This project was inspired by a Netflix TV show called "Wednesday". I tried to recreate the character "Thing". My goal was to make an animation where Thing steps into the gum. I started out with a 3d scan of a hand and started to modify the scan to my preference in Zbrush
After creating an asset I had to retopologize the hand for rigging and better performance as the original polycount was 2 mil polys. I used "Instant Meshes" software to quickly retopo the hand
After retopo, I follow the High to Low poly workflow, where I project high poly details to the low poly retopologized mesh. I split the hand to create different polygroups for a UV unwrap as I want to use multiple UV islands.
After projecting, I export the displacement map from Zbrush and import the model into substance painter for texturing
I added several layers of dirt, purple color to the tips of the finger, and dried blood around the scars. Checked if everything looks good with IRay inside of the Substance Painter. For the next step, I import the hand into Maya where I start rigging and animating
After I'm done with the animation, I need to add the gum into which the "Thing" is going to step in. For this task I used Houdini
For the gum-like substance, I decided to use vellum grain, which allows for stretching and fluid-like behavior. After that, I exported the alembic file and imported it back into Maya.
As for the render engine, I decided to use Vray, quickly set up the materials in Hypershade, and added 2 cameras and lighting into the scene. The next step was to export the EXR sequence into DaVinci Resolve where I was able to color-grade the shots.
For the final step, I imported the color-graded sequence into Premiere Pro where I compiled the footage and added sound design
That's it, thanks for reading!
