Cyberpunk Androids Fuse Man and Machine With ZBrush and Cinema 4D 3D artist and motion designer Ryan Close develops his craft by creating detailed humanoid robots.

A science fiction fan, Ryan “Ry” Close has been fortunate enough to have worked on blockbuster films and title sequences in a genre he loves.

His fascination with humanoid androids began with Ash in “Alien” (1979) and has continued since, inspiring many of his personal projects. Using ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Redshift, Substance Painter, Illustrator, and After Effects, his latest work explores the look of a damaged humanoid medic.

Having trained as a traditional graphic designer, Close’s first 3D package was Cinema 4D. It was the early 2000s, and it proved to be his route into user interface design for websites and motion design for advertising and film. Investing in a ZBrush course in 2012 extended his skills as a 3D artist, and the creative freedom it allowed reminded him of being a kid with Lego blocks, just following his imagination.

For a sci-fi fan, Cinema 4D and ZBrush proved a powerful combination, giving him the opportunity to work on iconic franchises. A freelance motion designer at Territory Studio’s London office, he worked on the motion graphics for “Prometheus” before joining full time to work on films like “Ghost in the Shell,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” to name a few. In 2020, he joined Perception in New York City where he worked on Marvel films, title sequences, and product concepts.

Throughout this time, he says, personal work has been an important source of learning and creative freedom. “A great creative director once talked about how important it is for designers to have a personal creative outlet, because you can’t rely on getting that fix at work. That really stuck with me, and I always try to have a couple of personal projects on the go that let me experiment and learn new tools.”

For the Cyberpunk Android project, he was inspired by the damaged medical android in “Raised By Wolves.” “I loved how well it was done and the idea of being damaged but still functional. I thought it would be cool to create an unfinished or damaged android, which opened up more ideas to explore, like its purpose and how it got damaged.” It was also an opportunity to dive deeper into sculpting facial expressions using ZBrush. “Anatomy and facial expressions are the toughest challenges and I always feel like I can improve, so projects like this are a perfect way to develop my skills,” he adds.

Unpacking his workflow, he started by customizing a base mesh. “I used the DamStandard, Pinch, and Move brushes to create interesting details and facial features. I added small, connected bolts to main areas of the face to really show off the cyborg nature. I also started using simple shape alphas to block out the areas in the neck.” 

Inspired by the movie “The Creator,” he wanted an extruded mechanical aspect to the back of the head. “This is where live Boolean worked great, cutting shapes out dynamically. To drive home the mechanical look, I used some of my kitbash assets, like a canister, tubes, and other inserts, to populate the robot and give it some really interesting detailing.”

During the finer detailing phase, he first subdivided the base mesh up to level 3 (9million polys), giving him the right amount for the zoom level he wanted to use. “I also turned the symmetry off — always a scary moment — but necessary to get the facial asymmetry that is so important to making credible features,” he said. Adding finer details to the face and more subtle expression, he used the DamStandard brush to define creases and wrinkles, improving them with the Inflate brush.

The final stage of the look was to export the mesh with UVs made in ZBrush by UV master as an FBX to Substance Painter, where he added the base skin color, paint decals, and wear and tear. 

“My first Redshift render felt like it really needed some atmosphere and environmental elements to bring it to life. Because it’s a medical cyborg, I added a top light with cables, a surgical light to the scene, and more kitbash assets to enhance the machine elements. I used the atmosphere light to give it more presence, and then some of the new native Cinema 4D Particles with a little turbulence modifier to add some dust particles as a separate pass to add in comp.”

The final step was to add a heads-up display with a custom user interface. “I’m developing a series of android busts of different characters and felt that a UI will link them together contextually and give an impression of the futuristic world they inhabit,” Close said.

Currently working on a female android in the series, Close is enjoying the process.  “The most rewarding thing is by far the act of just being in ZBrush and creating. Once you have a cool idea and the inspiration to create, it’s heaps of fun.”