The Character Portrait: Sculpting the Alien Mystic - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 92

7. Returning to anatomical considerations, we look at the mouth. I want to give the mouth a sense of being
an actual orifice with skin and folds. The best way to approach this is to look at the anatomy of a human
mouth and push those elements. The mouth is defined by the forms of the zygomaticus major and minor
and the orbicularis oris muscles ( Figure 2-34 ) . I push these shapes to fit the extremely tapered jaw line
and to accentuate their prominence to create some variation in the shape around the mouth.
At this point, I zoom back and take inventory of the changes I have made. Figure 2-35 shows the character
from the front and three-fourths views. Notice how the face wedge is subordinate to the great sweeping arc
of the cranium in the second image. Shape relationships like this, while abstract, can make the character
more interesting if you are aware of them and try to explore and exploit them. Notice also that I make sure
the cheekbones break the silhouette from the front view. This creates variety and interest in what would oth-
erwise be an egg shape.
Remember that the mouth and eye areas are based on very human shapes ( Figure 2-36 ) . This is intended
to ground the character in some elements the viewer may find empathy with. By giving an alien some human
aspects, it can more easily communicate emotion or calculated menace to the viewer.
Figure 2-34: Once again, I reference the muscular anatomy of the face to create the shapes seen here
around the mouth.
Figure 2-35: Front and three-fourths views