Nothing particular, just a random Undead guy.
The relevant thing about this guy though, (relevant for me, at least), is that I sculpted his face in ZBrush first, and coloured it later in Photoshop.

It might seem nothing worth mentioning, but for someone 3D-resistant as I am this is no small achievement.
What’s the word for someone who kills potted plants just by sitting in the same room?
Whatever that is, I am the 3D-model equivalent of those people.
Everything I do on a 3D software seems to come out slightly wrong. After half an hour of work polygons start sticking out from unpredictable places, common commands give unexpected results, things go generally not the way I’d like.
But I’m stubborn, so every now and then I give it another try and slowly but steadily I’m also improving.
Plus, I hadn’t tried ZBrush on my Cintiq yet, hence this Undead Guy.

There are two main goals linked to all these efforts on ZBrush (did I already say the learning curve is STEEP?).
The first one is that the lighting of some complex scenes is difficult to figure out without a model of sorts.
Some people make maquettes, others hire models. People like me, who for some reason can’t do either, just mock things up on a 3D software and take that as a reference.

The second goal comes from a recent freelance misadventure, so to speak.
When I was working on this I sent out a first version to FFG‘s Art Director, confident I had done an amazing job, and she came back to me by saying “that’s nice, however I’ll need WAY more details on the guy’s face!”
Thing is, that was pretty much all the detail I could already thing of. Nonetheless I painted over the first version and submitted a much more refined one.
Long story short, I had to go through four revisions in total before the final was approved.
I’m just not THAT fiddly with details, and it’s a lot easier (at least for me) to come up with a convincing facial anatomy by sculpting it first and taking that as a reference, at least when lacking a live model.

I’m still not sure about it, I’m just considering whether I could use that in my pipeline when it comes to paint more realistic portraits and bodies. For a start, colouring over a greyscale image always give a dull result, at least colour wise. But it’s worth making some more experiments.

So, here’s the big ugly Undead. Kind of a shortcut really, sculpting a ravaged, old skin is easier than a smooth, young one.
And what is he thinking of? Is he looking at the moon after he just discovered his days as a living being are over? Is he romantically longing for some fresh brains to eat? Is he evoking the Dark Powers to fulfil some of his unholy dreams? Who cares.
He’s just some random undead guy.

Here’s the process. Not really interesting maybe, as I barely coloured a greyscale screenshot. Yet here it is.

by Paolo Puggioni