Year 2 Term 1 GamesArt: Pt.1

For the High poly asset project, i decided i would like to model an object that could later be used for a character model, so i settled on a melee weapon very early on. I wanted to create something that would have quite a high fantasy feel to it, but also provide plenty of options for interesting texturing ideas towards the latter stages of the project.

Eventually i found the above image, and despite being a screen of a current model, rather than a photo of a real world object, after a discussion with my tutor Phil, we decided the idea provided plenty of variation to add realistic textures, and so my design was settled upon.

I choose to begin with, what i viewed as the main focal point of the Axe, the human skull at the center, starting out with a basic sphere, and manipulating it to form the general shape of a human skull reference.

Once the main features were roughly in, i duplicated the first half across.

Using a similiar process i created the lower jaw from a cube and duplicated the halves over.

Once the skull was starting to look close, i began to model the metal fixings that would be bolted to the skull in order to support the general structure of the axe.

I then used quad draw and traced the shape of the axe blade directly onto the reference image, before extruding it out into a solid object.

Simple cylinder for the axe handle.

Using the same quad draw and extrude technique to create the various elements of the axe heads structure.

Once most of the Axe head components have been added.

The wrappings/binding for the axe handle was made from a Taurus, which i then unwrapped and then duplicated down so that each one would carry across the U.V's from the original.

Experimenting with a couple of methods for creating the bone/spinal column section that joins the skull and the axehead with the handle.

A few renders of the final Maya build for the high poly version of the Axe.

Using alpha's and the drag rectangle tool i started to add the wear and tear, scratches, nicks and chips to the axe head, varying the scratches upon the flat metal axe blades, the shipped skull, and the worn, rusty bronze fixings.

When i was content with the level of detail within the axe head, i imported the handle as a sub tool and used the Surface>Noisemaker tool to add in the woodgrain.

And then merged the layers down ready to export out as an OBJ.

With the high poly model ready, i returned to the Maya file and set about creating a low poly variation by removing unnecessarily edge loops from the geometry, pushing the poly count down as far as i could without losing too much definition.

Next up I unwrapped each element of the low poly model and saved a U.V snapshot.

With the model unwrapped I exported the low poly as an OBJ and along with the high poly OBJ from earlier, set up XNormal to bake a Normal and an Ambient occlusion map.

Once the maps were baked I applied them to the low Polly model.

Before assigning colors to the different parts to create a ColorID map.

Using the Color ID's within Quixel suite I assigned the desired textures and materials to each individual element, as well as dirt layers, ready to load into Unreal.



The final model rendered with Unreal engine.





Year 2 Term 1 Game Production: Pt.1

After receiving our brief and drawing our key words from a hat (World war 2 and Hospital), I started where i usually start and began sourcing some inspirational imagery, not solely for my role as  Character modeler, but anything that would help with the overall aesthetic of the game.

This Served primarily only as a starting point for the visuals, somewhere to move forward from, and included visual aids for environment, props, uniform choice as well as character style.

Next up i proceeded to knock up a rough, first draft for a one sheet.

Again, this was intended as a starting point, with the visuals and information included fully meant to be altered and swapped out along the way.

Next, while i waited for the first draft character concept work to be passed over, i set about sketching some ideas myself before jumping straight into knocking up a very simple base mesh, so i could have a blank canvas ready to adapt once the concepts arrived.

After plucking a rough male reference and setting up my box planes... i followed this tutorial..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spi4lGxnMZg by James Taylor, as  pointed out by one of my tutors (Steve Brown) to begin creating the model, beginning with a cylinder for the torso, and using a second and third cylinder to add the arm and the leg.

Keeping the shading on X-ray i manipulated the shapes to loosely match the refference.

I then Extruded the side of the chest out to form the shoulder, and merged it with the top of the arm where the shoulder meets the bi-cep and tri-cep, this would cause a topology issue i would later have to come back to correct however.

I then began to connect the upper leg to the torso, concentrating largeley on creating the basis of the V shaped edge flow important for the hips/groin.

Using a cube, which i added enough edge loops to create the base of the fingers while also matching the number of edges at the wrist, to those of the forarm, i pulled out the hand, extruding each finger individually.

Then created a simple thumb using a similiar method as the fingers.

The foot was made in a similar, albeit more complicated fashion, modifying a basic cube and adding in enough edge loops to provide both the basic geometry, as well as the appropriate edges to join it to the leg at the ankle.

Using the Multi cut tool i divided up the front faces to create the toes and extruded them out much like the fingers, and finally attached the foot and leg at the ankle.

The feet once smoothed....

And the main body.

For the head, i tried several workflows, the first consisted of making the topology for the eyes, mouth and nose individually out of the front faces of cylinders and then connecting them up to form the face, and in turn create the head... however i abandoned this method in favor of creating the skull out of a sphere, manipulating the vertices to form the general shape, and then proceeding to add edge loops in and mimic the topology of the first method.

Once the head was joined to the neck i had the base mesh ready to be modified once i received the concepts.

Year 2 Term 1 Game Production: Pt.2

(Concept artists work, NOT mine)

(Concept artists work, NOT mine)

Once i had received the concept work, it was time to start tweaking the base mesh, making some altercations to the build and head, before converting the model out to Zbrush and using the mask and extract mesh tools to create the basis for the uniform pieces.

Using this mask, extract, export back to Maya and model method i created the three elements to the characters uniform, the trousers, boots and shirt.

And once the uniform was completed i overlaid them over the base model, deleting any concealed faces beneath, and combined and merged the vertices to create the solid character shell.

(Incorrect topology)

(Improved topology)

Although the character was still far from finished, i decided i wanted to attempt to tackle the rigging, binding and exporting into unity process so we could get an early version of the character into the game early on, that could easilly be swapped out for a more complete version at a later date... first of all i had to correct the topology under the arm pit as previously mentioned in Pt.1 by adding and improving edge loops that ran in rings around the arm and into the torso, so that any deformation during animation would be reduced.

I then used Maya's Human IK function to create the skeleton, and set about matching the joints and bones up to the mesh character model.

The skeleton and Mesh were then bound using the heat map method, before being grouped and exported together into Unity.

Back into Maya, and i decided i wanted to remodel the head first, to closer fit the Conceptual design, so i deleted faces from the neck, and lifted thhead away from the body, before deleting one half of the head so i only had one side to worry about.

I manipulated vertices to closer fit the size and shape of the concept design, as well as deleting out the edgeflow around the eye socket and brow so this could be better constructed later, and so i wouldnt deform the model too much while re-structuring the other features.

I extruded the faces from within the hairline, and created the hair style, and then tidied the geometry of the new head with the sculpting "smooth" tool and rejoined the head to the torso via the neck.

I performed a Planar unwrap to U.V map the model, and then set about cutting body parts via their edges and unwrapping them for the texture sheet.

 Finally i used the U.V snapshot to paint on the base values and textures for the model, within photoshop.

The first experimental Texture for the model, which i intended to revisit and improve upon at a later date.

Once applied, the model was ready to re-export into Unity as an FBX.

 

Once imported, I configured the avatar as Humanoid before copying the components of the standard assets "Ethan" model, and worked with Prem, our game designer to get him working within the game world.

The character, animated, within the game.