The Hostess

The Hostess - LOVE DEATH+ROBOTS Fan Character Art (Episode 3 - The Witness) Inspired by the work of Alberto Mielgo. 

by Mahmud Kamal Tonmoy, Lit and Rendered in Arnold, Sculpted in Zbrush, Modeled in Maya, hair groom using Xgen, textures using Substance Painter, designer and photoshop. I remember my freshman year at the School of Visual arts, where I was discussing how one day maybe I will have the skills to make something like this with a classmate I had just met. Fast forward, I have gained the skills to be confident enough to attempt to create one of the characters from my beloved show, Love Death+Robots. 

Wireframe Render Pass.

I sculpted an initial base model in Zbrush to create a highpoly version which carries all the skin detail and also defined the facial and anatomical features in zbrush, primarily trying to capture the look and feel of the character. 

Past six months I have been learning xgen, hair simulation using nhair and wanted to utilize that knowledge to create the realistic eyelashes, I had created ptex density maps to define where the eyelashes follow and sculpted the guides to my liking. I also used the width ramp to determine the ends of the eyelash's width.

Arnold Render and lighting

Ambient Occlusion Pass Render.

After the UV process in Maya, I baked the highpoly sculpt on the lowpoly version of the base body to achieve the skin detail on the texture map. I used several procedural and hand painted techniques to create the skin shader and the painted stylized look on the face. Then I did additional shading using AiStandard Shaders, and AiStandard hair for Arnold. 

I also utilized mash and a bit of python scripting to create the feathers as cards and randomize them within Maya. If I had the time, I would love to rig the model too, I believe, this would be a beautiful facial rig for animators to play with.

Mood Board. Very important for the initial phase of any project. I always require reference for hand topology or legs, but I am getting used to it.