MODEL THE PERFECT CHARACTER FOR A DELICATE SCENE

Discover how Prashan Subasinghe builds up the narrative in his shot with a gentle lioness

- Prashan Subasinghe

Great storytelling moments come from a personal and emotional connection. This story is about family and lineage, with its inspiration coming from the idea that we're representatives of a long line of people that goes back to the beginning of time, and how the spirit of our ancestors reaches out from the past. The key to this story lies in the design of the main character: the lioness.

In this tutorial, I'll walk you through how I created her, as well as how I approached the 3D character design. There are many other elements that come together in the final piece, but we'll keep the focus on the creation of the main character here.

01 CREATE A CHARACTER DESIGN BLOCKOUT

Start off with a quaded sphere by choosing a QSphere under the Initialize option in ZBrush, and use this as the initial piece to blockout the character. You can duplicate the shapes by hitting Ctrl and then dragging with the 3D Gizmo. Maintain separate polygroups for ease of selection and have them symmetrical in the beginning. Also use Dynamic Subdivision to achieve a smooth surface without subdividing the mesh. The two main brushes you should be using during this step are the Move and Transpose brushes. The lower topology provides the ability for us to create the overall shapes of the character.

02 POLISH THE MESH

Now turn off Dynamic Subdivision and Subdivide the mesh. Use any sculpting brushes as required such as Clay, Trim Dynamic and hPolish to tidy the mesh. Try to achieve an appealing design aesthetic by using big, medium and small features. I find it’s helpful to create eyes here as a placeholder to design the facial shapes around them; you can make them by adding a sphere and Polypainting it.

03 NEUTRAL POSE