“Elsa.” Character Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes. (click to view hi-res image)
I recently completed a new character concept, and am posting her up today. Meet “Elsa.” I began working on Elsa about six-weeks ago, but put her off for other work (mostly because I wasn’t happy with how she was turning out, and I had decided to work on other concepts).
Ceremonial Armor
It had been recently pointed out to me that I need to add a bit more back story to the characters and creatures I am creating. So here goes… Elsa is a fierce warrior from a far off alien planet. Elsa can be seen here wearing her ceremonial armor, which she typically wears when escorting and guarding her warlord. That’s all I got about her back story for now.
Elsa was created in ZBrush, with the final image produced in Photoshop. I hope you like her.
“George.” Digital Creature Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes. (click to view full-size image)
Yes, I have done yet another creature concept. This one I’ve named “George.” I have been doing these creature concept for several reasons. First, to build up my “Characters and Creatures Portfolio.” Second, to keep practicing using my ZBrush application — specifically practicing creating believable muscle masses, as well as different texturing techniques. And finally, because it is fun.
That’s right, I’m having fun. When I first started with this concept, I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of creature George was going to be. However, as I started building him up, I decided to make him into an amphibian-like monster. I initially thought he would be an alien scientist, but I just finished watching one of the “Hobbit” movies… so I concluded George would be a monster.
Full sized image of George’s head. Note the “gills” under his ear. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
On the technical side, for any fellow ZBrushers who may be reading this blog, this is the first time I’ve used ZBrush’s “body parts” insert brush to build up the torso, arms and legs. Typically, I use a preset base mesh when sculpting humanioid characters, but I found it to be much easier to use this insert brush. I will be definitely using this brush for future sculpts.
I have also created a video depicting my sculpting workflow. I do these videos (of which all of them can be viewed on my Videos page) for a couple of reasons. First, to help me with my self-promotion. Second, so I can review and hopefully continue to improve my sculpting techniques.
As before, George here was created in ZBrush, with the final image produced in Photoshop. I hope you like George as much as I do.
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.