Cyborg #2 Polygons and Zbrush

 I've been working on the cyborg taking it on from the concept in my last entry. The second design, the green cyborg got the most votes from my readers so that's the one that I'm working on. I did also like the red design, the first cyborg so I may try that one as well. I have also been thinking about doing a zombie character, an alien and also some generic kind of space trooper. 

Above is where I am currently at with the cyborg. I am close to done with the painting, there are some fine details that are not showing up on the trousers and boots. That's probably down to the lighting,  I can maybe get the paint job to help out on this with some more work. The first job was to get the basic polygonal shell in place, you can see it in it's bind pose below. Most of the polygons went into the robotic arms and the cross design on the helmet.

The next job was to get it set up with the same skeleton the cyberpunk is using. It went quite smoothly and because  there is a run animation on the cyber punk I could straight away see the cyborg animating, this makes setting up the deformations on the polygon shell much easier. The laser rifle is the same model I used for the cyberpunk. I am planning to add some more animations although the next post will likely be some better renders with nice lighting, poses and the paint job finalised.

 I then took the model into Zbrush where I started by mapping the UV's. Once that was done I set about sculpting the fine details in. It's a fun job and makes me feel much more like a proper artist than pulling vertices about in Maya (building the base poly mesh above). Poly modelling is quite a cold clinical business you need to be accurate and give the impression of a natural rounded form while working with harsh sharp edges Zbrush really changes that, it's much more tactile. As I said before it's something like painting with clay, you use a graphics tablet and either add or subtract strokes of simulated poly clay. You're still working with polygons but I guess a single stroke is pushing hundreds or thousands of polygons at a time. There is probably a hundred polygons or more in a single scratch in the cyborgs metal plates. Zbrush is great for natural forms like the contours and wrinkles of a face but it is quite tricky for less natural more mechanical subjects like this character. It was quite a challenge but still fun. Putting all the dents, scratches and rivets in at the end was an easy way to add character to the cyborg.