Final models and evaluation

High Poly model

 Here is the final render sheet for the high poly model, i am really happy with the overall result and how the texture turned out, it took a while but i think it paid off. I also managed to keep the model under the 600 Tri budget even with the hourglass accessory.

Evaluation

Here are a few images and renders of the final character for reference so i can explain and analyse the successful and the negative points about the character model. The actual 3d model was relatively easy to create, the only area i had a bit of trouble with was the hands, feet and creating the head. I tackled these by keeping each part separate from each other so i could easily change or even delete that part of the model such as the hand until i was happy with the result. Next i planned out which parts of the model i wanted to have symmetry so i could save of texture space and optimise it as much as possible so more detail can be added. I then unwrapped half of the model and used symmetry to duplicate the model so i then had all of the model unwrapped, i then unwrapped other pieces that i didn't want symmetry to affect. Texturing was a large step for me as this is where most of the detail can be added without using any Tris, i first encountered some problems with the head and the shoulder armour, because they had been mirrored i wasn't able to add the cracks i had in the concept art, because it looked to obvious that it was mirrored which was the only downside to the symmetry tool, although it was a great help for texturing the body which took the longest, but would of taken even longer if i had to texture it all and unwrap both sides. There were to minor problems with the unwrap that i noticed once i finished texturing, the hands were far to large in scale to the rest of the unwrap, they should have been much smaller saving more space to make other parts larger such as the cloth which is too small on the unwrap and could have been much bigger, even so everything turned out to be quite detailed, i painted the texture at the resolution of 2048 then downsized it to 1024, this held much more detail than trying to paint the texture at a smaller size. After finishing the texture i then wanted to do some final tweaks to make the renders much more interesting, the first thing i did was position the character so he didn't look so static, i positioned his cloth so that it looks like its breezing in the wind, i then also added a small textured base to make it look like it fits an environment or game. These final touches are what made it look much better and i am pleased with the result, apart from the small mistakes, but this will allow me check for these problems in the future.

Low Poly Model

This is the final render sheet for the low poly model, i am also happy with the result of this model, the model is a little over budget, due to the complexity of the design i couldn't cut out anymore Tris without affecting the overall design.

Evaluation

With the low poly model everything was pretty straight forward, the only tricky part is keeping everything tidy and using as little Tris as possible. The modelling part went fine, the only problem i had was that i had to many accessory's on the concept that a low poly model shouldnt really have so this is why i am slightly over the budget because i had to make the holy water bottle, the bible and the little scroll pieces that hang from the belt. I am also really happy with the unwrap, every things pretty efficient as i mirrored half of the body and also mirrored other sections such as the wing pieces so the most amount of detail could be applied to the model. I also added a specular map and a normal map to help define more details of the model and really make them pop, you can see in the UDK render below it works great on the back armour to 'fake' more detail and give it a metal appearance. I also created a presentation base and the weapon just to increase of the overall presentation and the believability that this is a game suitable character. With doing the high and low poly models i much preferred the high poly character mainly because more detail can be added to define the character more, although the low poly model was fun to make its far more tricky working with stricter restrictions and budgets which can affect the overall design.

High poly model wip 8

Heres a quick screen grab of the final model, he has been posed a little and a base has been added to make it a little more interesting, only thing i need to do now is finish texturing his weapon and sort out the lighting untill im happy with it before taking renders.

High poly model 7

Some more texturing progress on the high poly model, taking a long time to do.. will have to speed up as i still need to work on a normal and specular map.

High model wip 6

Some more progress painting the head and neck, looking forward to doing the normal and specular maps for the model to really make the cracks and muscles stand out.

High poly model wip5

Some more progress with the texturing just blocking out shapes and the main structure ready for some serious detailing and cleaning up seams. I need to tweak the model in a few areas as well as i keep seeing things I'm not that happy with..

