Gorilla Centaur #1
There has been a project that I have had on my mind for quite some time now, and I have decided it was about time to give it a go! I will be documenting my process throughout this project as I work to create a gorilla centaur in 3D. Let's get started, shall we?
The first step I need to take is brush up on some anatomy, both gorilla and human.
I was instantly inspired when I found some images for the gorilla anatomy. The muscle structure conveyed so much power and strength that gives the gorilla its fearsome appearance. I was somewhat shocked to find that the skeleton of the gorilla has so much gesture to it, so I knew drawing this creature was going to be alot of fun. Being that this project is so early in the works, I decided to draw some studies, and also started adding the human form on top to start roughing out what I see in my head.
One challenge I have found right off the bat is figuring out how the bodies combine. Mainly, how I combine the shoulders of the gorilla with the "hips" of the human. I want this character to be able to stand upright on two legs if it needs to stand extra tall for asserting dominance or reaching up higher. My plan is to draw as much as possible some different ideas for how that may look. The face as well will be another design challenge. My story (in bold below) so far tells that these creatures were hacked together from a normal human and a normal gorilla, however if scientists are trying to create new creatures from these two, they are probably messing with the DNA right? That way these creatures literally become a new species so I imagine that both the gorilla side and the human side might take on properties of each other. So for the face, I may have to meld a gorilla into the human face somehow. I want this character to be a warrior, so his face has to be mean. So I think for research, I will look at some Orks, and I am also thinking a good place to start will be to look at the design of the Klingons from the Star Trek reboot. I will have to make sure to stay true to the gorilla side of him, so of course I will be making sure to see how Gorillas function as a culture. Alpha gorillas are pretty intimidating as is.
I also had to start thinking about the story of this character and how he came to be. This will, in turn, give me direction on what sort of armor he may be wearing as well as weapons. The story so far is simple, but it's a start!
I imagine this creature is an abomination of science, and a testament to how curiosity can go to far over the line. These creatures are cross bread in a lab and are set loose on acres and acres of land. This land is broken up into several different biomes, where each biome holds different experiments that have been designed to live there. These habitats interact with each other, some are friendly, but some (such as our gorilla centaur) are very territorial and do not get along with other mutations. Scientists observe how these experiments interact, how they evolve, and how they survive. The creatures are all given access to different materials that they make weapons and tools from. The human side of these mutants were once regular people from all across the world, before they were abducted and sewn together with other animals of the wild.
My plan will be to create the high poly sculpt in Zbrush for the normal maps, create the retopology and the uv maps inside of 3D Coat, And perhaps experiment with Substance Painter to get a good texture for both the skin of the gorilla and the human and how they mesh together. The hair will be fun. I see two paths that I may take, either i work with hair cards throughout the model or I can do the nifty trick of creating the hair inside of Zbrush, style it, and then export those curves out into maya and create a hair system from those curves. That method is great for getting realistic looking hair, but it will be more taxing on the system with the amount of hair this model will call for. I will see at that point after more research which path I would like to take. For the final posing, I will take the model into Zbrush and use Transpose master to get that working. I will probably want to get my final pose done after I retopo and uv the model, and before I start creating the textures.
The next step for me is to keep drawing and refining the final structure and silhouette of the character. I will also be researching some ideas for clothing and armor, tattoos, hairstyles, and weapons. Now it is time to go to the zoo! I will have some more on my process in my next post, until then I must remind myself to trust in the process. My goal is that next month at this time, I will have a character sheet together so that I can begin the sculpting process.
Until next time!
-Ean
