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.
“Starman.” (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes. Click to view enlarged image.
Here is my last illustration for 2013. Starman is the character I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Created and rendered in ZBrush with post production completed in Photoshop. Let me know what you think.
Portrait. (c) Michael J. Barnes.
I finally got it. For some reason, the effect I was searching for, to make this character bust look like a photograph of an “actual-looking,” “realistic” male heroic character, eluded me for way too long. But I think I finally got it. This character, which I have created for a sci-fi fantasy I am working up, was created in ZBrush, with final production completed in Photoshop.
I hope you like it. 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.