Mind Flayer (creature, zbrush)

[Silverblade-T-E]

Working on a Spelljammer scene, for which I need ye classic D&D villainous beastie; the mind flayer
Sixtus1, iirc has a "flayer" for Poser , but want to make me own.

Mind flayer are mauvish coloured humanoids with octopoidal heads who...eat folks brains, hence the nickname.

I hate Zbrush's interface: it's further proof, IMHO, of the dichotomy between art/pleasure, and tech side of digital art, sigh. Awesome tool -- lousy interface.
So finally got round to tackling the swine Been sititing on me hard drive for ages and got upgrade to v3, plus bought a tutorial on it to make sense of the dern thing.

Sorry for low rez of pic, as said, noob at Zbrush!
Will import into Poser, *hope* to rig it there, and use as replacement head for other figures.
Then use those to popluate the scene.

slightly earlier, clay render.
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com.../illithid2.jpg
Think I shoudl have used z spheres, to make tentacles, rather than pull thme out of the face...noobling at work!

[spudmonkey]

I find that the best way to get the best result out of ZB, Mudbox, et al is to create a low poly version blocked-out version of the shape of the model first and then detail that. As you say, z spheres would have accomplished this a little better. The detail on the cranial part looks quite good, but the tentacles really let this down

[chrono]

I would follow spudmonkey advise and block out the model in low polygon before doing the hi-poly work. Also I would break the model down into Rear of Head & Neck, Face, and body. That will allow you to focus on things easier.

I would also make the Flayer's face more in line with it's Cthulhu background and less 'Klingon'.

[homerpalooza67]

Yay! Brain Heads!!!

Played the Neverwinter Expansion, "Hordes of the Underdark". Cant wait to see this guy done!

[Silverblade-T-E]

Well, it's me first work in Zbrush, really...I R Noob
I dont' know jack about rigging in Poser either, so mesh has torn a little on this Vue render..no worries, will paint it out post-work in Photoshop or PSP

Well, I figure illithids would have "klingon" heads, hehe, because tentacles out of water on a human skulll = muscles, lots of em...hence, IMHO, they should be more msuclar on the face, thus the look. Lots of anchoring points and base muscles.

Appreciate the tips, I respect the really great possibilities of Zbrush, just hate the interface :/

Clothes and human body from DAZ3D models/textures (Wizard robe for M3, mystic version, iirc).

[spudmonkey]

The point about the head shape is that they tend to have a valley, rather than an extrusion in the forehead according to pretty much all the reference material you can find online:



Still, if you prefer it this way, it's your model, so do what you like and enjoy it!

The render shows some more problems with the tentacles - looks like overlapping faces. Again, it's not bad for a first go, so perhaps try it again and see how you can improve it as you go

[Silverblade-T-E]

that looks like an "ularithid", if I get the name right, extra tentacles, MAJOR bad asses.

this is my favourite pic I've seen of a mind flayer, bar the CLASSIC one of an orc getting it's brain sucked out through its eyes...*barf!*
"Mind Flayer" by James Adams - Fantasy art galleries at Epilogue.net - Fantasy and Sci-fi at their best©
Low quality pic of the barfy one is on this thread.
:: Ver tema - Ilustraciones de Tercera

yeah, yer right about the tentacles, as said, I'm such a noob...less concerned by perfecting the head, than creating a scene, far too impatient
I liek my version...but I'd preffer ot make one a combination fo my ideas and that gorgeous picture....more muscly, but the well defined eye sockets, and other touches of pic.
something for another month I think!

just soo many apps to learn, so few brain cells...so little time!

Scene requires several illithids, and I'll post work out tentacles problems etc

[chrono]

Well the only real problem with the old TSR design was that it wasn't fearsome looking. Gross and alien-ish, but not fearsome and monsterous. The more current design have changed that, but lose a little bit because of the 4 tentacles placement making it look slightly off-balance. Also when you look at the more current stuff the head is either elongated or widened.

I think that if you elongate the head a little and lengthen the tentacles to at least stomach length, beef'n up the neck so it looks a little like a Lizard-man's (but without the mounded shoulder look), and distort the limbs lengths abit. It should look good.

[Guerrilla]

The tentacles would've come out cleaner, if you modeled them in lowpoly or zspheres first, instead of using the snakehook brush. It's a very cool tool, but unless it's 2d, you're going to end up with some horrible geometry.

Well, that's what it looks like to me anyway.

Also, the shape of the face seems a bit wrong. The tentacles and the 'mouth' section in general would look better if they were pointing down, instead of forward.

Good start though. Looks better than my first zbrushery did. Also, extra points for a cool subject matter.

[Silverblade-T-E]

Well, yeah, first work in it, only made over that day (excluding couple of times in past tried to work Zbrush and gave in...long story, stress = bad for moi)

Guerilla,
yeah I should have used Zspheres, used the snakehook brush but it's messy on gemoetry as you say. Sigh.
My interest is in making scenes though, not on perfection...that'll be for another day, or...year
Thanks! Love ye olde illithids, well, they give me the creeps!

Chrono,
yeah, the sheer weight of the current official illithids' tentacles would need massive counterwight on back of head etc. Also, lacks musculature.