"From Grannies to Warriors: The Artistic Evolution of a 3D Character -Creature Artist"

I don't think that's a cat!

 Oh no! This crazy grandma has a rabid raccoon mistaken for one of her beloved felines! As soon as I saw the beautiful concept by the talented, Cory Loftis, I knew that it would become my next big undertaking. Throughout this project, my primary focus was on mastering the art of skin texturing, and grooming. I dedicated my time and energy to bring life to these characters through meticulously detailed textures and carefully crafted hair. This endeavor not only allowed me to enhance my skills in these areas, but also provided an opportunity to take on such a hilarious concept, which I had not done before! 

Concept & Reference

During the creative process, I sought inspiration from a variety of sources, particularly drawing upon the style of Pixar and the endearing character Grandma Coco. The PureRef remained rather light on content throughout the entire creative process, thanks to such a strong concept image. 

Modeling and Sculpting

I used Zbrush and Mudbox for the sculptural details, Marvelous Designer for the clothing, Mari and TextureXYZ for skin texturing, Substance Painter for texturing everything else, and Maya for scene assembly.

Here's my sculpt out of Zbrush, using a quick fibermesh groom as a placeholder:

Grooming

I made a callout sheet for guide groups by painting over the concept image with different colors,each color signifying a change of flow or major silhouette change in the hairrstyle (see the PureRef), and I'll break it up into more guide groups once I begin grooming, if necessary. I created my groom guides with GroomBear in Houdini, and then imported them into Maya to use in Yeti.

Render and Compositing

Here's a quick breakdown/push-in shot- Beauty/AO/Diffuse/Specular/Wireframe/Beauty - 

Rendered in V-Ray, compositing in Nuke

Mouse Warrior

This valiant little mouse takes center stage as the protagonist in an ongoing collaboration, temporarily put on hold- as we venture into the realm of the working world, between myself and a few talented classmates. I am responsible for all aspects shown below, aside from some Megascans assets used for the environment. This project was heavily inspired by my love of Brian Jacques' Redwall series during my childhood, and the tragically cancelled Mouse Guard project from Disney/Fox in 2019. 

Concept and Reference

Initially inspired by this concept painting by César Espejo Pham, I ended up taking some liberties to adjust it to the rest of the collaboration. Clothing and grooming were easily the biggest challenges faced in this project- I had never groomed anything prior to this, and had very basic knowledge of Marvelous Designer, but I was happy to take on the challenge, and I'm proud of where it ended up!

Modeling and Sculpting

Here's the high poly model out of Zbrush. There was a lot of back and forth between Maya, Marvelous, and Zbrush and tons of iterations before landing on the final sculpt.

Grooming

Here's a look at the groom guides made with GroomBear in Houdini. Once I was happy with how the hair gen was looking in Houdini, I exported thes guides and imported them into Maya, to use in Yeti and Vray.

Render and Compositing

Here's a quick breakdown of the render layers- Beauty/AO/Diffuse/Specular/Wireframe 

Rendered in Vray, compositing in Nuke

Portrait of a Dwarven Blacksmith

Initially inspired by a captivating 2D concept drawing by Yuhong Ding, featuring a portrait of a dwarf, this project has evolved over time, drawing inspiration from various other concepts as well. As I delved deeper into the creation process, my main objective was to enhance my skills in skin texturing and grooming. However, I envision this project as a stepping stone for future learning opportunities. In the coming stages, I plan to further my understanding of muscle simulation, hair simulation, and cloth simulation. This endeavor has provided me with an immersive and dynamic platform to push the boundaries of my artistic abilities and expand my knowledge within the realm of character creation.

Concept and Reference

Most of my inspiration for this project came from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series, but I was mainly guided by the concepts by Yuhong Ding and Even Amundsen. 

Modeling and Texturing

Here's the final high poly sculpt out of Zbrush, with sculpted hair as a placeholder.  The shirt and pants were initially modeled in Marvelous Designer and then brought into Zbrush, while the shoes and apron were made entirely in Zbrush. I used Mari and TextureXYZ for skin texturing, and Maya for scene assembly.

Grooming

Similarly to the grandma, I split the groom into separate groups based on a break in the silhouette of the hairstyle, or a change in the flow. I created my groom guides with GroomBear in Houdini, and then imported them into Maya to use in Yeti.

Render and Compositing

Here's a breakdown of the render layers that I used in Nuke to composite this final image. 

Beauty/AO/Diffuse/Specular/Beauty. 

Rendered in V-Ray

Huge thank you to all of my friends and mentors that helped me with these projects- especially Tran Ma, Miguel Ortega, Jackson Lukas, and Crystal Xie!!