It seems a common refrain but it really has been a long time since I posted work - so long that my entire user gallery went to the aether when the forums were updated with the release of ZB3.
I did this for the last Gnomon challenge ‘Portrait of a Warrior’. I wanted to do an old warrior reflecting on his past, the blood on his hands and the horrors he had witnessed. Because of the theme and the historical nature of the character (late 16th century), I wanted to go for a more painterly look, something I always felt ZB does well.
The simpler cylindrical parts of the armour were modelled in XSI, otherwise all other modelling was ZB. Because I was pressed for time, in the end I sculpted just for the camera.
The lighting consisted of two normal lights (one yellowish at upper left, one reddish at lower right) and a LightCap setup. The LightCap was similar to the setup used by Pixolator in the Ready, set, render thread with the car, except I used coloured textures rather than alphas. Only the specular channel was used with the textures to give the ‘reflections’ in the armour.
Rendering is a simple ZB BPR beauty pass with a really tiny amount of painting in Photoshop. SSS for the head and hand, reflective materials for the metals and a small amount of fibermesh for eyelashes, eyebrows and stubble. I didn’t have time for any compositing but may have a fiddle with the passes at some point. Basic background painted in Photoshop.