I wanted the shadows of the surrounding trees to fall realistically over the model so, after I finished setting up the lighting, I started placing cylinders that wouldn't be visible on-screen, but would cast a shadow over the Giant as he moved by.

I looked closely at the shadows in the photo, and tried to replicate the lighting and the softness/hardness of the shadows.

I feel that I achieved the desired effect, with the denser placement of shadows closer to the camera creating a more looming and menacing feel.

Render Time - 00:01:37

Render Time - 00:01:38

Render Time - 00:00:13

I created separate movements for each toe so I could control them better when animating.

Almost all 12 of the toes were at odd angles, so I had to code them in various ways to get them to behave correctly. For example, if I were to rotate a toe into the desired position, it could end up as x:18 y:-4 z:-9. To fix this, I'd code the X rotation as is, whereas I'd apply a *0.5 to the Z axis, and approximately a *0.25 to the Y axis, so each axis moves at the correct rate, and add a - symbol to the code so the Ctrl is animating to a positive value.

I fixed the displacement warping issue by taking the file into Photoshop and softening the contrast around the warped area, but leaving the rest as it was. This leaves the rest of the arm with the desired amount of detail from the displacement map, while giving the previously-warped section a reduced effect.

However, saving the .exr out from Photoshop heavily reduced the contrast of the map, so it took a bit of time to get all of the settings correct to give the arm a look that is consistent with the rest of the model.

I've got all of my displacement maps in Maya and applied to my model. Each of the materials had to be tweaked here and there to give the Giant a consistent look although I'm going to need to make further changes to his left upper arm (the right upper arm from this renders view) as there's some noticeable stretching if the settings are too high. I'll be experimenting with a few ideas I have to fix this issue and post what does/doesn't work.

I've been working a lot to create a good medium between render quality and render time to give myself something more manageable, and I've been able to lower the render time down from 3:04 to 0:38 with no real noticeable drops in quality.

The lighting I have set up currently in my scene is pretty harsh so I can clearly see the effects of my displacement maps as I apply and edit them.

I doubt this process will take too much longer and then I can finally get onto rigging!

I have finished refining the rest of the character by creating extra definition and adding interest around the Giant's body. I found that the wood and the moss looked very separate so I went over the body again, painting in moss to help give the Giant a more aged and blended look. While painting, I referenced a lot of moss-covered trees and thought a lot about where I imagined the moss might form naturally.

I have begun moving everything back over into Maya, beginning with the textures and Mudbox paint layers. I need to bring over the displacement maps to give the mesh its detail, as it's currently at a very low subdivision level, but this will be very back-and-forth between Mudbox and Maya as the settings can be somewhat fiddly. I'll be uploading test renders as I go, and once all of the displacements are set up I'll render out a turnaround of the Giant in its default pose before moving on to rigging.

While working in Mudbox I ran into the same problem as before a couple of times, in which the software crashed and corrupted my files, causing me to lose a lot of my progress. I have been keeping several copies of my files so it wasn't quite as bad as it could have been, but it set me back a couple of days overall. I think it has a lot to do with RAM as my memory is frequently reaching around 80%, despite having 16GB. Is there any way to lower Mudbox settings within the Viewport other than lowering the subdivision level?

Arm

Torso

Head

Horns

Leg