The first artefact was an exploration into creating a believable character, which is set in a sci-fi genre focusing on sculpting and texturing techniques. The process was an organic one whereby I created the head sculpts without reference images. The model started out from a Zsphere to create the base mesh, then I laid down certain landmarks for the head shapes, brow areas, jaw line, cheek bones etc. I had in mind that I wanted some form of an alien, but with solid connections to something more human like.
Alien creatures tend to be based upon animals and creatures that we have seen in the wild to root them in reality. Lizards, sea creatures even insects, In my mind's eye I saw him as a kind of lizard, amphibious creature that had evolved. When I sculpt or model, I am quite explorative trying things to see how they look and feel. The texturing was completed in zbrush using the polypaint toolset which is invaluable way of laying texture directly onto the 3d model without using 2d application like Photoshop. From the feedback I received from the focus group during the artefact presentation and the polycount forum community. It was highlighted to me that the scales and lack of ear area were not helping the character to feel as believable as it was intended.
With a number of tweaks to the bigger forms, removing the scales, and adding more subtle skin details painting a texture for his eyes, I believe he is on his way to expressing a more believable and interesting character. There was also an idea of continuing on and creating his body. Because I did not concept the head, it was created loosely seeing where the sculpt progressed. With that said he has developed a distinct character to him so using the way he looks what kind of background I am imagining for him I will conceptualise his body in keeping with the style of his reptile head.
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