T-Rex
RRRAAAARRRRR
This is a T-Rex, it is big and scary . . . except for its arms, its arms are tiny, look at them they’re tiny why, why even bother with them. This is the third iteration of designing a T-Rex.
They’re getting more cute / cartoony over time which is probably a trend I’ll continue with for these sorts of animals.
Construction wise, this little fella was roughed out with a skin modifier, then sculpted with dynamic topology, re-topologised (using the new polybuild tool).
Two texture maps were used for the material, one to control where the scales appeared and didn’t (previously would have used vertex paint for this) and a the second map was just to created the colouring.
I’ve also started creating guide designs before starting sculpting now (these were made with pixelmater, though could potentially use the new grease pencil workspace)
The below gallery is an archive of my previous versions of T-Rex’s, oldest to newest.
Hadrosaur
This is a (new version of the) Hadrosaur, it is my favourite type of dinosaur.
This Hadrosaur is based loosely on images for Charonosaurus and Parasaurolophus and as it’s fairly bipedal in posture then it will be more towards the juvenile end of the age spectrum (according to wikipedia).
The split in the pattern of the skin and crest is controlled using ‘Vertex Paint’ and feeding this into an ‘Attribute’ node.
This fella was sculpted with dynamic topology (after sketching out a design in pixelmator) then re-topologised and then texture painted, the pattern on the skin was made with a cloud texture brush to darken patches of the surface.
Triceratops
Continuing my set of dinosaurs (and other prehistoric animals) here’s a Triceratops, pretty much the same process as those used on the T-Rex and Dimetrodon, only difference this time was adding in some ambient occlusion to make the edges of the horns and toes stand out a bit better.
process wise for creating this version
-create a guide sketch in pixelmator
rough out with a body shape with the skin modifier
sculpt with dynamic topology
re-topologised (using the new polybuild tool).
use texture map(s) to control colour and location of scales/rough skin texture
for the skin I had wanted to create a leopard or giraffe type pattern, but wasn’t able to create something that I was happy with this time, but next time Gadget, NEXT TIME.
Brontosaurus
A new dino instead of a re-work, I’ve called it Brontosaurus but it’s more of a general cartoony sauropod, as is becoming habit I created a front and side sketch as reference images to work from, mostly just used the side view.
Constructing the model followed the process of creating a vertex skeleton with a skin modifier, this was then fleshed out with a dynamic topology sculpt, this was then retopologised, when retopologising I kept in mind where I wanted the seams for uv unwrapping to go and made sure to create loops in these areas. Once retopologised I then cleaned up and added some details with a multi-res sculpt.
Lighting is from a HDRI and the skin is texture painted making more use of brushes with textures and layering colours to build up a more interesting pattern, uv unwrapping was much simpler this time with having had this in mind when retopologising and being able to largely re-use the seam layout from my recent hadrosaur re-work.
