ZBrushingggggg

 I have been screening my progress with ZBrush as this is my first time working with it. I started off with a sphere and built up on it to start shaping her face.

Looking good here, progress was quickly made and ZBrush was proving easy to work with.

It took me a few tries to get her face to look the way I wanted it to but I eventually got there (below)

I made the marking for the monofin to be placed. At this point I was going to build the monofin from her head but this proved to be too complicated for the mesh to handle...

...So I started it as a separate shape instead and this proved FAR easier than my original plan.

I made markings to correspond to the fins that jut out.

Smoothing down the center of the fin, just like in the design

Her collarpiece was really simple to do. By creating small spheres known as ZSpheres and converting them to a mesh, the eyes are just spheres that were smoothed on the surface to fit into her eye sockets.

And here is the finished turntable (The video recorded the screen also but this was no problem to me)

The Final decision

Now that I have my variety of creatures, I'll choose my favorite to model in ZBrush.


After much choice, I chose the Siren. This is mainly due to her colours and her design and I have become attached to her more than the other designs I created.


Now to go deeper into her character (insert Inception joke here)

She is the Queen of the Sirens

She believes the humans are evil for polluting the sea and should be eradicated off the planet

Her followers are a choir and she's the conductor

The Sirens sing and the Queen guides the voices to the surface where they cause vicious storms, sinking ships and souls

The Queen and the Sirens believe they are saving their waters and the inhabitants within the sea

 Just messing around with lighting effects for the design (also did just the light because it gave the shape without guidelines)

Now to model her head in ZBrush

Research: Insects and Creepy Crawlies

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuuwSMOkkcFFjIWZXqU3HDUvFv6dAZUcEIiCYsl6_0Gsk7xANc3uVqDYEa74o_g_L_-W5CcpeUSdQBxaBOMFpdvqEgdjGFtUUZsvpbeeyklawmWKtkinnD8JMVtkTWYJX5J-vl56MeDZGL/s1600/desktopjazz-fast-and-fun-for-your-pc.jpg
http://www.epidemicfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/worm-insect-macro-photo.jpg
http://www.gardenswag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/garden-beneficial-bugs-beneficial-insects-mantids-praying-mantis.jpg
http://science.halleyhosting.com/nature/animal/arthro/spider/gardspider1.jpg
http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/nathist.museum/classify/animalia/chelicerata/arachnida/scorpion.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqh38EQwuKa5UVTEGSyQ_sh_cZ88r_sXnY0keYs6NF6VZX5Zw93EreQAAOA0tzzkpxe5Iie32G2Qfsu4TkhB5w4qSKodw-Ukl23hdrQSAmaih1zxSw05y-9ine0Zh5TpXifquA0KCRzoPG/s1600/butterfly3.jpg

Time for some bugs and stuff

Made some more bug guys just by the images I researched. Really loved 4 so this wasn't really that hard of a choice this time.

Out of al the colours this guy was splattered in, 2 and 4 were chosen - 2 because it reminded me of a glowbug and 4 because it was pretty





 Upon immediately thinking of a glowbug my choice had been made - 2 was to be his final colour scheme and the glowing bulb on the end of his body would be implemented into his design.

What a fabulous bulb!

Research: Reptiles

http://www.tisburysaquaticcentre.co.uk/images/reptile.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2013/2/14/1360857769914/Reptiles-threatened-with--008.jpg
http://wallpoper.com/images/00/41/61/12/snakes-reptiles_00416112.jpg
http://www.fivevalleysecology.co.uk/files/ecology/home/Male_Sand_Lizardcropped.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJLSkNY4r51s1v-lAVMACoXwBjsZ7yMBQoEB-K830z8JX0bjs-zMwyZwwfxR7_fOe5ffnjihksFJoDzLCuT1tqb9XG57myEwwUJWXRacP7L8jl-7k91ut28W3q7Td7-0O6ogUTuza_oxH/s640/King+Cobra-3.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44388000/jpg/_44388988_chameleon_5_big.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAyAGTR8o2gsSsO-YIh6VzQ_fcavWCjCx-5iKpPbSx84JR5aEGQsXsXWPJmJ7GCWGKoWL1NZX-JLGUUajju4hmqjCECtjk-ci_cAPDa-GRjZQnr382CdI6uei-eEnYSc4rwLfZxScf_VSV/s400/Corn_Snake_Large.jpg

Looking at lizards, snakes, cobras and chameleons I sketched some possible reptile creatures.

Reptiles 2 and 5 appealed to me but I eventually went with the second one due to it's legs making more sense with it's anatomy.

Again, I used multiple colours and put them all together to see which I preferred. This time, two stuck out to me, 3 and 4.



 

 Putting the two next to each other, I chose the green because the red reminded me of those candy stick things you get at christmas, almost too cute for this design. Besides, the green version will be able to blend into its environment better.

Research: Birds

http://www.scarletmacawpetshop.com/img/birds/cockatoo.jpg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/aussiemarie/Birds/Resized%20majmitcha.jpg
http://www.robertotoole.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Eagle_landing_wings_up_2012_Robert_OToole_Photography_D.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74-x0TT70NAaM3y48n6Ys5VDI18C4jhZwl1MOtjQUSiec01J9asXwwYcq_N1JbZDPGjwme05ZVu4WfwrOy0tT95_5tQrp6Ywj91dukcyzflkTgCtad3XNgSXSllOllxT0mfHklIwyHQo/s1600/Eagle.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7S9YwRyJ4-Zi7SLlEbWvGchaeYMPknOlgiKbqodnn7wmK-cey2UMwdyQ0uwmFGnJoRgjS5Rl9OQrNmjMB9Q2CWrdsHbs6s6-maDhvtdi9ZsrdBA65NZyjbGbLF6K9EmAVTeWYmAlyUFBf/s1600/Beautiful_colorful_bird_wallpaper01.jpg
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/005/cache/greater-flamingo_560_600x450.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0VvnppMCccXDE6c8FJPpMDDtSiEX2srbJnGJ7NxzQUalv16Fmu8QFFrkpGISJQajVOqSRDv7gh6cgVhfzJAIZGmpVBg49b_MruLNILxF7Yb0sZF_LVHIqJrLVu7RdxjEp8vI_HpW3EA/s1600/5822+Portrait+of+an+Owl+-+Darwin+Botanical+Gardens.jpg
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/253/3/9/dumbledore_the_owl_by_doomdrao-d49eiz0.png


Time for some birds now

Dumbledore was an owl I had in my family before he passed away a few years ago

Here are some bird designs I drew based on the images I gathered. Out of these five i've prefered the 3rd and the 5th, however I like the beard like qualities of the 4th.

So now I have this guy. Time to give him some colours!

I used the colours from the images I researched and came up with six different colour schemes. I then looked at all of them together and found that I disliked two and was only super drawn into one!

This one drew me in mostly because of the colours. Despite them being majorly dark they bring out the facial features really well.