3D Bust - Final Image and Process Overview

The final rendered image

After what was probably way too long, I finished up the project I've been working on for a number of weeks. It's a bronze bust of an American soldier, and it was created entirely in 3D. I modeled, sculpted, textured, and rendered the model using modo 501, and I did some post-processing in Photoshop CS5.
This was definitely one of the largest projects I've ever taken on. I'm still relatively unseasoned in 3D (I opened my first 3D program just over a year and a half ago), so a lot of the process was guided by self-learning. I had a huge amount of help from Ellery Connell, a 3D professional and professor of mine at UW-Stout. Without Ellery's help, this project wouldn't have been possible, and I am eternally grateful for his assistance. (You can see Ellery's website here. He also recently published a book, 3D for Graphic Designers, which was an invaluable resource as I was lighting and rendering the scene.) Thanks, Ellery! I also got a lot of help referencing online tutorial videos from Greg Brown. He is an incredibly talented 3D artist, and his digital sculpting skills are awe-inspiring.


I used reference images of my brother, who was in the military, when building the model. I set up the images in modo and started to extrude polygons in order to create the basic loop structure of the face. Once that was done, I extruded some more polys to build the structure of the jawline and followed it up past the ear, across the temple, and connected it at the top of the face (as shown in the image that accompanies this paragraph). Following that step, I extended polygons around the back of the head to create the shape of the cranium, finishing up by extended polygons down to create the neck. I modeled the ear separately and attached it to the head once it was done.

I referenced a preset bust in modo when modeling the shirt, coat, and tie. To create the beret, I smoothed out a cube and sculpted the mesh to the desired shape. The buttons, fourragère, patches, pins, and ribbons were modeled while referencing my brother's Class A uniform (which I actually have, and I took some close-up photos of the different elements to bring into modo). It was really helpful to actually have the items I was modeling (the Class A uniform and beret) because it allowed me to see it from any desired angle while refining the model.

After creating the base geometry, I moved back to the head and began to sculpt, sculpt, sculpt. This was my first time really delving into modo 501's Mutliresolution Sculpting, and I was really happy with the way it works. Using the different levels of polygon subdivision, I was able to refine the overall shape at lower levels, spiff up a few smaller areas as I moved up in levels, and add fine details, such as the hair and eyebrows, at the highest level. I also sculpted the shirt and coat to give them a more organic appearance. The image to the left shows the edge flow of the final model. There is a bit of lumpiness in the model, probably from trying to sculpt broad details at too high a level, but I think it worked in my favor by giving the final model a better "sculpted bronze" look. So I'm ok with it :) After finishing the modeling, I built the base/stand, added the bronze texture (again, many thanks to Ellery for help with creating that), set up the lights (see chapters 4 and 7 of Ellery's book), and rendered the scene (see chapter.. wait, I actually did that one on my own). I love the option to save renders as a layered Photoshop document because it really gives me great control over how the final image looks. Power to the designers!

Well, that just about scratches the surface of my overall process for this project. Any other questions can be left in the comments, and I'll get an answer to you as soon as possible. Hooah!