Creature Exolvo

Creature Project Exolvo

Together with some classmates we started our own project called Exolvo. We are still working on the final compositing, but I can show some of the work I've made in the past couple of months. One of my tasks was to design and make a creature. 

Story:

A knight awakens, surrounded by petrified knights in a big decayed hall. There's a large throne in front of them with the remains of a king or ruler. The knight finds a sword, it seems to be alive. He feels drawn to it and picks it up.

The knight steps out of the temple. We follow him through different landscapes where we see ruins of lost buildings and overgrown cities. Creatures roam the lands, there's no sign of humanity. The knight feels heavy, the sword that's now grown onto his arm is taking all of his energy. 

When the knight arrives at a large temple, he walks inside. Within this he hears a voice. It's causing the water to ripple and the temple to vibrate a little. The knight tries to fight it but can't win from the power of the sword in his hands. The voice also seems to have an effect on the remains of life in other parts of the land. The knights swings his sword towards the voice and without realizing he release the evil that ended the world. 

Concept Art

This is the start of the process. Here I worked on multiple sketches that would fit the creature. I combined ideas and eventually we settled for the concept on the right.

Sculpting & Texturing

After we all agreed on the concept art I started with sculpting. I made the sculpt in Zbrush and did the retopology and the UV's of the creature in Maya. 

For the textures I used Substance Painter. I also made the environment after I was done with the creature. We assembled all the assets and a classmate made the layout of the shot in Houdini.

Lighting

When the layout was ready I started with lighting. I haven't done much lighting before so this was quite the challenge! 

This is the latest 3D render. It still has to go through comp so unfortunatly it's a work in progress.

I feel like I've learned a lot while doing this project. I realized that I became much  faster in everything over the past couple of months, with the same or even better results in the end. 

I obviously still have a lot to learn but I enjoyed working on this and I'm quite happy with the results!