This was a joint effort between me and another student, Hanna Chou, for our final project for our VFX II class- a short utilizing a mysterious force.
For the 3D modeling aspect, I handled modeling and texturing our tardigrade model, while Hanna rigged and animated the model. For our visual effects, I handled organizing the practical effects for our shots and making our clean plates, and Hanna was responsible for compositing in the animated tardigrade and editing together the final video.
Breakdown & Turnaround
Tardigrade Model
To make the tardigrade model, I started off with my base mesh, which I UV unwrapped based on the little segments/separations that tardigrades naturally have, before I brought it into ZBrush and subdivided my mesh to get enough detail to sculpt. I wanted to avoid using ZBrush’s Dynamesh and rely on subdividing, so I could keep my UV unwrapping accurate even if the mesh was subdivided multiple time and avoid having to redo my unwrapping.
After sculpting, I took my sculpted Mesh and reduced the subdivisions to get my Low Poly Mesh, before bringing it into Substance Painter to texture.
Before texturing, I baked the sculpted mesh onto my Low Poly Mesh to get my normal map, and then started adding texture to the model.
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