The Warmongering Statue - Sculpting

As we were coming up to deadlines, I wanted to add one more model to the game. Which is the Warmongering Statue - one of the interactable objects that the player can trigger memories off.

I was inspired by the armour and design of the terracotta soldiers:

I wanted this to be a quick model as we had deadlines approaching.

I decided to model it in zBrush. I begun with a basemesh, then used the extract mesh tool to mask and pull out geometry.

After extracting a new subtool, I used the move tool and zRemesh tool to stretch it out and make it into the underskirt of the statue.

I should note here I made the mistake of ticking the 'double' sided option when extracting the models, which resulted in some really terrible extractions, and was a pain to retopologise. Thankfully I managed to fix it, but in future I know not to check that option.

I extracted again to create the trousers and scarf for the character.

I started following the terracotta soldiers' armour design here - with the breast plate over the skirt and a scarf around the neck.

I then extracted a mesh for the shoulders - though they looked rather soft and not very hard edged.

I started adding detail at this point, using the damStandard brush to add the criss-cross pattern to the armour.

The next step was to use an alpha to add the bolts to each part of the pattern.

This was quite fiddly as I had to do it all by hand, but it paid off well I thought - and was more accurate overall. I doubt there would be an automated process for this.

I was getting sick of trying to model the shoulder pads in zBresh, so I made a mesh in 3ds max.

I used some standard primitives to create the shoulderpads, but I think they came out quite well overall.

I then started adding further detail to the statue's 'clothing'.

I began introducing the polish brushes here to try and create a more hard edged and rock like feel to the mesh. I started by trimming the corners to square off the model.

As with the shoulder pads, I got sick of trying to model the boots in zBrush, so I did a low poly in 3ds max and sent it over.

I added some further detail to the hair and face.

I did not add too much to face, just tried to keep it squarer and beveled.

Next part was the fun part. I used alphas and brushes to add cracks and dent to the model. I used the polish brush to further harden the edges of the model to make it more statue like!

Considering this was a really quick model, I'm pleased with the results.

I'm discovering more tools with zBrush and I'm really enjoying how they are improving my workflow. I think if I had more time I would like to work more on his face - make it more oriental to match the terracotta theme. But I'm happy with the detail I've achieved in a short time.