Making of the Steam Master - Next-Gen Game Headby Sorin Lupu


Level 04 Zbrush

Starting from the level 4 subdivision, I start adding the details. I’ll try to add some symmetry to the face to give it a natural, realistic look. I’ll use this level to start texturing. The most important plugins here are Image Plane and Texture Library together with. Most of you are probably familiar with those so I won’t go into more details. You can use Zbrush’s website for more details on these plugins. www.zbrushcentral.com.


Level 05 Zbrush

I won’t add further details to the geometry until I’m satisfied with the texture. One big advantage to working both geometry and texture in Zbrush is that you can have the same level of details on both. Also, you’ll know when to stop adding details into the hires mesh.

For this head, I used a lot of alpha brushes to add different surface details. I used skin textures to create them. The target for the Zbrush generated textures is 2048x2048, but the final texture to be used ingame is 1024x1024. I won’t add any more details so I won’t have details that are finer than one pixel.


Lev. 06 Zbrush

Next step is the hood. I’ll use the same workflow I used for the head. The neck area is a particular hard area, as reference is hard to find for this type of hood. This is where improvisation comes into play. Just remember to keep everything looking as realistic as possible.


Hood Lev. 02



I won’t add the weave texture in Zbrush as it will probably be lost when I resize the textures from 2048 to 1024.

Last but not least are the goggles. The metal parts were pretty much done when I exported them from Maya, so I’ll concentrate on the leather. One important thing to remember is that the leather strap is tightly strapped to the head, so it should look accordingly.