:: Pre- Production ::
My character is meant to seem starved and week, thus I used references of anorexic torsos in order to create this effect (REF.1 & RE.2). I also pondered giving the character a pigeon chest (REF.3), however do not know as of yet whether this is something that will be needed when making the character in 3D. I do not know how to present this in my 2D sketch, however I worry that a lot of the work needed to make the character model appear malnourished may be undermined when clothing the character. If so then perhaps giving the character a pigeon chest would help create the monstrous look I want and avoid making the character seem like a woman with stuck on bird feet.
(REF.1) Bennett, C (2019) 
(REF.2) Science Picture Co (n.d.) 
(REF.3) BBC (2015)
‘she wore a loose tunic with a wide-open back, exposing the ancient Noscon script branded with gold leaf down the length of her spine.’
Charlie N. Holmberg (2019 p: 4)
As stated in my visual style post, I will be using cool tones for the vast majority of the character in order to create a sickly and unnerving appearance. Also, as the book material I referenced in my initial response post show the character to possess grey skin I figure this cool pallet will lend itself well.
to be summoned into them. While not sticking to the lore of the books I think this would be a very interesting effect to add onto the back. I will discuss this more in my wings production blog.
‘Vre en nestu a carnath Ii mem entre I amar. Vre en nestu a carnath Kolosos epsi grandenid’
Charlie N. Holmberg (2019 p: 24)
The script branded onto the characters back in the books is of a mad up language which is never mentioned. The only reference to the actual wording of this script doesn’t talk about the character of ‘Isepia’. The way I see it I can approach the brand two ways. Either I remove the word ‘Kolosos’ from the quote and replace it with my character’s name ‘Isepia’ (Holmberg, N. 2019). Or I simply use a different language and add random words to make a visual script that doesn’t tie into the books. Perhaps using latin as that is a dead language or a language like Arabic if I just want the visual of a beautiful looking language on the back of the character. I will need to experiment with this in ZBrush.
:: Production ::
As with the other parts of my character, I began with the Maya block out I had made previously (Fig.1) This was the first body part I worked on, and so I naturally ran into many issues with using ZBrush that comes from inexperience. Firstly, I found the clay build-up tool to be very cumbersome with sculpting my model, as the brush was square and blocky. Which on my quite thin block out, gave the model a cumbersome look (Fig.2). This wasn’t really an issue, I simply had to change the alpha of my clay build-up brush to a much finer point, which would allow me to draw on the model with a more precise brush (Fig.3)
Fig.1 
Fig.2 
fig.3
Next, I faced issues with using the symmetry tool. See, my model has one very long wing, which means that the silhouette of my character is in fact wider than it is tall. This meant that when working on the individual body parts the world symmetry wasn’t in the centre of the chosen body parts (Fig.4). I first tried simply manually moving the centre point to the centre of the torso (Fig.5), however this didn’t seem to affect the use of the symmetry tool.
Fig.4 
Fig.5 
Fig.6
I did find a YouTube video (Ref.5) which showed how by using the local symmetry option when each body part was selected, I could use the symmetry tool on objects which were not at the world centre within ZBrush. This allowed me to create bone structure perfectly symmetrical (Fig.6). This again, was just a small piece of knowledge that I needed to work on my specific model.
With those issues out of the way, I could start to create the bone structure of the body. While this section of the body will be almost entirely covered by the clothing, it was important to place the bones in such a way to show the characters poor health. This worked perfectly well to the front and side of the torso (Fig.7, Fig.8).
Fig.7 
Fig.8 
Fig.9
However, I do see an issue with the back of the torso (Fig.9). I do not know how well the anorexic proportions of the character will work with the brand I would like to have added. I did ponder whether I should smooth the bones, however that would add a dichotomy between the front and back of the torso so would not have been ideal. Instead of a brand, which would require raised flesh on the model I may instead give the character a tattoo. Which can be done entirely through texturing when I bring the model into Substance Painter.
With the individual body parts modelled, my next step was to merge the different subtools into one. Which would be needed for exporting the character and animating the character next semester. You can find the next steps of my process in my ‘Full Body’ post.
:: References ::
BBC News (2015) “‘Pigeon chest’ teen James Jack Stark cured of condition.” [Online Article]. Available online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-33061773 [Accessed 22/10/2021]
Bennett, C (2019). ‘What is Anorexia Nervosa?’ [Online Article]. Available online: https://www.news-medical.net/health/Anorexia-Nervosa.aspx [Accessed 22/10/2021]
Holmberg, C.N. (2019) ‘Smoke and Summons’ 47North; Unabridged edition
Pixologic ZBrush (2017). ‘#AskZBrush: “How can I sculpt on a model that is not in the center of the world using Symmetry?”’ [Youtube Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT0BqnQ_Dsc&ab_channel=PixologicZBrush [Accessed 22/11/2021]
Science Picture Co (n.d) [Product]. Fineartamerica (online selling site). Available online: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/11-anorexia-science-picture-co.html?product=poster [Accessed 22/10/2021]