with different glossiness. It is important that the
material is fully black with a white specular. To
make it black, reduce the Diffuse and Ambient
to 0. To make the specular white, go to the color
swatches at the bottom and change the Spec
swatch to white. To create different glossiness,
manipulate the specular curve of each one.
I saved them as Specular_broad, Specular_
medium and Specular_sharp (Fig.43).

Light
I have set up the light scheme with a key light
from the front and two rim lights. To create the In the Render menu, enable Shadows. Under Save it (press Gab Doc under the Texture menu
key light, go to the Light menu and enable the Bpr Shadow options set Strength to 1, so that and then choose Export). The render settings
first light bulb. The point on top of the sphere there is no ambient light that would interfere of the Bpr shadow will be the same for the rim
sets the direction from which the light comes; with the compositing. Increase the Angle to 5 lights.
place it at the top right region. Set the color to for some nice area shadows. Increase the Res
white and the intensity to 0.85. Enable Shadow value to around 4000 and set the Blur to 2. Hit To set the rim light from the left, in the Light
and set the type to Sun. the BPR button to render the key light pass. menu disable the first light bulb and enable

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Armored Beasts Chapter 03 | Chicken

the second. Place the light point on the sphere materials you have created and apply them to and Outer Blend values to 1. In the Shader
on the lower left corner. Press Alt and click on all the subtools (use Subtool Master > Fill for Mixer options, set the SSS value to 100 and S
the point so that it is moved to the back of the this). Make a render of each with the shadows Exp to 6.5. Apply the material to all subtools.
sphere in order to have a light coming from the turned on.
back. Set the color to white and the intensity to In the Light menu, enable SSS on the light that
0.85. Enable Shadow and set the type to Sun. Place the specular renders as layers on top of you want to generate the SSS. In the Render
Render with the BPR and save it. the lights’ renders using Linear Dodge (Add menu, enable SSS. Under Bpr SSS enable SSS
blending mode). Use the Fill value of the layer Across Subtools, set the Angle to 360, increase
For the second rim light, disable light bulb to balance the layers’ strength. Erase/Mask the Res to 600. Render with BPR. Save the image.
number 2 and enable 3. Place the light at the specular layers so that the specular glossiness The SSS image can be composited with a layer
top right and press Alt to place it behind the matches the object’s (the worm should be in Linear Dodge (Add) blending mode. Use a
sphere. Set the color to white and the intensity shinier; the feathers have a broader specular low Fill value as the effect should be subtle.
to 0.85. Enable Shadow and set the type to Sun. etc) (Fig.44).
Render it with BPR and save it. Then save the To create masks that will help you with
project. Passes selections, apply a Flat Color material to all
As we have thin, soft bodies like the comb, subtools. Then apply a color to each subtool
You can composite the three images in wattles, feet and the earthworm, as well as in order to easily select them in Photoshop
Photoshop by placing each in a layer with in back lights, subsurface scattering should be (Fig.45).
Linear Dodge (Add) blending mode. At the noticeable. To create a SSS pass, choose the
bottom put a black layer. Fresnel Overlay material. In the Material menu, For a material that emulates the reflection of the
under Modifiers, change the Inner Blend color sky go to my website and download the Zeoyn_
Enable the first light bulb and disable the others swatch to a medium red and the Outer Blend SkyReflect1 MatCap from the Goodies/ZBrush
in the Light menu. Load each of the specular color swatch to a bright red. Set the Inner Blend section. Apply it to all the subtools.

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 Chapter 03 | Chicken Armored Beasts

To generate several useful passes together

with the sky reflection, enable Create Maps in
the Render menu. In the render settings disable
Shadows and enable Aocclusion. Under Bpr Ao
increase the rays to 40, set the Res slider to the
maximum, Blur to 3 and Gamma to 3.25. Press
BPR to render. Go to the Render menu and
notice that under the Create Maps option you
now have four images. Click on each of them to
save the image of the reflected sky, the ZDepth,
Ambient Occlusion and Alpha.

Use the Ambient Occlusion in a layer with

Multiply blending mode set. Place the layer
under the specular layers in order not to darken

the specular highlights. The sky reflection can

be added with the Linear Dodge (Add) blending
mode and erased/masked to your liking. The
ZDepth can be used to create a fog effect or as
a mask for a depth of field effect. Use the alpha
image to cut the objects from the background if
you want to add a background image (Fig.46).

I have set a diagram showing all the BPR render

passes I have used to put the image together.
Each thumbnail shows the render pass after
masking and color correction. I’ve also indicated
the blending mode used on each pass. You will
notice that I had the need to add a few more
passes, like a fill light to lighten the shadows,
and some effects using some default MatCaps,
like Outline and Framer1. It is so easy to create
new passes so feel free to experiment and add
your own, creating your own style (Fig.47).

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial!

