Portfolio

 

Concept art

 

 

Sculpt

 

 

Textures

 

 

Final renders W/edits

 

 

 

reflection

 

Overall I really enjoyed this assignment, though there were a lot of challenges, and the constant switching between programs was difficult to deal with. As I worked through all the steps, I began understanding the effects from one section to another.

I think I’ve got a clearer understanding of the individual steps in the workflow and their importance and the tools utlised. To create a successful model, researching and understanding our 2D design was incredibly important. I looked into real-world references, animals, and other people’s interpretations of godly, snake-like creatures to inform my decisions, which I believe my design is successful, and despite not looking like a specific animal or mythological creature, it’s grounded in reality, and its features are familiar to the viewer, making it believable and realistic despite some of my choices purposefully going against realism. I also tried to pay close attention to the design principles. I found that creating a simpler design was actually quite challenging, as I couldn’t rely on many features for visual interest; instead, I tried to work with just triangles and cylinders to keep the shape language consistent and limited. I made this choice as I feel that by limiting the recurring shapes, the intention with the design becomes a lot clearer. Elongated shapes make the creature feel slender and elegant while the triangles convey the danger and power. Contrast was also another principle I relied on; I also took into account the background and tried to make the creature both blend and stand out in its environment.

 

I found my notes from class and the PowerPoints to be my most useful resource, especially when making the concept art and when sculpting; however, I also used YouTube, Reddit, Google, Quora, and just about everything else too to find solutions to issues I kept encountering. Although I looked at many sources for help and research, I realised I didn’t take note of quite a few, so when writing my blog, I couldn’t reference them; this is something I’ll definitely try to fix next time, as it greatly hinders my blog.

 

I did extensive research into my creature and tried to bring in storytelling subtly through the design; the tentacle shows it fights krakens, and it also has multiple recent and old injuries showing it’s quite old and strong. The tail is a lunate tail, which is characteristic of fast predatory fish and some sharks. I tried to communicate the creature’s speed and power through the tail. The fin bones also create a claw-like shape, reiterating the danger. Because of the simplicity of the design, I couldn’t add too many additional features or textures without ruining the intended effect, so I tried to use the design itself to convey the creature’s story and purpose.

 

Finally, I’m very happy with my creature; it told the story I wanted, and its function is clear in its design. I’m also a lot more comfortable with all the programs and actually understand how each one affects the other, which I previously didn’t get at all. I also think I greatly improved my skills in each sector of the pipeline, mainly creating the textures in Substance Painter and creating a realistically believable sculpt in Zbrush. My goal for next time would be improving the retopology and UV mapping as they lacked. However, overall I’m happy with the result and that the decisions that led to it had thought and research behind them, which took into consideration the feedback from the lecturer and my own research and judgment.

Character Creation

 

Zbrush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the creature will be translucent, I had to look into both the muscular and skeletal structure of whales, snakes, and other similar creatures to reference in my block out. Although the block out we did in class was very different from my creature, it helped me find a work flow that worked well. I looked to snakes’ skeletal structure for my creature’s spine but used whales for the fins and muscles. I noticed that all the references didn’t have defined muscles, though the shoulders had some notable definition to them, which I applied to my own work.

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the sheer amount of individual parts that make up the creature, it meant each step became incredibly time-consuming. Retopology for the spine was especially challenging; despite using ZRemesher, I found myself behind because of how long it took to do each individual vertebra. Given what I know now, I would take note of these repetitive steps and avoid applying array modifiers until the original object is completed. I also encountered this issue with applying seams/UV mapping and applying textures in Unreal Engine.

 

Overall, though, I feel I’m a lot more comfortable now with ZBrush than I was before, and I’m very happy with the arm bones, especially as I think I captured that hard bone look quite well. I used a combination of HPolish and Dam-Standard brush to define the planes of the bones, I learnt this from a workshop I attended.

 

Detailing

 

 

• I began defining the muscles and details.
• I kept it simple as I knew I wanted to do a lot with the lighting and opacity, so a lot of the finer details wouldn’t be visible, as well as the referenced I used didn’t have heavily defined muscles; however, it actually still felt like it made a big difference and turned it from a cylinder with a head to an actual creature.

