Finished up my most recent portfolio project. Mail goals were to showcase a character in UE5, use hair cards, and do something that might fit into a Souls-like IP.
Link to the ArtStation post for those who want a more technical breakdown: ​https://www.artstation.com/azureprops

Two major commissions came to light recently. At the end of August, the House of Black debuted the 3 gauntlets that I worked with Kiril of Flux Tide Designs on. And during DragonCon, Kyle of Cute Monster Props debuted his Lies of P cosplay. Both involved working in 3d for use on a person's body. Which is soo much different than just making something that the hands interact with, like a weapon.

For the House of Black gauntlets, I did the concepts with art direction by Flux Tide Designs, as well as all of the 3d work. The base was started on the arm that can be found in Zbrush, then adjusted for real world proportions. I was also provided the base gloves to get a better measurement of what the clients would wear and their respective size.

Each of the 3 break apart/connect with magnets for easy removal. 
Kiril handled the printing, sanding, painting and finishing of the trio. Some of the printing was done via FDM and others via resin. 

Along with those, I worked on an arm for Kyle. He provided two scans of his arm, with one focusing on this hand. He'd also attached a piece of plastic to his forearm for use in scaling. I had to do a bit of clean up and combining because neither scan would have worked as is.

To keep it comfortable, Kyle cast the bicep and parts of the hands out of a flexible material and managed to make them look metallic, which can be pretty difficult but turned out beautifully.  

​If you're interested in more in-depth look at how they made the rest of these projects, you should check out their other socials. They both post great stuff. 
​
https://x.com/FluxTideDesigns​
https://www.instagram.com/fluxtidedesigns/
https://x.com/cutemonsterprop
https://www.instagram.com/cutemonsterprops/​

On my part, I learned I need to be extra precise with the fingers. Both projects needed them adjusted/reprinted. I'm hoping to add a higher detail 3d scanned male hand to my library for future projects, just to make sure mistakes like this don't happen again.  

Took forever, but I'm finally done with the creation of this 3D kit. 
Years ago, I made a Sword of Dios resin-casted kit that was pretty popular. I feel like I sent out 1-2 of those swords a week. Even sent them off to Australia and Germany. 

Needless to say, I got burned out making them so often. And I don't really do resin kits anymore... But I've been hit up a bunch by people who thought that I had made the OG via 3d printing (sorry, totally hand sculpted ;-;) So, I had nothing to offer them, until now. 
I sculpted this in Zbrush, measuring as I went along, to try and match the dimensions as much as possible. 
3D files include the 3 pieces that make up the sword handle and then 5 pieces for the blade. It's HIGHLY recommended to use a 5mm rod to help strengthen the print and aid with alignment, as I did hollow the blade to incorporate one. 

I was brought on by my brother Carl, aka Alchemic Forms, to do the 3d work for the Porsche skin of the D.VA pistol. This would be for Alyson Tabbitha. 
Started in Plasticity and finished in Zbrush. Took about 3-4 days of digital work, with 4 main booleaned parts for easier resin printing. Carl handled the printing and finishing, with Alyson doing the final painting. 
Very happy with how this turned out. 
Currently working on a bunch of other contracts atm. Excited to show them off eventually. 

Finalized the sword design and started texturing in Substance. 
Also got pretty far on the hair cards. Still needs some polish, but GS CurveTools has made the entire process so much easier than my first attempt last year. 

One of my first characters I ever made was Clare, and I meant to do Priscilla at the time too. But she sat barely blocked-out for years. Since getting laid off in Oct, I've been trying to find personal projects to test my skills. Don't get me wrong, I love stylized animals and cartoony things, but I wouldn't mind working on some more Souls-like stuff too. 

So, I decided to revamp Priscilla as if she were a boss in Elden Ring. This could have gone two ways: naked lady monster like Melenia, or fully armored with aspects of Priscilla's Awoken-form throughout the armor. I was really inspired by Keos Masons' recent Frog/Elden Ring work, so armor it is.  

At this stage, I'm focusing heavily on silhouette, trying to bring in those Awoken elements. Like her horn, the wings, the large clawed hands, and the blades on the arms. Also trying to bring in elements of the normal Claymore "outfit" like the white hair, large shoulder pads, skirt, white pants and long silver boots. 

I've been studying a ripped model of Rennala to get a good idea in terms of how From sets up their characters, textures are done, and usual poly count. Goal is to tackle this like I'm modding the game. 

End product I'm hoping for: UE5 scene using bought environmental assets for storytelling.
 
What I'm hoping to learn from this: 
1. Pushing my sculpting further, more mastery of Zbrush
2. Adapt to From's style, less cartoony that usual stuff. 
3. Use haircards on full character for first time and implement/shade properly in UE5. 
​

I got laid off at the beginning of Oct, so I've been focusing on my portfolio. 
Latest piece is Princess Lyra, an OC by my friend Christina Gardner. 
Breakdown available on my artstation 

Just added the STL for the sculpting armature to my shop. It's V2 of the armature that I used when sculpting my Witchblade arm.

V2 has been cleaned up, since the original was made years ago, early in my 3d career. Should be easier for others to work with. 

Updating my portfolio, and I finally got some good renders of the Lady D sculpt I did for CuteMonsterProps back in 2021. 
Sculpt was done in Zbrush with these renders done in Marmoset Toolbag 4.

Don't know why I didn't think to try this earlier.
I'm working on the hand/wrist portion of the Warrior right now, which is Chrome leather. Doesn't take manipulations the same way that Veg tan does. I tested to see what was possible by hand, but the results were less than I'd hoped.   
So, stamping to the rescue. Using a ripped texture from the game, I made a black and white png, which I loaded into Zbrush, applied as an alpha to the ClayBuildup brush, drew out on a thick plane, adjusted the height and ta-da. (Make sure you have Brush > Auto Mask > Backface Mask engaged, or else it will act negatively on the back)

And I tried to press it with what I had XD

It only worked so-so. But I knew I was on the right path. I did research on legit leather presses and settled on a generic Arbor press. This guy's video really sold it for me, and I've been using his tips to adjust my own. 

I've done a variety of test using tools that normal involve the use of a hammer. It's taken a few tries, but I feel like I've figured out the best way to use the stamp with Chrome leather. While Chrome doesn't react the same way to water as Veg does, it did seem to make the impression deeper and clearer, than when I did it without. Plus, I have better luck layering the leather on top of the stamp, instead of under. So the metal square pushes against the leather itself. 

Feels good to get it working. 
I've got two more stamps currently being printed right now; one for the hand tops and one for the shoes.