Before our module, I thought about what creatures I would like to create. In my head, I already had an idea to do something that would be in a water environment like a mermaid, siren or even an axolotl. I started by drawing a few sketches just to warm up but to also see what idea I liked the most. The main theme was axolotl, but as I continued to draw more, the more I realized I liked a mix of an axolotl and manta ray. Instead of it being water themed, I had more ideas for it to be based on a forest/ nature environment. I created a mood board for my design and also gave more thought to the creature’s backstory/ what his ‘purpose’ was. After looking at more inspiration, I kinda wanted my creature to have a similar vibe to the Pokémon Eevee evolutions such as Leafeon.
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Mood Board
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Sketches
(my first full concept)
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I got some useful advice from Henry and things I could change to my creature to make it more interesting as it was a bit too simple to work on over the next couple of months. He had showed me Lilith from Diablo IV as inspiration for something I could add to my character. I wrote down all his advice and changed the way my creature looked! I made it so that it would look more like an axolotl rather than a manta ray, making it have for legs but I still kept some manta ray aspects to it. For example, using inspiration from Lilith, I added something that would attach to the back of its head kind of like a cape that the creature could use to glide about and also use as camouflage.
The backstory of my creature was that I wanted him to be a safe haven for insects and living organisms and protect the environment which I wanted to try show through them living on his back. Also adding the cape meant that he could use that to hide/ camouflage from predators and also allow him to glide and fly when needed.
(Lilith, Diablo IV, ‘cape’ reference)
(Notes taken in class)
After re-drawing the creature, I drew the side and back profile also to make it easier for myself to model.
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Reworked Concepts
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Our task during class was to try sculpt the example we were given in ZBrush. It was hard trying to get used to it as I kept messing up the buttons to move around from being used to blender. I also found it hard to sculpt, but I know the more I do it, the more that I will find it easier. I made a mistake in the midst of trying to sculpt and I wasn’t too sure how to fix it, plus I didn’t really like how it was turning out as it looked way too smooth so I just restarted!
(Reference)
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(Before)
(After)
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After watching a couple of YouTube videos and doing the exercises in class I got more used to sculpting. At first I did struggle a lot with it however, I watched a video called ‘ZBrush Beginner Tutorial’ and it really helped; I actually found myself watching all 40 minutes and even recommended it to other people!
Blocking Stage
We started learning how to block out our characters. First I done the tasks for class and it made it easier when it came to blocking out my character. I tried first blocking out on ZBrush but I found it too difficult so I went to blender. When I was sculpting in blender, I began to learn that the parts I had blocked out which were thin, were messing up a little when I tried to smooth or sculpt it. I went back and changed the blocking for the rest of the animals but for the dog one, I just added another sphere mesh for the feet to try fix it! I found it a little difficult sculpting in Blender so I tried to find other ways to export it. I downloaded an add-on to blender which allowed me to export my blender meshes to zbrush and sculpt from there after looking up a few videos!
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Animal Blocking
(Universal animal blocking)
Dog Blocking (Blender)
Dog Sculpt (Blender)
Cow Blocking (Blender)
Cow Sculpt (Zbrush)
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After trying to bring my mesh from blender to zbrush, when I smoothed it it was getting rid of things so I tried to sculpt in blender. It kept doing this:
After doing this, I began making my creature in ZBrush. Rewatching the videos from Henry and following along made it a lot easier navigating around ZBrush! I really like the sculpting so far in Zbrush so I’m excited to continue my creature! When appending more meshes while blocking, I wanted to achieve the same look on the other side so after I made each part, I went to ‘Geometry’, ‘Modify Topology’ and ‘Mirror And Weld’ on the Z axis to get what I wanted!
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My Blocked Creature
(Front view)
(Side view)
(Back view)
(Cape)
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Adding details
I found it really fun adding the leaves! I had to adjust the head and body a bit just to get it to look right compared to the drawing but I’m happy with how it’s coming along. After this, I began adding more details to my character before we would begin retopology. I realised, I forgot to add the leaves at the legs and I also brought the leaves behind the ears out more. I wasn’t really liking the way to fins were looking so I looked up an axolotl reference and decided to used the Snake Hook tool in ZBrush to create the detail.
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(References)
(Bottom Fins)
(Face Details)
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After I had created all the detail and I was ready to save, it wouldn’t save and I ended up losing my file. So I went to my quicksave and tried to load it from there and save it. I realised there were way too many points and I needed to turn the dynamesh down. I think the reason it went up so much was trying to use the snake hook for nails and the fins. After turning the dynamesh down from 512 to 256, it still wouldn’t save even thought I went from 3mil points to 800,000. I read a bunch of articles online, and one had said that it would better to save the project under ‘Tool’ and then Save As which worked!
When looking at the model in class, I thought about instead of having the cape look the way it did, I would just extend it out from its body as it’s attached to the legs and neck.