Jose Alves da Silva

For more from this artist visit:
http://www.artofjose.com/
Or contact him at:
[email protected]

www.3dtotal.com page 44 Chapter 03

 04
gorilla by Miro Petrov
Armored Beasts Chapter 04 | Gorilla

Chapter 04 – Gorilla
Software used: ZBrush

When I took on this task, for some reason I

was thinking about the polar bear from The
Golden Compass movie. For that reason I
thought I could use golden armor on the gray
gorilla to make it pop-out and shine a bit more.
I also thought that I would use the armor of the
Mayans and Aztecs to add to the jungle feeling.
A lot of 3D artists might struggle to create their
own 2D concepts, so what I have done is to
demonstrate a technique that I find helpful in
Fig.01. You can gather photos of your subject
matter and paint over them in Photoshop to
design your armor. It helps to start looking at
references at the start of a project anyway.

To create these concepts I painted simple

shapes using flat color over the photo. Once I
had done this I added a little detail and shading
by painting over the shape of the armor using
the Burn and Dodge tools, making sure I
maintained sharp edges. The final touch was to
add some of the red crystals and other details.

When I was satisfied with the concept I decided dimensions. It was then just a case of adding
to move on to the next stage and began working detail using the Clay Buildup brush (Fig.02).
in 3D. My process from this point was very
common and is used as standard by many I like working with this brush because you can
ZBrush artists. I began by using ZSpheres achieve a variety of details using it, from rough
to create the basic structure and proportions and big forms to smaller details. After making
of the gorilla. After I had done this I applied the basic forms I started modeling the hair with
DynaMesh, which meant that I had a base the Weave 1 brush, with which I was able to
model consisting of polygons of equal sides and play with the direction of the hair’s flow (Fig.03).

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 Chapter 04 | Gorilla Armored Beasts

After piling on the detail, I started to think about

the final model. I knew there would be some
parts where you wouldn’t be able to see the
gorilla because of the armor and therefore these
parts wouldn’t require as much detail (Fig.04).

The next step was to create and add the armor

to the gorilla. I did this by creating simple
subtools by masking and extracting sections
from the gorilla model (Fig.05). I started by
looking for flat areas on the gorilla’s body
that would be suitable to extract from. I then
masked the area by pressing Ctrl and drawing
on the model. After I had done this I went to the
Subtool menu and chose Extract. This helped
to extrude the geometry, but at this point it was
all wavy and not how I wanted it. To turn these
areas into a flat hard surface I used brushes
like the sPolish brush. After I had done this I
used the ClipCurve brush, pressed Ctrl + Shift
to activate it and started stretching the lines and
forms to make the armor more precise.

When I was happy with how things were turning

out I started detailing the armor using a mask.
To create the groove detail I created masks and
used the Inflate option with a negative value to
create a dip in the armor’s surface. The final
step was to add some scratches and areas
where the armor had been dented and damaged
in battle. I did this using the DamStandard and
the TrimDynamic brushes.

After finishing the model of the gorilla I started

choosing and applying materials to separate the
armor pieces from one another. I used standard
materials in ZBrush. You can see which
materials are attached to which parts in Fig.06.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 04 | Gorilla

After organizing the materials I decided to add

flat color to the model, as I didn’t want to make
any textures at this moment. It was something
that I was going to do in the final image.

In Fig.07 you can see how I painted the details

on the armor by using masks. I used the cavity
masking option in the Masks menu to help with
this. I started by adding the main color, which
was pretty close to the color in my concept. I
then inverted my mask and added the color for
the tarnished metal. To do this I used a gray-like
color. Using this same technique I added color
to the rest of the image.

At this stage I was happy with how things were

going with the color and the materials, so the
next step was to put the gorilla in a pose that
would look good in the final image. This model
is made from a lot of different subtools, which
can make posing difficult. I used the Transpose
Master to put the gorilla in the pose I wanted.
This way I was able to move the model into
position when all the subtools were in their
lowest subdivision level. After I was finished with
the posing I went to Transpose Master > TPose
> SubT to see the model with all of its subtools.

When I was happy with everything I started to

think of a good viewpoint and angle to view
the model from for my final image (Fig.08). It

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 Chapter 04 | Gorilla Armored Beasts

helped to visualize what I wanted at this point, black shadows to be cast because of the strong
as I could then work out all of my future steps. light, but I knew I could achieve this by playing
I noticed that I needed to make the gorilla’s with opacities later on in Photoshop (Fig.10). I
weapon and so did that using the same process also used one bright red/pink front light, with and
I described earlier (Fig.09). without shadow, and one green side light just to
use it as bouncing light that reflects the colors
At this point, I had decided on the camera angle of the jungle. In Fig.10 you can also see all of
and what would be in the background of my these layers and lights mixed in Photoshop.
image. I knew that I wanted him standing on a
rock in front of a dense forest. I also wanted the In Fig.11 you can see the rest of the work I did
sun to be setting in the background to make the in Photoshop. I added the background in three
environment look more dramatic. With this in steps. In the first step I added some of the
mind I could start to work on the final render. background color using some of the colors that I
had used in the lights to tie everything together.
I used one standard light and wax rendering To do this I used soft brushes. The next step was to turn my attention to the
with the BPR and Shadow on. I wanted sharp gorilla by adding to his fur and making him
look a little more realistic. To do this I used
a Smudge brush made of lots of dots to look
like individual hairs. I also added a few more
specular highlights to the armor using a brush in
Dodge mode. In the foreground I added some
leaves and foliage to add more depth, and used
some photos to start to create the background.

