Nightwalker (Great Forest Spirit - Princess Mononoke)

This was for Sculptober Day 12: "Sylvan" 🌳

"Sylvan" means "of the forest", so the first thing that came to mind was the Great Forest Spirit in his Nightwalker form from Princess Mononoke, one of my all time-favourite films. I learned a lot of new techniques while sculpting him, combining Maya and Zbrush to get a smooth and organic shape.

I did try my best to replicate the ethereal substance he's made of from the film, but really struggled with the rendering and lighting since he's a bit translucent. Despite that, this remains my most popular work from Sculptober 2019 and is my most liked post on Instagram to this day.

Sculpted in ZBrush and Maya, textured and rendered in Substance Painter.