The action will take place in the past. Caius could look like a Roman but it is not really one (his sword and his armour do not fit with the style). This character is the first of three main characters of a wedding which will gather: Caius – mother nature – a child.
It is a personal project which is currently under development. I hope to have time to finish it this year.

Used Software

Cinema 4D 10 for modeling and lighting.
Bodypaint for the unfolding and the addition of details on textures.
Zbrush 2 was used  to add details in basic modeling and texture. The cinema4d’s Hair module was useful for me to create hairs.

Modeling

Before starting, I collect a lot of information about the human body on the web or by buying books on the anatomy. For modeling I started from a cube which I gave the basic shape of the human body.

I use the following tools: extrudes, knife, move, rotate, smooth.

There I start to give more details to the body, It takes a lot time and patience to place each polygon:

Details

There I start to tackle modeling to add more details. I use the same tools as well as a good amount of patience.

I start with the hands:

Then the feet:

Modeling the face I used photos as a reference as to have the correct  proportion.

On the pictures below body modelling detailed shows:

The modeling of the body being finished, I gave him an armour.

Texturing

For the unfolding, I used bodypaint by making seams in order to flatten my coordinates uvw as well as possible. Then I weld all the maps to avoid having joints in the texture.Before I continue I give him eyes cut from a picture.

After, I go to ZBrush to add small details that will give more realism to the character:

Back to ZBrush, I create a basic texture then I add details with Bodypaint and make some adjustment in Photoshop.

To give a little more realism to the skin, I use the Vreelskin plugin. http://www.vreel-3d.de/plugins/VreelSkin/links.html I haven’t  activated the translucency effect yet to save render time. For the hair, I use the cinema4D Hair plugin and I brush my hairs to get the desired result. This module is really great and fast it gives very good results in no time.

Lighting and Rendering

For lighting, I used a three point lighting . The main light is a area light with area shadow. The two others are omni with soft shadow. I also use a very weak GI and some ambient occlusion (for the skin this one is in shades of red)

Profile: http://xanderpiou.3dm3.com/
Portfolio: http://www.3dm3.com/portfolio/
Talk about this Making of on our Forum >>

About me

My name is Alexandre De oliveira, I am 31 years old. I am Portuguese and I live in a beautiful country which is called France. At this time I am still a hobbyist but I will become a professional in 2008. I started to learn the 3D as autodidact in 2001 with cinema4D 5, with the help of the French Cinema4D community: http://www.frenchcinema4d.fr/

Release 8 was a huge evolution for me, it really helped to get my ideas on screen.

e-mail: liquidlighta@aol.com