Dragon Ball Z Concept Realistic Design Goku

This was majority edited and rendered out in Photoshop! It was a mixture of photo manipulation and minimal digital painting.
The animated side was done in After Effects. The set up was quite simple. In photoshop I exported each layer out. Then in After Effects, I made each layer into a 3D layer than animated the virtual camera. That allowed me to create a subtle parallax effect.
We came to the conclusion that we wanted the super saiyan energy to be sorta subtle? That way it doesn't block his overall features. I also added a light from the bottom, so it matches the reference photo. We wanted small rocks/pebbles to float also because we wanted the super saiyan effect to distort the environment. I also didn't want the hair to just look "bleached" or "blonde" so I made the creative decision to make his hair glow instead. We also want his hair to have a realistic size to it as well.
The base of human model was actually sculpted in Blender 3D. It was just a regular size human model and I sculpted some muscles onto the model. I added a light shooting from the bottom up to match the reference photo.
The third picture isn't mine! It was just one of the reference photo we choose!
Software used: Photoshop, Blender 3D, and After Effects