Hi Everyone!
I am super proud and excited to present my latest project, and first work with the incredible Prime 1 Studio:
The Batman Who Laughs 1:3 Scale Statue.
Alluding to the cover of the first issue of the all new comic “The Batman Who Laughs”.
“I am something MORE. From down, down among the gnashing teeth. A place COLDER and DARKER.” - The Batman Who Laughs
Coming Soon…
*3D rendering shown
*Pending for approval
*Final product could be subjected to change
Will love to share more images soon.
Sculpted in Blender and Zbrush
Animated and rendered in Blender’s Cycles render engine.
I tried to use Eevee before rendering out in Cycles but I had it crashing many times. I still look forward to use Eevee soon in the coming projects!
Would love to hear what you guys think! Thank you!
Kfir Merlaub Art © 2017
BATMAN and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC Comics. (s17)
Already commented on youtube and artstation (yes, I’m a bit of a fanboy of your work hehe), but I’m glad I’m seeing it here because I like to ask some questions, hope that’s ok 
So, first of all, awesome work, it is really a great model.
Now for the questions:
- How much time it took to do the whole thing?
- How’s the process, I’d imagine you start in Blender using dyntopo and then switch to Zbrush to do remesh and final detailing? Then back to blender for render?
- Did you receive a specific 2D design of the statue beforehand?
- How’s the feedback process with the client? I’m sure they’re quite strict with getting everything right, so I’d like to know how it’s handled.
And finally,
- What advise can you give to someone who wants to pursue the same career path? I’ve been a generalist for quite some time, but after much consideration and thinking I’d like to switch to something more specific, character sculpting in this case.
(You can ignore this one, or answer with a PM; I don’t want to derail your thread hehe).
Thank you!
It’s like one of those pinhead characters. Perverted and twisted with demon sauce. Side dish pain. Sweet.
Thanks so much guys!
@julperado, appreciate you asking!
-This one took about 2 or so months. Kind of hard to say because I had a few other projects in the middle initially until I got to work fully on it. And the design took some turns with feedback from DC.
-Yeah you got it right; I use Blender first because its so easy to manage the scene and objects and quickly get a design in 3D. Later, after approval I can continue to Zbrush and get serious level of detail (this one total reached over 300 million verts!). Keep in mind the details that passed to blender is via baking so the actual Zbrush model has more details. Soon I will be able to share images.
-They give me the theme and references. I sketch out how I want the design to look, very rough sketch and if approved I move on to 3D. Making sure all the elements sculpted will match the design from the comics. This was not easy on this project since The Batman Who Laughs is so new that each reference contradicts the other one. So I had to get my vision of what he should look like and keep it within the reference limits.
-This client is known for super crazy details so I had the challenge to push my art further in terms of the details. Basically I periodically update with progress, get some feedback and continue to the next progress stages.
-I must say that if you have passion for characters and sculpting, focusing on these will definitely be a good way to go. My strategy is to focus on my portfolio first. Always compare your work to the best of the industry. Like a side by side image of your work and the best ones and try to judge whats missing what can be done to push your art to the next level. That’s what I always do. With time you get to develop an eye for quality, you see mistakes that others cant see even in amazing works. I also always try to make sure each new project I make will be a better one than the last. Its my goal at least 
Hope this helps you and good luck! Thanks so much for your comment!
Thank’s for your answers Kfir, they are very helpful and encouraging as I’m going through a rough time right now.
Can’t wait to see more screenshots of the process, keep the great work!
GREAT WORK!!! I LOVE THIS. I also have a question (or two) if you don’t mind me asking. When getting this started in Blender, I see you stated you use dyntopo. but with using dyntopo do you also use this with the skin modifier to block in the actual full body of each character or do you start with primative shapes (Spheres,cylinders etc)? And once blocked in and into zbrush, do you use zremesher to get a lower polycount or do you just sculpt over the dyntopo exported mesh? I’m really interested to see how your characters look once into zbrush. When you can is it possible to share your Blender block out WIP images? I would love to see this. Thanks and great work again.
Thanks so much! 
I usually start from simple spheres. sometimes I use a skin modifier object, depends how I feel and if the form I am trying to get requires it, e.g. shoelaces etc.
Yeah this is the first project I actually utilize the Zremesher. So much polys it is an absolute must. I learned in this project that it is best to do that right upon importing into Zbrush to get all the objects ready for high def detailing.
I shared progress image of my Deadpool project in this thread. So you can see how the model looks like before Zbrush.
https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?433813-Deadpool-Statue-Kfir-Merlaub-Art
Thank you!
Cool… Thanks again for sharing… And explaining your process. In the deadpool thread, I see you textured in zbrush too. How do you get those textures in blender? Is it because you uv’d the character and was able to export the textures from zbrush to blender or did you somehow get the polypainted model into blender? (sorry I had to ask because I’m trying to wrap my brain around how you got the textures out of zbrush given that the polycounts are so high)? Also congrats on getting this gig. You deserve it and im always inspired by your work and how you use Blender and Zbrush so effectively.
Thanks again.
cool work, what is this Batman who laughs?