Skunk Ape Frenzy - Part 3

July 29, 2013

Latest Post The Hound of the Baskervilles by Owen Soule

Week three of my CG Society ZBrush course just wrapped, this one flew by and I really had to push to get the sculpt done in time.  In fact I was a day late, but I won't tell if you don't?  This week was all ZBrush and the name of the game was refining, choosing our favorite aspects from all the thumbnails and moving toward a more complete sculpt.

First off, let's breakdown what I thought were the best aspects of my thumbnails.  As I mentioned last week, the forth row really had me at hello, but I did like some aspects from the other rows.  Here is the breakdown:

Watch out for row #2, he's got the crazy eyes!

Much hair sculpting and refining later I wound up with the following - placing next to the concept so the changes in form and size can be seen:

A new, crazier skunk ape demands Pert Plus to wash and condition his mutton chops!

Here are two rendered versions from varying angles, this is all done using the ZBrush Basic material with a wax modifier of 15 to give it a slight subsurface scattering effect:

I like to image this as two skunk apes about ready to fight, "OH YEAH, LET'S GO BUDDY!"

And last, but not least, a character sheet from ZAppLink showing all sides:

That fur really has to suck living in the swamps in Florida, guess that's why he's so mad?

What's that?  Why would I spend time sculpting the back of a bust?  It was really to practice the instructor's method of hair sculpting, but also because this may someday be a 3d printed skunk ape/yeti/beast/sabertooth.   Color version coming next week!

Owen Soule

Published July 29, 2013