Flesh and Metal Experiment (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

'd been wanting to do a horror themed render for quite a bit!


Recently I have been playing Doom Eternal, so my inspiration is the unholy union of flesh and metal. Though I don't have much time to work on this project, so I can't make the fully rigged character. That aside with only a couple of days to work with this month, its a good challenge for how fast I can make a gnarly looking thing!


I started with a base character mesh and a cube for the surgery table. I framed up the camera angle so that only have to build assets that fit in frame.

Used traditional polygon editing to make the Neck and Head mount. Used the screw modifier for the thread on the bolt. Also edited the table to have a head rest.

I then trimmed the body to fit the camera.


Filled in the holes of the torso and arms. This is to prepare for when I start sculpting later down the line.

Using polygon editing to shape up a mount for holding fluids. Attached it to the head mount.


Added a couple of knobs to the cauldron, and small details to the mounting mechanism.


Added the glass top to the fluid holder, and added mounting plates to the surgery table. With that I am done with the first day!

It's always awesome seeing process photos! I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this turns out

I had worked all through yesterday, was too tired to post an update. There's quite a bit of WIP photos built up.

I had forgotten to take a screenshot, but I imported an old skeleton ribcage and skull into the file. With the ribcage properly inserted into the body, I started making a mechanism to hold the ribcage. The blue edges are marked for the bevel modifier.


Here I removed a big chunk using Blender's sculpt mode. After I had a good chunk out, I used polygon editing plus the shrink-wrap modifier to create the metal ring around the wound.


I went to the sculpt mode, turned on Dyntopo, and when ham on the face. Just trying to make it as gnarly as possible.


The sculpt continued with efforts to unearth the ribcage where possible. After a couple hours of sculpting, I started smashing primitives together for the filter hovering over the character's shoulder hole. Used the path curve, extruded into tube thickness and ran them to wherever felt right.


Added some metal bits across the body for a bit more detail.


After the metal bits, I started the retopology work. Realllllly boring. When the character was retopo'd, I then UV unwrapping the model to prepare it for texturing.


That was it for day 2.

Today, I have spent a bunch of time texturing, that my hands were totally cramping up.

After importing the model into Substance Painter, I baked the normal map from the Sculpt to the retopo'd mesh. Keeping the detail but cutting down massively on polygon count.


I've done only one other project that had deep wounds like this, so it took quite a bit to get the wounds looking decent. Trying to get the proper brush for the blood trails was a tedious task of trying ALL the brushes with different configs. Referenced Dead space concept art for the bloody bits. As for the skin, I've done some ugly characters before. It was easy to get the skin looking gross.


Proceeded to texture the metal bits that were attached to the body. After that proceeded to the surgery table to make it nasty.


As for the experiment tools, I was going for a gross, used look. There are some visual glitches that aren't visible in the final frame.


After exporting the textures from SPainter. I imported them into the scene to check for any issues. Then fidgeted with the lighting till I got a proper setup.


With the lighting pretty much set, I started weight painting the vertex maps used for the hair particle system. I made maps for the Eyebrows, beard, Vellus, and Eyelashes.



Groomed the hair particles till they looked good.


With another hair particle system, I replaced the follicles with beads of sweat. Used another vertex weight map to determine the location of the sweat. 

With that I touched up the light sources and added volume to the scene for extra added depth in the render. I did to a small test render to make sure everything looks good. The preview had come out perfect! I won't post the preview image as it'll spoil the render.

I have the render set to 15,000 samples at 3840x5760(6K) resolution. It'll take 14 hours to render, so I'll render it overnight tonight and it'll be ready by tomorrow!

That wraps up day 3!

The detail you're putting into this is wild. Vellus hair, sweat? Fantastic. I can totally see Dead Space inspiration (flashbacks to eye needles) and love that the sculpting process seemed almost as brutal as the final result! Can't wait to see the render--

I've followed this but just now read through the whole thing. Really great work here. I have a similar project from a few years ago about Jack the Ripper & Dr Jekyll, this I will take as inspiration if I get back to it. Thanks.

Making my image I thought I had no chance of winning this contest. Now I know why!

Jeezes holy f$%ing hell this is wow.

Wow! very detailed process! Great work so far

My entry into the contest!




After the render popped out of blender. I exported it as an Open EXR format to Affinity photo. Added some noise, and just fiddled with the colors for a bit. I went for a sickly green tone. Also upped the reds a bit to make the wounds pop a bit more!

There are some things that with more time could come out better, but because of my work schedule I'll have to leave them be. For 3 full time days of work though, I am happy with the finished product.

So that's it for me! I gotta get back to work so that I can continue to eat.

What the... holy... WOW - This is incredible!

It's amazing to see what you ended up with, especially from your first statement:  
"I started with a base character mesh and a cube for the surgery table."  

Thanks for participating in the contest. And thank you VERY much for sharing your WIP images. 
It's really awesome to see how things like this are done.  

Wow what a process and the final work looks amazing.

The results from the judges are in, and your entry has been selected as an Honorable Mention.

Congratulations! Thank you for participating in the contest with this wonderful entry.
The owner of RenderHub will be in contact with you to send your prize.