Srdjan Orelj has walked us through the Gollum project, discussing the approach to achieving a high likeness and correct body proportions, detailed texturing and rendering pipelines, and more.
Hi! My name is Srdjan, and I live in Novi Sad, Serbia. I have been in 3D modeling for more than 8 years. I got interested in VFX and 3D art when I first saw The Lord of the Rings in 2003. It left a tremendous mark on my whole life, and even then, I knew I wanted to pursue this as a career. Currently, I work as a freelance Character Artist within my studio, Marmo Arts.
I founded Marmo Arts Studio 4 years ago, firstly as a tutoring studio, offering ZBrush courses and 3D printing services. Gradually, we started creating characters for games and VFX, and eventually ventured into outsourcing. At this point, we mostly working with Ulfur Studio and the amazing Petur Arnorsson, focusing on marketing art and doing various modeling for games, cinematics, and VFX. These tasks include weapons, foliage, VFX, and most of the pipeline.
Inspiration for this character came from a long time ago. When I first started with 3D art, I spent months creating characters in ZBrush and pushing myself. I made Penguin from Batman, a Cave Troll, and a few more, but I wanted to save Gollum for a day when I had more experience and could make him look as good as possible. He is my all-time favorite CG character.
My main goal was to portray him in his natural surroundings, the Misty Mountains, before he lost the ring. I wanted to capture his misery and sadness, as well as the happiness that comes from his bipolar personality, in the best way possible.
I find references very important. Usually, I spend at least half a day getting all kinds of references. I had some scans for Andy, as well as some Shots from Weta. I even took screenshots from movies. Another huge inspiration and reference for me was Hossein Diba's Gollum, which gave some good angles that I couldn't get from the movie.
When I look for head references, I try to follow the focal length of the photo for the best results. It can become a problem down the line.
My first step was to achieve a proper likeness, as that's the trickiest part to nail. I used many references, starting with Andy Serkis' UE shots and scans. I also used some shots of Gollum from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings posters and movies.
Getting shots with the same field of view (FOV) was the most challenging, as it can distort the likeness if not careful with reference selection.
My biggest advice to get a good likeness is to practice. Make 10 likenesses from scratch, learn anatomy, take some good courses, and get as many shots as possible from all angles for the character you are creating. Use anatomical references and capture close-ups for later use.
Think about the forms and build from foundations to the final details. Don't skip steps, as it can lead to crumbling and taking you back to the missed step.
So, after I got the likeness right, I started getting the anatomical and proportional base forms. I mainly used the Anatomy for Sculptors book, along with some anatomical shots from Google and Gollum sculptures from Weta Workshops.
My main struggle was getting the proportions right and avoiding making him too bulky, as in my experience, anatomy sculpting can get over the edge.
It was important to add some scars in the secondary forms to make texturing easier later on. Achieving the correct body shape is all about forms, rhythm, and anatomy. Think about how the body works, get shots from both bodybuilders and skinny guys, and examine.
Here are some good books on the subject:
For details, I used a hybrid approach combining Texturing XYZ Multichannel Maps and 3D Scan Store models, along with ZWrap. The face was the most important area, so I used the Multi-Channel and 3DSS as a base and added Kris Costa's pore brush for some parts. I also added wrinkles by referencing real character images.
The brushes I used were:
Gollum's body had very specific texture and bumps on the skin, so capturing all the wrinkles, bumps, and imperfections was a lot of work. However, having the 3DSS bumps as a base was really helpful, as it prevented a "blank canvas wall" scenario.
My all-time advice is to not rush into adding details. If your primary forms, anatomy, or likeness are not at a good level (around 90%), details won't magically fix it. You need to have a strong foundation before focusing on the finer details.
For retopology, I used Maya and mixed existing basemesh with a new topology that I created for certain parts.
When it comes to topology, it's important to follow loops around certain areas such as nostrils, eyelids, mouth, and hands. This helps to preserve details even in the lowest possible polycount and also helps with proper animation and facial expressions.
For texturing, I decided to use the 3D Scan Store Color Map as a base. Having basic texturing knowledge was important to getting the best results. Adding the right colors to specific areas of the face gave a much more realistic feel to the character.
To achieve realistic skin, it's important to use many layers that blend on top of each other, creating realistic results. To learn the best approach, it's helpful to go back to the basics and study airbrush sculptures, followed by learning Substance 3D Painter tutorials. Using a combination of the Blue-Red-Yellow Temperature Map helps a lot in achieving a thin-skin effect and making the character look even more miserable.
It was important to use some other Maps as Cavity and some other Maps I exported from Knald to transfer sculpt details on this Map.
I also used some Substance 3D Painter materials for skin cracks, rash, and scars, as Gollum's skin is unhealthy because he lived without sunlight. Keeping the character's backstory in mind while texturing can greatly help in understanding how to approach different parts of the character. It's important to include all moles, pimples, and other details during this phase as well.
Hair textures were done using a small software called Hair Strand Designer, and I can tell you, it's one hell of a little piece of software. It's really powerful and can give you great-looking hair strands in a matter of minutes. It's almost as good as the XGen approach but much faster!
The software generates a bunch of textures that you may or may not use, but it's good to have them in case you need them.
The hairs for Gollum were really thin, with just a few hairs in each hair strand. However, it was important to create as many variations of strands as possible to achieve a good and realistic groom.
For eyebrows and lashes, I hand-drew the strands in Photoshop and used them as an alpha.
The hair shader I used made things much more high-resolution as I had a lot of control.
For rendering and shading, I used Unreal Engine 5. I mainly followed a workflow using the Digital Human Skin material and customized it to fit my needs.
It was important to make a few other Maps, such as SSS, Occlusion, and Spec, to achieve good results. This required a lot of tweaking under different lighting. Also, I used the eye from the digital human and adjusted its size and other elements to fit Gollum. I also made tweaks to the textures, adding veins and adjusting the color to match my needs.
Having decent lighting is also important. In this case, I used a mix of different lighting techniques, including three-point lighting, environment lighting, and adding some fog to create more realistic results. It's crucial to have good lighting because there's no point in sculpting and texturing a great character if the final result isn't visible, right?
In this character, I tried to apply all the knowledge I've learned over the years, even using some workflows that you could call "a cheat."
But it's important to keep up with the latest tools to speed up your process while also learning the basics. Sculpting characters from a sphere, doing textures just in ZBrush, and similar techniques. I did everything by hand when I was starting, and it helped a lot in my workflow and made things easier later on.
My advice to everyone is to have a personal project whenever you can. Even if you only have an hour a day to work on it, it's enough. Remember, Harry Potter was written that way. Small steps may be slow, but they will get you there.