Part 1 - Welcome all - To my Little MyMiniFactory Shop of Horrors!

I am Jaydon Hill, a Graphic Designer and long time hobbyist sculptor who amidst the unknowns on COVID-19 and the reality of job loss that so many of us have faced, found myself delving deep into all the content I loved growing up, and pushing myself to create one of the coolest projects I have ever worked on under the strict direction of, well, myself! (Turns out I am a hard but fair boss, but god I work me like a dog at times!) and after this not-so-brief intro, I'd like to introduce you to Dark Gods as a concept and attempt to help any other aspiring artists with their own unique creature design concept execution and ideation.

Part one will be simple, but perhaps if you enjoy it there will be more. This may be a little jarring, but I am no writer. Just a guy who makes horrid, wretched things whilst his girlfriend wonders what the hell is wrong with me.

How did I get here?

I have spent the majority of my life loving horror, sci-fi and fantasy. I would draw every day growing up and I loved it so much so that I chose to study Concept Design for film and games after school. Although it felt like it would forever be a hobby - never a job I could see myself actually doing.

Then along came the revolution that was resin printers at home... The tech we can now operate on a daily basis blew me away. I had seen FDM printers for minis, and had never been truly impressed until i stumbled across posts on reddit for Patreon and the Elegoo Mars. The first artist I really connected with was MiniMonsterMayhem. Seeing his impressive and sometimes hideous (in a good way!) creations come to life on the the printedminis subreddit led me to my first printer, and my first Patreon subscription. It has been a whirlwind of a year since then (and a truckload of resin), but at some point it clicked, I could crack out the old stylus, I could boot up Zbrush, and maybe I could print my OWN hideous beasts for once!

Fast forward a few months and here I am, with an entire set of (I'd like to think...) high quality sculpts all created for you to bring to the tabletop. But I wanted to do something a bit different. I have been a graphic designer for almost ten years (The concept art thing never did work out!) and I thought, why stop at a sculpt, why stop at two? Why not go ALL in on graphics, ALL in on a universe. Build a world I have been living in in my nightmares since I was a child - Then bloody print them because thats what you are all here for!

What motivates each sculpt?

I did this primarily for me, what better core audience for your project than yourself? The best motivator is to truly feel passionate about what you are doing, and not worry about the bottom line. Because if you love every second of the process like I have, you have already succeeded.

Explain the process behind each sculpt

Build the most wicked monster you can think of!

Then make it wicked-er, then try and crank that up one more notch. Is it disgusting? Awesome. You've done a good job!

It's that simple!

No, seriously, explain the process behind creating a unique creature sculpt...

I actually do have a few rules for doing this i would ask anyone to try and follow, and I guarantee it will help.

I was first taught some of these principles by Bryan Wynia in an online course, and years later, I still swear by them! So much so I am going to show you examples from eight years ago that STILL form the core of every design I do!

What conditions/climate does this beast exist in?

This one is really important! Well not so much for my current set, as they are nonsense nightmare maggots but hey - Learn the rules before you break 'em!

Conditions are extremely important when it comes to believability. Conditions and climate impact evolution and the items necessary to exist in said climate. We see this all around us, but for me most of all in David Attenborough documentaries (Because I don't leave the PC) This isn't just limited to appearance, but also functionality. I will try to explain this below.

Is your monster a sea creature? Well it better have gills, or better yet, the ability to swim! Perhaps elongated limbs alow nimble movement and quick turns below the depth.

Is it a DEEP sea creature? It is very dark down there! Maybe its body illuminates, or its eyes are huge to refract as much as possible (THROK was actually heavily inspired by Angler fish, as I have a slight sea theme popping up on a few of my beasts. The Titan for example has many crocodilian features to evoke a sense of savage, ancient power, and Tusks to hint at size like an elephant or walrus) Whilst we are on eyes - Did you know eyes tend not to grow beyond a certain threshhold? If you want something to truly look HUGE - give it tiny eyes. Look at Pacific Rim and kaiju for good reference covering size and sea creature references.

