BA2 Creating My Final Sculpt 2 (Wings)

It took several attempts to create the wings with various methods involved. Initially I was unsure how to tackle the creation of these complex design despite the simplicity I thought I had chosen in its form.

I tried a ZSphere mesh base as a starting point yet felt it was too unclean and hard to get the flat shapes I wanted efficiently.

The opposite was then attempting to create the entire wing in shadow box to draw ou the design and get the flatter shape i desired through the side projection. Unfortunately I didn't find this to be very successful either.

However shadow box did teach me that I could create a quick, smooth, flat, and symmetrical piece relatively effortlessly and thus had the idea to create a single shard/feather of the wing.

I then decided to duplicate and warp each individual shard and place them in a formation similar of a wing's design.

Once I had done this and gotten the general form of the wing I duplicated the entire wing and layered each copy on top warping and shaping them to fit aesthetically over the previous version.

 
Once content with the positioning of the layers I went back and removed the original formation of the lower wing shards as I felt they were too blocky and gave the wing a little too much volume. 

Pleased with three rows of feathers I started to reshape and add more in to fill gaps and reduce the size of some that I felt were to bulky.

Content with the placement of the main volume of the wing I had to design the stem that would clip the feathers together over the top. I came up with several designs and selected the one I felt worked the best

In the end I chose the design below, adjusted the feathers again in accordance to the stem that had been added, and started working addressing the topology of the wing and making some final additions and changes.

BA2 Creating My Final Sculpt 1 (Upper Body)

The entire sculpt was going to be a big thing to tackle with many different pieces coming together to create this piece.

I felt it logical to start with the largest mass of the body and created a very simple Zphere structure to begin my work from.

This mass would help start to form the main silhouette of a female figure where clothing and metal plating would be added to later. At this point the main focus was to create the upper body and arms paying mind not to focus on detail too soon.

On the main form had been sculpted I began to refine areas making clearer edges and smoothing out areas slowly starting to reveal bone structures and muscles groups.

The idea was the make a rather frail lookings body, not muscly or powerful, but almost starved and skeletal in form yet not so much that it would look disproportionate. For this I emphasised the rib cage and collar bones.

The next stage was hollowing out the stomach as it would act as an opening in the design. The ribs I felt were a natural cut of point and accentuate the hole better.

Next I sculpted the hands separately using the ZSphere model I had previously learnt to use and added them to the main body sculpt.

At this stage I had the Upper torso at a high level of completion and the hands finished, the next stage would be to design the wings as they would need to be created separately and brought in at a later point.

BA2 Design Iteration for Final Sculpt 2

Having decided upon a design for the head I have created several designs similar in format but for the chest and wings.

The following ideas drew mild inspirations from pre existing ideas as well as allowing my imagination to go free within the confines of my self made goal for my gargoyle.
Going from 1 to 4 on the top row, and then 5 to 8 on the bottom row I merged ideas with potential designs to create these iterations on the already formed template in my original sketch.

No.1 is the design of the original chest piece focusing on creating openings within that sculpt that would not interfere with the flow and the aesthetics of the design

No.2 looked more into ancient Greek sculptures and the robes they would drape over their bodies, leaving the chest exposed to emphasise this sculpture to be both an angel void of shame and a piece of art created to cover a weapon.

No.3 focused on the clothing a little more and how I could create obscure openings that seem to flow with the design despite their secret capabilities.

No.4 was more as a piece of art with odd metal components forming around where the heart would be found to create something unique with potentially more meaning behind it than just what you see.

No.5 felt more as a form of creating symmetry as well as plating reminiscent of armour whilst maintaining the openings within the sculpt.

No.6 is drawn from horrors such as famine and plague as well as insect like parts such as legs within the chest and wing like patterns as openings in the ribs.

No.7 used crude metal plates to reinforce the openings looking into function more as heavy projectiles may also be thrown down these openings potentially harming the gargoyle hanging under it.