The final step was to add some clouds and

mountains to the background to demonstrate the
type of environment these gorillas would live in. I
added a little glow to the crystals on the gorilla’s
armor and darkened the rock that he is standing
on to turn the viewer’s attention to the character
more than its environment.

For the final image I decided to draw the

viewer’s attention to the main character by
decreasing detail in certain areas. I added some
texture overlays to the rock in the foreground
and added some subtle, thin clouds to the space
between the gorilla and the trees. The final step
was a few color adjustments to make the image
a little warmer and then it was done.

Miro Petrov
For more from this artist visit:
http://soulsart.org/
Or contact him at:
[email protected]

www.3dtotal.com page 50 Chapter 04

Armored Beasts Chapter 04 | Gorilla

www.3dtotal.com page 51 Chapter 04

 05
rhino by Jose Alves da Silva
Armored Beasts Chapter 05 | Rhino

Chapter 05 – Rhino The quality of the image doesn’t matter too the sphere and then press the Edit button to
Software used: ZBrush much as the aim at this stage is to set a goal be able to start sculpting. In the Tool menu
and an objective that we want to aim for. You under Geometry, enable DynaMesh. A pop-up
Introduction can see the concept for my image in Fig.01. window will ask you if you would like to freeze
This tutorial will focus on the creation of an subdivision levels; you should choose No. The
armored rhino. During the creation process I will You will notice that a lot of things are already sphere has now been converted to a DynaMesh,
make extensive use of the tools that were made suggested in the sketch. The pose is set, the which is made up of regular quads projected
available in ZBrush 4R2. Some of the features scenario is defined, the light direction is shown from the X, Y and Z axis.
in this version of ZBrush make it possible to but, most importantly, the character’s attitude
unleash the artist’s creativity and makes it and personality is set. So with the concept in Press X to enable Symmetry. We will start by
possible to do more with the lighting system. We place it is time to start. blocking the shape of the head (Fig.02). Choose
will be taking advantage of all these goodies. the Move brush with a large draw size (press
Body – Base S and adjust the slider) and pull the front of
As a starting point I think it’s important to have a Open ZBrush, then select the Tool directory the sphere to create an elongated snout. Also
character sketch, or at least a scribbled idea, as in Lightbox and double-click the PolySphere. push the lateral sides inwards to make the head
this keeps the process ordered and structured. ZTL option. Drag on the document to create thinner.

Using the SnakeHook brush, pull up the

geometry to create a horn in the appropriate
place. Don’t pull the whole horn at once; pull a
bit at a time. By making the Polyframe visible
(Shift + F), you can confirm that the geometry
has undergone extreme stretching and the
resulting surface is not good for sculpting. As we
are in DynaMesh mode, press Ctrl and drag on
the background. All the stretched areas will be
recomputed with a uniform polygon distribution
of the same density as the rest of the model.

You can repeat this procedure as many times as

you need. Just take into account that every time
you Remesh, some details that are smaller than
the grid might get lost/attenuated. DynaMesh
is not intended to be the final surface for the
finer details; it is, in fact, a very powerful way
to build your sculpting base, which can then be
subdivided and sculpted the same as any other
ZBrush model.

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In my opinion, the best brush for concept

sculpting is the Clay Buildup brush. Its strokes
create a rough look that is adequate at this point
and helps you focus on the masses and planes
rather than the details. By pressing Alt when
applying the strokes it carves the surface. For
Smoothing use the Shift key.

Start sculpting your model using the Clay

Buildup brush. In the Brush menu, under Auto
Masking, enable BackfaceMask. This means
that the strokes do not to affect the opposite
side of thin surfaces. In Fig.03 you can see my
sculpting sequence.

Start by carving the eye area, then add some

volume to where the eyebrows would be and
give more shape to the forehead. Continue to
refine all of the facial details in this way.

At this point the basic form of the head should

be established, so start to add some fleshy
masses to the cheeks, lip corners, under lip and
below the nostrils. Then start to add some ears.

Remesh the model by pressing Ctrl and

dragging on the background. Notice how the
surface gets smoother and the brush details are
smoothed out and lost. This is not the right time
to start sculpting tiny details, even if the sculpt
is looking nice and smooth. Once this is done
spend more time refining the ears and pulling
them out further.

You can see how I added the body mass in

Fig.04. Select the InsertSphere brush and
click and drag at the base of the neck at the
symmetry line. Make sure to create a big
sphere, which will cover the head. With the
Move brush, shape the sphere into a blob
that connects with the head at the neck and
suggests a belly at the front.

