Imagining an Eerie Dark Fantasy Deity With ZBrush and Marmoset Toolbag

"I normally start by randomly sketching some shapes and exploring different figures in ZBrush. You'll see this is something common in my characters. I don't start with a predefined idea. I just start sculpting and see where that takes me.

Sometimes, I do have a concept in my mind, but it's vague. Maybe, I want to go for something "elegant" and "creepy". Maybe, I feel like doing a monster based on the Roman Empire because I saw a really cool gladiator helmet photo and want to implement that into a monster. I love dark fantasy, elegance, mystery, things that games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring convey very well, so my creatures tend to gravitate towards this style."

"For the Dark Mother, one of the things that inspired me was the unnerving face some religious statues have. I was searching for plenty of references, mainly Spanish religious ones. And I came across the face of the "Virgen del Pilar", which is one of the local representations of the Virgin Mary. It's a small effigy but I remember thinking that the face was so creepy, and I really wanted to depict that in a creature.

Then I noticed it was a common denominator among my references. Some statues have this haunting subtle smile on their faces, but they are not smiling with their eyes. The contrast is quite eerie and I thought that it'd be super cool to create a monster based on that.

I wanted it to have religious iconography, so you got elements such as priest clothing for the neck area, props like a rosary, church bells hanging from her weapon, clothing that resembles the cloaks they put on statues, lilies, her golden crown, etc. For extra creepiness, I thought about creating a contrast between her upper part, which includes her marble face and covered shoulders, and the exposed lower part, showing a slender, creepy, and grotesque body, manifesting her true nature underneath."

"The rest of the details kind of popped up in my head during the development. For example, I thought about adding swords piercing her back, as if many people had tried killing this creature before, unsuccessfully.

Then I got this idea regarding her lore. Maybe, she inhabited a cathedral, deluding herself into believing she was a deity. Maybe, she demanded worship from humans, expecting them to kneel and avert their gaze in reverence when crossing her path, which could temporarily spare their lives because this creature is capricious and unpredictable and does as she pleases.

I think letting your imagination fly is immensely enjoyable. Personally, I find the process of crafting a character very stimulating. Trying to make a creature that's both coherent and artistically appealing is a challenge, which exercises both your mind and your artistic eye."

"I did design something that would appear more aggressive than the real ones, by adding many sharps elements pointing upwards. For this part, I also thought, even if it sounds funny, of Ursula from The Little Mermaid, in the part where she transforms into a giant version of herself. I remember vividly she had a pointy crown, so that was an important element in her design, contributing to making her look very scary. I tried representing something similar to the Mother.
 
I mainly used ZBrush and 3ds Max to build the crown. Many parts are done using one mesh, cloned all over. This way I optimized time and UV space."

"Same process as for the head, I started with sketching my idea and then developing it from there. The legs were cloned, on the UVs as well. The skulls were part of an IMM brush I found online and saved me a lot of work.

The clothes were done using Marvelous Designer. They have very simple patterns, almost circle-like, but the challenge was to make them look appealing and interesting, so I played around with the fabric settings and pins until I was satisfied with the shapes and wrinkles. Then I brought them into ZBrush to modify the silhouettes a bit with the Move brush, subdivide them, and add some small details."

"To save time I made some parts symmetrical, such as the legs, and the arms, since the right arm wouldn't be that visible. For the organic body, I started with a symmetrical retopology which I then broke to retopogize the skulls on the front.

The upper and lower clothing were retopologized and UVed by hand with a lesser poly density, adding a TurboSmooth Modifier later on 3ds Max."

"For the metallic parts, I tried maintaining a certain coherence between them, to show that this creature had been around for a long time, the metals being old and weathered.

Same for the clothes and skin. I used many references. It's very important to find the right balance between representing something realistically but also adding your artistic touch. I base the project on reality but I trust my artistic vision to add some changes if I think they'll benefit the model.
 
So for the clothing, I searched for priest clothing and tried to emulate the look, color, roughness, and texture of it, eye-balling those values, trying to represent what I saw in the images. The same for the church bells and keys, which I had a blast texturing. I introduced some changes on the go, like the golden pattern on her upper and low clothing, as I saw some cloaks adorned that way. I had to play with the shape and size of the patterns though, until I found something I thought was balanced. I made some quick masks in Photoshop and brought them to Substance 3D Painter, using them as stencils."

"For the marble head, I started with a white fill layer with color and roughness values and built the texture from there. I added color variation using my thickness and Ambient Occlusion bakes, then started bringing out the sculpt detail using Edge Masks, hand-painting the lighter parts I wanted the focus to be on, and then adding more detail using grunge Tileables, Cavity Masks, and more hand-painting. I tried emulating the polypainted look I previously did on ZBrush. Very pale, to make the head pop out, with subtle dark hand-painted touches on her eyes and lips. I mainly wanted her creepy expression to stand out.

There was a lot of trial and error with the metal arm as well. I bounced between making it golden-like, half-golden-like, rougher, less rough, etc. I just tried things and values until I found something balanced and satisfying."

"In general terms, you can start by adding a Spot Light on top of your character with a slight angle, which will create some shadows. I always ask myself if this light adds something to the character, if it makes it more appealing, highlighting its features. If it works for what I'm trying to convey. I add them where I feel they work best but you can also use references, such as movie shots.

Rim lights are also very important, as they make the silhouette readable. I love adding some warm or cold-toned lights, and tweaking their values so that they don't burn the texture. I don't like leaving any fully dark areas.

To quickly create Rim Lights, I also add Sky Lights, by clicking directly on the Sky UI on the left, and then using the Transform menu to change their rotation on every axis until I find a sweet spot. To better preview the Sky Lights and the area they're affecting, I normally set the brightness value to something very high, rotate the light until I find a position I like and then turn the brightness down. It's important to look at the model from your final camera angle and build the lights accordingly."

"The main challenge was burnout, I think. Thinking about everything that was left, and getting overwhelmed, stopping the work on it for periods of time. My advice would be to always focus on small things. In this case, I focused on a single element multiple times, like the weapon or even the bells. Just tried to do my best with the bells. Then with the crown, then the arm, etc. By breaking down the project into manageable chunks that I could finish, I found it easier to maintain my focus and advance.

So, the advice is to focus on one element at a time and not worry about the rest. It's the feeling of overwhelm that blocks us, but it can be overcome if you open the model and center your attention on one element. You'll get the answers to your blockers along the way if you just work on it, little by little.

Also, it's important to let your mind and eyes rest, not rush into finishing or uploading a project. I assure you you'll see the errors and things to refine way more clearly after a night's rest. So don't rush.

Lastly, enjoy what you do. You have the absolute freedom to model whatever you want. Isn't that great? Maybe you enjoy the process of creation from zero, or maybe there's a concept that inspires you. Find what motivates you the most, because that will show on your portfolio in the form of quality, and this is what will land you a job in the future."