Sandra Baiju Prasad: Modelling/Texturing/Lookdev

MUTANT BUG CREATURE (FILM: REMNANT)

I was the core texture/lookdev artist for my final year film group and we wanted to create a completely unique creature from scratch. Creating a fantasy piece brought a lot of exciting challenges to tackle and the final output was definitely worth the countless hours of development!

SCREENSHOTS: (Responsible For Creature Texturing and All Lookdev)

The mutant bug is placed in an alternative WWII setting, where mankind is fighting against their bio-weapon gone horribly wrong.

This creature is the last of it's kind. It's an injured footsoldier who is trying its best to escape from the losing battle after experiencing the horrors of war and the death of it's comrades. I have textured the creature to be very damaged as it is losing blood and spilling oil.

BREAKDOWN: (Responsible for Colour Concept/ Texturing/ Lookdev)

BLACK MAGIC CAMERA

What other better way is there to build up CG skills if it is not recreating a real life asset from scratch?  I was on the hunt for a fancy hardsurface piece until I realised I could simply just use the Black Magic Camera my team and I hired out to shoot our final year film. 

CAPTURING LIGHT: HDRI

Since I had to match the lighting conditions of the asset to integrate it just like the reference, I decided to create an HDRI. 

I used a digital camera that I loaned out from my university and took bracketed images of my kitchen in various exposures to give myself a dynamic range to play with while lighting. I used PTGui to stitch the images together. This helped speed up the process of matching the lighting to the original by a tonne. 

BREAKDOWN: All aspects done by me

I modelled according to an undistorted image taken from a friend's camera to make sure the camera proportions were absolutely correct. 

SPHYNX

This year I wanted to have a go at creating a real creature from the ground up.  Being my first proper attempt at creature work, I decided to make, a not so friendly sphynx.  (also who wouldn't want to stare and sculpt wrinkles for hours?)

BREAKDOWN: (All Aspects done by me)

I pushed myself out of my comfort zone this year to try my hand at organic assets. Honestly speaking, it is more fulfilling to bring creatures to life and more importantly, really fun. I am moving onto my next projects, bringing with me the knowledge I have learnt from these assets.

This concludes my work as a final year student, I hope you enjoyed what you saw!

CREDITS: 

Remnant (VFX Film): Those who worked on featured screenshots

Zhané Nathan-Grant (Modelling & Environment Texturing)

Abdullah Al-Hilli (Environment Modelling & Texturing)

Alice Pott (Lighting/Rendering)

Fred Austin / Gererd Murphy (Animation)

Jaison Kerai / James Green / Guy Frutiger (Compositing)

(The lookdev props were downloaded from CAVE Academy's website)