For a number of years I was an active advocate for the adoption of digital sculpting workflows at Pixar, teaching a number of ZBrush classes at work, hosting a ZBrush speed sculpting group and collaborating with several artists to re-imagine their 2D designs in ZBrush. In time this helped transition the studio into a different approach for doing visual exploration, breaking down the walls that once strictly separated Design and Modeling processes and people.
Here are a few examples of results from these collaborations, including one Toy design that I ended up fully articulating and printing to get a physical toy prototype. This was a great idea until I excitedly put the toy prototype in the hands of a friend's actual five year old child, where it was dropped and broken in an instant. Ha! Lesson for a toy designer: Super thick joints next time!!
Littlehorn (sculpt) - Exploration of a young Sami adventurer design from sketch reference from Kristian Norelius.
Droofus (sculpt) - Exploration of a sketch by Matt Nolte.
Stegasaurus Warrior Toy (sculpt) - This model was constructed as a Toy, and even carried into a 3D print to be a physical one! Riffing off of a sketch by Tim Evatt. I modeled out all the joints, registers and breakouts needed to 3D print a toy prototype.
Crocodile Warrior Toy (sculpt) - A second take in the same line, riffing off of a sketch by Tim Evatt.