Hey Old Sports! I am José Cortés, and I am excited to start this WIP thread fpr my entry for the contest!
So I am planning to work on the character of The Dark Lord, a Baphomet like creature from the Netflix show, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina!
So to start it off, I initially built a moodboard with reference images I was able to get from both the show and bts so I can work with that
Then after that, I started working on the head on ZBrush, and this is what I have up till now
Hey Everyone!
I wanted to update the status of The Dark Lord, I worked a bit more on his face, trying to fix some volumes and shapes. Besides that, I blocked out his body using as reference a previous blocking that I had, mainly to aim at some proportions of his torso v/s head. Naturally, that blocking will be heavily modified once the head is actually done. ANYWAYS, here are some images of the progress so far
Hey Everyone
Another status update of The Dark Lord, I have been partially working on the face, but also, this time, I decided to improve the horns so they are not just a stretched cone anymore. Also, I decided to ploypaint the eyes so it doesn’t give me that weird vibe while working on the head.
Hey there, Old Sports!
Im here to post a new update on The Dark Lord!
So this time I worked more in the shape of the face, and did sum positioning adjustments to the horns. Besides that I finally added a new set of teeth and gum that was much more accurate to the reference rather than what I had (they almost seemed like really super weak, so I had to fix that).
That’s it for now! each day closer to finish up the head! then I shall do the body properly! (Oh God, ironically)
Hey there again, Old Sports!
Here I am with another minor update to The Dark Lord, this time I mainly tried to fix a bit more of his facial shapes and proportions. AND this time I tweaked the lower horns to more accurate shapes to the ones that should be! Given the time frame, after some more fixing, shortly I will merge the head parts and go into a detail pass and then I believe that within this or next week I shall move on to the body per se, and try to speedrun that (On my sculpts I usually take more time on the head, so that’s that). And after that, I shall do the retopo, UV’s and texturing (As I said, speedrun), and then the hair in certain parts, since he sort of has a mane on the chest, and hair mainly behind his head and around the end of his limbs. So yeah! Will keep you updated!
Hey everyone! Here I come with a new (and late) update on the Dark Lord!
I finally moved on to the body, merged and adjusted the blocking of the torso that I had and started delving into the volumes and details, adding the sort of teeth thtat The Dark Lord has, besides that, I gave him proper legs with hooves and started the merging of the arms. Since this period ahs been slow due to life happening, I will try to speedrun this week with what’s left to bring him to AccuRig and then to UE5 to do the renders!
Hi Everyone!
Time for a new update! I think I am almost there with the model itself! I just have to merge the neck, head and body and I would move on to texturing (and UV’s) and then everything that comes after!
I added some nails, wrinkes, details and merged almost all the limbs!
Honestly idk if it’ll be done by the deadline, but we keep going! So this still makes me work on the model!
Cool WIP character. What are you planning to do to make these animal legs move properly? Maybe change the bone structure somehow?
Thank you so much! I am planning to do it though AccuRig! It is to my understanding that it supports this kind of legs!
Hey Everyone!
So, finally I come with the last (hopefully) ZBrush update of the model! I merged and polished a bit all of the limbs and head. So now I will start speedrunning the UV’s and textures, then a quick hair pass and then, finally, rigging it and throwing him to UE5 for the renders! Again, I am not sure if I will make it in time, since due to circumstances of life, I will have to speedrun it between tomorrow (Friday), Saturday and Sunday!
Hey Everyone! Today I finally worked on the UV’s for the Dark Lord (took me most of the day lol), and well, aftrer that, before full on heading to texturing, I decided to do a test, rigging him on CC5, and well, I think I got a pretty decent result to be speedrunning this. Tomorrow it’ll be a re rigging, making sure the bones are placed in the most optimal way for his digitigrate legs, then full on texturing and hair gen (also speedrun) and then well, hopefully on Sunday it will be all about setting up the scene and rendering on UE5. Anything could happen, either making it to the deadline or die trying lol.
Hey there Old Sports!
Time for a live update, SO with the UV’s out of the way, before heading on to speedrunnig the texturing, I decided to work on the hair/fur of The Dark Lord, SO, for this one, I decided to try out a relatively new hair software called Sisir (free to download from the Discord server), once I am done here, I will move it to Maya and then try to convert the hairs into Hair Cards (If that’s even possible? lol, if not, welp), and this is how it is going so far!
Hey Old Sports!
So now I am still working on the textures, with the groom almost ready, the last 5 hours have been dedicated to work on the textures. And after that I am JUST getting to a point that I think it looks halway decent. NATURALLY, this is still not the final result, but I though I would share parts of the process. I still have to texture the interior of the mouth, the claws, the horns and the hooves.
I started with some fill layers, red, yellow and blue, based in the tutorials done by Jared Chavez (or at least tried to follow his tutorial) and from there, I added a purple layer with the AO mask, and then started painting the skin and spots
And here is the current state (Render from iray of Substance Painter lol) (I dont think I might be able to sleep lmao)
Hey babes,
Time for another update! After a few hours (plus dinner and a phone call) working on the texturing, I believe I got a halfway decent result. Still sort of rushed, but yeah. Time is of the essence. ANYWAYS. With this done, tomorrow I shall properly put the Dark Lord through CC5/AccuRig and then, 2 paths I will explore tomorrow, 1) Straight to UE5 and bing the groom to the rig in there. 2) Manage to transform the groom done in Sisir into hair cards, get bind them to the rig either in Maya (OR also in AccuRig/CC5), and then to UE5. Then it shall be setting up the scene and rendering. We’ll have to see if we make it to the deadline or die trying lol.
Good morning, Old Sports!
Another day, another slay. I transfered the Dark Lord into UE5 along with the SIsir groom to test how it will look (I still have to use AccuRig now, and I can’t promise the final result will look like that) (If I can’t bind the groom to the rigged and posed Dark Lord, I might have to explore different option), BUT here is how it’s looking now.
Hey there, Old Sports!
So new update, I started the rigging proccess through CC5, using its integrated AccuRig, I brought The Dark Lord as a prop and then started the gruide and bone placement, trying to fit especially the legs to work witha digitigrade legged character such as him. I hid the claws and the upper horns to try to get better results witht he guides, and then unhiding them and applying the weight of their respective parts!
With this I guess now it is time to pose and go to UE5, EITHER THAT or go to UE5 and pose him there
Hey Everyone!
So, I was able to get The Dark lord into UE5, BUT came across with an issue, which I think I can fix, the groom pivot is with an offset that looks bad when merging it with the BP, SO, I decided to first do the poses for The Dark Lord, and then will fix the groom issue, and then well, I will go ahuad and set up the scene for the final renders. SO I wanted to share the poses I’ve done for The Dark Lord
Hey there Everyone!
So, update for today, I brought the Dark Lord and the poses to UE5, and thank goodness it works! The only “but” is the groom, which now I figured out a fix, but now I must divide it in halves (Left and Right) and then re export it and set it up, then a few minor tweaks, and it’ll be ready for rendering and turntables!
Hey there again!
New update! After figting with a pivot problem with in the grooms, I managed to get them decently to show up on the Dark Lord. AND then with that, I started giving it a test run with both the rig and groom merged, and yeah. Now it is time to set up cameras properly and do a few minor tweaks with the PPV