High poly model wip 4

All the moddeling is finished now and it has been unwrapped. Just blocking in the colours for the texture for now so i can begin painting, hopefully it will make things look alot better as ill be able to paint in a lot of the detail. The finished model is 5,870 tris and the weapon is 470 tris.

High poly model wip 3

Here a quick screengrab of the high poly model, the models almost finished now just need to check round everything and fix up minor stuff with a few tweaks before moving onto the unwrap...

high poly model wip2

Pretty happy i got the hands and feet done so progress is going well, now to add more detail.

High poly model wip1

Made a start on the high poly model, things are going fairly smoothly so far at the moment. Its under 1000 tris at the moment so i should be within my budget for this model if things go to plan

Low poly model final

Here's some final renders, decided to render it in max because it was just easier to lay out because i could render out PNG files with transparent backgrounds.

Low poly character turnaround

Low poly model wip 4

Here are some renders in UDK of the completed low poly model, next i need to find a way to lay it out professionally on one page.

Low poly model wip 3

Here's some quick screen grabs from UDK for now, still need to work on the display base for the model and i also want to pose it and take some nicer renders for the final display sheet. Ive lost count of how many hours its taken me to finish this texture but i know it was a long time, I'm really happy with the result though. Some little problems with the face but that might be just because of the tri count, i'm really pleased the wings and back part of the model aswell. The final tri count is 605, which is a tiny bit over the budget but should be fine.

Low poly model wip 2

Ive finished the unwrap for the model and the staff now, and also had the time to finish texturing the staff which I'm pretty pleased with. Here is a quick render inside UDK, a spec and a normal map was added in the engine. The finished staff counts in at 248 tris.Below is a render in 3ds max with only the diffuse material.

Low poly model (wip1)

Here's a screen grab of the progress for the low poly model. The model turned out to be 620 tris.. which is a little over the budget of 600 tris but hopefully that should be ok. the weapon is excluded from the tri count but i still kept this low poly as it would be used in a game, the weapon is 290 tris finished. Overall really happy with how it turned out, a few things had to be changed here and there as it just wasn't possible with the tri limit but hopefully i can pull it off with the texturing now, so next step is to unwrap!

High poly character design

Here is the final design sheet for the high poly character design. I am happy with the overall design and think it has got my theme across quite well, as most people are familiar with Anubis and what he stands for, this is the reason i themed my character around this Egyptian god. I also tied in other elements such as the hour glass that grim reaper is usually seen with to represent peoples lives or how long they have to live before he comes to collect souls. Next i will be working on the low poly character model.

Colour variations

Here are a few colour variations for the high poly character design, I didn’t want the colour’s to different from one another, I know I wanted the skin a fleshy colour but I wasn’t sure about the clothing colour and what colour the mask should be, the colour idea I like the most is number 1 because of the Egyptian colour scheme, and the deep red robes and the black mask give the impression of evil and sinister character.

Character dev 4

Some more progress on the Anubis character, just sketched out a few parts for the character as well as a back view, just need to get in there and paint them up now, fairly happy with the overall look of the character though, i want him to wielding two of the sickles so i think he will look pretty interesting once modelled and textured.

Character dev 3

Some more character progression, gone to a more bulkier version of Anubis still with ages and tattered skin and the head more of a mask, i much prefer this concept, i have also given him an a large hourglass that clips into the back of his belt, something Death is usually seen with to keep that tie in there.

Character dev 2

 After not being too happy with the first idea for the high poly character i went back to my thumbnails to look at more initial ideas i created. I liked the idea of creating Anubis the Egyptian god because its a much different idea from the rest of the concept witch are more influenced from the grim reaper. The idea with this character is much different from the original interpretation of the god, i want him to look like hes undead himself with rotting flesh and bone showing through in areas, this way hair can be placed in patches witch will also reduce the poly count.

