Making Of 'You're Goddamn Right!'

Introduction

My name is Riccardo Minervino, I'm 36 years old, and I currently live in Japan where I work as 3D artist for video games.

I decided to make this fan art after I finished watching all the seasons of Breaking Bad, because I really liked the show and I think the main actor, Bryan Cranston, has an interesting face, so I thought it would have fun to model him.

Preparation

Before I jumped into modeling, I needed to gather the right reference images. It might sound banal, but having good references is crucial for the quality of the final result. Fortunately, because the subject is a famous actor, it was easy to find high resolution photos of him (Fig.01).

Fig.01

Fig.01

Base Mesh

Once I found the reference photos, I could start modeling a base mesh in ZBrush. I began with a DynaMesh sphere, and I created a very rough model to have the basic proportions in place (Fig.02).

Fig.02

Fig.02

To refine the proportions I used ZBrush 4R5's new See-Through mode, that allows me to open my reference images in the background, and then set the whole ZBrush interface to half-transparent, so I can easily position my model on top of the photo while I sculpt (Fig.03).

Fig.03

Fig.03

Retopology

When I achieved a base mesh that resembled the subject (Fig.04), before starting to sculpt the fine details I needed to retopologize my mesh. I did that in Maya, using a plugin called NEX, which has a function called Quad-Draw that allowed me to easily draw polygons on top of my high poly mesh (Fig.05).

Fig.04

Fig.04

Fig.05

Fig.05

When the retopo was done (Fig.06), I added one step of Mesh Smooth, to have some more resolution on the model before I did the UVs (Fig.07).

Fig.06

Fig.06

Fig.07

Fig.07

UVs and Projection

I made the UVs in a tool called UVLayout which, in my opinion, is the best tool on the market for making UVs (Fig.08). After that, I imported my new model back into ZBrush, and projected the details of my base mesh into my new retopo model with UVs (Fig.09).

Fig.08

Fig.08

Fig.09

Fig.09

Detailing

To add details to my model, I used ZBrush's Spotlight tool. I overlapped my reference image on my model (Fig.10), and I projected the details, but only on the geometry - I dealt with the colors later (Fig.11).

Fig.10

Fig.10

Fig.11

Fig.11

The next step was to remove all the unwanted details, such as the glasses, and manually refine the skin (Fig.12).

Fig.12

Fig.12

Texturing

Once the detailing was complete, I opened up the reference photo in Photoshop, and I removed all the visible details, in order to achieve a "diffuse-only" type of image (Fig.13).

Fig.13

Fig.13

Then I went back to ZBrush again and used Spotlight to project only the color information this time over my model (Fig.14).

Fig.14

Fig.14

I did the same process using various photos to cover the entire head (Fig.15), and then I generated the texture from the Polypaint (Fig.16).

Fig.15

Fig.15

Fig.16

Fig.16

Accessories

I modeled the glasses and the shirt base mesh in Maya (Fig.17 - 18), and again I made the UVs of the shirt using UVLayout (Fig.19).

Fig.17

Fig.17

Fig.18

Fig.18

Fig.19

Fig.19

Back in ZBrush, I sculpted some folds in the shirt (Fig.20), and applied a texture to have a preview of how it might look at the end (Fig.21).

Fig.20

Fig.20

Fig.21

Fig.21

Eyes

The eyes were made up of two parts: the inner part represents the sclera and the iris, and the other part represents the cornea (Fig.22).

Fig.22

Fig.22

I made the texture of the eye in Photoshop, using a mix of photos from the web and hand-drawn details (Fig.23). The materials for the eye were a simple diffuse material for the inner part, and a refractive specular material for the other part.

Fig.23

Fig.23

The lens shape of the cornea created a nice refraction, and it allowed the iris to be seen even from the side view (Fig.24).

Fig.24

Fig.24

Once I was satisfied with the eyes, I imported them into ZBrush and placed them on my model (Fig.25).

Fig.25

Fig.25

Hair and Bed

To create the facial hair I used ZBrush Fiber Mesh (Fig.26).

Fig.26

Fig.26

To achieve a realistic result, I created multiple layers of beard, hair and eyebrows to have some nice variations in shape, color and distribution (Fig.27), and then combined them together (Fig.28).

Fig.27

Fig.27

Fig.28

Fig.28

Finalizing and Pose

At the end I did the last tweaks on the face, reworked the shirt a little bit and added the jacket (Fig.29). Using ZBrush Transpose Master, I posed the character and then exported all the parts ready to be rendered (Fig.30).

Fig.29

Fig.29

Fig.30

Fig.30

Render

For the final render I used Otoy's Octane Render, a fantastic unbiased, GPU-based render engine, which is incredibly fast, with an easy-to-use node interface. It also features a built-in Sun and Sky system, which was perfect for my needs (Fig.31).

Fig.31

Fig.31

Final Tweaks

Finally I imported my render into Photoshop, I added a background image, and did a bit of color correction using a great plugin called Magic Bullet (Fig.32).

Fig.32

Fig.32

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this breakdown. I would like to thank 3DTotal for giving me the chance to show off my work, and the Octane Render team for their great work and the support they gave me. Thank you!

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