JEFF
About

Jeff is a short film currently in production.
Process

Concept Art - Saahia Mayenin
This beautifully designed piece of concept art by Saahia Mayenin cements Jeff's cartoon style and provided the schematic for me to start modelling the basic shapes of Jeff.

Reference Board
This is a board I collated for study into the way the folds and creases come about in inflatable floats, and the use of seam lines in identifying and clarifying shapes. This would add a layer of realism on top of the original cartoon style, providing a more comprehensive stylised look.

Retopology
I retopologised the mesh using ZRemesher and polypaint to provide a low poly, animator friendly version of Jeff.

Base Modelling
Here is the base model, made by combining a taurus shape with various deformed cylinders and spheres, staying true to the original concept art.

Sculpting Seams with Layers
I opted to sculpt the seams and wrinkles using ZBrush layers, as their intensity could be adjusted. It also gave flexibility in deciding the final look for Jeff, allowing the finer details to be easily removed or toned down back to a more simple, cartoon style.

High Topology Mesh
By reprojecting the details onto this new mesh, I also created a high poly version, allowing the details to be baked down into Normal and Displacement maps during the texturing process.

Concept Art - Max Sherwood
Max Sherwood's paint overs and further development provided an important foundation for understanding the materiality of Jeff - a useful aid in sculpting the finer details.

Sculpting Wrinkles
I used the DamStandard brush to define creases in the mesh, and a combination of the Standard brush and the Inflate brush to accentuate the wrinkles, giving them volume.

Turntable
Turntable of the finished retopologised sculpt with details.