HCM #30: Classic Movie Poster - Aliens

#1

Hey everyone, got a bit of time for myself so time to have some fun with a hardcore modeling challenge :slight_smile: I’m gonna go with something from Aliens.

Poster inspiration :

http://akira.ruc.dk/~aovesen/images/aliens.jpg

#2

The concept I am going for requires a Queen, Ripley, Newt and some nasty Alien eggs and a creepy infested room. Jumping right into it I started out with the Queen. Jumping from Zbrush to Max working with the basemesh. Been taking screenshots along the way posting em shortly.

#3

So here we go, I started out in Zbrush working with Zspheres. They are fast and fun to work with and gives a good insight into proportions of the creature your working on.

Zsphere Queen:

Next up the adaptive skin:

Then I took the adaptive skin and exported it to Max, so I could split up the mesh in smaller parts, my laptop is no beast so 8 million points not an option for me. Tail, leg, body, I also extruded the polys on the tail:

Next up was blocking out the headplate, making it rather blocky in max and then exporting it all to Zbrush and tweaking it there:

Back in Zbrush I tweaked the headplate into shape using the movebrush mostly and also added a face created from Zspheres and sculpted into shape. The face template I used in max to make a more suitable basemesh:

Exporting everything back to Max I was now ready to model the face using the template. Also added the backspikes:

The end product a Queen basemesh, ready for tweaking in Zbrush and later the fun part of sculpting:

#4

I’ve spent most of the day working on the queen so here is the updates from Zbrush tweaking and a bit of sculpting. Been using the move-brush to tweak the proportions and inflate to add some of the larger details. starting on low subdivs working my way up in divs. Tomorrow I will continue with the sculpting, hopefully all the way to getting details done.

Zbrush tweaking:

And some sculpting done:

#5

Sleep is overrated, so I decided to do a little more sculpting. Here is the latest update.

#6

Holy crap slow down!

Lol looking cool. You really tackled that efficiently. Keep it up!

-rage

#7

Rage I cant slow down haha, its been too long since I had time to model and sculpt. And I am having a good time so going along as fast as my skills allow :slight_smile: I’ve used the Uv-master plugin and exported disp+ norm map to make a fast test in Max to see if all is good.

Next up was some more sculpting and I recon I am just about ready to start the high def sculpting details.

#8

Interesting work, I like the progress. It will be great if you can show more references for the aliens, as in the Poster I can’t find the overall creature, just to see how could be the composition for the final piece. Nice start! again…

#9

Yeah, its a good idea David, I’ll cook something up asap so you can get an idea what I am going for :slight_smile:

#10

Its never really easy to project a picture in your mind, but I tried to visualize the concept in Max. Here is what I am aiming at:

I had a funny idea, while doing it, something else might be hatching from the eggs, maybe a head of someone lol. well just a thought passing by.

I’d appriciate any feedback/crits on this concept.

#11

Here is the lastest sculpt update. I think its time to try and export everything and see how it looks in max. Will post when I am finished.

#12

Off to a really good start, does the queen have the spikes on the top of her head? The bust below is made by weta and I think that is the “official” alien but I am not sure. If so I think the back of her head comes up instead of curving down, other then that looking pretty good.

#13

Thanks for the ref matey, I have worked from a couple of refs, so thats why it doesnt follow the weta model, which by the way looks way cool. I’ll adjust the curve I think your right about that. Here is the plate ref I used for my model it has the spikes, I have to watch the movie again :slight_smile:

And the 3d max test, which seemed to go without too much hassle with the maps:

#14

Awesome progress so far, especially on The Queen! This is one of my favorite movies!

#15

I did what Chris suggested and made the headplate come up more towards the back here is the result:

#16

Not much done today, just got to play a bit with the environment and lights. So not much of a upgrade, but maybe a somewhat better idea about what kind of a scene I am going for.

#17

Did some more work on the environment:

considering its easter, I think I will start the eggs next :slight_smile:

#18

If you angle the alien slightly to HER right (stage left) then you will see more of the detail on the leg… and then I guess move her head a bit left (stage right) so she is again looking at the humans. It’d be a shame to sculpt all that leg detail then not see it :slight_smile:

#19

awesome model love it! good luck

#20

good progress here - you’ve chosen quite a complicated one, keep going :arteest: