Ghost Rider Sculpting in ZBrush

Introduction

Hello! It’s been a while since we talked last time. I’ve been working a lot lately, but this is good, right?  The last times, I worked on some projects at prime1 (Joker, Bloodborne, Warhammer, Alien, Ivy Poison), made some private commissions and worked on some personal projects. I work in partnership with a company called Mixed Dimensions that will produce and sell the statuettes our of my characters.

Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider was the character I’ve always wanted to model because he rides a motorcycle. I particularly like bikes and I’ve always wanted to make a statuette like that, however, it was something too complex for me and I didn’t take courage to do it earlier.

Bike

The idea for the bike was to mix design elements of the movie and comics. The motorcycle in the movie has a polished chrome motor that looks like it has been melted, but I also wanted to give an impression was also burnt and not just chrome. Other details were based on motorcycles I saw in the comics.

The modeling technique applied to the fire was similar to that of the hair. First I made a blocking with the brush Clay Buildup, then applied details with the DamStandard brush.

For the bike, I first made a  low poly block and later started to apply the details. These parts were very simple to do. First, I worked with several separate elements to define the shapes, then joined everything with the merge option and later dynameshed.

Clothes

The clothes are all sculpted. First, I do the primary forms in a neutral pose and then add the details of folding, stitching, and texture when I do the pose of the character.

For the folds, I look for many references for clothing with the right kind of material that I will sculpt. For the way the folds behave, I look for references in a book called Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth.

Poses

For the pose, I usually make several drafts and try to make the elements of the piece convey movements. I try to bring attention to the character through the curves of these elements or get some rhythm as well. It’s a constant learning process.

Materials & Render Setup

The materials were done in Cinema 4D using Redshift. For the fire and the part of the metal, I basically used the same technique: I worked with 3 types of materials mixing them in one. I have a main material, one for cavities and another for more edge details. For the fire effect, I also put a lot of point of lights along the fire. Plus, I use an area light to illuminate the character.

André Yamaguchi, Digital Sculptor

Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev