Hi Everybody, my name is Stepan “(o)ne” Grakov, and I’m 25 years old. My hobby is of course computer graphics...

I am going to show you how to create the making of “The Captain” - my lastest work - from modelling and rendering, to composing and post effects. This is not a “step-by-step” tutorial, here you will find explanations of my techniques. To create this image I used ZBrush 2.0 for modelling and rendering, and Fireworks MX for composing and post effects (but you can use your favourite 2D software, of course).

Lets brake the final image into several pieces so you can see my modelling process (image 01).

Head: (from z-spheres to hi poly model).
First of all, I create the main, plus several additional, Z-spheres to match head details (eyes, mouth, nose, ears) and convert. Z-spheres’ adaptive skin to a Polymesh. Then I work on main forms in Draw and Move modes, edge loop some places to get more polygons. I don’t pay much attention to correct topology because it won’t be seen in the final image. (image 02, 03, 04 and 05)

Here is the final head (image 06) with a skin material (by Antropus) which consists of 4 shaders. (image 07, 08 , 09 and 10)

Hairs: I take SnakeHook brush and start to pull “hairs” one by one right from the head, with variations. After that I take the Ring tool, apply a mask (Tool-Masking), inflate unmasked polygons (Tool-Deformations-Inflate) and place it to the hair’s base to make it look solid. (image 11)