Malanjo's "The Special One" lay dormant until a rush of inspiration saw it go straight into EXOTIQUE 4 contention.
CGSociety :: Tutorial
8 January 2009, Miguel Ángelo 'Malanjo' Carvalho Bernardo Teixeira
Some of you may know Malanjo after he won the Best Modeling prize in the 'Uplift Universe - Alien Relations' CGChallenge last year. There seems to be at least six projects on the go in Malanjo's desk at any one time. After spending over two years in a half forgotten folder, Malanjo's 'The Special One' was revived. He submitted his character to Ballistic Publishing and it was selected for inclusion in EXOTIQUE 4 book on page 172-173. He also has work in ELEMENTAL 3. Check out these and many others in Ballistic Publishing's digital art books.
Concept
I started this image almost two and a half years ago, after I saw a couple of real sculptures from the artist Patricia Piccinini in a fine arts magazine. My main point was to do something like we see in ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ Something weird but at the same time sweet and magic, like a good fantasy art story/concept. During these two years, the image was in standby mode, deep in my personal projects folder, and only a few months ago I found a chance to re-start it in my free time.
Modeling
To generate the beginnings of this model, I used poly-by-poly modeling in ZBrush, starting with the head from scratch, and then the body. The work on this image was non-linear, I changed and tweaked a lot of things. When I do personal work, I try to experiment as much as I can, always having an artistic approach to the project instead of a technical approach to it. I’m always focused on having everything in place, always thinking towards the next step, and to have everything working together as a whole! I don’t care how I do the fur on the cloth or the glow effects in the chest. I think about the composition, the color palette, the message in the picture. These are the most important points on the project. In time, the technique will come out naturally into the process.
At this point, I had everything blocked and the main composition is almost in place. I picked some of 'Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ paintings as my composition reference (color, geometric composition, mood, light, etc).
The 3D base drawing/modeling from two and a half years ago.
Here are some experiments during the process.
Some Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres references.
The next step was to pick up the old work and re-touch some geometric issues and work them around until I could visualize the design of the new character.
As you can see here, there is no armor on the character, just a simple wire protection. I experiment a lot during the process, like a live performance. Sometimes I stop for days to think about the image, then I go back and I always change something. Reading or seeing other art is good to jog ideas into place. So after experimenting a lot, the modeling of the ‘Special One’ warrior with the 'special gift’ is done. Above and below are some ZBrush add-ons (old concept, without armor) and the final modeling.
As you can see, technically speaking, I tried to have a medium amount of geometry and chose to build the rest of the image using textures and a good composite work on it to solve some little issues.
