Thursday, June 9th, 2011 Posted by Jim Thacker

Video tutorial: ZBrush skills from The Making of Dirge


“Whenever I need to breathe life into my characters, Alex Alvarez is where I go,” says legendary concept designer Neville Page. “Not only has his technical prowess pulled me out of many holes, but his character sense has given rise to some wonderful moments on … Avatar and Star Trek.”

Now you can sample some of Alex’s “crazy and creative character design” for yourself, with this 50-minute video from his latest DVD, The Making of Dirge.

Over the course of the tutorial, Alex explores how Dirge – his hellacious new personal project – was sculpted. Starting from a pencil concept sketch, he moves from a low-resolution base mesh created in Maya to sculpt the details of the character in ZBrush.

Find the full course in our online store
The video forms part of Alex’s latest DVD, The Making of Dirge. The eight-hour course shows his entire workflow for the project, resulting in a two-minute animated loop intended for viewing on a 30″ framed display.

Using Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, After Effects and mental ray, the full course also covers fundamental skills in environment design, texturing, shaders, effects, rigging, animation, lighting, volumetrics and compositing.

The Making of Dirge costs $79, and is available as a DVD or digital download.

Buy The Making of Dirge in our online store