Week 3 - Texturing + Rigging / Posing

Toby is looking a little more manly this week. I've changed his face a bit, trimming his cheeks to be a bit more slim / square-ish. I liked his rounded chubby cheeks, but I have to admit he does look a more like a boy now. I also altered his outfit quite a bit: I opened up his coat and raised the chain, removed the feathers, lowered the boots, and changed the style of his mid-wraps. Overall I'm happy with the results, even if I kind of miss his old design.

I've also worked more on rigging him I hate paint weights asdfhjk. I've had to re-do the paint weights about four times because something messes up each time.  I did discover the lovely Move Skinned Joints Tool, which was super helpful to know. After a lot of tries  ahfjshfskf I was able to put him in a temporary pose, but his arms crumple up really bad so I need to redo it (the picture posted is the pose, however I will be fixing it for next week). I added more edge loops to it to prevent deforming after this just in case it was the issue, mainly in the elbows.

Aside from that (taking a break from paint weights because jskdhlg;k) I've also updated his textures more. The textures on him are about done now I'd say. At this point all I need to do now is complete the prop textures, add the physics (which is honestly just a side detail) and mini-animation for his magic. I really want him done by next week, gogogo!

Week 2 - Texturing + Rigging / Posing

This week I spent most of my time working on textures. I've added more detail to the cloak, skin, and his robes along with small touch ups on his hair, eyes, and accessories. For the most part, aside from the more noticeable things like missing alphas, everything is done on him. I've also worked more on the props, primarily the floor.

I also brainstormed some names, which is always the hardest part for me. After a lot of deliberation:

Elias
Sergei
Cole
Quinn
Johann
Finnian
Lloyd
Graham
Flynn
Ren
Tobias

I decided....Tobias! Toby for short. I wanted his name to have an elegant yet boyish ring to it. It's not set in stone yet, so suggestions are welcome.

When I didn't have 3D Coat in front of me, I spent my time working on his rig. I'm trying to pose him in a static position with some magic / animated textures floating in his hands, however I'd like also his clothes to be fluttering slightly, as if the magic was blowing air at him. Recently I tried my hand at adding wind effects. It's going about as well as you'd expect:



I'm trying to use Air Field FX. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet, I've only used it once in my life and it was just to make a flag wave. If anyone has advice, please let me know! When I went to paint weight his mesh, stuff also went wrong (especially fighting with his clothes) and ultimately I got an error that the skin cluster was missing so a lot of time went down the drain.

Week 1 - Low poly modeling + Texturing

This week I've been working more on my low poly model (his name is still pending, argh). I've made progress on texturing, primarily in the boots, robe, shawl, and floor / props. I've made minor touch ups on other parts of him too, like on his accessories, skin, and hair. I've also modeled some props - a couple types of books, a scroll, and a potion- that I plan to place near the character on his turn table. In addition to modeling / texturing, I've been drawing up concepts on how I would like to pose him. Initially I wanted him in more of an action-y pose, arms outstretched as if he were in mid-cast, however for a static model I felt that would be a little jarring. Alternatively I've also thought of putting him in a more relaxed pose where he is holding ice magic in one hand and a book in another. This way I can have the ice magic subtly animate while he is looking at it comfortably. With this, I could give him a more cheery, youthful facial expression, which closer matches his personality. He has a skeleton now so once I've completely finalized my mesh I will paint skin weights.

Current project

Wireframe

Close up. Now has feathers and some extra details on his accessories.
Will make alphas once the diffuse is complete

Skele'd

Pose ideas
I'll probably go with the lower middle reference

I also posted my last week's screenshot on Polycount.

By the next weekly I'd like to be mostly done with texturing and / or begin posing him.

Second Semester Ahoy!

This is my first blog of my second semester! I'm going to be continuing low poly modeling, although I do intend to work more in Zbrush as well in my free time and perhaps add a project at the end of the semester. I'll be splitting up my projects in the following order:

My first project is going to be this low poly mage character I designed last semester (name still pending). I was intending to sculpt him, but I couldn't help going back to low poly modeling. I started modeling and texturing him over the summer to get a head start so I want to finish him in the next couple of weeks (a month at the latest). Last time my poly count was under 3 tris but for this character I'm going to be a bit more lenient and say under 10k tris. Currently he is at 6540, but I will be adding some more props in the scene later on, such as a book and some ice magic alphas.

Original concept art

Colored concept art

Orthos

Torso shot

Full body shot

My next project is going to be making assets for a strategy game! I am working with a programmer (Sebastien Hutt ❤︎) outside of this class and hopefully once we get a working demo I can do a playtest during class. The assets will include characters, weapons, props, and the GUI. I will be doing small animation as well, like walk cycles and attack / hit animations. The models and textures won't be nearly as complicated as my mage character since we are going for a minimalist style so I hope to be done with the majority of our assets within two months.

The game (placeholder name is Game Jelly until we think of something else) is a turned based strategy game. It's something of a mixture between Fire Emblem (for its stats, classes, map style) and Valkyria Chronicles (for its movement, battle system). Below are some of the WIPs we have right now. I'll post more of our progress once I'm done with my mage.

Basic concept art of GUI and character design

Start game

Moving causes Move meter to drop

When Move meter is depleted, you cannot move the unit further

Melee attack

You Died

Final Blog

This semester I spent the majority of my time creating a low poly hand painted character that I've named Flower Knight. I designed her and created orthos in Photoshop, modeled, UVed, rigged, and posed her in Maya, textured her in 3D Coat, and exported her to Sketchfab. I've learned so much with this project and I had a lot of fun working on her!

Tri count - 3,454
Verts - 1,993
Textures - One 2k map (diffuse and opacity only)

 

Flower Knight by Kristen on Sketchfab

Below is my major progress leading up to this point:

Orthos

Palette experiment

Basic mesh

Finalized mesh

Mesh including spear and shield

UVs

Textures 1.0

Textures 2.0

Textures 3.0

Texture close up

Texture back

Texture armor close up

Spear

Shield

Finalized mesh with texture and flat lighting

Finalized mesh with wireframe

Finalized mesh with pose and rig

During the last few weeks of the semester I began learning Zbrush! I'm still working on the basics but I'm excited to continue with it over summer and next semester!

Week 13 - Zbrush Sculpting

I'm still going through the interface of Zbrush. I've learned the basic gist of dynamesh, which seems super helpful since I was having so many issues last week with polarized ends of my mesh! I've also gone through more of the tutorials explaining new brushes, tool settings, etc. I decided to make a skull to practice what I've learned.

For some reason, I can't wrap my head around creating holes in meshes using a cylinder and dynamesh. I've looked at Pixologic's explanation of it, but I must be missing something because it doesn't work. I'll come back to it, but for now I just wanted to see how I'd fare creating a skull. For my first real attempt at a sculpt (I don't count last week haha) I don't think it turned out half bad!

Reference:

Next I'm going to begin sculpting - you guessed it - rocks! Here is a great rock reference I'm going to be using from Sketchfab by Phil Nolan. It's a 3D scanned model and being able to move the model I find is a great way to study (since perspective can be tricky when sculpting!).

Rock Video by philnolan3d on Sketchfab