Anthropomorphised sunken chest character: Maya hard surface modelling & Zbrush head sculpt

I began this project by creating a quick hard surface chest type shape in maya, to ensure that I began with a solid, blocked out looking mesh to begin work on. This being my first real experiment with Zbrush, I did not work towards any particular goal past it looking like it had been left underwater for a significant period of time. I worked around further adding bezel to the shape using the clay tube tool, and using the standard sculpt tool to add in detail to the eyes and bringing out the neck, which I left jagged to give the impression that it had been broken off something. The image below shows the smoother version, before I added the eye detail and also more of the rusted look.

 

 These two shots show the front and rear of the finish sculpt. You can see that the eye is incased in a flare, reminiscent of the images from Georges Mélies "A trip to the moon". I felt like the character would be somewhat sorrowful considering his predicament, so I sculpted the face and raised the eyebrows in a way that depicted a more downbeat feel for him.

 This more top side view shows more detail on the flare shell, as well as a look into the chests skull and brain cavity. I decided to only use red in a few select places on the model, to create a good sense of contrast between the more "unnatural" parts of the sculpt.

Cyberneticically enhanced horror character: Zbrush character bust sculpt

I began by sculpting out a basic head, working down the neck and opening the model out to the chest, blocking out a basic bust to then begin working on. I further added definition to the face using the clay tube, damian standard and smooth tool to allow me to get a feel for exactly how I wanted to further develop the model. as I wanted a character where the metallic additions looked as if they were somewhat merged into the face, I added them directly onto the face rather than creating them using hard surface modelling in Maya and bringing them into Zbrush for further detailing.

 

 I further developed the facial additions mainly using the clay tube tool, developing the cheekbones and chin into a more defined shape, as well as bringing back the eye areas. I began to block out the neck and shoulder blade areas for further definition

I decided to bring the head to a somewhat naturally wide proportion, as it becomes a little uncomfortable to look at, fitting the horror character theme perfectly. I also started adding the finer details into the face and mask, using the damian standard and H-polish tool to finalise the look of the mask. I also started to add the cyber-muscles to the next, blocking out the ribcage also.

At this point I added a dark gray shader to the model before I began poly painting. I added in metal additions to the neck to add to the cybernetic look. I also further added to  the mask to give it more definition between the eye spaces and the metal areas.

Here I've put it through a render with fog after polypainting. I kept it quite simple, only adding some lighter shades of gray to the chest, and adding a little blood splatter to the left hand side of the model. I also added a small amount of blue to the eye space, to give the impression of a cybernetic mask.