Week 4 - Low Poly Modeling Update #3

So I've finalized my base mesh. By deleting necessary faces / edges, I was able to bring her down to approximately 2,850 tris! That is, until I realized I forgot to make her shield. Whoops! So she's back up to 3,024.

This week I spent most of my time UVing. It took me a while because I needed to figure out the best way to condense everything into one 1k map (not including turntable). I didn't want to stack her UVs at first because I wanted variation in her armor, but after I tried texturing her and saw how low resolution the paint was I realized stacking UVs was going to be the best way I'd get the most detail on her.

Now that I've gotten her base mesh to where I want it, it's time to start texturing! I've been studying 3D Coat for now. So far I've watched a couple of intro tutorial videos and tested out some of the basic functions, but I haven't done anything intensive as of yet.

As I was applying color to her in 3D Coat, I realized I wasn't too hyped with her colors. Especially when I came to realize I didn't like the blonde hair + freckles combo. Since most people with freckles have either red or brown hair, I've thought about changing it. I might just keep the original armor colors and swap out the hair for red / brown, but thought I would test out some alternative palettes for the entire character for fun.

Mesh (now including shield!)

UV

3D Coat nightmare fuel

Palette fun

Aaand that's all! Catch ya on the flipside~
-Kristen

Week 3 - Low Poly Modeling Update #2

Progress was made!

So I've essentially completed my base mesh. The body is 2,058 tris and the armor + spear is 1,010 tris putting her a total of 3,068 tris. This is a little bit over my limit and I may cut down if need be, but for now I'm happy with the level of detail she has. After browsing the web, I've come across some really inspiring low-poly modeling styles (links to their work below!) so I decided to change things up a bit. For example, my character now has eyeballs and more defined eye / mouth topology. I hope this will make my character look better come the texturing phase.

Now that I'm done with modeling, I'll begin texturing soon. It may take me a while to get the ball rolling with texturing since I will be learning a new program (3D Coat most likely, although Substance and Quixel are also options).

I've posted some of my inspirations below for reference:

• Low poly model by Yekaterina Bourykina. This model is a bit too high poly for what I'm going for but I love the texturing style. The face topology is also really good, I studied it when building my character's face. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9yKVW
• Low poly scene by Matt B. Closer to the poly count that I'm shooting for, but I needed more edge loops on my character's face because I will be adding some facial animation. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQZmr

Final-ish base mesh

That's what I've got for now! Peace out!
-Kristen

Week 2 - Low Poly Modeling

And so begins my dive into low poly character modeling. I've dabbled in it a bit last summer, however I never completed the project so I'm excited to make some progress when it comes to learning about low poly!

First off, I'm going for a style somewhere in the middle of the low poly spectrum. I would like to incorporate a mixture of the two styles shown below, the Bastion model being on the higher end while the Dark Souls x Animal Crossing model is on the lower end. My goal is to end up with around 3,000 tris maximum.

Here are the references (these guys did a great job, their work turned out amazingly well!)

Bastion reference by Nix from Polycount

Dark Souls x Animal Crossing reference by Crimson from Polycount

Here is what I have so far. She is currently 1384 tris. I plan to model everything as normal and then go back and begin triangulating in order to lower poly count, especially on the hair. Modeling in tris is kind of challenging because it defies a lot of rules set up in our regular modeling classes. 

Front and side orthos

Wireframe shots

My goal is to have her modeled, textured, rigged, and in an idle battle animation (holding the spear upright and guarding with her shield) before Spring Break. I will then move onto learning Zbrush with the sloth character, which I want to have completed in a micro-environment by the end of the semester. If I finish it early I will start on to my mage character, however I plan to mainly work on it next semester.

Until next week!
-Kristen

Week 1 - Concept Art

Hi all! This is my first update post regarding my projects in this course. I have gone and mapped out my plan for the year, since I will also be taking Senior Portfolio next semester.

Here is my concept art (I plan to be working on assignments in order from left to right):

The first model - the flower knight girl of my own design - is going to be a low poly, highly texture-based assignment. I intend to make the mesh in Maya and textures in Photoshop, Quixel and / or 3D Coat (the latter two are programs recently introduced to me I intend to try out).

The second model - the sloth character called Namakemon owned by T.Higuchi and spiralcute - will be my introduction to Zbrush, which I am new to and am going to learn for the majority of the semester. In addition to the creature, I also want to make a micro environment for him with the practice objects I make along the way, such as rocks, foliage, etc.

The third and fourth model - a male magician and female barbarian of my own design - are intended for my assignments next semester, seeing as Zbrush will probably take me a long time to get accustomed to. Their current designs might be too ambitious for someone new to sculpting, but I'd like to give it a shot! Depending on how long these assignments take me, I'd like to sculpt a bust of a character as well (this might be thrown in before the third model depending on how comfortable I am with Zbrush at that point).

That's what I have for this week!
-Kristen