Inspiration

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Initially, I was looking for any interesting character I could do. This sketch (Courtesy of Christine Houle) is really what got me inspired into making some kind of joker-style, creepy and smiling character. The bigger than nature smile was something I wanted to put forward since it's really making the character’s personality. With that in mind, I used Mudbox to do a quick 3d sketch to get a better idea of what I was looking for. Once finished, I could start the real thing


Modeling

When I did the 3D sketch I didn't care at all about having a good topology and clean model. The only thing I was working was the shape and I didn't want to lose myself starting to get both of these things right at the same time. Shape and then topology, not both together. I used ZBrush to completely retopologize my model with a good topology. Once done, I took it back to Mudbox and got all the details back to my new and clean model. Eyebrows,  nose and mouth were the most important features to get a good expression out of this character. At first I wanted to put some exageration but also realism and at the end, the exageration (mostly of the smile) suffered a bit from the realism desired.

Texturing

Mudbox was really fast and usefull for that. It gaves me the opportunity to paint 4k textures maps in real time which saved a lot of time. It was my first time using this software and I was totally impressed by its jaw-dropping features: very high poly count processing, ability to paint 4k textures in real time with custom brushes, mask, and stuff on different layers such as diffuse, specular, gloss and bump. You can also have depth of field and fake occlusion real time! This software is completely crazy. I'm in love. Don't tell my girlfriend. Photo references were used to get the skin layer done. I separated this layer from the white make up, red lips and dark-purple eyes layers. You've got to be aware that the preview renders you get in mudbox will probably be a lot different than what you'll get in a render software. There's a lot of different factors resulting in different renders. I got all the textures layers separately to be able to easily edit them afterward to get the best results.

Shading

I used the Sub Surface Scattering shader for the skin and this shader is splitted into different textures for ‘Overall’, ‘Epidermal’, ‘Subdermal’, etc. I used photoshop to quickly color correct the merged textures layers from Mudbox and get them a correct tint. The ‘epidermal’ layer needs something light and soft while the ‘Subdermal’ needs something more reddish an darker. The ‘Overall’ is kind of the big texture multiplier on top and is usefull for controlling the overall feeling of the shader. In the process of getting all these layers of textures working I tried really aiming at the render result more than the textures themselves. Some of my textures are very ugly if you'r looking at them alone, but if you mix them with the rest, they work quite well. I believe that the only thing that matters is the final result and that trying to get every steps beautiful can be quite a lost of time. I decided to get a skin shader fully working before going into the makeup.

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