SONIC FAN ART

ARTIST

Alin Bolcas

SOFTWARE

Zbrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Arnold, Nuke, Photoshop

Character modeller and facial artist Alin Bolcas spent a month, on and off, sculpting this speedy fan art. “I started in Zbrush, constantly referring back to the original illustration [by Oleg Yurkov],” Bolcas explains. “When I was happy with the overall proportions and pose I used Zremesher and UV Master on everything.” He then moved into Maya and organised the scene, laying out the UVS into three UDIMS for the whole character and exporting them out. He adds: “I imported every piece back into Zbrush and pasted the UVS onto each high-resolution piece. I continued sculpting on that file with the Slash2 brush to add another pass of secondary forms, folds and sculpted fur.”

Bolcas found texturing in Substance Painter to be among the most enjoyable parts of the process, alongside using Photoshop to push the mediocre render into something more presentable by utilising tools such as Liquify, Smudge, blurs, lens flares and paint overs, always referring back to the original concept.

The work of other artists and the quality they strive for is what motivates Bolcas to continue honing his craft and learning new techniques, which he can weave into his future projects. He continues: “What I’ve found it really comes down to for me, in order to actually push past the finish line with a piece, is having a personal attachment to the character or something I want to say to the world.”