Making Of 'LeChuck the Zombie Pirate'

Hello, my name is Luis Arizaga and I'm going to talk a little about how I created "LeChuck the Zombie Pirate".

Concept & References

This image was inspired by illustrations created for graphic adventures; in particular I was influenced by the cover of "Monkey Island 2" the videogame, designed by Steve Purcell.

Modeling

The entire modelling process was done in 3d Studio Max (Fig.01); the UVs and the rig were done with the same program, Mental Ray for rendering.

Fig. 01

Fig. 01

Texturing

Texturing was a very important part of this work, both for the character as well as for the scenery. I basically used Photoshop and ZBrush to texture the pants and the boots, using the polypaint tools. The 3DTotal Textures library was very useful for texturing the pirate since it has a large variety of textures classified by topics, in very good resolutions. It's always easier to do these projects when you have access to such good sources.

I'm going to show you some images now which illustrate how the texture library facilitated my work in the key textures of the character and the scenery, with its different objects. First of all, I used a texture base, and then applied other layers of different textures, overlapping in various ways and at different opacity values. To achieve the final results I also deleted or cloned parts of each layer, depending on what I needed.

Here I will show you - in images - how I textured the parts of the main character:

The Hat:
The material parameters can be seen in Fig.02.

To create the textures I used the Clone Stamp and Eraser tools to modify the textures I Photoshop to achieve the desired effects (Fig.02a). Note: The fringes of the hat and the jacket were mapped with a tileable texture of rope, which was created from a 3D model.

Fig. 02

Fig. 02

Fig. 02a

Face & Hand Skin:
The material can be seen in Fig.03.
The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.03a.

Fig. 03

Fig. 03a

Hair & Beard:
The material can be seen in Fig.04.

The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.04a.

Fig. 04

Fig. 04a

Shirt & Belt:
The material can be seen in Fig.05.

The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.05a.

Fig. 05

Fig. 05a

Leather Belt:
The material can be seen in Fig.06.

The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.06a - 06b.

Fig. 06

Fig. 06a

Fig. 06b

The Jacket:

The material can be seen in Fig.07 - 07a.

Fig .07

Fig.07a

The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.07b. Note: The fringes of the hat and the jacket were mapped with a tileable texture of rope, which was created from a 3D model.

The material for the buttons can be seen in Fig.07c.

Fig. 07b

Fig. 07c



Trousers:
Texturing for the trousers was done entirely with the polypaint technique in ZBrush, without using any base textures. You can see the material in Fig.08 - 08a.

Fig. 08

Fig. 08a

Boots:
Texturing for the boots was done entirely with the polypaint technique in ZBrush, without using any base textures. You can see the material in Fig.09.

Fig. 09

Here I will show you - in images - how I textured the parts of the scenery:

Wooden boards for the deck & railings:
The material can be seen in Fig.10.

The composition of the textures for the material maps can be seen in Fig.10a.

Fig. 10

Fig. 10a

Rope Ladders & Ropes:
A "tileable" texture of rope was created from a 3D rope model render and modified in Photoshop. The material can be seen in Fig.11.

Fig. 11

Metal Rings:
A procedural material was created for black metal. The material can be seen in Fig.12.

Fig. 12

The blue cloudy sky with stars, which was used as an environment map and rendered background, was painted in Photoshop (Fig.13).

Fig. 13

Render & Post Production

The scene was rendered with the Mental Ray renderer and a basic illumination system (not realistic) which highlights the figure of the character without taking away the importance of the scenery. Basically, I used different lights in order to fill the scene, such as area lights, a key light, some extra lights to control the reflection of some objects, such as the eyes, and an HDRI environment system.

This was a personal work, so I didn't separate the background scenery and all the different render elements for post-production. Moreover, I made an Ambient Occlusion pass (AO) and ZDepth (DOF) for the depth of field effect. I adjusted the post-production directly in the final image and used layers of AO, DOF, colour correction, levels adjustments, glows drawn in the metals areas, and reflected light (Fig.14).

Fig. 14 - Final Image

I hope you have enjoyed this article.

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