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The Exile - ZBrush and VRay Character

Hi, I’m new here! I’ve been a long time fan of the artists here and have a great deal of respect for the level of artistry displayed on these forums. I think it’s finally time for me to contribute myself.

Here is a piece I have been working on for just over a year now. It’s called “The Exile”. This creature started as a simple bust but soon ballooned into a full character. I imagined an orc-like creature
that had been cast out of his community and forced to live on his own in the wilderness. He would stalk and/or kill travelers and take their belongings for himself. His belt is made up of a
collection of salvaged goods and findings that he tied together.

The project started from a ZSphere and I Dynameshed as needed until I had a finished sculpting in the basic forms. I used photo reference of athletes for the muscles. Marvelous Designer
was used to create the loincloth and Fibermesh for the hair. He was rendered with 3DS Max and Vray. The final renders took 5 hours a piece to finish.

Comments and critiques are welcome!







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Awesome work, should be on the front page!

Hi @Chris_LeBlanc, really enjoyed watching you detail the skin on this. Looking forward to seeing more from you!

Really impressive :wink: would love to see some maps or tips from your workflow :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks Melissa, I appreciate it! I’ll certainly be posting more very soon :slight_smile:

Sure thing, I’ll throw something together this weekend :+1:

Hey Chris, the concept is cool. I like these sort of things as I’m always curious to see how these play out art-wise.

A few things pop out as really cool and attention to detail.

First, the detail in the neck is great. For me, helps to sell the intensity of the moment. One thing that would be a great addition would be to translate that concept to the rest of the body stiffening. An arrow in the back would most likely cause an arch in the spine, chest forward. I’d also expect to see brows furrowing in a moment of desperation.

The peach fuzz and hair on the body is also a great detail though I don’t see that translated to other parts of the body like nose hairs, eye lashes, sparse eyebrows, upper lip hair, legs, etc. This could be it wasn’t part of the design. It is cool to see things like scars and abrasive patches on skin where hair might get cut away and such.

Skin quality is another thing. Details are great. I might add something that makes these details great as well is choosing areas for the eyes to rest. Portions of the chest might have smoother fine details or in areas of skin folds. Choosing where to “spend” the high frequency details is just as important. As a forest wanderer and exile, I’d expect that he would be lean but also it’s nice to see fatty deposits in areas you might expect. Men tend to store fat above the waist but I understand he may just be hyper athletic. Shrink wrapped skin feels very CG. A mix of the two is more believeable. But according to the story I’d expect him to be more of a scavenger than a gym rat.

Most of the skin coloration is monochromatic lacking subdermal contributions of fatty tissue, thinly skinned areas where you might see more bone, etc. Even the veins don’t really contribute much of a tone here which helps so much in the end.

I’d say the last thing I’d comment on is the absence of environmental mediums on the body. As a barefoot wanderer I’d expect to see calluses on his heels/feet with dirt and dust caked on, dirt crusted under nails, etc. This will integrate into the environment better.

These are nit-picky things but really take these concepts to the end. Awesome dude, I also look forward to seeing more from you.

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