Miami Vice Meet GTA - Sonny "James" Crockett

This project began with the idea of creating a futuristic police officer, but I couldn’t find the concept I was looking for.
At that time, the GTA VI trailers were looping on my screen, and I finally decided to completely reorient the project: what if I created a character that could actually exist in the GTA universe?
Thinking back to the moments spent watching Miami Vice with my grandparents, the idea of making a realistic likeness of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) came naturally.
I was also strongly inspired by the work of Jamie-lee Lloyd (https://www.artstation.com/jamie-leelloyd), whose style and artistic direction have always impressed me and influenced several creative decisions.

Before production, I began developing a personal backstory to anchor the character in the GTA VI universe: a Sonny Crockett obsessed with hunting down a criminal named Raul Bauptista, a fictional character from the GTA world.
This narrative direction shaped several artistic choices, including props and mini-teasers.
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Pipeline & Learning
At first, my goal was simply to make a likeness and a simple pose inspired by the pilot episode of the series.
During production, I decided to explore the Metahuman pipeline and integration into Unreal Engine, learning how to use the shaders, adapt my sculpt to the topology, and integrate an XGen groom instead of traditional haircards.

The clothes were created in Marvelous Designer, minimally refined in ZBrush, Rigged on Metahuma's Rig and skinned in Maya using NgSkin Tools. (i'm actually learning from Pierrick PICAUT's tutorial for Blender's side which is incredible IMO)
I also modeled several props (glasses, holster, cigarette…), including the Bren Ten pistols, which required deeper work and research into weapon-art workflows.
In parallel, I created small teaser videos to keep the production fun and to strengthen the mini-narrative around Raul Bauptista’s pursuit:
(https://www.instagram.com/kawaiispacekillers_3d/) > check the "Relics"
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Texturing & Rendering
All texturing was done in Substance Painter, and I chose to make all renders exclusively in Unreal Engine.
This allowed me to learn the Sequencer, Movie Render Queue, camera settings, and the Metahuman Control Rig, which becomes very enjoyable once you get the hang of it.
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Conclusion
This project became a true learning playground, likeness, Metahuman, Unreal Engine, clothing, grooming, props, rigging, skinning, narration and cinematics, while paying tribute to GTA, Miami Vice, and the iconic character of Sonny Crockett.
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Many thanks to Arthur Fournier (https://www.artstation.com/arthurfournier) for his unwavering support and guidance throughout the creation of this project, Sean Ferreira (https://www.artstation.com/seanferreira) for his feedback on the overall project, and Erik R. Ramalho (https://www.artstation.com/erikramalho) for his valuable advice on likeness work, and to the developers at Rockstar Games, who continue to deliver incredible masterpieces time and time again.