Assessment Progress

Brief

Research and sculpt a bi-pedal character (Can be a creature).

Once approved:

Base mesh (Low poly in Maya, then import to Zbrush)
Character in T or A pose - Keep saved as separate
After that a more natural pose
Render with a cool background - Final concept

Example pipeline on figuring out what kind of character to create

Backstory

Existing characters and creatures
Real animals
Animal hybrids

References and a show and tell is required for next week.

Initial ideas and references

Kalma

Kalma is a legendary, giant creature who reigns in northern Lapland. Kalma is the manifestation of the wrath of the ancient god of the hunt, who is said to punish those who offset the balance of nature. While some elders living in the small villages of Lapland claim to have seen Kalma, it is generally believed to be a fairytale made up to scare kids into staying away from dangerous forests and to respect the nature.

In old texts, Kalma is described with these features:

Large enough to level entire towns with ease
Bulky bear-like build, long but thick arms
Massive claws
Antlers on its head
Face that looks like an animal skull
Glowing red eyes buried deep within it's skull
Gaping jaw with sharp teeth and a long, thin tongue
Massive bony spikes across the back
Thick and long grey fur covering most of it's body
Various bones protruding out of it's body, such as the ribs and knee caps

It has been written that Kalma is able to freeze anything it looks at with its glowing red eyes, and when Kalma awakens unnatural darkness and coldness reigns within the great forests of Lapland.

Designing the Kalma

Moodboards where I compiled different sort of features I want Kalma to have.

Antlers

The most prominent feature of Kalma is the huge pair of antlers on its head. I started by quickly designing three simple shapes (1 - 3) and then developed two more detailed and fancier designs (4 - 5).

Finally, I combined numbers 4 and 5 and came up with number 6, which is my favoured design by far. The antlers need to look menacing and recognisable, something different than on any animal. I'll stick to developing antlers number 6 for now and thinking about how they look from side, back and topdown views.

Legs and Feet

I looked at pictures of moose, wolf and bear legs as I had the idea to combine elements from each to create the legs and feet of Kalma. I tried out different types of solutions, sketching the type of foot that has hooves in the front and a paw in the back and vice versa. Currently, I like both ideas but will have to create finished designs from different angles to see which one works better.

I sketched a front view picture of Kalma on paper but decided that since the complex shape of the antlers, an accurate turnaround sheet is difficult to create and I will instead simply go for creating the creature in Zbrush.

Head designs - I tested an idea where Kalma has a jaw with a kind of beard hanging from it. Although I like how the jaw looks like from a side view, I decided to not include it in the design since it's not in resonance with the body. The head with the jaw looks somewhat serpent like - the emotionless skull looks more ominous and fitting for the hulking body of the creature.

Concept sketches of Kalma, with basic colours in place. I went for a dark brown fur like on a moose, and lighter coloured antlers. I feel like adding the grey gradience for them is a nice touch.

Zbrush Progress

Initially I was thinking about creating the basic mesh for the creature in Maya and then exporting it to Zbrush as I am familiar how to use Maya. However I found using the Zspheres as a good and fast way to create the base for the model.

I tried out sculpting on the mesh with different kinds of brushes just to get the basic hang of it and to see what kind of stuff I could come up with. I started over a few times from the basic mesh and am prepared to start from it as many times as it takes to get the muscular form correct.

I revisited the muscle structure and refined it further. The version of the left was still too messy and a product of me mostly testing things out - the right side version is further developed.

I decided to do some work on the antlers at this point. I created a different subtool layer where I used Zspheres to sculpt an antler that would resemble my earlier design. I copied and mirrored it to the other side. Currently, I'm not content with the antlers and they are nowhere close to being ready - however I have a solid idea how to go on about creating them now.

Overview of the current version

Timetable planning

I will aim to work for around three hours on Monday and Thursday, as I have no lectures on these two days. Starting in the afternoon is easier for me than starting in the morning - I will be aiming to start at around 2 and 3 pm. During the weekends I will aim to do various smaller tasks.

Things that have went differently from the initial design

Hooves are much larger - this works though for the creature's weight and geometry
Antlers are less complicated - easier to sculpt and look more realistic

What to do:

Refine or re-create the antlers
Ribs
Claws
General refinement
Concept drawing to flesh out the backtsory, general feel and the colour palette of the creature
Antlers: Thick versus Thin

Progress so far and what has changed

This is what Kalma currently looks like. I made some improvements here and there after hearing feedback on what should be changed. The most notable changes include:

Antler shape and size. I made a total of 3 different versions for the antlers. These current ones have the most simple shape out of all of them and they are also the smallest. They have that certain kind of 'impact' which is just what Kalma needed.
The hands have been reshaped so that individual fingers stand out now. However I'm still not sure about them and will probably work on them more. I will see how they look once I've added fur on top and go from there.
Claws have been created. They can be easily moved around if the hands need reshaping.
Ribs have been created.