Using the Clay brush, start defining the muscle

groups on the body (Fig.05). You should use
references if you need help doing this. Create
the pectorals by stroking from the center of the

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Armored Beasts Chapter 05 | Rhino

chest to the shoulder area. Always apply brush In the Tool menu, under Subtool, choose clear the mask, then again to remesh, fusing the
strokes in the direction of the muscle fibers. Append and pick the Sphere3D tool. Turn on pelvis with the legs.
Symmetry by pressing X and Move it to place it
To create the arms, select the Curve Tube under the waistline. With the Move tool, stretch With the Clay Buildup brush I sculpted the
brush (Fig.06). In front view, apply a brush the sphere to create a diaper shape. Enable muscles roughly on the legs so I knew where to
stroke the length of the arm, starting at the DynaMesh, choose the CurveTube brush and place the armor (Fig.08).
armpit and moving away at a 45 degree angle. create a tube starting at the hip with a curve at
Bear in mind that the thickness of the tube is the knee area. Use the Move brush to shape the Armor – Base
determined by the size of the brush. Using the legs to roughly define the thighs, lower legs and To create the base of the leg armor, choose the
Move brush, shape the tube into the form of a feet. Press Ctrl and drag on the background to Curve Surface brush. This brush allows you to
basic arm in which the arm, forearm and hand
are distinguishable.

With the Move brush, pull a thumb and two

fingers out of the hand, and press Ctrl and drag
to remesh the model. Choose the Clay Buildup
brush and create a height difference between
the fingers and nails. Carve the palm of the
hand and sculpt the larger volumes to make the
surface more believable. On the top of the hand
define two knuckles and a flat back of the hand.

It is now time to create a base for the lower body

(Fig.07). As this body part will be covered in
armor I opted to create it as a separate subtool.

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 Chapter 05 | Rhino Armored Beasts

create several curves, which will be connected armor parts and create vertical curves around has a lot of horizontal subdivisions compared to
by a surface. Select the brush and, in the Stroke the knee, keeping them short at the sides of vertical subdivisions. To fix this reduce the Max
menu, enable Snap mode so that the curves the knee and long at the center of the knee. Points to 4 and simply adjust any of the curves
stick to the surface when they are drawn. The Unhide the leg armor and turn off Snap mode to and the number of curve points will be reduced.
Draw Size of the brush will define the thickness manipulate the curves and make them cleaner, Also, if you reduce your brush size while you are
of the surface and the CurveStep in the Stroke and so that the surface covers the shin and leg not over a curve (when the cursor is red), when
menu defines the distance between points in a armor pieces. Also create an aggressive spike you click on a curve the thickness of the surface
curve. at the top of the knee armor. is changed to match the brush size.

The remaining leg armor will be created using For the belly protection start by hiding everything At this point I felt that the arms and head
the same procedure. Select the legs subtool and except the upper and lower body subtools. proportions were not matching the concept
create vertical curves around the shin area with The Curve Surface brush doesn’t allow you to (Fig.12). To remedy this select the upper body,
the Curve Surface brush (Fig.09). create a single curve starting at the center that turn on Symmetry and mask everything except
is symmetrical on both sides. Choose the upper the arms. In Scale mode place one end of the
To create the knee armor (Fig.10), turn on Snap body subtool, disable Symmetry by pressing X transpose tool at the shoulder joint and the other
mode for the Curve Surface brush. Hide the leg and enable Snap mode. Once you have done along the length of the arm, and scale the arms
that draw the first curve to the right of the center to make them bigger. Next adjust the head size,
of the body. Then keep drawing curves around masking it and scaling it to a smaller size.
the belly until you reach the other side.
Once again using the Curve Surface brush,
To adjust the belly armor curves disable Snap create the forearm protectors by drawing strokes
and move each curve point to make each perpendicular to the arm length with Snap on.
section perfectly round (Fig.11). You may notice Adjust the curves with Snap turned off and use
that I used too many points for each curve, GroupsSplit. Use the Move brush to pull the
which might be a problem later as the surface edges around the arm.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 05 | Rhino
To create the straps that hold the forearm
armor, select the Curve Tube Snap brush
(Fig.13). Change the Brush Modifier value to
4 (this defines the number of vertexes on the
cylinder section). Draw a curve at the forearm.
Adjust the curve with the Move brush so that
the strap comes from under the armor. Change
to Move mode and drag, starting at the strap,
to create a transpose tool. Press Ctrl while
dragging the inner center circle of the transpose
tool to duplicate the strap. Reposition and scale
the new strap to fit the wrist. Use the Move
brush to finalize the adjustment.

