Built over several months in his spare time, Space Girl was an enormous labour of love for freelance character artist Carles Gonzales.
Carles Gonzalez has worked for several companies and titles, in videogames and film. Gonzalez worked on Space Girl in his spare time, and it took him several months to complete.
"My favourite part of the creative process is the sketching and initial stages," says the artist. "I love the sketch phase in ZBrush, when the creative juices are flowing. I also really enjoy the final composition render, when you see if all the time you've spent on it has been worth it."
As an artist, Gonzalez has always been inspired by movies and comics. Now, as part of the industry, he tries to learn as much as possible from his fellow artists and peers. He explains that Space Chic started as a V-Ray skin test, but that he always intended to create a more complete sci-fi image from the outset. "I worked from a huge amount of references and I started to sketch in ZBrush," explains the artist. "I used Dynamesh to create the armour. I then made the retopology in ZBrush and 3ds Max. I worked on the textures with ZAppLink and Photoshop before rendering in V-Ray."
While Gonzalez sounds confident about his process, he reveals there were subtle changes along the way. "I changed the design, pose and pieces several times before I was happy with it, so it is a bit of a relief to have finally finished it. Having said that, I can't wait to get started on something new!"
This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 175.
