Crafting Cyberpunk Android Medic Character With ZBrush & Cinema 4D

With experience in multiple major film productions, Ryan J. Close spends his free time exploring his fascination with humanoid androids, working with tools like ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Substance 3D Painter. One of his recent projects features a damaged humanoid robot medic, and he kindly shared some insights into the production process.

Basing the design on the damaged medical android from the Raised By Wolves TV series, the artist was looking to create an unfinished or damaged android, which opens up new ideas to explore, such as its purpose and the cause of its damage. It also provided Ryan with an opportunity to dive deeper into sculpting facial expressions using ZBrush, which he sees as one of his toughest challenges.

Ryan started by customizing a base mesh using DamStandard, Pinch, and Move brushes to sculpt facial details. He placed small bolts to emphasize the cyborg look and used shape alphas to block out the neck areas.

Inspired by The Creator, Ryan added an extruded mechanical design to the back of the head using live Boolean for dynamic shape cuts and enhanced the look with kitbash assets like canisters, tubes, and inserts for added detail. Turning off symmetry was intimidating but crucial for achieving the facial asymmetry needed for a realistic look. He then used the DamStandard and Inflate brushes to sculpt creases and wrinkles.

Finally, Ryan exported the mesh with UVs from ZBrush to Substance 3D Painter, where he added skin color, decals, and wear and tear. The artist enhanced his Redshift render by adding a top light with cables, surgical light to the scene, and kitbash assets to highlight the machine elements. Ryan also used atmosphere lighting for presence and added dust with Cinema 4D's particle system, rendered on a separate pass for compositing.

The final step was to add a heads-up display with a custom user interface. The artist is now creating a series of android busts and plans to add a UI to tie them together, giving a sense of the futuristic world they belong to. Read the full article here and check out Ryan J Close's portfolio by clicking this link.

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