3d art

Character
Step by step: Create
a Lovecraft legend
Cthulhu 2009
I wanted to create something squid-inspired
because I like the texture and to play with scale and
colours to make a dynamic image
Chris Nichols specialises in modelling characters and creatures
I
n November of 2009 I was asked by Pixologic to
present at the Vancouver ZBrush User Event and had
some ideas to make my own version of HP Lovecraft’s
Cthulhu. I had done a sketch a while ago and dug it up to
consider modelling it. I wanted to show off some of the
strengths of the latest version of ZBrush, namely a few of
the brushes and tools and the amount of polygons it can
handle. I had about three weeks in all to model/texture and
render the scene ready for the event and wanted to try out
some things I hadn’t indulged in before, such as ZBrush’s
Polypaint for texturing and Decimation Master for
exporting hi-res meshes that have been modified to retain
their high level of detail while being under a million
polygons. All in all I was presented with some interesting
challenges, but enjoyed the project thoroughly.
Concepts
Inspiration behind the scene
To get a good idea of the design
01 possibilities I collected as much reference
material as possible, firstly of artists’ interpretations
of Cthulhu, as I wanted to see what had been done
already. Next I collected pictures of squid and various
other cephalopods to give me some ideas for shapes
and textures.
Starting with simple sketches, my
02 version of Cthulhu begins to take shape until
I’m happy with the overall look of the design. I’m not
too concerned about the colours or surface textures
as this point, but just want a good idea of what I’m
about to model.
I started out by quickly modelling a head and
03 body that I was going to use in ZBrush. I could
have used a generic base mesh, but wanted to make sure
I had edge loops in the right places so I could get the
necessary details into the face.
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