A storyboard as an introduction into Nuae´s world and his city Altham.
Concept
My goal was to create a daredevil-kind of character whose job as a "face fetcher" - collecting faces (identities, souls) - disrupts the natural order of life and death.
I was inspired by the concept of masks symbolizing identity, scepter-like staffs symbolizing a higher power, elements of folklore as well as the overal-feel, light-footedness and silhouette of dancing shamans and their traditional color schemes.
Making Of
I posed the body and started with a sculpt of Nuae´s head.
I used spheres and the Bend Curve Function in Zbrush to create stylized hair.
I used the Extract Function to generate lowpoly geometry for the clothing and got started on sculpting realistic folds.
Finished Sculpt
I then colored Nuae in Zbrush according to my initial character design.
To make the character come alive, I added a few animated frames of him striking down at the viewer - drawn by hand using Krita.