I then chose to develop another thumbnail just in case i found a better idea, I'm quite interested in this design for the angel of death although i think i much prefer the idea of Anubis because I'm not really keen on these robotic type creatures because i don't think they will translate into 3d very well. So i will now move onto more detailed development of my chosen idea and see what i can come up with.

Angel of death character dev 1

Started to work on the designs for the high poly model. I want to design a contrasting character to go with the low poly character design such as an angel of death, so i looked at my thumbnails and chose one of the ideas to start with, i then drawn up two idea variations from the thumbnail, i quite like the idea of the character but I'm not sure I'm happy with the look of the character overall, so i will go back to my thumbnails and choose more ideas to develop before i more forward with the most interesting design.

Character Dev 6- Final concept sheet

Here’s the final concept for the Angel character, I may add some more annotations but I’ll see what my tutor says. Fairly happy with the design, because this is the design for the low poly character I can’t go too crazy with the concept but I think this design is achievable with the 600 tri limit for the model.. this excludes the weapon; although I will keep the weapon at a low tri count as well as it would in a game that would feature the character.

Character dev 5- Detailing and refinement

Some progress on the character design, worked on the front perspective view and some close ups of the items she carries. Ive also included a breakdown of the character design development from thumbnail to final design, Next i need to work on the back perspective view.

Character dev 4- Colour variations

Here are a few different colour variations, at first i knew i wanted to do the character in white and gold robes, but looking at number 1 i think the gold colour seems a bit to much and I'm not really too keen on it. So i thought i would try another variation and colour the character in a cool blue to give her a ghostly look witch looks quite nice but, makes the character seem quite plain i think. For number 3 i went for the full white approach with subtle colours elsewhere on the character to give her a holy and pure look, witch i really. However i feel like the colours are missing something, it needs something to break up the detail, so i may need to do some more colour variations of idea 3 before i finish of the concept for the character.

Character breakdown for modelling

Here's a quick breakdown for the character and what will be modelled, to show how much of the detail will be just textures, and what needs to be done in 3ds Max.

Character dev 3

Some more character progress for the day. Been working on getting a design I'm happy with and working on that more adding in detail, Ive started to think about the back of the character also and how things can be repeated to follow the design but also to save on texture space for the actuall model, for the example the texture detail on the front of the robe can also be applied onto the back of the robe, the body and face can also be mirrored to save on texture space. next i need to render out the back view and explain the accessories and weapon for the character so they can be ready for modelling, After that i will be moving onto different colour variations.

Character dev 2

Another quick development idea for the holy character. I like the idea of the mechanical wings with the robes, so i may combine this with some of the features of the other design. For the final character i think i want the character standing instead of floating, a nice presentation base can be used then. I also think i would apply the staff to this character too, as the staff is a separate to the character it doesn't count towards the tri count but it just means more work but i think it would look nice and suit the character. I think i may start working on the final character design now, i will still be trying different variations and designs with the character, also i will need to test different colours but at the moment I'm thinking whites and golds, or maybe just cool blues to make the character look like a spirit or angel.

More research into low poly models

I wanted to take a look at the team fortress 2 low poly models, i feel a bit relieved now seeing the quality of the models with the amount of tris used, these character max out at about 400-490 tris, i have about 600 tris so it should be easily do-able for the character i want to do as its mostly just robes witch will be easily done. Its mostly about the texturing detail for the face etc. I think i should be fine to design what i want as long as i don't go to crazy with the ideas then i should be ok to keep it to the tri count.

Character dev 1

Here's a bit of development for one of the character i have in mind, for the low poly character i think i want to do the holy looking character, so i developed the thumbnail i preferred. Because of the tri limit i think i may need to simplify the character and think a little how it might be done, i want to do more development and ideas but i think i need to take on board the limitations before developing the thumbnail, as i may not be able to have pouches, bags and accessories on the character. What I'm thinking is to make the character more stylised and cartoony which will fit the tri count better, then use detailed texturing to fake folds in the cloth etc.

