Hi all,
I will hopefully be updating this daily for a while here, so I appreciate any feedback that you care to share The thought is to make an epic looking Archangel, probably covered in armor and wielding a giant hammer or something like that. I doubt that it will be too stunning or anything like that, but I am hoping that it will be video game ready.
mcjohn
mcjohnart@gmail.com
https://mcjohnart.deviantart.com/
OR
https://www.artstation.com/mcjohnart
https://twitter.com/McJohnArt
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Day 1, starting to get the low poly mesh modeled. Starting at the head and working my way down, I created the pauldron out of a separate piece of geometry, and am not sure if I will end up attaching it for a seamless mesh or not.
Day 2, I continued to work on the low poly mesh, working my way down his leg. I am thinking that most of his armor pieces will be a seamless mesh, with the exception of his pauldron and thigh armor, since I think having the armor under those parts moving slightly separately might be a nice effect.
Day 3, I am still working on the low poly mesh, as I added his arm I redid a fair amount of topology around his shoulder. I adjusted the shape of his pauldron and optimized a few tris out of it. I also got my first like on this thread
Day 4, I added hands (which made my poly count skyrocket) and I decided to attach the pauldron and thigh armor to make one seamless mesh. This should help me keep the poly count down, although it is looking like texturing him might be a bit tricky. I also got my second like on this thread
Day 5, I started working on his wings, and worked on the topology here and there. Initially I was thinking about making the wings be higher resolution, but decided that I would be relying on the texture for defining a nice looking edge of feathers.
Day 6, I reworked the wing a bit, and started UVing by marking a few seams. I think that I will get the UVs all done before moving on to the high res sculpting, but I am getting closer to having something worth looking at
Day 7, I worked on UVs and a bit of touch up of topology... it was kinda a boring day lol, but pretty soon I'll be getting to the good stuff
Day 8, I worked on the UV's, so while it still does not look like much, I think that I am almost ready to start some high res sculpting
Day 9, I finished off the UVing, and then separated the low poly mesh into sections that should be easier (on both me and my computer) to work with while doing high res sculpting. I started with his face, and this is how far I've gotten so far.
Day 10, I pretty much just worked on the high res sculpt of his head and hood. I should probably be calling this good for now and moving on to the next piece, otherwise I am not sure if I will be able to finish in time.
Day 11, I pretty much just worked on the high res sculpt of his torso, and will probably be moving on since I am running out of time.
Day 12, I worked on the high res sculpt for his arm, and still have another five pieces to sculpt in high res, so hopefully I will be able to spend some extra time on this over the weekend.
Day 13, I did a lot of high res sculpting over the weekend, and today I have been playing around on xNormal and Photoshop to get this first rough draft of his normal map texture done. I thought that today was the last day for the competition, but I can use the extra time, so I am not going to complain too much about it
Day 14, I started cutting out the different materials with colors, so I guess that this could be considered the foundation for what will eventually be my Color, Spec, and Normal (because I might add a few more Normal details based on the material) maps.
Day 15, finally I feel like I am getting something that is worth looking at I pretty much just played around with the Normal, Spec and Color maps today. I am not really sure if I am liking the color scheme, so if anyone has any thoughts then feel free to share.
Day 16, I reworked the textures to change the color scheme and add a few details here and there. Since the first thing that everyone was commenting on was this guy's small head, I decided to scale that up, as well as shrink his feet a bit, and lengthen his torso.
Day 17, I started working on his hammer, and think that this will have to work for the low res model of it. I will hopefully be finishing his hammer and getting him in a nice pose to call it all good sometime over the weekend.
Day 18, I textured the hammer, and will hopefully be wrapping this up pretty soon here
Day 19, I started rigging, and played around with a him a bit to see how he was deforming.
Day 20, I finished rigging and throwing a quick animation on him. I uploaded the finished model with a basic flying idle animation to Sketchfab.
Do not be afraid, unless you plan on fighting this angelic champion! Known as the strength of God, this Archangel has unparalleled power coupled with eternal endurance. A shield to those he is sent to protect, and a hammer to anyone foolish enough to become a foe, Gabriel is a mighty warrior, and one of the finest from the heavenly host.