I am in the process of creating an illustration that includes two alien characters – “Wally,” who is displayed in the previous post, a male alien character. And a female alien who is featured in this video.
Sculpted in ZBrush, I begin with a pre-sculpted female human skull that I created. I like to begin by shaping the skull, then adding the major muscles, then fleshing her out, until I completed the final textured head (shown below). This sculpting session took about an hour. I decided to name this character “Beth.”
I envisioned these characters to be humanoid, with a very close resemblance to humans, but not quite. Wally and Beth, which is the working title of my in-progress illustration, needed characters to fit this description. I’m hoping to have the new illustration completed by early next week.
“Beth.” Digital Illustation. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
Wally. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
I have been inspired to create a new series of illustrations (more on that later). Meet Wally. Wally is a digital illustration of an everyday good guy alien dude. Wally here is going to be a character in an upcoming illustration. So, technically, this is a WIP (work in progress). I realized I hadn’t updated this site in a while, so Wally is my latest submission.
Wally was created and rendered in Zbrush, with the composite image produced in Photoshop. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Dawn Render Test (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
I am continuing my work on a human female character. This is a test render from a sculpt I created in ZBrush. For fellow ZBrushers, hair was created with fibermesh, the touched up in Photoshop. I am not “happy” with the hair over her right shoulder. I thought I could fix it in post. However, I realized I hadn’t posted a WIP (work in progress) in a couple of weeks, and I decided to that she was good enough to post. I’ll rework that part of her hair by the next version. Let me know what you think.
Very Final Head Render Test. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
It has been a long row to hoe in my quest to create a realistic looking character. However, because I have been striving to achieve this goal I centered much of my attention to learning what I needed. The previous test was good, but I still wasn’t quite right (the fact is I could go back and tweak this more and more, but this is just a test). This really is my final render test on this character’s head… I really want to finish this model. As before, this was created and rendered in ZBrush, with very little post production (and I mean very little) completed in Photoshop. Just a quick levels adjustment, a rim light layer and a cavity layer. Most adjustments were done in ZBrush to the materials and lighting prior to rendering, and addition of some BPR Filters (ZBrush users will know what I’m talking about). For the rest, I hope you like this. As always, any feedback would be appreciated.
Final Head Render Test. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
Okay, I jumped the gun. In my haste to produce a new illustration, I thought my previous test resulted in a realistic image. I was incorrect in that assessment. This image is my final render test. For this image, I modified the skin material just a bit, and completely re-worked the eyes. In the previous tests, I noted that the eyes were just too “flat.” Since the eyes make the picture, I really needed to re-do them. I can always use the feedback.
Final Head Render Test. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
I think I finally found the right “mix” to achieve a photo-realistic look (or about as close as one as possible). The thing is, I now realize that I was over-thinking the process. As it turned out, I didn’t need to do as much composite work in Photoshop. What I did need to do was alter some of settings in the skin material before I rendered the image in Zbrush. It’s a whole lot of technical stuff involved, of which I really don’t understand.
So the phrase, “Less is more,” really applied to this image. Any rate, this is my final render test. It’s time for me to move on to the next phase of this project. As it stands, I’m very pleased with this result. Let me know what you think.