Thanks folks, I’m glad you guys like the model. It’s encouraging for someone who’s starting out and hoping to get a modeling gig somewhere.
undoz Thanks mate, the polycount was around 12 million for the high res I think. I exported a mid level resolution of about 200,000 polys and applied the displacement map.
That’s one superb looking rhino. Very nicely done! 
Sorry thread. I haven’t updated you in a while because I’ve been busy at work, I’ll try to be better from now on 
Here’s something I’ve worked on for a while on and off. It’s a Galapagos Giant Tortoise. I made it by sculpting a rough model in ZBrush, retopologising in 3DSMAX and then sculpting a detailed model in Zbrush and exporting displacement maps. The texturing was done in photoshop and rendering was done with mental ray. It’s not strictly accurate as anyone who knows anything about tortoises will know. He is rigged up for animation and I am working on a bit of a walk cycle at the moment.
[attach=172510]TortoiseWeb1600x1200.jpg[/attach]
[attach=172511]TortoiseWire.jpg[/attach]
Nice textures and sculpting!
Beautiful model and superb job on the detailing and texturing.
I’m not so sure about the thing that’s in its mouth. I can’t identify it 
Very nice work all around! I would love to see the walk cycle when you finish.
My only crit is actually on the food in the mouth, instead of the tortoise. Im not sure exactly what it is, but it seems to be cut off on the right side, or have no thickness. Super small detail, but that was the only thing i could pick out 
Stunin work,
It really deserves a top row,
Cheers
Fernando Kuhlmann
i always felt funny when i heard someone say that a sculpt looks gorgeous, but now I know what they felt when they said that. And I’d have to say that this is a gorgeous sculpt.
Oh man! Now that you point that out I see it too! The shadow has fallen right across the top of the fruit. Hahaha that sucks
edit It’s prickly pear cactus fruit BTW, yes It’s not very recogniseable
Thanks for the comments folks. Much appreciated
Great sculpts and detail. Could you share more about your detailing process?
Very impressive! I studied some of the critters from the Galapagos islands years ago when I was studying Darwin. Even though it may have some “artistic license,” it is very well done and believable. Congrats on an awesome sculpt! Can’t wait to see the animation
I’d like to second this. I am still no expert at Zbrush and i know it has power to make sculpts like this one and i just don’t know how to tap into it. I am pretty sure you didn’t go in and sculpt every single one to those scales and detail in all the cracks and ridges in the shell. Did you use alphas or a custom/specific brush? Any info on the creation process here would be VERY useful.
Amazing work BTW
This is really huge! Nice textures!
OK some more information on how it was sculpted, although I think there are many better ways to do this than how I went about it.
To do the larger scales I just masked out the shapes for each scale and then brought the scale out with the standard brush. I made a few simple alphas in photoshop for small groups of scales and some for larger groups. I then used the alphas with a standard rectangle drag brush to drag out and rotate groups of scales. I tried not to overlap them and then filled in the gaps between the scale groups by hand, just painting in the scales with mask, then bringing them out.
In nature the tortoise shell seems to be made of layers of material that build up and then harden so I tried to imitate this by using the claytubes brush and just painting strip after strip by hand and overlapping them a bit. I painted a much finer bump map in photoshop that gives the shell the finer ridges and scratches. Bump maps are great for fine details like that.
I exported cavity maps and mixed them with my displacement maps to form a base for bump maps. I mixed in painted details and edited photographic material as well. You can see that the attatched zbrush sculpt is not that great to look at but I only used it for the main displacements and then used the bump, diffuse, specular and glossiness maps in mental ray.
I hope this makes some kind of sense. If not I can try and elaborate on any specific questions.
[attach=172526]ScalesAlphaSmall.jpg[/attach]
[attach=172529]ScalesAlphaCropped.jpg[/attach]
[attach=172531]TortoiseSculpt.jpg[/attach]
Wow…stunning piece…Looking great all around… the one place I think can improve a bit would be the grass…the rest’s just amazing!
Good job on the model…
Beautiful piece… would love to see it animated
Really great thread. Everything in your sketchbook is awesome, love the details. Would like to see the tortoise’ walk cycle.
Thats one awsome turtle…Top job on texturing…
Wow, top row!
holy molly ! another great piece from you small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond
keep 'em coming !