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Final Detailed Model
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Retopologising
I began retopologising; doing it in class was fun and I really enjoyed it on Blender however I thought it was going to be a little more difficult doing it on ZBrush but I still gave it a try! I noticed whenever I was trying to use the ZRemesher, it was getting rid of the detail for the fins on my model so I messaged Henry to figure out how to fix it; he helped me to understand that it was okay for it to look like this as after baking, it would fix it.
(Fin Detail)
I tried looking up how to bake stuff on ZBrush and I followed a bunch of tutorials and it wasn’t getting me anywhere. I spent a bunch of hours trying to figure it out and during this, I realised there were parts of my model I wanted to change. I changed the thickness of the fins, added mushrooms with details, changed the eyes and eyebrows. I also used one of the brushes Henry gave us for the leaves (it was for snake scales). I followed this and baked the material in Substance adding the high poly model and it worked!
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(‘Snake Scales’ Brushes)
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I had some issues where I didn’t like how things were looking so I kept going back and forth between ZBrush and substance to get the look that I wanted. I also noticed that I had forgotten to add mushrooms on to the model so I quickly added them. I made a mistake of making them too small; I tried to keep the size varied but after lowering the polys, it had gaps even after baking so I made new, bigger and thicker ones.
(Old Mushroom Detail)
(Mushroom Deforming)
Substance
My feedback session from Henry was extremely useful! I needed to add some more detail to my model especially around its head as it was too simple compared to the rest of the body so, I decided to add more leaves to the face. I just re-baked in Substance using and updated high poly model and it was done.
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(Baked meshes in Substance)
(Final Textures in Substance)
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Unreal Engine
After this, I exported my axolotl into unreal. At the start, the textures weren’t loading right after I had posed it so I messaged Henry and he had told me that I was using a different model in unreal compared to what I imported into substance. After this, everything ran smoothly!
At first I wanted to pose my model to make it look like he was about to pounce on a fish that he seen in the lake like a cat however, I decided to change it as I realised the backstory of my axolotl was trying to keep harm from being done in nature, so I wanted him to look more curious about the fish. I had a lot of fun making the environment for my axolotl, I think it was my favourite part because I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like in my head and the final result was quite close to it! I drew a few different scenes just to try see how I wanted it to look and I also got some inspiration online. I knew that I definitely wanted the environment to be stylized as my creature was more cartoon-y so trying to find the right assets was a challenge!
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Scene Inspiration
(My Concepts)
(References)
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One of our tasks in class was to try create our own scenes using the files which Henry had gave us; unfortunately it wouldn’t work for me at home on my own pc so I decided to just make my own scene!
I began downloading different assets from Fab for the environment for my creature, and just played about with the placement of everything. I spent a lot of time looking at stylized assets because I liked too many of them but I was able to pick out the ones I wanted the most! After the landscape was mainly done, I wanted to add the lake. I found this part quite difficult as making the material wasn’t working.
I used one of the videos from class and decided to copy the pink moving material that Henry had showed us. After doing that, I tried to make the water again and it worked and I also understood it way more than I did at the start! I struggled a bit with making the lake. I tried looking up on YouTube for some tutorials on how to do it as it didn’t seem to be working and I found some that explained it using actors however, in the end I just made a very quick ‘model’ of the lake in blender just to get the curve of it and imported that into substance, then adding the water material. Below is a clip of the moving liquid I made using Henry’s tutorial before making it into water!
(River model in Blender)
(Placing water)
After getting the whole scene made, I messed around with the lighting and tried to get it the way I had imagined it. I used a lot of different assets and one which included some fireflies that moved! I loved doing this part as it made the whole thing come together.
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Final Unedited Render
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I wanted there to be more fireflies in the background and I wanted to add a little bit of grass to the front of the frame and do tiny touch ups so I went into the photoshop, and used the high res screenshot ligthing model to add this detail! I also painted a few orbs of lighting and tried to make the atmosphere look more foggy so that the environment would look cold!
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Final Edited Render
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Here is also a very quick render showing some of the moving fireflies and water!
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Overall, I really, really enjoyed this module and it made me realise that it was definitely the path I want to go down in the industry. I loved using ZBrush, being able to make my own things and I never thought I would be able to use Unreal so I’m extremely happy and proud of myself for what I’ve done. I’m also extremely thankful to Henry for teaching us so well and giving me really useful feedback and help in and out of class!
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Fab
(list of all used)
- FANTASTIC – Village Pack – https://fab.com/s/010701ba1e37
- Lowpoly Handpainted Environment – https://fab.com/s/e881bc5ce605
- Advanced Village Pack – https://fab.com/s/1ab644e5c67e
- Stylized Nature Pack – https://fab.com/s/1b265c2f5301
- Low Poly Nature: Essentials – https://fab.com/s/969cf3d59b75
- Stylized Environment Pack – https://fab.com/s/e6871dd1b62c
- Carolana Water Lily – https://fab.com/s/f6daaa3b612b