Step1:

Intial Concept: The Initial idea of the bust,i was thinking,was of an extra-terrestrial guy.But,i wanted to avoid the 'organic' side of it.Just wanted to havehave a heavy hard surface feel with hellot of futuristic tech suit on it,and defines it..'Aliens' beings far more advanced than humans.I Started playing around in zbrush with this initial idea.Blocking in the base shapes,so that i can build up the whole model later in a 3d program.Also went through lot of insect refs to get some more ideas.

Step 2:

Modeling(Blocking in Basic Shape) : Once i had a concept done in Zbrush,i exported the Optimized obj Model from zbrush using the plugin 'Decimation Master' which allows you to reduce polycount of your model in a very efficient way while keeping all their sculpted details.For further building up the concept,i used Autodesk Maya 2011 since it offers a variety of great modeling tools and options.So,Now i started blocking in the mechanical hard surface shapes over the imported sculpt model.I used the 'Make live' feature in maya quite a bit to snap the New created mesh.Also worked with soft selection On for proportinate modelling.At this stage,i am not really worried about the topology,about tri sided and N- sided polygons but the overall structure.So tweaking the shape to get the desired look is the priority.Also Open to experiment new designs over it.

Creating Flow in Shapes:  At this stage,it is necceary to build up on initial designs and establish a continuity in flow of shapes.Adding details like jaw-spikes,pipes,mechanics etc.Using the Make Live  feature in Maya,its quite easy to model things attached to the surface of base model.Make sure that the watever shapes you create are visualy attarctive and dynamic.Just keep modelling and experimenting with different ideas at this stage.

Filling in Space Big shape: Here i applied different materials on the model as per the matter,just to differentiate what is what and to have a clear understanding of different areas of model.I wasnt too happy with the "too much" compactness of the model here ,so i started giving spaces and modeled bigger shapes.I was really inspired with aerodynamic designs ,so i tried itover here,and it worked with some areas.

Final Stage Modeling: Once i got the basic stucture of the head done,i started modeling the lower part of the bust.Here i had to make sure that the connection between the head and chest,looks convincing and complicated at the same time.Now,i was close to to finish up modeling this guy.Took quite a while figuring out,how to divide space and model the stuffs.Started adding minute details on it.

Final Mash: This is the Final Bust model ready for texturing.Added small details like screws,lights,supportbars,link-locks,etc.I was happy with the overall structure and flow of shapes.The mesh is nt 100% clean,with some triangles,but thats okay.I managed with good topology overall at vital areas for unwrapping.

Step3: Texturing

Texturing/Shaders
For the texturing of this model,i just wanted to play with the materials and some bump maps to define the texture and not any diffuse paint.Thats because i wanted to have a overall smooth polished look'n'feel to this guy.The main shader effects i wanted to derive was of polished metal,Carbon fibre,Neon glow,etc.I mainly Used Blinn and Anisotrophic materials,to achieve the effects.Constantly Tweaking the values and rendering samples was the key at this stage.

This an screenshot of the shader settings i made using Blinn for the Polished body of the Alien.This material was crucial since it covers large areas of the model.

Some screenshot of the UVs that i did for some parts for applying bump maps.It is essential that UVs are laid out properly (to avoid stretch)since i was going to apply tileable maps.

Step 4:  Lghting

Lighting the model: For this particular 3d model,I have used Image based lighting using an HDR map that i created in HDR Light Studio.This is a quick and efficient way of getting very realistic lighting over the model.So that was my main source of lighting,but it doesnt create any shadows over the render.So i had to lit up the scene with some directional lights.Also,I wanted to derive some passes from the render,and so i created a Three-point light system around the model for little drama in lighting.

Step 5: Rendering

Turn mental ray On in rendering tab in maya.The rendering features in Maya Mental ray is quite good for Production output.I chose the  production quality preset from the renderings tab and tweaked its sub-parameters for enhancing the quality.Kept Final Gathering On With very low value to have better results.First i tried some test renders without bumps and single materail applied just to see how it looks with neutral texture.Tweaking values and Test-Rendering until you get it right is what it needs.Also Rendered an Ambient Occlusion(AO) Pass for
Compositing in Photoshop.

Step 6: Postproduction

Took the key,Rim,Fill and AO passes to Photoshop for the Final compositing.I then Later rendered  more light passes from different directions as required.Here in photoshop i removed the Extra lighting from the dark areas.The AO pass really gave a certain Depth to overall model.Then finaly after composting whole and adjusting values and tweaks here and there,i was satisfied wth the result.