No.8 finally looked again into ancient statues and depictions of more godly beings and how they would also appear human in some aspects through clothing and form.

Again I find that the original design (No.1) is what interests me most though I may come to tone down the function of the openings and focus more on the form of the angel as I believe its appearance to take precedence over its crude purpose.

Next I created a few wing designs. Though there is little breathing room in creating the wings I felt it was better to create more simple designs as I want the main focus of the piece to the face and upper chest area and for the wing simply to compliment the piece and reinforce the idea that this is an angel despite the major changes I am making to the traditional notion of one.

I stuck to only 4 designs for the wings due to what I stated previously.

No.1 was the original design looking into incorporating openings within the wing's design to maximise the function of this piece.

No.2 looked more into the traditional appearance of was wing looking into simplifying that of an eagle's span and how it could potentially be one solid sheet of metal

No.3 was focusing more on the individual feathers that make up ad wing and how they're rusted and jagged appearance could make the wings themselves look deadly

No.4 finally was incorporating the function of No.1 with the familiar feathery appearance of a wing to make it blend better with the angel itself.

Contrary to my other designs I have decided not to go for my initial creation and believe that No.3's lethal and familiar appearance is more suitable for my final design.

I will closely into the chosen iterations of my 2D concepts when beginning my final sculpt and will follow them closely to achieve the desired appearance of my gargoyle.

BA2 Design Iteration for the Final Sculpt

Due to feedback from group crits I have accelerated my iteration process and have jumped forward into finalising the idea and design of my final piece due to the time the sculpt will take to create and polish.

From my previous iterations I had made I created variations of them starting with looking primarily at the head and face.

The intial design was that of the top left looking into how the openings would work and how to merge both the function and aesthetics of the design together. The second rendered head looked primarily into creating a fearsome design and something that would be used to truly frighten those below.

Through redesigns and inspirations I created 8 possible faces with slight alterations to the crown, neck and hair, and hopefully allow the designs to be mixed and matched to combine the elements I like best out of all of them.

Going from 1 to 4 on the top row and 5 to 8 on the bottom row I took various inspirations from preexisting and common horrors and combined them with my initial to design to see what I could create.

No.1 was a perversion of the original concept, tearing at the metal creating horrible markings and twisting the metal to create a truly corrupted and disfigured form.

No. 2 was the original face focusing on how the openings necessary in my sculpt could be implemented in an aesthetic way.

No.3 drew direct inspiration from the nightmare known as a "necromorph" from the "deadspace" games with the crown being created in a more "evil queen of the sea" like appearance.

No.4  looked into separating the mouth and part of the nose more on the mask dehumanising it further and attempting to draw more attention to the eyes

No.5 took inspiration from Hannibal's mask in the "Hannibal" film trilogy and to create a face that looked as if it was being held back, ready to unleash horror upon those below.

No.6 was where I wanted to experiment going back into the angelic routes of my creation creating something more majestic and pure despite the harm it can cause.

No.7 saw to connect the holes in the eyes with that of the throat to create a more function friendly design that still retained some form of facial structure to it.

No.8 was finally inspired by a traditional nurse cap as hospital stuff are often seen twisted and tormented in pieces such as the silent hill franchise and many zombie flicks.

Upon reviewing these designs I couldn't help but continue to be interested by my initial sketch (Head No.2) and would combine the dehumaninsing aspect of No.4. My final 3D sculpt will be created closely in accordance to these two designs and will appear very similar with minor changes to occur based on 3D issues I may encounter.

My next task is to design the chest and the wings for the sculpt with the lower half of the body following the style based on my final decisions.

BA2 3D Human Anatomy Tests

As I iterate my gargoyle it is clear the the piece will have many human qualites to it primarily in its face and upper torso and felt that it would be important for me to start creating some simple tests into creating these forms and tuning myself to be able to create these organic structures and stay true to the likeliness of a human being.

