High Poly Model:
The high poly models are the source for the Normal texture and the Ambient Occlusion shading that are later applied to the low poly model. Normal textures are basically explained: 2D images that are pretending to be 3D.
I will explain the modeling workflow on the mask but I will also give short insights in the other models.
I decided to make a mask after all the other high poly models of the character were already finished. So there was no sculpt concept for it but I quickly made one. The mask had to fit right into the helmet, the easiest way to archive this was to model the mask base mesh from the helmet, I then imported that base mesh in Zbrush and sculpted the concept.
Here is the finished mask concept in max. Its very rough and a lot smaller things will change in the process:
On the right you can see the blocked in high poly model on top of the sculpt.
On the left the start on the high poly mask and on the right the mesh with turbo smooth applied.
The key is to model the main shapes first and making loops that define the flow of the shapes. So often looking how the loops work with the turbo smooth applied helps a lot. After this stage I split the mesh into his elements, that makes it much easier to define the model more and making loops for the smaller shapes.
This is one of the finished elements. The red marked loops are there to define how hard the edge will be with the smooth modifier applied. The closer to the edge the more hard the edge will be. If you are into high poly modeling you may notice that this mesh is not very clean, but a clean mesh is not really needed here because in the end its only a source mesh for the normal texture and having only this few loops makes the work much faster.
This is the finished high poly mask. (on the left without Turbo smooth)
The mask on the head sculpt.
Here is a look at the head:
On the left is the head base and on the right the finished fully subdivided sculpture. Sculpting heads is not easy, gathering a lot of reference material and also studying the underlying forms like muscles and bones helps here.
This is the full high poly model:
The Hard surface stuff has been made in 3ds Max and the clothes, snake heads, hands and head in Zbrush.
