Mitchell Russell - The Rookies 2023

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Part 1

Model Flythrough (audio on)

Beauty Renders, Model Flythrough, Model Turntable, 

Iray Renders

High Poly Sculpts

Wireframes, UV Maps, Texture Flats

''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns''

Here is part 1 of my game ready version of Batman inspired by Frank Miller's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" comic. With Frank Miller's design being my main inspiration, I also used lots of other different sources from movies, games, and statues to add my own unique spin on the final design.

With this project I wanted to push myself, practising anatomy, realism, hair, and likeness sculpting. I also wanted to try new workflows and use new software such as R3DS Wrap to use photo scanned elements within my work. I have really developed a love for realism, focussing on all of the high frequency details an creating all the stories that live within the design and texture of the model

A rain shader was also created for this project, I wanted to push that realism further by bringing some life, animation and atmosphere to make this Batman feel like he is stopping crime in a cold and wet Gotham City.

Steps & Software:

- Sculpt in Zbrush

- Some small hard surface elements created in Maya and 3DS Max

- R3DS Wrap for skin projection and head topology 

- Retopology in 3DCoat

- Unwrapping, UVs and idle breathing animation done inside 3DS Max

- Rigging and Skinning in 3DS Max

- Textures and Bakes inside Substance Painter

- Cloth simulation for the cape done inside Unreal Engine 4

- Slight Displacement added to the concrete floor, utilising a Height map, inside of Unreal to give more dimension

- Rain Shader created by following videos made by Ben Cloward (https://www.youtube.com/c/BenCloward)

- Rain and breath particle effects made using Niagara in Unreal Engine 4

- Rendering inside Unreal Engine 4

- Post Processing inside Photoshop

UVs:

- 4k Face

- 4k Suit upper

- 4k Suit Lower

- 4k Cape and Pouches

- 4k Cowl and Extras

- 4k Teeth

Some additional content that was used:

Epic Games eye, skin shader, teeth and hair shader

Quixel Bridge concrete floor asset

3D Scan Store HD Head Scan assets for skin projection, face topology, and teeth mesh

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Likeness and Hair Study

Part 2

Beauty Renders

High Poly Sculpts

Skin, Hair card, and hair cap texture flats, Hair Wireframes

"Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Likeness and Hair Study"

Here is part 2 of my game ready version of Batman inspired by Frank Miller's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" comic.

From the beginning of this project I wanted to have this secondary version without the cowl to allow me to practise realistic hair and likeness sculpting. Additionally, this allowed me to explore workflows and techniques different from part 1. Providing me with a different set of challenges to hopefully push my skills further in wider variety of ways.

I really loved this approach, it provided the ability to jump between two projects whilst keeping continuity throughout as both part 1 and 2 shared the same goal/outcome. This was to create my favourite comic book version of Batman, whilst also choosing an actor to base my likeness on for who I'd think would best suit the role if there were ever to be a movie adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman.

Based on the likeness of Josh Brolin.

Steps & Software:

- Sculpt in Zbrush

- R3DS Wrap for skin projection and head topology

- Hair cards and hair generation inside of Maya and XGen

- UVs and hair texture done inside 3DS Max

- Textures inside Substance Painter

- Rendering inside Unreal Engine 4

- Post Processing inside Photoshop

UVs:

- 4k Face

- 4k Suit upper

- 4k Cape and Pouches

- 4k Cowl and Extras

Some additional content that was used:

Epic Games eye, skin shader, and hair shader

3D Scan Store HD Head Scan assets for skin projection, and face topology.

Sea of Thieves - 'Merry' Merrick

Beauty Renders

Model Turnaround

High Poly Sculpts

Wireframes, UV Maps, Texture Flats

New version compared to the old version of this model

"Sea of Thieves - 'Merry' Merrick"

A game ready fan art piece of Merrick from Sea of Thieves. For this revisit of one of my older models my main focus was to push the final presentation, taking a lot of inspiration from the amazing pieces published by the Artists who worked on the game.

The idea behind the design change for the character starts with the initial brief that was created for this project. The character began in the games release and was later removed. After a short period of he was reintroduced and had undergone a dramatic design changes. The intention behind my design was to act as the transition between the two and to show what Merrick would of looked like whilst out of the game.

