Robin Hood -wip

For my first official 3D model outside of school, I wanted to start off with a simple cartoon character, then go more realistic. Finally I had time to learn ZBrush and create, texture, light, and render completely in it. I picked this cool Robin Hood character concept because of the simple and appealing shapes. He has a little bit of everything I was able to practice with: hair, not too long; clothes that don’t flow too much like robes, capes, dresses, etc.; a few armor pieces so I can experiment with metal textures; overall minimal design.

I had thought it was a good idea to start with cartoony and work my way up to more realistic, but I soon realized that, just like in animation, cartoon is more difficult than realism. :O It’s simpler, which means more parts have to be smooth, clean, and precise. For realism, including humans, monsters, demons, etc., you’d think that all the skin wrinkles, cloth folds, thin hair, and so on would be more detailed with more work. But I’m starting to see that those features may actually be easier in a way, because you can go more organic in sculpting them since they are imperfect. It is also the same in illustration—a realistic oil painting usually consists of quick brush strokes, whereas cell shaded cartoon needs clean lineart. And when designing a character in caricature, you must speak a language that realism doesn’t have. Can’t wait to finally add some monsters and demons and such to my repertoire—it would be a refreshing change of pace from all the cartoony models I had to do for school.

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Concept by Masters of Anatomy.
Work-in-progress last updated 2017 July 28.