Term 2 - Week 2 - T-Rex in Mudbox

So we had a lecture quickly giving us a tutorial in how to use Mudbox and it's tools. Then in lesson we started on a T-Rex model. We used the basic T-Rex pre-set that comes with Mudbox. So first thing to do was look at examples of T-Rex's, and also I wanted to take real life lizards and some different scale or skin types too.

I wanted to make my version quite 'realistic' in terms of colouring and also body structure. I started by experimenting with the tools and building up the base muscle groups onto the basic mesh. I added new layers, upping the resolution a bit to make the more detailed parts.

After I got done with the main sculpting I went to Photoshop to create some greyscale brushes out of scale textures/pictures so I could use them as bump maps. I then applied them using the stencil feature and a bump map paint layer. I used smaller scales on the sunken and main parts of the body, increasing the stencil size to create larger scales over the more bulbous areas like the thighs or shoulders. Then I got a different scale texture for the face, making sure I would get the rounded large scales around the eyes, nose and mouth like a real lizard does. I then continued stenciling this larger scale all the way down the top of the back and down the tail.

I then refined a few details like the teeth, gums and around the eyes. Also I added more detail for both the feet and hands, and along the bony structure I had created along the spine.

After that I gave it multiple paint layers, all slightly different shades, making sure they were slightly lighter around the face and underside. I used a template 'splatter' looking brush to paint these on with.

I then added all the final paint layers to the main body, made the underside much lighter and added some stripes. I added paint for all the details of the face like the teeth, gums, eyes and bony structures and claws. I also painted most of the specularity out to leave, the protruded areas (where the skin would be thinner) slightly shiny, the harder scales, gums and eyes to be the shiniest. 

Here's some pictures of the finished product including some areas of detail.

I enjoyed my first experience with Mudbox and thought I took to this sort of organic modelling better than I first expected. I did make a few errors though. I realised quite far into doing the detail for the face that every time I upped the resolution, it was for the whole body. In reality I needed just the resolution upping for very selected bits, which I didn't know how to do, but will make sure I do for the future. Also, because of this the resolution in the face wasn't necessarily as high as I wanted and therefore some painted parts and the main mesh did look stretched. I also realised after finishing the eyes and teeth that general practice would be to sculpt those parts as separate entities and that would mean I wouldn't have so many resolution problems in terms or stretching etc.