With the body more or less finished, it was time to pose it!  I didn’t particularly think it was worth spending time doing a traditional rig with ZBrush's transpose available, but sometimes even transpose isn't enough, especially when experimenting with different poses, because it isn't always a fast process with the whole "select/rotate/deselect" thing.  Not to mention that you can sometimes lose the proportions of your character if you don't always set up the rotation pivots in the same places!  So the solution came from a method that I wasn't aware of, but it proved to be highly effective: “ZSphere Rigging”.  The setup process can be seen at this link: http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/ZSphere_Rigging

The basic idea is to deform a level of your mesh using a "skeleton" made by ZSpheres, and then save it and re-import this mesh back into your model on the exact same level you were working with the ZSpheres, "posing" all other levels in the process.  I do have to say here that this wasn’t as perfect as it might seem; you have to re-sculpt (entirely) some parts due to the (sometimes) bad enveloping, but it's faster than transpose as I mentioned, especially when you have to play with different poses.  You’ll also notice that if you only use rotate to bend the "bones", you'll always keep the proportions right (Fig.06).

After refining the posed model by adding more detail and fixing the look of the posed muscles (this was very important, as the volumes changed when the muscles were bent or stretched), it was time to work on the other objects for the statue.  I started by painting a mask of what would later be the pants, and then extracted it, sculpting the borders of the holes and the details on the fly and folds (Fig.07).  I chose to extract it from the legs and made a different Subtool, rather than sculpting it right into the mesh because it was easier to have more polygons in the pants for details if I wanted them, avoiding subdividing the whole Hulk by one more level.

For the base I used XSI again.  The idea was to set Hulk in the middle of what used to be a street but is now a pile of asphalt surrounded by a lot of debris.  So I modelled pieces of concrete, some metal, electrical cables and water pipes – everything I could think of to set the mood of the battle that had just happened there.  I also added a tyre (reused from an old project), as a comparative to the actual proportions of Hulk.  Again, I kept the base meshes very simple.  Also, because of the mass distribution and aiming for a cool balance so that the figure would stand still, I had to take care of where I put the details on the base.  In this case, because Hulk is inclined towards the front, I needed more of the base there.  To avoid adding a large piece of asphalt I simply put a piece of metal going in the same direction as Hulk’s head and touching the ground, acting like a "tripod", so as to hold the piece safely whilst not disturbing the look in any way (Fig.08).

With the base exported into ZBrush, I started adding details.  For the stones and concrete I used the "standard" and then the "fast mallet" brushes.  For the cracks in the asphalt, I projected an image using Zapplink, and used it to set up a mask and sculpt the lines.  Metals were detailed with the "clay brush" set to a low intensity (Fig.09).

The hair was extracted from the top of the head, and I then used the "standard brush" with a few "lazy mouse" touches here and there.  The trick was to vary the directions, adding movement and interest (Fig.10).