Does it come from an Ice planet? Okay, so it is going to need a very thick fur coat. Cold climates also tend to have animals covered in WHITE fur so that prey can hide, and carnivores can stalk. Its an ice-dog eat ice-dog world out there. Some animals in cold climates are also forced to find food in new ways, like smashing ice to eat what is underneath. Look at a Walrus tusks for reference!

Sand dunes? It is probably skinny, too hot not to be. Water will need to be stored for when needed (Camel) Many desert dwellers are reptilian and love the sun. Can you encorporate this?

Mountain Range? It will need long, powerful limbs to climb up the slopes.

Herbivore? Flat teeth for grinding leaves. Most herbivores eyes will be on the side of its head, So it may eat and look for predators at the same time! Probably not threatening in appearance. Think round shapes.

Carnivore? Sharp teeth for eating things with flat teeth that only eat leaves. Eyes point forward at the insignificant food-animals infront of them. Most likely threatening. Think sharp, angular features. Look at a crocodile, a great white shark, these things are god-damn violence condensed into matter.

Sometimes this rule doesnt apply, look at the friendly hippo - WHO THE HELL DESIGNED THAT ADORABLE FAT BALL THEN MADE IT SO MEAN?

Demon? Literally break all the rules, it just makes it more painful to look at. But enough about me!

(Here is a FREE Dark Gods style Beholder I am working on for all of you! Think Angler Fish, think Maggot, think DANGER BALL, think OH GOD WHAT IS THAT!?)

Reference Vs Inspiration:

Inspiration is great! Save away, build folders of the stuff, increase your visual library!

But when it comes time to sculpt, try and put it away so you don't directly copy.

Instead build up a reference board of REAL animals, everything you make can be based on all the wacky life we have here, from aliens (Deep sea fish, bacteria) To Yetis (Monkeys, lions)

Here is my reference for my Yeti

Silhouette and Sketchover:

3D sculpting can be SLOW so try to have your design idea sorted before you fully commit!

Silhouette is super important, you can read about that a million places, but you want your design to stand out in a crowd, and a truly successful character can be identified by outline alone. Overwatch does this very well as an example.

To achieve these things simply, one fun way is do a 30 minute sculpt to block out shape, then whip that into photoshop, copy it a million times, and spend a few minutes QUICKLY drawing over each one, do NOT focus on detail yet. Just Shape language. Does it work with the criteria you previously defined in the section above? Here are my original Yeti Paintovers. Left side is base sculpts, 30 mins each. Right side is 5 minute or less paintovers on each one. Then I pick my favourites and spend 10-30 minutes going with th flow and seeing what I like best.

Once you have picked your favourite, try to sculpt it in zbrush!

And finally: Finish and prepare a camera/project so you can do multiple renders, and export into Photoshop for retouching if you want to do promo shots.

If you would be interested in more lessons to get cool results like this, I am happy to teach them! Just comment on the blog. I have come a LONG way since 2012. And so has 3D printing! I am just glad to be creating awesome monsters, and not just for a file I store on my desktop for 8 years. But perhaps also a toy I can rapidly prototype and manufacture at home and then perhaps keep on my desktop for 8 years... Oh hoarding is a vicious cycle!

That does me for part one. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to read next, or questions you would ask to help YOU sculpt, I would be happy to answer. This is a new age for all of us, and there are so many fantastic models up already, so try and do something truly unique and your own! Give your models purpose and reason for existing as they are.

Just like The Grotesque Sons of the Maggot, Foul demons hellbent on eradication and other wickedly vile and evil things, but if you ask me, they are pretty cool guys and you can find a set of growing FREE files only on MyMiniFactory (Beholder coming this week! Follow me to see it go live here or on instagram @Darkgods3D).

Join almost 400 others who have signed up for more information to learn when we launch! All core models are complete and printed, and I am working with a fantastic support artist who im sure many of you have printed with before to ensure you get the best pre supports a man can give on launch day!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkgods/dark-gods

Until next time! Dark Gods out! 😎