---
title: "Hippie Dragon Modeling"
canonical: "https://rmanwiki-27.pixar.com/space/RU/657391746/Hippie%20Dragon%20Modeling"
format: markdown
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### Modeling

#####   
Blocking

I started out in Maya with a basic default Lizard base mesh from Maya's library. The next step was to have a basic shape and position of the front and back legs to match it slightly to look more like a hybrid between a Salamander and a Komodo Dragon. For the face, I tried to get a Gecko's face shape and then I tweaked the areas near the nose and cheeks to achieve a more stylized shape.

Once I had blocked out a basic shape for the body, I took planes to block the Leafy fins as well as the Petal shaped ears. I did not add too many details in Maya Since I had left a major portion of detailing for ZBrush. After doing the UVs in Maya, I jumped straight to sculpting in ZBrush.

![image20.png](media://dbb4dcfd-3587-4a09-ace1-e288353e39ac)


##### Sculpting

I started sculpting larger details on the low poly base to add details such as refining the Arms and Legs by adding thickness, changing the shape of the Fingers, sculpting the loose skin hanging from the Neck, Thickening the chest area and thinning the area near the hind legs, giving thick thighs on the legs etc. Next, I started to add Subdiv levels to add secondary forms such as folds, some light muscle details visible through the skin and details on the nostrils and near the eyes.

![image12.png](media://6a48107f-07f6-4f53-bf41-735b5e821c34)

The final step in sculpting was to add finer details such as thin wrinkles. Instead of Zbrush I chose Substance Painter ro add micro displacements such as leathery skin details and the veins on the leaves. For the Veins on the leaves, I used information from the Color map and some masks instead of sculpting it on ZBrush.

![image13.png](media://65b8f587-a255-48ce-82cf-a74470f8af08)

I kept my model in T pose to finish my texturing work so that I can work in symmetry for the most part and decided to pose the asset after texturing was complete.  
I recommend testing out how well a model responds in terms of SSS while working with creatures. I made sure to get some renders from different angles of the base model with just the SSS parameter applied in the material. Once the results were satisfactory, I moved on to texturing.

![image17.gif](media://ef829f4d-022a-49f8-8aff-1bd4ed48ed6c)

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