The head protection will be created with a

different process (Fig.14). Select the upper body
subtool and using the Standard brush, press Ctrl
while painting on the model to create a mask. the inner faces and edge faces. Press Ctrl and slot under Texture Map, but don’t forget to clear
Mask the protection area, leaving the face and click the interior surface of the hood to isolate it afterwards.
the ears uncovered. In the Subtool menu go to this polygroup. Press Ctrl, Shift and drag on the
the Tool menu, set the Thick value to 0.015 and background to invert the visibility. In the Tool The creation of the base for the shoulder armor
press Extract. A new subtool will be created for menu, under Polygroups, click Group Visible. repeats the Curve Surface technique (Fig.15).
the hood and if you select it you will notice that The exterior and edges of the hood are now Select the upper body subtool and hide the rest.
everything is masked except the borders. Use part of the same polygroup. Press Ctrl, Shift and Disable the symmetry because there is a single
the Smooth brush at the borders to make them click the background to unhide the interior. shoulder pad. Select the Curve Surface brush
round. Clear the mask (Ctrl and drag) and using with Snap enabled. Draw the first curve at the
the Clay Buildup brush with the Backface Mask In the Plugins menu open the UVMaster. Enable shoulder near the neck, bearing in mind that this
option enabled, create some folds around the Polygroups and press Unwrap to generate UVs curve will be lifted to make the vertical protection
hood. Smooth them with the Smooth brush. for the hood. By pressing Flatten you can check (as you can see in the concept sketch). The
the layout of the UVs. Press Unflatten to leave. second curve will be the line that creates the
When you extract a mesh from a mask, ZBrush If you wish to see a texture applied to check the edge between the vertical and horizontal areas.
automatically creates different polygroups for distortion, pick a checker pattern in the image Keep drawing smaller curves in the direction
of the arm to make a point at the end of the
shoulder pad.

Disable Snap, make sure Bend is on and lift the

vertical protection curve. Manipulate the curves

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 Chapter 05 | Rhino Armored Beasts

to match the concept shape. Press GroupsSplit. Clear the mask. With the Move brush, adjust the
With the Move brush, adjust the overall form. deformations near the tip. Use the Polish brush
to even the surface.
Armor – Detail
Select the horizontal part of the shoulder Using the Curve Pinch brush, create some
protection, hiding the vertical portion. In the decorative lines along the border of the pad.
Geometry submenu (in the Tool menu) press Press Alt while creating the curve to create a
Crease. You will notice that the harder edges pinch inwards. To flatten the hard edges use the
now have an inner dotted line, which means that Trim Dynamic brush.
these edges will not smooth while subdividing to distortions that will have to be fixed and
the geometry. Press Crease again to define the Load the Slash2 brush from the Brush > Slash also because it will help to break the model’s
hard edges on the vertical part. Press Divide directory in the Lightbox. In the Alpha menu symmetry. Do not forget to save before you start
four times. increase Blur to 15 and enable LazyMouse. the posing process.
With this brush, draw some decorative lines
The hard edges hold the form while subdividing, to simulate extra metal layers on the shoulder We will use Transpose Master to pose the
which creates the effect we want; however, pad. To add a few decorative nails choose the character. However the thin elements that make
next time we subdivide it we don’t want it to do Standard brush, set it to DragDot mode and pick up the armor might suffer some distortions when
this, so press Shift and the Uncrease button to Alpha 06. Adjust the Draw Size to set the size re-importing the pose back to our model. To
clean all the crease marks. Divide it once more. and place them along the edge of the panels. reduce the chances of that happening I would
You will notice that the edges between the two advise that you select each armor subtool, go
planes are now smoother (Fig.16). The techniques used to create the shoulder to subdivision level 3 and press DelLower to
pad can also be used to create the other armor discard lower subdivisions.
Mask the central area of the shoulder pad, parts, which is detailed in the 3DTotal Publishing
excluding the tips. Invert the mask and blur book ZBrush Character Sculpting: Volume 1 In the Plugins menu (Fig.18) select Transpose
it (press BlurMask in the Masking submenu). (Fig.17). Master and choose TposeMesh. ZBrush
Select the Curve Pinch brush and draw a curve creates a new tool in which all elements are
along the center of the shoulder pad. A crease Pose represented at their lowest subdivision level and
is created at the center of the shoulder pad, I prefer to pose the character before detailing as part of the same subtool so that they can be
while the mask prevents the tips from deforming. it any further because the posing will lead manipulated together.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 05 | Rhino
The process of posing consists of masking
parts of the model that stay in place while using
the Transpose tool to Move, Rotate and Scale
the unmasked area. When dealing with armor
bear in mind that the metal pieces should not
be distorted, unlike the flesh and cloth where
it is desirable. So the armor elements should
always be completely masked or unmasked, not
including any gradients.

Let’s pose the character in a seated position.

Turn on Symmetry X. Unmask the whole leg
and all its armor pieces, and rotate it forward
in a side view. Change to a bottom view and
rotate the legs outwards using the same mask.
Then unmask everything from half of the belly
down and rotate the lower body to the front
so that the character’s back can lie against
the chair. Unmask only the belly protector and
rotate it upwards to avoid intersecting the thighs.
Unmask the legs again and rotate the thighs
further forward. Unmask the lower leg, including
the knee protection, and rotate it to make a 90
degree angle with the thigh. Unmask the feet
and their armor, and rotate them forward in
order for them to lie flat on the floor.

