FINAL | ARTWAR 2 | 3D | Cavalier | briansmuin

briansmuin 2018-01-05 05:09:27 UTC #1

I'm going for the light side this time. My character is an android and I want to try and explore some kind of interesting lighting / material scheme that will convey that. Although the idea isn't new, I've always liked the idea of a character having a unicycle-type apparatus in lieu of a pair of legs. I'm going to try and create this character using a standard current-gen pipeline; concept, hi-res modeling, retopology, baking, PBR mats/texturing and then possibly rigging if I have the time. I'm definitely open to (and sincerely appreciate) any feedback and thank you for taking the time to say "HI!".

FINAL IMAGE:

MARMOSET VIEWER:CavalierFinal.mview (17.2 MB)
CONCEPT SHEET:
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CAVALIER
Team Light
Brian Smuin
briansmuin.arts@gmail.com
@ArtistBriSmuin
https://www.facebook.com/brian.smuin.5
https://www.artstation.com/briansmuin
Rigged, Final Polycount (character only) = 23,093 quads, (1) 2048x2048 texture sheet

briansmuin 2018-01-05 05:14:13 UTC #2

I finished the "blocking out" stage in ZBrush. Now I'm on to adding more details. Retopo might end up being a nightmare on this one... at bare minimum a fun challenge. We'll see!

tcs2108 2018-01-05 05:59:09 UTC #3

That's really cool.

briansmuin 2018-01-06 01:48:23 UTC #4

Progress shot.

I'm going to go for doll joints, they just look cool IMO. Just adding details to the hi-res sculpt for now.

sarawildeart 2018-01-06 08:00:31 UTC #5

Nice, really whimsical design I am excited to see where it goes.

briansmuin 2018-01-10 18:25:48 UTC #6

Just a WIP shot to show that I'm making progress. I'm refining shapes in ZBrush and adding detail here and there. I'm thinking it'll need something more distinguishable and unique, like possibly an OP weapon or some other prop.

briansmuin 2018-01-12 06:08:06 UTC #7

Another WIP shot. Still adding details in ZBrush.

sseance 2018-01-12 06:29:27 UTC #8

very stylized, looks interesting. wish i was this good at HS

briansmuin 2018-01-18 05:16:37 UTC #9

Another WIP. Surface details are going to keep me busy for days. I'm really hoping I can get to the retopology stage soon!

briansmuin 2018-01-20 14:20:15 UTC #10

High resolution details are done in ZBrush. (65 million polys) Now on to create a lower resolution mesh for baking. My target poly count for the retolopogy is 12K since this is about what the current standard is. I may create a damage model or at least do something with the texture to break up the perfect symmetry.

atzetm 2018-01-21 19:23:32 UTC #11

Hello and hi

briansmuin 2018-01-29 20:19:54 UTC #12

Update:
I got the retopology done in Maya. It's a little heavy, about 8K more
than a game-ready character model should be. But the forms are exactly
how I want them. In order to trim down, it would just be a matter of
getting rid of a bunch of edge loops... that number would quickly drop
if I did that. But since this is for a contest I'm going to keep it
where it's at for now. I had to fly to the other side of the country for a few days for a job interview, so last week's progress was a little slow. I'm hoping to make up for that this week.

briansmuin 2018-01-31 02:54:54 UTC #13

Not my strongest suit, but I got the UV Layout done. I also reduced my polycount a bit, but it's still a little heavy at 19K. I tried to keep the texture density distribution fairly even, with the exception of a little more detail on the face visor. On to Substance Painter tomorrow!

briansmuin 2018-02-01 01:29:48 UTC #14

The initial bakes in Substance turned out great! There really weren't very many artifacts at all, certainly no more than a few minutes in Photoshop couldn't handle. I had to explode the model in order to get clean baking since there were so many overlapping parts. This is such an amazing program. Now the fun part... materials and texturing!

briansmuin 2018-02-05 03:40:55 UTC #15

I have the base color created in Substance. Now on to the really fun part... the actual materials and wear/tear. Being a light character, this 'bot is going to rely heavily on it's emissive map. I want certain areas to really glow. Some of the colors might change tomorrow. Polycount = 23K faces.

archsider 2018-02-05 04:57:32 UTC #16

<3 love mechs , nice design also.
instead of going full white , why not make some smaller areas darker , like the abs , or fingers etc , it might contrast it well enough to pull out the lighter value :3

archsider 2018-02-05 04:58:30 UTC #17

any idea where I can learn about making the tubes on the sides of shoulders like that ?

sseance 2018-02-05 12:34:03 UTC #18

Your plowing through this man. Only just started uving myself. Hope to see you at the finish line.

sseance 2018-02-05 12:38:55 UTC #19

19K Tris? 'a little heavy' he says. Im sitting at 100K right now, what does that make mine? . Im curious though, will you be using only 1 uv map for everything or do you plan on separating them out?

briansmuin 2018-02-05 12:41:49 UTC #20

Thank you, that is great feedback and I appreciate it. I had a few people tell me the same thing you did! I think I'm definitely going to re-visit the base color today and change it up. I totally agree, it needs more contrast.