Though my sculpt is currently designed to be a woman, or at least have the characteristics as such I started my first trial bust of a head as a male. This is due to several life drawing sessions I have recently had of male poses and used several of these drawings as helpful references as well as it being a form I am rather familiar with. 

The next bust however is that of a woman, or at least an attempt to.

I concentrated on facial features and trying to give it a feminine form. I found I actually struggled in creating a feminine features despite references and the face looked far more alien to me than I would have liked. This could however be due to the lack of hair, eyes and a neck that may have been helpful in creating something familiar. It is rare to see only a head anyway. The nose however I felt was successful and something I may import into the final sculpt.











I realised when creating the ears that I was finding it difficult to create the relevant grooves and ridges involved in an ear when sculpting directly from the head.

I chose to thus create it as a seperate subtool.

Though I believe the sculpt came out semi successful for a low poly piece I made a decision within my 2D designs not to incorporate major facial features such as eyes, ears and a mouth and have gone into explanation as to why in my next post. This ear however has acted as a good form of practice into organic forms and has taught me how to combine and mirror subtools as well as dynamesh's capabilities in providing more information on areas that were previously stretched.

The next update will be on my 2D designs and what stage I am at in terms of making decisions on how the final piece will look and feel.

BA2 Iteration Continuation

Continuing on my female angel of death design I decided on looking primarily into the upper torso design as the robes, or clothing of the lower half would merge and spread into the ceiling or backing piece.

The initial design was of the open wings and arms angel and I have iterated on that by creating a primary design simply through elements of imagination and thoughts into the potential material.

As an initial thought this design focused on the head, as well as potential ways i could incorporate the function of "murder holes" into the actual design of the sculpt. Main inspirations included metal cogs, the statue of liberty and masquerade ball masks. 

I felt hollow eyes and a mouth would be an excellent way of creating an opening for water to be poured down as well as create a frightening and soulless expression for my gargoyle. The opening is the stomach also creates and idea that this is a husk of an angel and that all its malice and death pours out from inside it. The holes in the wings are currently just an idea on potentially incorporating more openings into the sculpt. 

The crown at the moment is how I wanted to tackle to iconic appearance of a halo above an angel yet give it a far harsher appearance envisioning it to be made of sharp and jagged rusted iron. The hair would be similar but felt would follow suit if it were to be created from long flat sheets of metal that would curve and run parallel with the surface the gargoyle is attached to.

Finally the partial nudity was something I felt was also important in emphasising that this is an angel, free of the shame or emotion found in humans and that its limited clothing serves only as a form of similarity to humans in appearance.

I will do several iterations on the head, crown, chest, and wing design of this initial concept as I am pleased with its simple yet eerie appearance and will look into how I can alter this design to be both suitable to create in 3D and its correlation with my original brief.

BA2 3D Trials and learning ZBrush

Taking a pause from my initial 2D sketches I had to start attuning myself to working in 3D as the final piece for this unit is a 3D sculpt of my gargoyle in ZBrush. From what I've experienced so far ZBrush is an excellent tool for creating high poly assets with great detail and a great form of realising your designs in 3D. Through the creation of your 3D designs you realise that the 3rd plane actually allows you to see into problems you may not have considered in your 2D iterations alone.

My first sculpt wasn't directly relevant to my design as it was simply a means of learning the tools within and acted as a way of attempting to make a typical gargoyle bust just to ease my entrance into the 3D world of design.

As well as creating a simple gargoyle bust I returned home after the first session to readdress what had been taught in our directed session and created a simple head sculpt of a sort of alien crossed with an insect style head. This was more for personal work but was a helpful guide into utilising subtools and understanding subdivision levels.

Any future 3D work I produce will be relevant to my designs however as I believe after several directed sessions and some practice in ZBrush I will be able to create some designs and helpful pieces towards my final sculpt. As I get to grips with the programme I will continue with my 2D designs until I have a final design idea for ZBrush and will begin on realising this design in 3D.