Fire Salamander by Todor Kolev
As 3D outsourcing studio, we work with a handful of great 3D artists that create lifelike 3D models. One of those artists is Todor Kolev.
He had more than a decade of experience in the industry and excels in organic modelling, characters, figures, sculpting and clothing.
As part of his practice and research in Substance Painter, he created this fantastic realtime 3D model of a lifelike Fire Salamander. The Salamander was a part of a previous project he worked with us for our 3D Asset store. Todor used the asset as a base which he then posed and modified the textures to create this very realistic lizard.
For the 3D modeling, Todor used a hand-sculpting technique while using references from photographs, videos and anatomy. Then the model was retopologized by hand, to ensure a proper edge flow with very optimized geometry. With a polycount of only 5k polygons, this 3D game asset is perfect for any gaming platform like Unreal Engine or Unity.
The texturing consisted of hand-painted features mixed with procedural details. As with the 3D modeling, references were used to match the realistic skin and colours of the lizard. Special attention was paid to the head where you can notice tiny imperfections and different types of skin that bring the model to life. While the head has a smooth overall look, the body shows a different story. The bones and muscle structure make the lizard extremely flexible, and that can be seen by the more rough forms across the body
For this project, his toolkit included Zbrush, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag and Maya. All images are rendered in Marmoset Toolbag with no post-production.
To see more from Todor's fantastic work, take a look at his Artstation portfolio HERE.
To find more great models like this Salamander, you can check out the animal section of our 3D Asset Store here - 3D ANIMALS.