Creature & Character Creation

For Film & Games

Creating A Portfolio-Ready Creature, From Start To Finish

Sculpt characters and creatures for film and games
Learn animal & creature anatomy tips & tricks
Learn how to sculpt skin and wrinkles in ZBrush
Learn how to texture in Mari

What You’ll Learn

The course will go through the full process of modeling and sculpting creatures, starting with collecting references, blocking in and sculpting the creature, moving into retopology and UVs, then texturing and presenting. The emphasis throughout the course will be on addressing the nuances of forms, structures, workflow and presentation.

By the end of the course, you will have produced a portfolio-ready creature. You will also have gained knowledge on how to troubleshoot new problems and tasks.

This workshop on Creature Sculpting will consist of ten live lessons and mentoring. You’ll learn core creature and animal design skills and workflows and be part of a community of artists working to achieve next level quality in their work.

By the end of the workshop you'll:

Have improved understanding of proportions.
Have developed and understood anatomical structure.
Develop a great understanding on how to design creatures.
Have created your own unique creature.

COURSE FORMAT: Standard

LECTURE TYPE: Live

FEEDBACK: Live interactive group sessions

DURATION: 10 weeks

ASSIGNMENT: Due each week. Expect to spend 10-20 hrs/wk viewing lectures, Q&A, and time on assignments

Q&A: Once a week

MATERIALS: Photoshop, ZBrush and 3D packages such as Maya, 3Dsmax, Modo, or else should be known to follow along

SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate to Advanced

PREREQUISITES: Knowledge of ZBrush and 3D Software Packages

Curriculum

Week 1

Concept & Overview

Reduce decision making. Set expectations and concept. Overview of facial anatomy, forms.

Week 2

Primary Forms

Establishing Planes; Skeletal landmarks; Muscles. Sculpt The primary silhouette and structure for the creature alongside of determining the core features of animal anatomy.

Week 3

Secondary Forms

One of the most crucial stages, where the true creature of the sculpt needs to start popping out. Using various methods to capture the essence of the concept.

Week 4

Retopology & UV's

Retopologize your Mesh. UV your Creature

Week 5

Retopology & Reproject

We will layout and finalize our Retopology and UVs and reimport our mesh back to zbrush and reproject the details.

Week 6

Sculpting Details

The focus will be going over advanced secondary forms. Adding in all the details and pushing the creature more. Using real world creatures and animals as our primary reference. when doing this step. Allowing our creature to have relatable and realistic elements of nature.

Week 7

Finalize Details

Fine tuning last adjustments, to prepare the final presentation of the sculpture. Going through important brushes and alphas to finalize micro details.

Week 8-9

Texturing

Texturing the skin, fur, or scales based on reference using Mari. Using methods to pack necessary details onto the creature.

Week 10

Final Presentation

Present your final image for review and final crit.

Kurtis Dawe

Kurtis has been working in the industry for 10 years now and currently a Sr. Character Modeller/artist Scanline Vancouver. Prior to that, Kurtis worked at MPC London working on creating photo-real hero creatures for Lion King 2019, Dumbo and Godzilla King of Monsters. Kurtis has worked at EA Vancouver, Double Negative, Method and Zoic Studios as a Creature/Character Modeller and generalist over his time in the industry.