Baby dragons body creation process

Using Sculptris, baby dragon was created by manipulating spheres. To begin with I created a 'bean shape' for the body, as planned initially in the sketchbook.

With an attempt to add the tail by grabbing and pulling the bodies shape, I felt that it looked too undefined. by pressing Ctrl + Z the change was undone. 

starting with a new sphere shape, using grab I pulled the sphere into a tail shape.

Using the 'pinch' tool, I clicked on the end of the shape to create the tip of the tail.

the tail was clicks and dragged over using the grab tool with universal checked, universal moves the entire shape; rather than a part of the shape. Which would cause manipulation. 

The body so far.

Next, the frontal limbs were to be created. Making two new separate spheres; symmetry allows both limbs to be created at once. This took a series of pinching and creasing to get the correct shape for the arm. I aimed to create a 'peanut' shape, to keep the shape of the arm much like a babies. 

fingers were added by grabbing and pulling the palm shape in five individual spaces, I then pushed in between each finger; to create a Chris Sanders' styled hand. 

through adjusting the arms it was taken under consideration to add more shoulder to the arm to create more shape. 

adding the shoulder created more definition to the arm, this was grabbed and pulled up from the upper arm. 

Much like the similar process to the arms, a sphere shape was created, as grab and pull was used to create the basic shape. the toes were added by extruding from the heel, and using the 'smooth' tool to refine the shapes of the toes. 'crease' was then used to draw in the lines between each toe.

Using the 'draw' tool, the ankle was added in.

small toes on either side on the inner foot was also created, using the 'grab' tool and pulling.

the legs were placed int he desired area using the 'grab' tool with the 'universal' option checked. 

the 'flatten' tool was applied to underneath the dragons hands and paws.

3/4 view of the model.

The head which was previously created in sculptris had been placed in zbrush, ready for decimating; this allowed the head to be placed back into sculptris with the body. This prevented sculptris from crashing like it was previously with the head, this being caused by the high poly count.

The head model within Maya's software

importing the lesser polygon counted head, I adjusted with the size using the 'scale' tool, so the proportions of the head matched the body; whilst keeping in mind the head was intended to look larger to keep a baby like appearance. 

Once the decision was made for the heads placement, a new sphere was added and sculpted into a neck; created using the grab tool.

placement of the sphere before sculpting neck.

neck muscles were defined using the smooth and draw tool.

The model was then placed into Zbrush; ready for decimating and importing into Maya.

side view of Dragon model. Model was consisted of tri's and is noticeable with this material.

experimentation with Zbrush's materials.

The model was placed in Mudbox; here I attempted to add the colour and textures of the model. However due to low subdivision, Mudbox created high manipulation onto the model.

Experimentation of colouring and stenciling textures in colour onto the model. painting was sporadic and therefore couldn't be painted correctly within mudbox. This could be due to the model consisting of tri's rather than quads. small shards of triangles are noticeably shaded in where they shouldn't have been. 

Model has now been converted into Mayas interface; ready for rigging.

Decreasing the size of Maya's pre-made human skeleton, I attempted to rig the model. 

though placement was specific to dragons anatomy, maya continued to show warning that the joints were not assigned in the correct place (as I was using a human skeleton)

Orange signifies the rig would create and issue. Rather than using a premade human skeleton, I will be creating my own skeletons for quadruped animals within Maya.

frontal limb is too stretched, no extra joint is placed on the back leg as it should be.

incorrect placement and shape to the arm and leg, knee's and shoulders to far back and pushed up. 

upper arm and leg joints too elongated for Baby dragons short limbs, hip joint is also far too elongated. No tail or neck and head rig is included; as is no lower jaw rig.