The rest of the pose will not be symmetrical, so

send the changes to the main model to check if
everything went as planned. In the Transpose
Master menu choose Tpose > SubT. The model
should be posed and some intersections might
happen between the fleshy elements and armor, left arm. Unmask the head and rotate it further left lower leg and rotate it to the front. Rotate
which can be easily fixed with the Move brush. left and a bit up. Unmask the left arm and raise the foot to make it more parallel to the ground.
If you have projection problems with any of the it (expect the worst deformations to happen In the Transpose Master menu choose Tpose >
armor elements, just open the tool you saved, while placing the arm in this position). Unmask SubT to transfer the pose to your model.
select the part that needs to be replaced and the left forearm and bend it inwards from the
append it to the posed model. Then move and elbow. Unmask the hand and bend it further The next step is to correct the deformations that
rotate the piece to put it in place and delete inward to create the joint at the wrist. Unmask resulted from the posing process (Fig.20). Use
the deformed one. As the armor pieces are not the right forearm (starting at half of the forearm the Move brush to reposition volumes and the
deformed this is easy to do. and blurring the mask) and twist it together with Clay Buildup brush to reshape the muscles and
the forearm protectors. Unmask the entire right cloth. The deformations in your model might be
Initiate the Transpose Master again (Fig.19). forearm and bend it from the elbow to make it very different from the ones in mine.
Now we will take care of the asymmetrical parts at 90 degrees with the arm. Unmask the right
of the pose. Unmask everything from half the arm and rotate it to bring it closer to the body. The left hand will be holding a chalice, so let’s
belly up and tilt the upper body to his right. From Unmask the right lower leg in front view and position the fingers accordingly. Unmask the
a top view, rotate the body to face towards his rotate it inside to a relaxed position. Unmask the lower finger and rotate it towards the palm.

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 Chapter 05 | Rhino Armored Beasts

Unmask half of the finger and rotate it some the tightness of the strap. Now you can start to breakdown of how the props were created can
more towards the palm. Unmask the thumb and work on the wrinkles on the head (Fig.24). be found in the 3DTotal Publishing book ZBrush
rotate it out so it can help grip the object. Character Sculpting: Volume 1.
Props
Details I then created the props such as the skull, cups, Painting
Now the character is posed it is a good time to axe and chair using many of the tools that I The model was polypainted using only the
add the straps that hold the shoulder and belly mentioned earlier (Fig.25 – 27). A detailed Standard brush and a series of alphas. To do
protectors (Fig.21).

To create the eyes choose Append from Tool

> Subtool and pick Sphere3D (Fig.22). Select
the sphere subtool and scale it down. Move it
to the eye location. To duplicate the eye, press
Ctrl and drag the center of the transpose tool in
Move mode. Place it at the other eye location.
Select the hood subtool and subdivide it twice.
Using the Clay Buildup brush, detail the folds
and don’t be afraid to exaggerate them as the
chain mail texture we are about to apply will
reduce their impact.

In the Tool menu, under Surface, click on Noise.

The Noise Maker interface will open. There is
a small sphere icon on the lower left corner of
the model view. Click on it and load the alpha
image of the tileable chain mail (downloadable
from Pixologic’s website in the Alpha library
under Patterns). Enable UV so that the pattern
is applied according to the UVs we have set
before. Reduce the Scale to 0.048. Set Strength
to -0.47 and ColorBlend to 0.8. Set the color of
the right color palette to black and press OK.

One important detail is the way that the straps

interact with the body flesh (Fig.23). With the
Clay Buildup brush, carve the area in which the
strap and body make contact. Then sculpt the
borders of the flesh to make them bulge from

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Armored Beasts Chapter 05 | Rhino
this you simply need to enable RGB and disable Select the upper body subtool. Start by choosing the eyes, nails, nostrils, lips and nipples. Also
Zadd so the brush paints rather than sculpts. In a beige color in the color picker and choose Fill darken the color slightly around the muscle
my opinion the best base materials for painting Object from the Color menu. Change to Spray forms. Use DragRect mode and a dark brown,
are SkinShade4 and MatCap White01, so mode, with a dark brown color, and pick Alpha and choose some armor damage alphas
alternate between the two while painting as the 08. Paint randomly over the surface with low (download them from the Pixologic website,
specularity of Skin_Shade4 might interfere a bit intensity to create some color variation. With a under Alphas > Effects). Drag them over the
with your perception while painting. higher intensity, paint the darkest spots around skin to add stains.

To enhance the sculpted wrinkles, in Tool >

Masking choose Mask by Cavity and invert
the mask. Press Ctrl + H to make the mask
invisible while you paint. Use a dark color with
low intensity and a large brush to paint over the
model to reveal the detail. Use the Standard
brush with Alpha 58 to paint the fibers along the
horn and nails (Fig.28).

This same technique was used for all the

different parts of the model.

Composition
Create a new project and in the Document
menu, set the document size to 1200 x 1500
(Fig.29). Choose pure black on the color swatch
and choose the Back swatch in the Document
menu to make the background black. Also set
the Range slider to 0 to eliminate the gradient.

Load the rhino tool into the document, press

Edit and turn on Perspective. In the Draw
menu set the Angle of View to 30. Set the view
of the model to what you think is best. In the
Movie menu enable Show under Timeline for
the camera timeline to show at the top of the
screen. Click anywhere on the timeline to create
a key frame that will store the current view. This
way you can go back to this exact view every
time you click on the key frame in case you
need to change the view for editing.