 

 

 

 

 

• details added: a chunk of the right shoulder being bitten off, a tentacle that was ripped off a giant kraken during a fight, and various cuts and scrapes on the frills, including some circular scars that are normally seen on sperm whales from fighting with giant squids, as this behaviour is very similar to my creatures. I thought this would be a nice detail despite it being quite subtle.

 

Retopology / UVs

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I did retopology, I relied solely on Zremesher, and at first glance it looked alright; however, Henry pointed out that what I believed to be loops were in fact spirals. I redid the retopology using Zguide to dictate where the loops were supposed to go. This was a lot more successful, and although it still had quite a few faults, I felt confident it wouldn’t impact the quality of the final render.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cleaned up the topology as some polygons were missing and there were some random floating vertices. I had to redo the seams a couple of times as I wasn’t sure where to put them initially, which caused some parts to overlap.

 

 

 

Textures

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73joUvi68IE  (opacity help)

 

 

 

The last few semesters I really disliked Substance Painter and found it to be one of my biggest weaknesses, so I was really concerned about this step, as this creature’s selling point is its bioluminescence and translucence. Given the pressure, I looked up a lot of videos and references on texturing and images on jellyfish to try to create the result I wanted in substance. I also found it important to put effort into the tentacle, as it’s one of the few areas that isn’t blue, so it would naturally draw a bit of attention, so the quality had to be good.

 

 

 

 

 

Here I had to deviate from my original concept art, despite the strength of the 2D being its simple elegance. When I tried to recreate it in 3D, it felt boring and uninteresting; the white and yellow highlights repeated throughout the design that balanced it and created contrast were lacking. I looked to one of my previous designs that utilised yellow circles that mimicked eyes; I really liked the contrast, but the design was too large, so I made it smaller and added a repeating pattern throughout the head frill to create balance in yellow for some contrast.

 

The body was also too simple in 3D; without hard lines, the body lacked definition. I really struggled with this problem. I tried adding a rougher texture similar to whale skin and then a scaly crocodile one, but the roughness clashed with the elegant, sleek design. I fixed the issue by looking back at my moodboard and referencing the deep-sea creatures; although their bodies tend to be transparent with one main color, there actually tends to be some dimension to the skin with more subtle colors and light. This prompted me to add a textured, luminous texture on the body.

 

 

 

 

I added an opaque flesh material hidden behind a black mask that is only revealed in the recent wounds, although it would be more realistic for the revealed flesh to be transparent; that would make those details virtually invisible and insignificant. This detail helped break up the texture a bit and added visual intrigue upon closer inspection.

 

The bones, like the concept art, also have bright white highlights. I found that the realistic lighting felt too monotonous, and when made that white color, it was incredibly jarring due to how bright it was. Again I contemplated the effectiveness of the design and what I need to be successful, and I decided that replicating the flatter, stylized highlights actually benefited the design greatly.

 

 

 

Rig/Animation

 

 

 

 

 

• The weight painting didn’t work, and the bones weren’t parenting to each other properly. I manually assigned the vertices to the bones to fix it.
• I kept the rig quite simple, as the pose and general shape of the creature don’t require a complex rig.
• I used shape keys to animate the movement; although animation wasn’t required, I felt the movement was a huge part of the visuals of this creature.

 

(fin movement in blender)

 

Unreal Engine

 

 

 

This is the template I found, the effects and assets were exactly what I was looking for however the atmosphere was the complete opposite.

 

 

I downloaded the template and began by removing the sealife, as I wanted the setting to look more like the deep sea; less animal life was important. I reduced the strength of the god rays, bounced light, and darkened the color of the lighting and fog. I continued tweaking the colours and changed the angles and more. I wanted to change the size of the assets and locations of them more; however, because of my computer’s limitations, I couldn’t.

 

How do I apply my opacity map?
byu/TriShitPeixe inunrealengine

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, because my creature used a couple of channels in Substance Painter that aren’t the default, the class tutorials didn’t work for me, so I had to do a lot of research and trial and error with settings. Although I was able to find a satisfactory setup for the texture nodes, I don’t think it looks as good as it does in Substance Painter. I also encountered many issues with the animation not transferring properly, and it even resulted in my mesh breaking, so I decided to leave it. I rendered a few different images, changing the brightness of the lighting and changing the camera lens and focus as the images were coming out blurry; however, I think that the blurriness is actually from a combination of the light and water physics. I tried to clean it up a bit in krita bringing back some sharpness and changing up the contrast of the background.