The ribs. They consist of three merged layers: the top, middle and bottom. I'm planning on leaving them as they are now but might try making them a bit larger in the future to make them stand out more.

The hand and claws. It is surprisingly difficult to get them looking just right - however they are improved from what they were earlier.

I tested out adding some noise to the mesh to make the various body parts seem more natural. It took some time to get it right and the noise certainly looks better with colour.

Before starting to colour Kalma, I made small changes all over his body to make him asymmetrical and thus more realistic and interesting. The most notable changes can be seen in his face.

Basic colours in place. The hooves and face are part of the main body mesh, and had to be coloured separately.

Colouring progress. I've added some colour variation all over but it needs more work. Working with the masking is somewhat confusing for me, but I'm learning to get the hang of it to make the colours as realistic as possible.

Posing

When it was time to pose the creature for rendered images, I noticed that there wasn't that much that could be done without deforming the mesh majorly. However I never imagined Kalma to be moving around that much, as it is a a massive and an ancient creature so slow, heavy movements fit it more. I kept the arms hanging down but adjusted their position. I also adjusted the hooves to be straight. Finally I turned Kalma's head and upper body slightly, so that he's not looking straight ahead but slightly to the side instead.

Rendering

When it was time to render, I ran into issues. My laptop which I had to do the work with from home couldn't handle Zbrush at this stage very well, and adjusting the scene for the renders was difficult as the framerate at which things changed dropped drastically once the image size was increased. This, as well as the fact that I do not have access to Photoshop on this laptop, is why there is only one pose and no background.

What I did instead is took 3 renders from different angles and used different kind of lighting setups.

Summary and evaluation

For the module we were assigned to design a bi-pedal character or creature and to model using Zbrush.

Beginning this process was easy since I already had a strong image in my head of a type of creature I wanted to create, as this was something I had thought about while creating stories for my own Dungeons and Dragons games. The idea of a large, ancient and northern creature was just what I wanted to do, and I wanted to include large antlers and a moose skull as I enjoy their aesthetics.

I made a slight mistake when beginning the initial design progress as I focused on individual body parts first, rather than the creature as a whole. All I knew I wanted was a large, hulk of a body with protruding ribs. After feedback,I took a step back and designed the actual physique of the creature before worrying about detail. This is an important skill and something I have to remember in my third year.

Getting used to Zbrush took some time. After getting used to the controls I started to try out to model the basic shape of the body using Zspheres. We had an option of creating the basic mesh in Maya and then transferring that to Zbrush, but I found the Zspheres pleasant to work with and decided to stick with them.

The body had to be recreated multiple times to get it looking right, but finally I managed to achieve the sort of muscular structure I was after. The antlers, hooves and hands needed lots of retakes. I am content with the final version of the antlers and the hooves, but the hands were something I never quite managed to get looking right, and in the future I will have to use a different kind of approach for them - I think creating each finger as a separate subtool is something I should try. The ribs and the details on the skull are something I'm happy with.

The problem I had with painting was the use of masks. I never really understood how they worked, and kept getting different kind of results each time I used them. This is a pat of the reason I didn't go super detailed on the paintwork, but I'm content with how the colours look in the rendered images.

As I mentioned above, rendering was problematic with my laptop limitations, since Zbrush didn't function properly with the large image size selected and I experienced a couple of crashes. Finally I decided to stick with what I atleast can get out of the program and put together 3 portraits of Kalma.

What went good and want should have gone better

I was happy to learn to use a new program, and additionally I learned many important lessons when it comes to character design and working from home. I am happy with the overall look of Kalma - it's a character I really started to like during the development and something that I'm keen on possibly developing further in the future. However in the future I need to spend more time on simply sketching out and designing the basic form and theme for the character for a good portion of time before committing to further development, so that I can achieve higher quality products and characters that look even better.

Unfortunately the pandemic affected my work quite heavily during the final weeks. Not being able to use the studio with other people and lecturers constantly around meant that the development of my assignment suffered. There's two main factors to this, with the one being computer limitations and the other being fault - my motivation to work from home has never been great, and I need to find ways to step up from that in order to do well in my third year as well as in the industry. Computer limitations are something that simply couldn't be helped now, and I got the kind of results I could get for now.

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