Remember that from this moment on you should

save your project (File > Save) and not just your
tool, otherwise you will lose all your work.

Lights and Materials

The lights and materials should be developed at
the same time and tested as often as possible

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 Chapter 05 | Rhino Armored Beasts

to make sure they work well together. For a

detailed breakdown of the lighting and materials
setup, take a look at the 3DTotal Publishing
book ZBrush Character Sculpting: Volume 1.

Render
When the model and material were ready it was
time to make the final render (Fig.30). In the
Render menu, in Render Properties, enable
AOcclusion. Under Bpr Ao increase the number
of Rays to 20, set Angle to 160, Res to the max
and Blur to 2 in order for the ambient occlusion
to have higher quality.

In Render Properties, raise the Details value to

3 and set the Materials Blend-Radius to 1 so
that ZBrush slightly blurs the frontier between Final touches painted on another layer to enhance the mood.
different materials. After saving the image you can do a few final To finalize the image, use some smoke photos
touches in Photoshop (Fig.31). Adjust the from a texture site and set them to Screen
Press BPR to render the image. After the image Levels to make the image brighter and increase blending mode to create the smoky fog and the
is rendered, the different render passes show Saturation to make the colors more vivid. Blend steam coming out of the chalice.
under BPR RenderPass. You can click on the horizon with the background color. Paint
each of the image icons to save the Shaded some subtle light beams coming from the top- Fig.32 shows the final image. I hope you found
render, the ZDepth buffer, the isolated shadows, right corner with a soft brush and blending mode the tutorial interesting and enjoy using some of
Ambient Occlusion pass and the mask (alpha). set to Screen. Some dust particles can also be the features of ZBrush 4R2.

www.3dtotal.com page 62 Chapter 05

Jose Alves da Silva
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.artofjose.com/
Or contact him at:
[email protected]
 06
cat by Christopher Brändström
Armored Beasts Chapter 06 | Cat

Chapter 06 – Cat and see where it takes me. Sometimes it might • Import a rough mesh from the other
Software used: ZBrush look like the most awesome thing ever, and software into ZBrush, do a ReMesh All and
sometimes it might look like terrible. project the old geometry for a more accurate
My name is Christopher Brändström and I’m shape
a freelance character/creature artist in the Usually when sculpting, I start off with a model • Import a rough mesh from the other
movie, commercial and gaming industry. What I from my library. If you’re creating concepts software into ZBrush and use ZBrush
want to show in this tutorial is a very basic, but you’re not trying to show your skills as a lighting Topology to create a new topology, vertex
effective, workflow covering how to do a basic artist, modeler or texture artist. You’re trying to by vertex.
concept process in ZBrush and composition in show off an image as a whole picture. So why • Create something from scratch using
Photoshop. I’m going to give some pointers on waste time creating something from scratch? ZSpheres.
what to think about and what to avoid, and look
at using some additional software, to make a When creating this armored cat-animal, I Now with DynaMesh, you can just start working
nice-looking final concept image. thought I’d show how easy it is to create off of a sphere. Stretch and pull it however you
something from scratch using ZBrush R3b, like, run DynaMesh and continue working with a
Usually when I start working on a concept I rather than using models from my library. nice, clean and even topology. Also, make sure
need to have a general idea about what I want to check the Projection button, so you can keep
to create. The wonderful thing with concepts is Before the DynaMesh function in ZBrush, you the detailed work when DynaMeshing.
that during your creation process, you are most had more or less four options to get started with
likely going to stumble upon something that a fairly even topology: Important: Make sure your mesh has the
might change your image radically; something proper scale. If the scale is too big, you might
that you initially didn’t think of. This happens to • Create a mesh with an even topology in end up with millions of polygons on the lowest
me almost every time and I just simply go with it software like Maya and import to ZBrush DynaMesh resolution, which makes it hard for

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 Chapter 06 | Cat Armored Beasts

you to work. Always check this before you start

working (Fig.01).

At this point I’ve gone through a couple of head

designs using DynaMesh; starting off with one
head, duplicating it, creating another and so
on. Usually I use layers when creating different
shapes from a single mesh, to keep the scenes
small and easy to use. Since DynaMesh creates
a new topology every time you use it, the layer
function won’t work and you’ll have to duplicate
the mesh instead.

After looking through the designs I choose to go

with the first, more alien-looking head. My idea
at this point is to make the armor natural, made
out of the skeleton of the creature. I use the Clay
Buildup, Insert Cylinder, Polish and ClipCurve
brushes to achieve this result (Fig.02).

I’m still using DynaMesh quite heavily when

creating the body. I have the head as a separate
subtool and the body was initially just a sphere
like the head was.

Before DynaMesh, I didn’t use the SnakeHook

brush as heavily as I do now. It has a tendency
to create really cool, flowing shapes, but it
always messed up the topology because of that.
Now that’s no longer a problem with DynaMesh.

