'ZBrush'

Software Used :

Introduction :

This image started out as a lunch break exercise, but I liked where I was going so I decided to take it a bit further. In this article I’ll try to reveal most of my workflow for this particular piece, covering all the main steps to reach the final image.

Concept :

The main concept was something I’d had in my mind for a while, inspired by the Axolotl salamander (Fig.01).

I heard of a warrior challenge for Mudbox. I couldn’t officially participate since I was focusing on developing my ZBrush skills at the time, but I decided to do it for myself anyway.

I chose to create a female aquatic warrior character riding a giant manta ray. Her gills would be exposed, as in the Axolotl salamander,r and would help to define the female gender of the character by giving a sense of waving hair.

I had actually done some quick sketches for this character before and that’s probably the reason why things came out so easily (Fig.02).

Base Mesh :

Since it was supposed to be a ZSketch of one hour, I started a new base mesh from a simple ZSpheres structure. Basically, I used one main ZSphere for the base of the neck, with two ZSpheres to the side for the shoulder area and one going up for the neck. Then I added another ZSphere for the base of the head, followed by one main skull ZSphere and another for the mouth/nose area.

To the main skull ZSphere I attached the gill structures and the eyes, as well as more in the back of the head. This was all done with symmetry turned on (Fig.03).