The first Zbrush-project I followed from day one. It is an inspiration to see you come up with a great concept, and then stick to it till the glorious end. Will there be any High-res images available? And if not, I’m with Jason; could we get a poster? Thanks for this exciting thread!
Woa! Thank you people for your enthousiastic responses. I would love to sell posters, but this thing is not over yet. Deadlines and clients kept me away from it for the whole week, so the post production painting stage in ZBrush goes rather slowly. This is yet another part that is done.
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘32707’,‘JugglerPainted.jpg’,1,0))
Dude! Im beggining to admire you 
Keep it up!! Gotta see the final piece!!!
Apsogo.
Andreas
Oh what a wonderful work!
I admire you 
did I mention
This is the required by the CG Challenge turn table for the main character, the Fool. It was created as a psd sequence, using ZBrush.
Another part of the image has been modified, using the 2.5D tools and brushes in ZBrush. Shadows are not in place yet.
This is reduced about 25% of the original size. You can also see a sample of the unmodified multi-render. All of that noise on the materials, gives me a very rich ground to work on.
Don’t forget to check out the turntable animation of the Fool model, in the post right above this one! 
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Spectacular thread, I’d be interested in owning a print too. It’ll be fascinating to see to what degree the heroic hermit irradiates his surroundings.
…its in this post-production painting that your talents realy show, Mytholon !
I believe you mostly use-or used- Photoshop for post-production !..is ZBrush just as good to use for this sort of work ?..so far its looking fantastic
jantim
Another large part of the image is done! There is very little left to do. Hopefully it will be done by tomorow.
jantim:[color=DimGray] I am commited to finish this piece using only ZBrush (except for the layered render compositing part). So the whole post production stage is done using the 2D tools of ZBrush. When doing this kind of post production painting I use only one layer, even when I am in photoshop, and I like the brushes in Zbrush better. I will compose a tutorial on my technique, as soon as the challenge is over 
[color=Yellow]Antimorph: Thanks. The hermit’s irradiating persona was a pain, because he was stealing the show. So I had to desaturate him a lot, and lower his contrast.
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘32975’,‘Post4.jpg’,1,0))
Looking beautiful. My poster’s desirability is growing rapidly!
Fantastic postwork!!!
Lemo
With this two parts, I am done with the post work in ZBrush. There are only a few more color corrections to be done, but I will do those in photoshop. The image is almost finished. It will probably be ready by tomorow.
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘33014’,‘Post5C.jpg’,1,0))
Better and better! Good luck with the competition!
Man, you must be at least a líttle bit proud of this work!! Can you give an estimate of the number of hours you put in this?
And I would like to know what you used for techniques in this post-rendering phase. I understood the building of models and the rendering of the composition, but then you made it al painting-like, which I really love, but can you tell us why you did that? (for instance to create a certain style) And also: how you did that? 
Finally it is over. I worked on this on and of, since the beggining of March.
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The image is called Tarot Odyssey. It is about the journey through life, towards destiny, as it is described by the symbols of the Tarot cards.
The protagonist of this image is card 0, the Fool. He represents the simplest state of a human being at the beginning of life’s journey. He is a youth without money, power, experience or intellect. He is a naive but adventurous character who is about to embark on a dangerous voyage, facing kings, queens, and the powers of the Tarot cosmos.
There are many things to worry about during the journey: the Tower, the Judgement and even the Devil himself who keeps an eye on the wayfarer from the beginning of the journey, seeking for the opportunity to trick him into failure.
However, the journey is not without helpers (the Hermit), rest points (Temperance), or delights (the Lovers). But it is a journey with a mysterious and unpredictable conclusion, as the path of life ends up on the spiral Wheel of Fortune.
Also, notice that The Death card is placed right at the starting point of the journey, because it symbolizes an end and also a beginning. Perhaps this is a cyclic journey, a never-ending endeavour to reach a constantly unveiling destiny.
As far as technique goes, I wanted to try and see how far Zbrush would take me, so I committed myself to use it exclusively for the creation of this image (except for the compositing of rendered passes, done in photoshop).
PS: Coming Soon: Post Production Painting tutorial 
what took you so long
a beautiful piece of work, I commend you for it and the dedication to complete it.
if it had been me, it would be sitting in the WIP graveyard with so much of my work.
Top row.
Love the attention to detail and the reasoning behind the work.
El-d
Wonderful piece and an excellent example of ZBrush’s strengths. The characters and whole concept are marvellous; I particularly like the depth and grand scale. With so much emphasis on ZB’s modeling and texturing side it would be easy to forget what a great program it is for (what is ultimately) 2D art if it wasn’t for generous posts such as yours. I find the whole 2D + 3D side of ZB fascinating (as I expect you’ve guessed). So thank you, and I look forward to the postwork tutorial.
So how about Sir Percival and the Quest for the Holy Grail as your next work?
Incredible work
I am myself working on 2.5 illustrations right now for my comic but I need to say this is just awesome.
Will be waitng impatiently for your tutorial.
Apart from my earlier praise: it also has style!! Love you’re 5D principle, and am looking forward to the tutorial! But first, put you’re feet up and grab a beer, you deserved it! 