In this workshop, Kurtis Dawe explains how you can create absolutely mind-blowing creatures that are above and beyond anyone's imagination based on real-world animals. In the first lessons, you learn how to work with references and use the anatomy of the animals to build up the base for your concept. You discover how to block out the shapes to keep the silhouette clean and accurate and do a quick retopology inside ZBrush.
After that, Kurtis goes through the process of UV-ing in Maya and demonstrates how to shade and texture your creature to achieve a realistic look in Mari. The artist also covers posing — an essential part of creature and character art that can either make your animal look like an awkward being from a child's sketchbook or turn it into a powerful jaw-dropping beast.
In the Creating an Original 3D Creature Concept course, the tutor dedicates several lessons to sculpting and polishing finer details of the design. Getting tiny little nuances right when it comes to designing creatures is crucial as weirdly positioned eyes, horns, claws, or even scales can distort the entire image and decrease the quality of the whole piece dramatically.
