3D Alien Bust Sculpt Inspired By Mass Effect

Introduction

I'm Gino Kolling, a 3D Artist working as a Creature Specialist for games and VFX. I got into 3D at a young age through a small YouTube community that worked with Motion Graphics. I ended up really enjoying the modeling aspect of it, characters specifically. Then, ultimately, moved into doing purely creatures. 

I like creating realistic, but also fantastical or exaggerated creatures. Something that fits in fantasy and sci-fi worlds with a realistic finish. I'm inspired by all sorts of things: nature, games, movies, manga, other artists, etc. It's hard not to be oversaturated with inspiration nowadays!

The Aster Alien Project

For the Aster project, I saw some older Mass Effect: Andromeda concept art, which had some cool aliens. I’ve never played the games, and beyond seeing art from it, I've had little exposure to the IP. Working in fantasy a lot recently, I've been yearning for some more sci-fi, and this felt like a great opportunity to make something quick after work. 

After I looked at the concepts, I closed the references and just started sculpting from a sphere. I use my own set of brushes, which are slightly modified basic brushes. There's nothing special about my sculpting workflow; I just explore shapes using Sculptris Pro and try to get to something interesting within the time I give myself for the sculpt. It's all about anatomical knowledge of the human face and body, using similar shapes to give the impression of character and a humanoid structure. I optimize my strokes and detail quickly using Flakes or Fracture brushes and the masking tools. Then a quick ZRemesh to reproject and clean up some of the Sculptris Pro artifacts. 

Texturing

For texturing, I had set up some basic polypaint in ZBrush, which defined my darker regions in the textures for the body. Sort of like contouring areas of interest. Then I use a mix of Smart materials to get some nice basic breakups, exploring colors as I go. I focus mostly on defining the material properties at first, the roughness, and the feeling of the model. Once settled, I explore the colors more deeply. In this case, I already knew I wanted a white base with some more colorful accents to make the design interesting. Then it becomes a game of masking and managing the different colors and details in a sort of pattern across the model. It should have a pleasant visual rhythm. The roughness is used to drive a lot of the breakup in the model, so that the surface reacts in an interesting manner to light.

Lighting & Rendering

For the final scene, I repurposed one of my previous bust projects. If I've done something before, I try not to do it again to save time. Reapplying the base material and simply swapping out the textures. Those things add up. In terms of the composition, I place a few cameras at interesting angles, showing things I like to focus the viewer towards. 

For the lighting, I use a base HDR, a keylight, and two rim lights. The HDR helps me get color into the shadows and lifts the general darks in the scene. The key sets the general mood and tone, and the rims pop the model out from the background.

In terms of the post-production, I give it a bit of glare, filmic noise, and play around with the contrast and grade to create a cinematic feel. I like keeping the post-production inside of Blender so that I just have to press render and get my shots as is. Just having the "final look" established in the viewport.

Conclusion

The piece took me about seven hours to finish. The sculpt took two hours, then setting up some workable UVs and the textures another two to three. The lighting and renders in the remaining time. The focus in this project was to have fun designing something quickly. Imitating a production environment where you concept sculpt and present something to an art director after a day's work. It's also a great exercise to not rely fully on the sculpt for details.

My advice to beginner artists is usually the same. Try to really think about what you would like to see in the world, things that you have fun creating, and dive deep into that. Explore and learn to your heart's content!

Gino Kolling, Creature Artist

Interview conducted by Stephanie Almogabar