Creature Topology

So here is the finished topology for my Aquatic creature based off Nicholas Kole’s concept. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. He should deform nicely when rigged. The pattern of the quads is functional and pretty even. There are a couple of tris where they couldn’t be avoided but they are in places where they will not effect the movement such as under the base of the ear (Which will not have to move much at all). So here are some shot of the quads; the body, face, backfeet, front feet and underbelly.

Topology for Aqua Creature

Bringing the sculpt into Maya-

starting to quad draw –

Facial Topology- 

rings need to converge around the eye and nostrils 

They are going to come down to the lips and curve round and up to the cheek

Back-

Paw structure –

Hind Leg structure – 

Topology so far –

Unsmoothed vs smoothed

Whiskers-

Mouth Interior – 

Tail Fin – 

Constructing the toe formation –

claws –

Front foot-

Combining body –

 

Underbelly Topology-

Dorsal Fin –

Finshed Model

 

 

Creature model

Sculpting practice

Cat

Horse

Creating the dead dog – first steps

So in our murder house we are planning on having a deceased dog at the bottom steps, preventing our camera from going down further. Originally we planned on using my dogs head that I modeled over summer. My other module is sculpting, so why not sculpt him. I’m really looking forward to this. I really love sculpting from my brief experience experience so far. First things first lets choose our doggy model.  I’ve been modelling pitbulls quite a bit because of their really nice muscle structure, so this time I think i’m going to go with something a little different and try a german shepherd.  Here are some of the reference images I’m going to try and work with.

-https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Dog_anatomy_head.jpg

-http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/18/55618-004-B4621596.jpg

These show muscle structure really nicely and as I’m going to begin with the head, that’s really important.

So lets begin Blocking our rough shape and muscle

I was careful this time to make sure to distribute the polygons fairly well as in my first dog head the nose had to few. 

So here you can see I’m filling out the muscles. The primary ones in a canine head being the cheek, jaw, eye and strip along the muzzle.

I will now need to resize parts of his head as he has lost some of his german shepherd shape

That’s a bit better…

 

Now I think I’ll block in the ears using the draw curve tube tool! I don’t want to stretch the head mesh as in my last model my pit bulls ears started to really lose polycount.  Here goes..

And presto some nice ears. So I just added on a couple of tubes and shaped them using bcl clay tool and bmv move tool with a little bit of smooth. They’ll need a lot more work but that’ll do for the rough start.

Now I want to block out my body. So I’m gonna use the same method I did with my ears, except with the whole body. So really we need one big tube for the body, 4 for the legs, and one for the tail. He’s dead so he’s going to be lying down. Lets take a look at some lying down german shepherds. (I would look up dead dogs but then I’d just get upset and this model would never get finished.)

• https://img.posterlounge.co.uk/images/wbig/poster-ein-deutscher-schaeferhund-liegt-auf-dem-boden-220843.jpg

Found this lovely one. It’ll be a good reference. His pose is pretty spot on.

• http://www.kateconnick.com/postcards/sleepingsheps.jpg

This guy’s pose is pretty nice too. I might stick with the pose I drew for a previous concept. Here I did a study of our original plan to have him be based on my other model of the pit bull dog.

Right so lets do the body

Took me a couple of attempts to get it the way I wanted it. But for a start shape I’m reasonably happy with that. Now for the legs.

I tried to tidy up his form a little bit before I’m going to go in and add the muscle structures.

Here is a really cool zbrush model showing very basic building blocks of the dog’s muscle structure i’m going to follow.

-http://oi58.tinypic.com/2v34yl3.jpg

This shows the really simple structures I should follow, then as it gets more advanced… We’ll look at something closer to this.

-https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/886744_674020729295375_1355753941_o.jpg

This is also a really helpful sculpt as it shows detailed structure of the anatomy.

-https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/17/4d/97174d4d55250fd63a3f709fbac8a95b.jpg

So now we have the main structures I’m going to put in minus little things like the teeth.

Next I added some teeth

So now I’ve started to think about muscle body structure. I’ve been looking at mine own dog for reference. Its easy to get carried away and make him look like he’s taken too many steroids. I need to make sure to reign in it a bit and make him look like a dog not a hulk.

So that’s his muscle structure in. I think I’m going to go in now and work on a few little details.

DETAIL

ON THE HEAD

FULL BODY

 

 

z Brush Creature Modelling

Awesome Concept art created by NICOLAS KOLE

• http://nicholaskole.blogspot.co.uk/

So I tried to use his concept art to create a 3d model in z brush. Firstly Beginning with a rough of the head. I’m still trying to get to grips with zbrush. This is my second attempt at doing something in it.

So now I’m trying to make a full body version

Blocking him out –

 

 

zbrush 1st attempt

So I’ve never used zBrush Before and i’m really excited to attempt it. So i’m trying to learn some of the basics and I’ve been watching a couple of tutorials on Digital Tutors to try and and work out how to move around and what the layout is like. It is pretty confusing straight off the bat. The rotate, move and scale are all similar but different to Maya which is going to take some getting used to. I’m also working out how to create polyspheres and manipulate them. So far I gather that the most important hot keys for brushes to do this are…

BCL – Clay brush tool 

BMV – Move tool for relocating sections of mesh

These are the main two i’m going to use

Time to try them out. Lets make a dogs head as I’m pretty familiar with the structure.

 

Nicholas Kole

So the artist’s work Abigail and Myself have decided to base our sculpts off is Nicholas Kole. Abigail showed his work to me and it is really gorgeous. He is an Illustrator/concept artist (Disney Publishing/Waystone Games)

So we browsed his concept work for a long time trying to find some that would potentially make good 3d sculpts.

His creature design from Project Copernicus is really stunning. The designs are really stylized and sharp. They have a warmness and definite appeal (even some of the less attractive creatures). His colour choice always compliments the designs beautifully. Here are some of my personal favorites from Project Copernicus…

 

-https://www.behance.net/gallery/8532241/Project-Copernicus

Sculpting wise I really want to create  more of an animal creature. Preferably a quadruped.

-http://nicholaskole.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/over-year.html

Here are some of his earlier designs

–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHiDlz4zWdU&feature=youtu.be

I really love the end design. The aquatic creature is just gorgeous. In particular the side profile drawing of him extended it fantastic and would be great to model. So I think I’ve selected my subject for the sculpting project! I don’t want to create him exactly but instead base my design on it.

 

Check him out!

This is his Blog – http://nicholaskole.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/over-year.html

And Gallery – https://www.behance.net/nicholaskole