As I did with the holes in the head, I use the

Insert Cylinder brush with a negative option,
which means instead of adding a cylinder when
using DynaMesh it creates a Boolean, a hole,
instead. I do this by holding down Alt when

inserting the cylinder and then using DynaMesh I continue to work on the body, using the Polish
(Fig.03). brush more heavily now, to create harder edges
and combining the organic feel with the Clay
I’ve now started adding more detail to the body. Buildup brush.
I’m still leaving the head as it is, since I don’t
really want to add any more detail at this point. I When adding the muscles I start to see the
may have already added too much, considering model as a whole and it gives me doubts about
I’m still not sure which direction it is heading. whether I’m actually going in the right direction.

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Armored Beasts Chapter 06 | Cat
It’s definitely alien, but is it really an alien cat or the Transpose tool to work more on the rotation
an alien something else (Fig.04)? of the body. Now it feels more like a cat/panther,
but the head is a bit out of place, as I’ve
So I decide to remove most of the features on removed all of the hard-skeleton features on the
the body, because it’s started to feel more like body, using the ClipCurve brush. So I take off
an alien dinosaur than an alien cat. I know that the head and replace it with one of the previous
I will be adding fur later on, but that doesn’t ones I’ve made.
mean it will look any more cat-like. So I go back
a couple of steps and start to look at the overall To get the armor on the back, I simply take the
features again, but I still keep the head. I use head, duplicate it, use the ClipCurve brush quite

extensively on it and finalize it with DynaMesh

and the ClayPolish feature, to enhance the
harder edges a bit. This keeps the feel of the
head armor flowing to the armor on the body,
with a few alterations, of course (Fig.05).

After duplicating the body armor pieces a couple

of times and moving it around on the body, I’m
starting to feel more satisfied with the shape.
At this point I’m starting to think more about
what the final image will look like, so I tilt the
head up a little to make the creature look a bit
more aggressive and present. I also start having
fun with the tail using the SnakeHook brush,
trying to get a long, swirly and interesting shape
(Fig.06).

Since this is a cat-like animal, it needs fur. Of

course, there are cats that don’t have fur and
maybe I can make a concept like that too, but
for this tutorial I want to make it a bit more
obvious that it is a cat-like animal over anything
else. Also, this will give me the opportunity to
have some fun and try out ZBrush’s FiberMesh
feature that came with the R2b update.

I will not go into any real detail to what settings

I’m using in FiberMesh, but like most things in
ZBrush, FiberMesh uses the scale and polygon
density of the model, so your settings might
change from model to model. Basically what I
do is focus, once again, on the overall shape
of the fur and not every single little detail, since
that can easily be changed with a few simple
brush strokes on the final image. This gives me
the option to use the ZBrush fur (which can be

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 Chapter 06 | Cat Armored Beasts

exported as proper geometry) in the final image

or simply use it as a reference (Fig.07).

Alright, so now with the model done, I want to

start looking more into the composition and
look of the final image. For that I usually use
modo because of the extremely simple realtime
rendering and pre-made materials. I know a
lot of people who use ZBrush, V-Ray, Maya or
KeyShot for this. As I wrote at the beginning of
this tutorial, what I’m trying to do is to create
a concept, not to show off how good I am at
tweaking material sliders or sculpting wrinkles
that will never be visible anyway (unless, that is
specifically what I’m aiming to show).

I import the model into modo and start moving it

around, along with a camera and other models,
to find an interesting composition (Fig.08).

When I finally have the composition that I’m

most pleased with, I start adding materials to the
different models and also start creating a render
layer. They will help me separate the materials,
and add depth, mask, etc., when compositing it
later on in Photoshop (Fig.09).

So this is what the final image looks like, after

having worked on it in Photoshop (Fig.10).

What you need to keep in mind when doing a

concept for a client or for your own personal
portfolio, is time and what is it that you really
want to show. You could spend weeks on
completing a concept (this might be fine on rare
occasions); I prefer to spend a maximum of 1-2
days on a concept, like this one. So the reason
I didn’t start painting textures in ZBrush, was client wants something a different color, the skin heads I did, than spend a week or two on an
because I was creating a concept image, not a to have a different type of texture etc. image that might be dismissed in 10 seconds
turntable or animation, just an image. and then not have anything more to show.
If I take this image I just made for example,
By doing this I can spend more time working the client might feel that it’s too detailed and Christopher
on an overall rough shape and do the really too final for him/her to give any feedback on. Brändström
intricate detailing in 2D instead of 3D, but still Therefore it’s very important to spend the right For more from this artist visit:
be able to use the lighting, shadows and some amount of time on the right type of image. I’d http://www.badrobots.se/
colors from the 3D models. This makes it easier rather create 4-5 images in a week that give the Or contact him at:
for me to change something, in cases where the client a lot of options, like the different types of [email protected]

www.3dtotal.com page 68 Chapter 06

Even some of the most modern forms of art are influenced by traditional techniques, methods and styles. With
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Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platform: ZBrush | Format: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 30

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Creating cartoon animals is a great starting point for anyone who is thinking about having a go at 3D. Cartoon
animals are usually made up of shapes and forms that are fairly simple to model, and since realism is not
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Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platform: 3DS Max & ZBrush | Format: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 52

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