 

 

 

 

Character creation Concept art

 

Brainstorming

 

 

 

 

 

 

• I was still uncertain about how to integrate the sense of elegance and divine presence into the creature but wanted to try as I felt it’s uncommon to encounter creatures that induce panic while also exuding elegance and beauty.

 

 

 

I researched movies and how directors and artists work together to get the intended effect, using “The Aesthetics and Psychology Behind Horror Films” (2018) and “Thriller vs Horror: What’s the Difference?”.

I believe the biggest difference lies in the monster’s purpose. Horror shocks with graphic scenes and disturbing creatures while thrillers aim to psychologically torment viewers, creating suspenseful scenarios where danger looms ambiguously. This is the exact feeling I envisioned for my creature—a deep-sea entity looming in darkness, closing in on divers or a submarine.

 

 

 

 

• I analysed & noted my observations on the creatures’ features, encompassing color, shape language, and texture.
• Especially liked the captivating atmospheres created through the lighting in both the bottom left and bottom right images.
• decided to research bioluminescent organisms later on as I recognised it could be the perfect was to capture that godly elegance.
• I liked the sleek, snake-like physiques.
• The biggest challenge was the head shape. While i found some head shapes visually interesting, they clashed with the mental image I was developing for the creature. No option felt right—I aimed to avoid overly rounded shapes to preserve the intended sense of panic, and elongated shapes risked appearing goofy on a serpent-like body, again killing the desired atmosphere of danger / panic.

 

 

• I was drawn to the contrast of light against the dark backdrop of the sea, with blue hues being particularly striking.
• Many of the animals I researched exhibited “flowing” parts, like jellyfish and small deep-sea fish. I believed that the unrestricted movement of these extensions could help create the overwhelming presence I wanted. I loved how these areas would illuminate, creating an illusion of the creature being bigger. Since size can significantly influence human fear responses, incorporating these features could enhance the silhouette, atmosphere, and emotion the creature evokes.

 

Research

 

Before delving straight into design work, I wanted to inform my ideas with some research:

1. 1. Figure out how to implement bioluminescence and understand its purpose so I can add it to the creature’s behavior and survival techniques.
   2. Figure out the purpose of those flowy parts.
   3. How can I make this creature fast while having flowy parts?
   4. How deep is the deep sea?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Concept

 

 

I took some creative liberties, such as the bones lighting up despite it typically being the skin or certain glands. However this could be explained through enzyme production or chemical reactions in the bones that these creatures uniquely developed.

 

Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did many iterations, using my moodboard and other references I found. I had a clear idea of the feeling the creature gave off, and the lighting was essential to achieve it, so I added it to all the sketches. I referenced the line of action in statues to try to replicate the feeling of power and beauty. I tried to stay away from rounded shapes as the shape language quickly felt too friendly.

I liked the combination of flowing features with a triangular shape language to maintain an edge, making it still feel threatening. However, the body, despite having a good shape, felt overly busy.

I experimented with various silhouettes, shapes, and types of lines, switching between sharp and curved lines. I also aimed to clarify the structure of the skeleton, focusing on how the shoulder blades looked and connected to the rest of the body.

 

 

After receiving feedback that the middle drawing from the previous image resembled a mermaid, I changed the head shape. Drawing inspiration from the armored crocodile design in the previous image, along with two additional dinosaur skull references. Despite achieving a recognizable silhouette and a fitting shape language, I felt that it lost the mystical atmosphere in the original design.

 

 

 

I found the head shape and shape language in this design appealing, especially with the unique pattern created by the white on the head frills.

The previous issues were still present so I didnt choose this. Notably, this was the only design from the final lineup that featured arm fins. While in other designs this feature appeared overly busy, in this one, it looked impressive and unexpectedly powerful, particularly due to the bones creating a claw-like silhouette.

 

 

The sleeker style helped balance the design, ensuring the head remained the primary focus. I might adjust the size and tweak the pose to clarify the tail angle, but overall, I am mostly satisfied with this design.

 

 

 

Final design analysis