Riccardo Ragusa 2023

ARJUNA - Insect Warrior

Arjuna, the warrior insect born from the forbidden union of an ant and a butterfly, is my character created during the first two weeks of my master's program at SkyUp Academy. I personally oversaw every stage of its creation, from concept to sculpting in monster clay and digital modeling with ZBrush.

Arjuna's story takes place in a dystopian world where insects are similar in size to humans, but interspecies unions are strictly prohibited. During the reign of the supreme dictator, the persecution of such unions led to the killing of Arjuna's parents. As he grew up, Arjuna became a skilled warrior and wielding his two katanas, he sets out on a quest for revenge, determined to uncover the hiding place of the supreme dictator.

The theme of this project is "Insect Warrior". I used Zbrush for sculpting and Maya with vray for rendering.

As a first step i created the concept of my character by combining the characteristics of two insects. Ant head and butterfly body. Thanks to the help of the teacher i was able to create a clear concept from which to start. Next i sculpted with monster clay the character adding details and giving him a compelling pose. In the end i replicated the sculpting steps also in digital getting a fantastic final render.

Concept

Screens of initial blocking from Zbrush

Board Reference

Unycicle 

Another very important project created during my studies was this unicycle made entirely in 3D. The biggest challenge was to get as close as possible to the reference assigned to me. For the hard surface parts i used Maya while for the saddle and the boots i used Zbrush. For all the texturing part i relied on Substance Painter and in the end i rendered with vray.

Board Reference

Blocking Screens

Screen from Substance