CG Red Bull Sculpt

'Red Bull' Bull

In this post I will be explaining the making of one of the characters for our third year collaborative 'pipeline' project: The Red Bull bull. 

Our project was based around an advert. Our team chose to do a 'Drink Aware' advert, where the red bull and the Jagermeister stag get into a bar fight and things go horribly wrong. The idea was based off the 'Jagerbomb' and the effects it has on people, with a little exaggeration for creative purposes.

This is the final textured sculpt of the Red Bull. It was based off the Aurochs Bull, though I changed the proportions dramatically to fit the old Red Bull logo. His shoulders had to be much bulkier to give him more of a presence when charging the giant stag. In hindsight I probably wouldn't have made them quite so large and steroid enhanced, and I would have made the horns larger and more prominent.

I started in zBrush, a program I hadn't used before. I watched many online tutorials to ascertain the best way to go about sculpting a bull. Eventually I started with a zSphere. zSpheres are handy to create a quick manikin of the character or creature that you can sculpt on top of later on. 

I started by pulling the neck out and adjusting the sizes. I changed the proportions properly once all the spheres were in place.

   This is the basic sphere mesh I started with. I only added the basic joints needed to get the form. In hindsight, I would have put more spheres throughout the body so I would have more control over the overall shape (e.g. the tail need far more than one single sphere pulled out to resemble a tail. I should have done more joints, and added the hair tuft onto the bottom). zSpheres are useful when the character/creature is being sculpted into a pose, as they allow you to use them as a sort of skeleton for posing before the mesh is finalized.

I changed my basic sphere skeleton into mesh using the adaptive skin method. This meant I could now sculpt into it. I used the move tool to pull the form into a better shape, and then began sculpting.

This is the quick sculpt I came up with. The legs were too thick, he was a bit too fat and his head was too boxy. I went back and altered the proportions again.

This was the second attempt at the sculpt. I liked this one better, as he seemed more top heavy and ready for barging stags out of the way. The legs however were then too thin. I was happy with the amount of muscle definition i'd gotten in though, as I spent a long time looking through bull and cow muscle structures and trying to replicate them. 

This is the finalized bull sculpt before the textures went on. I went through the muscle structure again, and played with the proportions after a friend pointed out he needed to be larger at the front than I have previously made him, and that the curve of the spine needed to be more pronounced.

I then retopologised using zRemesher, unwrapped in Roadkill and then rigged him in Maya. I will go through these methods later, along with the alternatives, including 3D unwrap, Topogun and the different rigging/skinning methods.