CFX & Modeling
Character modeling, grooming and FX (cloth, muscle and hair).
About
Character Creation Processes
When creating a 3D character, I go through the entire pipeline; from modeling characters and clothing to simulating hair, muscle and cloth. My favorite part of character creation is hair grooming; I love styling my own hair, and I love designing hair in 3D too!
Weaver
This futuristic, insect-inspired costume design took me about 80 hours from start to finish. I used Blender, Maya, Substance Painter, ZBrush, Unreal Engine and Houdini as the bulk of my workflow, with Marvelous Designer incorporated to finish parts of cloth (like a skirt).
I went through several versions of the mask (changing vents, tubes, and various lens shapes) in order to get the silhouette I wanted. I focused on a distinct silhouette--with an elongated muzzle, oversized lenses and 'mandible' jaw pieces-- to ensure that the mask read as strongly as possible from a far distance.
The wings and skirt were added later as a further effort to strengthen the costume silhouette. I picked dragonfly wings for their recognizable shape and length, creating the visual effect of a cape while keeping the design thematic and clearly insectoid.
I groomed the hair on a Metahuman head with Maya XGen. I chose a side part because it's an older style, helping me place the character at a certain age. Generally, characters with middle parts look younger, which I didn't want.
Robot
I made this old, rusted robot as an exercise in hard-surface modeling and texturing. It operates unmaintained in a desert, so I incorporated the setting into the design (wear and tear, a tinted visor, and so on).
I modeled the robot with inspiration drawn from Star Wars and Love, Death + Robots, since I liked the way that both franchises incorporated humanoid aspects into their android designs at various times. The robot runs on a combination of wet and dry components, with liquid tubes connecting metal chassis like arteries through the body. The vertebrae are a final organic touch.
I modeled this hand with universal joints (a U-joint oriented at 90-degree angles) as it's the mechanical joint with the closest function to human knuckles, in my mind. Each finger is connected to the main hand with ball sockets, for rotation of the digits. This is also easier and more organic to rig.