Zireael - Fantasy viking warrior

MY PROCESS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEA

The project began a month ago as a sketch for 3D printable miniature for D&D so after I decided to make a portfolio character you can imagine was pretty hard due to make the entire model from the beginning.

Took me almost 2 weeks to model the high poly and Zbrush and I remade several pieces multiple times since I was never satisfied, as you can see in the pictures below. I then proceded to produce the lowpoly model on Topogun and use Zwrap for a clean head topology. Finally used Blender for some of the props since I find faster to model small pieces on it and made the UVs on Maya, along with Xgen for the hair and the fur.

Substance was a pretty fun part since, being a traditional and concept artist, it was literally like painting a miniature. I also tried to use Substance Designer for some cool 3D materials but since I was not familiar with the software I scapped the idea but hopefully I'll be back using it one day. Lastly Marmoset was my choise as a render software.

I decided to composite the final look on the non-commercial license of Nuke, I've never used the software before but I can say that it was pretty fun. Lastly I used Photoshop for the very last retouches since Nuke was very limited for the license I had.

Although I think it's a very acceptable result I may still keep working on the makeup and grooming for further iterations of the character. Maybe even export on different render engines.

I literally put everything of me in this model: a carreer in traditional medias, the love for medial, fantasy and celtic decorations, my knowledge of medieval art, passion for sculpting and design tips from my concept art studies. Hope you'll enjoy the next results. Have a merry Yule

Turnaround video and passes

Final lights 

Studio light from Marmoset Toolbag renders

Process from the original 3D printable model, some (terrible) polypaint, final model, first textures and final result

Final model with wireframe and render passes

Some of the Props realized for the model

MISCELLANEOUS

High poly model

Xgen Hair

Original Sketch

Reference sheet (some of them)

Alphas made for the sculpting fase

My genuine reaction when the render looked nice