Recreating Spider-Man 2099 Using ZBrush & KeyShot

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Leonardo, I'm a 3D artist currently working with collectibles/3D printing and living in Portugal. I started my path in 3D through a degree I took in Fine Arts, where I was introduced to ZBrush. Soon after, an interest in deepening my knowledge in the area arose and I stumbled upon a website called ArtStation where one of the first works that caught my attention was that of the great Rafael Grassetti. From there it was a big snowball where names like André Castro, Rafa Sousa, Damien Guimoneau, Marco Plouffe, Kevin Cassidy, and Igor Catto emerged throughout my research and still remain as pillars and references in my daily life.

The Spider-Man 2099 Project

So the idea to carry out the Spider-Man project came up after going to the cinema to see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. I was completely in love with the character as soon as he entered the scene. I loved the way they applied the new design to it and thought it fit the story perfectly. Needless to say, I was so excited about it that I decided to make one for my portfolio. Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero character since I was little and I always wanted to make a realistic version, so it was one more excuse to start the project right away.

As far as the concept is concerned, I simply looked for collectibles already on the market and also looked for a lot of 2D art to be able to have a better idea of how I could perform the best interpretation of the character in a realistic version without losing the essence of the animated film with a more stylized look.

Modeling

So going a little further into the development of the project itself, I started by trying to find and understand what would be the best proportions to assign the sculpture, bearing in mind how it would look on film. So something that was very much in the direction of a bodybuilding athlete. I started by sculpting the proportions and anatomy all right so that I could then move on to the refinement of the suit.

For the detail of the suit, I used masks to be able to extrude and thus create a separate mesh and thus be able to create several layers of depth to the suit giving a more realistic look, even treating it as if it were in fact a suit that I would be making in real life.

For refinement, I used brushes like Chisel, DamStandard, and some sewing brush presets.

For the head, it was more of the same, with the exception that I used the DynaMesh feature more to perform some detail, namely the strips around the mask.

As for the blades and other hard-surface parts, they were created using DynaMesh and the TrimDynamic brush, which I love and use whenever possible.

Retopology & Texturing

The project was all detailed in ZBrush, not only through the brushes I described above but also using several alphas of metal and also alphas for the first layer of fabric. I also chose to perform the retopology and unwrap everything in ZBrush through ZRemesh and the UV Master plugin.

The most challenging part to detail was without a doubt the blue straps along the body. It was difficult for me to try to figure out what to do in this specific case since there aren't many examples out there of this specific genre. I made the decision to improvise a little and leave the concept aside.

Rendering

As for the render, I took it to a program called KeyShot and rendered it there. I really like this program because of the way light reacts with materials, it gives a very realistic feel and gives overall strength to the project.

Soon after, I made the transition to Photoshop, following and closing with a final treatment in which we highlighted the color/light and played with the general feeling of the project.

I think the trick will be to make the character very present in the scene, showing all the work done on him and also accentuating the feeling you want to convey to the viewer.

Conclusion

This project lasted 15 days, including sculpting, rendering, and Photoshop treatment.

My advice to new artists looking to get started in 3D is to take things easy. Little by little we are moving in the right direction and discovering ourselves as artists, thus defining the message and feeling that you want to convey with your projects and your art.

Leonardo Azevedo, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie