top of page

 Likeness Model

details & breakdown

Story

This piece was my done as my first complete sculpt from ZBrush to Maya, topologized and textured and finally rendered.

 
The time I made this, I had only done one or two human sculpt and was still very new to ZBrush.  It was very intensive learning experience and I was introduced to many things at once: cloth modeling, painting fine displacement pores and skin textures,  XGen grooming, and the essentials of capturing a person's likeness.

This project helped push me forward and force me to grow and learn at a faster pace than usual.

Poly Model Specifications

  • low poly face 18k tris (22k with eyes)

  • high poly face 300k tris

Software Utilized

Modeling

  • Autodesk Maya (topology and rendering)

  • ZBrush

  • Marvelous Designer (clothing setup)

Texturing

  • Photoshop

  • Texturing XYZ

  • Substance Painter 3D

  • Mari

Rendering

  • VRay (Maya)

Progression

Screenshot 2026-06-26 172830_edited_edit

The sculpt started from a simple sphere.  From there, I focused on simple things such as the basic face shape, the placement of the eyes overall, the basic nose shape and position, etc.

​

There was a struggle when details started being implemented and after a while, I moved away from symmetry and into the asymmetry and characteristics that made the person unique.

Topology

Eye model anatomy

eye1_edited.jpg

In order to resemble reality, the eyeball models are broken up to resemble the anatomy of a real eye: the cornea, the iris, the pupil, the tear duct, and a tear-line.  

The eyeball and the cornea are two separate spheres with the cornea having a dome to help with the refraction.  The pupil is separated from the rest of the eye, shaped as an inverted disc within the eye, and set to a rough, black texture to help with depth.

Textures are from real eye-scan data to help portray realistic detail of the fibers and veins of the iris and the sclera. A ramp node in the shader is used to create a limbus to help the soft transition between the two.

A tear-line around the eyes to help capture more specular and help give life to the model as well.

XGen Groom

Micro-detailed pores painted in Mari, can be seen on the untextured render with groom.
The groom was originally tested out in Yeti but I moved over to XGen as the final result in Yeti felt flat.

The grooms were made from many layers: the hair was partitioned by top, sides, and back with an additional layer for the buzz cut.  Afterwards were additional layers for fly-aways and baby hairs.

The moustache had three different layers: the sides, the fine hairs, and the middle.

Peach fuzz, eyebrows, eyelashes, and stubble all had their own XGen descriptions respectively.

bottom of page