Character thumbnails 1

Here are a few character thumbnails from class today, Mostly pretty evil looking characters as Ive been looking at the grim reaper for inspiration. I also researched into other religions such at Egyptians who believed in a god called Anubis who weighs souls against a feather to see if they are heavy with sin or not and then takes them to the afterlife so i had the idea of showing the jackal type character with rotting flesh with bones showing and linen bandages wrapped around the body so it almost looks like a mummy itself. I also was quite fond of the idea of the angel of death, firstly because it is easily recognisable as being religious and to do with the afterlife which is all what my theme is about, secondly because there can be endless possibilities to the idea, such as giving them an evil and quite advanced futuristic approach and making something quite horrifying. I also like idea 3 as a holy character, the design also has a nice silhouette that is quite clearly recognisable with the halo like shape behind the head. I have two characters to finalise anyway so i will do some more design work and push the concepts and ideas. Because we have to make a low poly and a higher poly model i may make the low poly model more stylised and cartoony which will fit the poly count much better and make the higher poly much more detailed and more realistic.

Character research continued

Low poly models

The next area I wanted to do some research on is low poly models, because we have to create a low poly model and a high poly model for this assignment. I wanted to look at some of the limitations and what can actually be achieved with the low poly model, obviously because of the tri limit characters cannot have hundreds of arms it just wouldn’t be possible. With the research I have gathered, the step I’ve found that makes the models look the most impressive is the texturing and the silhouette of the character, making it easily recognizable with a high detailed finish of texturing.

Character presentation





Here I have also researched how character concepts and models have been presented. With our lecture on character design in class today it is good to show sketches to final concepts with the 2d character design to show your process and development even if things went wrong and the character changed a lot. One thing I really like about showing a 3d character model is with a display base, something that is themed to the character or possibly even a little background to show how the character would be in a game or show the setting of the character.





Character research, mood boards

 I first started to research into different religions and interesting people around the world that devote themselves to their religion. I looked monks and others but the one i found the most interesting are the Sadhu who worship Hinduism. Sadhu means good man, holy man, they devote their life to their religion travelling around India living anywhere they can, caves, forests and temples. These travelling monks are seen smoking marijuana on a regular basis as they believe it helps them to achieve their journey to a higher plane. More than anything i found their appearance very interesting, very slim lean characters often covered in ash with brightly coloured face paint, barely wearing any clothing apart from pieces of material and their hair dread locked. I think this type of character clearly looks religious although again the struggle is to show the afterlife within a character, so i wanted to do some more research. I thought about characters that are clearly recognisable and linked with the afterlife such as angels and demons, and even the grim reaper.

Here is another mood board i created. The only problem with looking at angels, demons, and the grim reaper is that they aren't 'real' so i am only able to gather images of other artists interpretation of them. Still there are lots of different images and ideas to take away from this mood board to come up with something new and creative. If anyone looked at this mood board they would know its to do with the afterlife, so somehow i need to combine religion and the afterlife to come up with something that's easily recognisable but new and unique.

Character research start

Now the Concept document is completed and handed in we are now moving onto professional character design and conception then eventually modeling. Because my theme is religion and the afterlife I have to use this for the different projects throughout the year, so I need to design characters that show this theme clearly. Religion isn’t too difficult to show in a character design but the afterlife will be a lot more challenging, I need to somehow design a character that when looked at people can clearly see what my theme is. For a starting point I researched into different religions, their clothing, what they do. I also need to research into the afterlife beliefs for each of these religions and hopefully collect ideas, information and images onto mood boards before I can actually start any designs and concepts. So my next blog post will show lots of images and any information that will help me in this process.

Finished concept document

Finally finished the concept document for the game idea i create called 'Necropolis' which means city of the dead which ties in with my theme of the afterlife. I'm fairly happy with the outcome, it was quite a task to get all of the illustrations done, much more time consuming than i first thought. Just need to print it off now.