Orc Makingof
Orc Makingof
Orc Makingof
Created In:
ZBrush and 3ds Max
Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is Nicolas Collings and in this article I’m going
my latest artwork, Orc Maori, and the techniques I used to quickly get an
illustrative look from my 3D sculpt.
Inspiration for this piece came after watching one of the Gnomon
Workshop DVDs by Aaron Sims, Creature Design with Aaron Sims.
During the process I only used ZBrush, and then Photoshop was used for
the final compositing. No external render engine was used – just ZBrush.
So let’s get started!
Reference model might have, what kind of pose or expression I want, and how I’m
I started by doing a couple of sketches. Preliminary sketches help me to going to equip him, etc. I like to know more or less where I’m going before
develop the initial look of the character; to define the different features the starting any 3D work, even if at the end I often come up with a slightly
different result (Fig.01).
Modelling
I’m not going to extend myself too much on this aspect of the article
because I’ve already written a making of (Wolverine Tribute) for
3DCreative which went into more depth in the modelling section, and there
are also “Making Of” articles available on my website, too.
A few rules to keep in mind are to first of all start by blocking in the basic
masses and forms of the model, and secondly, if you want to avoid
any “blobby” effects, I recommend you always set your brush to a low
intensity. Be sure to choose an appropriate brush size according to the
scale of the details you want to add, and most importantly, be sure to go
as far as possible in the current level before subdividing the geometry
even further. Please also do not be afraid to smooth out details and then
refine the area.
Texturing
Since the goal was to create an illustration, I
didn’t need to really texture my model as if it
was intended to end up in a cinematic game or
movie. I simply wanted to create a concept and Since I planned the look of the character in my you paint in blue, red or yellow, and then finally
quickly visualise the model as a final product. initial sketches, I already knew what I had to cover everything with a thin tonal layer of brown/
do at this stage. I had to split my basic texture orange. This is a really effective technique, I
So to do this, I just used the automatic AUV into two layers; the first one was obviously for must say!
tile inside ZBrush. Like I said, there was no the tattoo, and the second was for the skin
need to bother with clean UVs and unwrapping tone colour. For the tattoo, I extensively used Render Passes
because I wasn’t intending on painting on the the Lazy tool, which helps you to control your Once my two maps were ready, I thought about
flat UV template, but on the actual 3D sculpt brush strokes more precisely. For the skin, I the different passes I would need. I came
instead, using polypaint (you can find out more used a painting technique explained by Scott up with these main passes: an Occlusion,
information about the tool on ZBrush: http:// Spencer, which basically consists of painting the Specular, Reflection, ZDepth and Mask pass
www.zbrush.info/). skin colour in layers. Depending on the area, (Fig.03). These passes were achieved simply
by assigning a specific MatCap to the model
which mimicked the desired effect. I saved each
render separately by exporting the doc.