Also, working to improve other things such as; colour, texture maps, shaders and lighting/composition. All to better match the look and feel of the Video game.

Steps & Software:

- Sculpt in Zbrush

- Retopology in 3DCoat

- Unwrapping and UVs inside 3DS Max

- Textures and Bakes inside Substance Painter

- Sand floor asset created inside 3DS Max

- Material for the Sand created inside of Substance Designer

- Slight Displacement added to the sand, utilising a Height map, inside of Unreal to give more dimension

- Rendering inside Unreal Engine 4 and Arnold

- Post Processing inside Photoshop

UVs:

- 4k Skin

- 4k Clothing

- 4k Accessories

Some additional content that was used:

- Epic Games eye and skin shader (both tweaked to match the style of Sea of Thieves)

Warhammer 40k - Death Guard Leviathan Dreadnought

Model Flythrough (audio on)

Beauty Renders

Iray Renders

Un-posed model and material viewer

High Poly Sculpts

Wireframes, UV Maps

"Warhammer 40k - Death Guard Leviathan Dreadnought"

Warhammer 40k Death Guard Leviathan Dreadnought Fan art. For this project I also have a series of blog posts on my portfolio going into more depth on how I created the Dreadnought and Storm Cannons. This was my first proper deep dive into the world of hard surface, it was incredibly challenging but loved learning this whole new workflow and approach to modelling .

At this stage I am still fairly new to the world of Warhammer 40k, but I have just fallen in love with all of amazing lore, character designs and world building. I am super excited to continue delving deeper into the world of 40k

Steps & Software:

- Sculpt in Zbrush

- Material creation in Substance Painter

- Retopology in 3DCoat

- Unwrapping, UVs and optimisation inside 3DS Max

- EmberGen for Smoke flipbook creation

- Niagara for Smoke and Embers in Unreal

- Textures and Bakes inside Substance Painter

- Shader Creation to create the randomised wriggle on the tentacles

- Cloth simulation created inside of Unreal Engine 4

- Rendering inside Unreal Engine 4

UVs:

- 9 x 2048 Maps

Some additional content that was used:

- "M5 VFX Vol2. Fire and Flames" by JeongukChoi

- "Lava Field Collections" by Quixel Megascans

- "Fantasy Fort Vol. 2" by Quixel Megascans.

- Link to audio used in video clip: https://alonewolf.bandcamp.com/album/gregorian-doom

The Megascans assets were used to populate the scene. Adding additional story to the composition. Also, a small amount of fire VFX were used around the base of the model to simply add some subtle lighting to the final presentation.

VIVA LA HOBBES!

Beauty Renders

Model Turnaround

High Poly Sculpts

Wireframes, UV Maps

Texture Flats

New version compared to the old version of this model

"VIVA LA HOBBES!"

I decided to come back and revisit an old project of mine to improve on weaker areas such as the rendering and texturing. It felt like a good opportunity to practice and play around with some new software and techniques.

The Fable franchise is possible one of my favourite set of games, I fell in love with them as a child and still love then to this day. I had so much nostalgia creating this project, tons and tons of great memories associated with these games. I just had to make one of those mischvious Hobbes.

"Hobbes, smart enough to use magic but not smart enough to wear their pants the right way round. Try explaining that." - Sir Walter Beck

Steps & Software:

- Sculpt in Zbrush

- Material creation in Substance Painter and Designer

- Retopology in 3DCoat

- Unwrapping and UVs inside 3DS Max

- Textures and Bakes inside Substance Painter

- Rendering inside Unreal Engine 4 and Arnold

- Post Processing inside Photoshop

UVs:

- 4k for Body and Mouth

- 4k Clothing

- 4k Wooden Plank and Arrows

Some additional content that was used:

- Epic Games Eye, skin and mouth shader

- Megascans assets for the floor terrain

Links:

Portfolio - https://www.artstation.com/mitchrussell

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-russell-38b673181/ 

A huge thank you to those who provided feedback and support throughout these projects.

Another huge thank you for reaching the end and taking the time to view my work.

Hope you have a great day! :)

-Mitch