Character Creation: Navigating the Industry Pipeline – Modelling/Sculpting

An important part of this assignment was to also gain a more in-depth understanding of the industry pipeline and the workflow involved in 3D character creation, as shown in the diagram below. Therefore, with the concept design stage now completed, the next stage was to begin modelling and sculpting.

Source: Serra, 2017

Modelling and Sculpting

In our tutorials we’d been introduced to ZBrush, a digital sculpting and modelling software I was vaguely familiar with as I’d used the free and more limited version, ZBrush Core Mini in 2022 to create content for my BDes application portfolio. However, while using the full version wasn’t a specific requirement of the assignment, as I already felt quite comfortable using Blender and wanted to further develop my skill base, I decided to sculpt my model using ZBrush instead, and to really push myself, chose to not use the canine base mesh already provided within the software.

The Body

Therefore, in line with the material taught, the first step was for me to block out the body of my creature with a range of low-poly meshes, that using various references from my PureRef file, could be sculpted into the desired anatomical shapes, form and proportions, before then being subtly exaggerated to give the creature a more lean, and heinous appearance.

The Skull

The skull was also modelled using this same process. However, on deciding that to allow more freedom of movement when posing my creature, instead of dynameshing the skull to the body it would remain an object in its own right, this part of the design was created separately, and modelled with a recess underneath into which the neck could sit snuggly and pivot within.

Also, rather than using a cylinder and dynameshing to create the orbit and temporal fenestrae of the skull, in order to maintain the sculpting detail I instead used a Live Boolean Mesh to cleanly create these holes within the skull mesh, and then manually adjusted the remaining geometry to create the required curvature and 3D form seen in my references (YouTube, 2024).

While the skull could have been elongated, and further exaggerated for effect, I decided against this as it would no longer resemble the blunt wedge shape of a Dobermann’s head, and could affect the balance and proportions of the design.

The Tail

The next stage was to sculpt the tail. However, realising that the existing structure could not be easily modified to reflect the long, snake-like prehensile tail in my design, having learned from my first year studies that if mistakes are made, it’s often best to start again rather than waste time struggling to amend a part of a model which may never look right, I deleted this section and began again from scratch.

A different approach was also used to model the tail which involved creating a cylinder and using a bend curve modifier to bend the PolyMesh into the required, expressive shape.

While the shape of the tail was now aesthetically pleasing, of more importance was ensuring that its appeared functional, in that its diameter and proportions were believable, and would be capable of supporting the overall weight of the structure. Therefore the girth was significantly increased where it joins with the body, before gradually being tapered along its length, and the end then flared out to a point where it could realistically support the weight of the tail appendage.

The ‘Anxiety’ Tail Appendage

Given its abstract nature, and the level of detail required to have this part of the design remain readable and emotive when scaled down to be in keeping with the rest of the creature, the tail appendage was also modelled separately using the concept sketch and elements selected from the mood board references below.

To join the two components of the tail together, a ball and socket joint which would facilitate a wide range of movement was also fashioned on the rear of the appendage into which the tail would slot, and repeating the triangular shape language used elsewhere, the join disguised by randomly sculpting sharp, tooth-like structures that appear to be clasping the tail.

With sculpting completed, and the component parts brought together, the next stage in the 3D creation pipeline was to export the model as an .fbx file into Blender for retopology.