Ignis Lake - Undead Character Models

Here are some final renders of some characters I've been working on recently. I sculpted and painted the models in Zbrush and then compiled turn around sheets in photoshop. The 'Burnt Zombie' model would be used as in game enemy which chases a defenceless player through a burning environment. The enemy would attempt to grab the player in these scenarios whilst he/she tries to escape the fire surrounding them. I wanted the zombie's skeleton to look slightly unnatural. I've achieved this by elongating it's spine and legs. I found this has helped emphasise the character's burns, it should also help make the character seem taller and more imposing to the player.
 It took a lot of tweaking to get the right burnt look without making the character look overly fleshy or crispy. I didn't want the character to be completely charred as it would be too dark and would extract from the overall detail of the character.
 I need to rig the model and try some basic animations with it before I'm completely happy but I'm generally pleased with the ascetics of the model.

This 'Demon Skeleton' model was kind of a happy accident when I discovered Zbrushes 'Snake Hook' brush. I kept playing around with it until I ended up with the below model. The character is an evolution of the previous model. As I wasn't planning on making this character it didn't initially have a scenario for it in the game. However because I'm so happy with the model. I think it could be used subtly in quick flashes to further imply the unnatural. This kind of visual story telling would really help to drive the story forward and also immerse the player by keeping their attention with these dramatic events.

Here I made some quick silhouettes of the character models. This helped me analyse the characters' proportions. I'm pretty happy with the result. I prefer the demon model from a stylistic standpoint. I also feel the zombie model is pretty close to what I wanted for the original concept. The next step is to export these characters into Maya and then rig them for animation.

Below is the evolution of the original zombie model. The model originally started off as 'zspheres' which acted as a template for the full character. I then chipped away to get the correct shape for the character. I wanted to make sure the torso was very thin to emphasise the severe burns the character had been through. However originally I went too far with the effect making the character look cartoonish. I still wanted the character to look human. I decided to study anorexics and burn victims to get a good point of reference (the content was graphic to say the least; so I won't be posting it here). Once I was happy with the overall shape of the character I began to add small details to the mesh and then finally I painted the character. This is my first attempt at using zbrush and I'm ecstatic with the final outcome. I definitely will be using it in the future.