ZBRUSH | MAYA | V-RAY | PHOTOSHOP

Master comic realism by creating a reinterpretation of Josh Brolin as Cable, translating his features to a comic book universe

Personality can bring so much to a sculpt, which is why the facial expression, shapes, proportion and lines were the focus for my stylised model based on Josh Brolin’s depiction of Cable. As a result, the observation and sculpting process will make up the most vital steps for this tutorial.

We’ll start off by blocking out the character from scratch with primitive geometries and DynaMesh, followed by sculpting all of his features by hand using standard and custom brushes to achieve a more appealing look. After that, we’ll dive into Decimation Master for a quick, straightforward export of meshes to Maya, and use V-Ray to create a custom shader and lighting setup to emphasise the surface nuances of the character’s face.

Lastly, we’ll briefly explore Photoshop’s tools to create a glowing eye with a lens-flare effect and give the image a few finishing touches.

AUTHOR

Heloisa Duda

Heloisa specialises in modelling cartoon and stylised characters for use in concepts and animation. bit.ly/3GdEMZv

01 ANALYSE THE CONCEPT

Before digging into sculpting it’s important to study the concept as well as the reference images. Acknowledging how the concept was created in 2D and which principles have been applied to it will help us to create the 3D forms. Asking questions beforehand will help to create a good practical guideline for the work ahead.

02 BLOCK OUT THE STRUCTURE

It’s important to begin a sculpture thinking simply in terms of hierarchy. At this stage we'll only see the big structures. We want to start with DynaMesh sphere 32 and use the Move brush to block out the face, roughly exaggerating the jaw proportion in relation to the skull.