Project Caradhras - Gandalf Photogrammetry

The result of the scanning process of Gandalf the Gray. He is no Gimli, but I have to admit that I was the most excited to work on the scanning of this asset. The figurine is great, so many details packed in a single character, so much character showing through the sculpt.
I truly wandered if a normal scanning workflow would translate the models features faithfully.

Can't say I suceeded with that part. In part due to the imperfections, in part because dusting your figures before a scan makes it for a much better diffuse texture. Could it look better with a bit of polishing in Zbrush? Absolutely. But not neccesary for the project. In any case, it worked pretty fine for me, albeit the imperfections in the scan. The cane came through super well, which was a nice surprise for me.

Still, the figure sculpting shows the awesome character setup of Gandalf, essentially an agent of the Gods to bring balance to Middle Earth, and unlike Saruman, instad of falling for the lure of power, he fell in love with the people and the simple life of places like Hobbiton. The weight of uncountable years, bearabel for his faith and his love of life. He is the Wizard, the guide on the dark times, and I have to say that his portrayal by Ian Mckelln will always count as some of the best acting in my memory.

Props to Mauro Santini, who sculpted this awesome figures for Weta Workshop. I want to keep the viewer in mind that this is a photogrammetry scan with imperfections and not the original model.