As I did with the Soucouyant, I began my sculpt of the Jumbie by creating a basic human body template and working from this. At first I used the grab tool to meld the head of the Jumbie into roughly the correct shape. I also elongated and slimmed the neck in preparation for the rest of the proportions to be sculpted correctly. I then created the rounded oval shape of the mouth by increasing the polygon count for a finer curve, and crafted the teeth. The teeth were very difficult to make, especially when reaching the rows near the centre. I needed to greatly increase the polygon count to achieve a refined point, and the local x mirror was not functioning as it should, resulting in one tooth being longer than the other. I had to pull the material outwards individually to make the teeth. I then carved the rectangular eyes, using the pinch tool to make the corners and edges sharp, and the grab tool to pull the material inside the eyes further in, emphasising the depth of them and giving them a hollow effect. I tried adding the carvings, but I was unsatisfied with the appearance of them, particularly on the side of the head. The knife lines appeared to be blurred and would not cut neatly like I originally envisioned.
I then reloaded an incremental save to try again, this time opting for shaping other parts of the body instead. I started by making the skeletal waist, the pillar joining the hips to the ribcage. I did this by using the grab tool and smoothing constantly, until I ended up with a rounded pillar in the centre. I then tried to sculpt the knife lines again, as I was more confident that they would look better now that more detail had been added to the shape of the body. However, I ended up ruining the texture of the head, as it lost its shape and therefore I reloaded the incremental save once again. Despite this, I managed to re-sculpt the waist faster and better as I already knew what techniques and tools to use, and I increased the polygon count, which resulted in the knife tool performing better, cutting sharper lines. I was very happy with how the facial carvings looked this time around.
I continued to sculpt the shape of the body, slimming the arms and using the pose tool to manipulate both the arm and leg lengths and thicknesses. I also made the jutting bones of the pelvis stand out with the grab and pinch tool and got ride of the foot shape by smoothing it in and rearranging the mesh layout. This was difficult as I could not figure out how to turn the hands and feet into the stilt-end points that I wanted initially. I therefore experimented with the tools and used the relax mesh and smooth mesh tools repeatedly until the hands and feet became uniform with the arms and legs. I then returned to the carved lines, creating them down the length of the body as I illustrated in my designs. After looking at my scarification research I used more intricate lines, and I also used a sculpt stencil tool to create the wood texture inspired by Yoruba wood carvings.
Painting was the next step. I changed the material once again as I did not like the under glow of the current one I was using- it was not suitable for the dull wooden appearance of the Jumbie that I wanted to achieve. I replaced it with a flatter grey base material and painted a base material, layers on top using dark brushes and texture brushes, and the rotten wood colour and green algae that I envisioned on the Jumbie. As an add on to the design, I created the collar for the Jumbie in Maya and imported it and resized it into Mudbox for painting, texturing and placing around the neck. I added a rust effect to the collar as the shackles would have been made from iron, and would have rusted due to exposure to the sea water and the air. This added the feel of age to the Jumbie, emphasising that it has been wandering around for centuries.
Finally I had to pose the figure. I used the Mudbox pose tools to move the limbs into the correct positions. The final effect of the pose evoked and eerie feeling of fear and discomfort, as the limbs reminded me almost of spider legs. I imported this into Maya as an FBX. file and rendered the final sculpt from the front, back, side and top, as well as creating a close-up render. The rendering process was much faster this time as the settings had been fixed from when I rendered the Soucouyant.
Evaluation
I was very pleased with this final outcome as it evoked the feelings that my peers had described as well as the feelings that I wanted it to create. I was also satisfied with the final appearance of the wood carved lines, which although were the most challenging to create, ended up looking very effective. In some places I think that the rougher appearance of the carved lines look better as it shows age and wear, such as around the sides of the face and along the bottoms of the arms and legs. The rendering process was very smooth and I managed to get good shots of the Jumbie from all angles. To improve, I would maybe use less lines on the body, as the renderer sometimes struggled to capture all of the lines, creating a more dotted appearance. Despite this, the size of the Jumbie and its proportions make it a formidable and fearful opponent in a horror game. From the 3D render I get a stronger sense of an eerie and silent moving creature that wanders the shores of the Caribbean islands. The time management was a lot better this time, as I did not go over schedule, and I did not experience as many technical problems with Maya. Overall I am happy with the final Jumbie 3D model, as I have pushed my design further throughout the process of making it, and the interpretation sticks well with the original folklore whilst having my own twist on elements of it.
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