Week 45 - Kotallo Headdress, Horizon Forbidden West Fan Art - Retopo & UVS

   Milestone 03 Check In: Retopology & UVs

Marmoset Toolbag, Hair cards with sub-surface scattering & ray tracing

Unreal Engine, Hair cards in normal base colour

Marmoset Toolbag, Hair cards without alphas & an ID map

Substance Painter, Hardsurface metal pieces, 2048x texture

Wireframe, 82k tris with hair - 46k without

Schedule

[06/16] BLOCKOUT [✔] -- First pass ofeverything; establish the form and sizing for all objects

[06/23] REFINEMENT & HAIR CARDS [✔] -- Refining the hardsurface and rope designs into a high poly; create a first pass of the larger plume/hair cards

[06/30] RETOPO & UVS [✔] -- Retopology, uvs and a secondary hair pass

[07/07] TEXTURING & RENDERING []  -- Use generator and mask-based texturing workflows. Render in Marmoset Toolbag.

Tools used: Maya (Ahoge & GS Curves plugin), Substance Painter, Fiber Shop, Unreal Engine

 References

For this project, since I escaped the soft fleshy bits of character sculpting, a lot of my references are just trying to understand the shape language that Horizon Forbidden West uses for their warriors, in this case the Tenakth Marshalls.

Horizon Forbidden West – Outfit for Kotallo by Brian Loh, pre-Embassy Questline

Extra Renders

Marmoset Toolbag, Hair cards in normal base colour

Marmoset Toolbag, Hair cards with sub-surface scattering without ray tracing

 Critique

Massive thank you to Richard Bacallao from Cohort 21 for the feedback! His main notes go as follows (6/28):

1.  The biggest thing I see right now is a lack of density for the hair itself.
• You have very visible clumps of hair that end up making the cards themselves look flat, especially near the tips. Add some more cards to those bends at the tips to help fill them out so they don’t look super flat
• I see from your renders that you have large and medium-sized clumps; I’d go in and add another layer of both big and medium-sized clumps to add in some more overall density and coverage. You already have a good amount but just a bit more to push it further and just keep an eye on any clipping or intersecting
• The overall strands of hair in your big clumps also need some more density to help with coverage. I’d also make them look slightly more generic to help avoid seeing repeated patterns in the hair style.
• 
  
2. One thing you can do for your new layers of hair cards is to start cross-sectioning them to give the illusion of some layering happening, all of your cards follow the same flow so crossing some cards over each other where a few are going in an opposite flow can add some believability to the piece
• I’d also start thinking about a flyaway hair layer, adding in that sort of visual noise where it’s quite subtle and can bring the entire thing to life.
  
  
3. My other big critique is overall resolution of the hair cards and the clumping of the hair cards. Don’t be afraid to go all out on this resolution
4. For more of a sort of tuft fur look I would look into making the overall shape of the cards to be wider at the base

Nick feedback:

• Although im not using a high poly for this project, since the main learning focus is centered around the hair, I should throw the hardsurface parts into zbrush, hit them with a dynamesh and polish so the edges can be slightly bevelled.

thanks for coming to my TED Talk <3

NOTE: Posted early for critique purposes

Week 40 - Ireena Kolyana, Curse of Strahd, Sculpt - Sculpting

Milestone 02 Check In: Blockout

 References

Since I'm following a single illustrative interpretation of this character, a lot of the focus was put into shape definition and anatomical structuring, particularly on the glabella (skin between eyebrows) and quadratus labii inferioris (muscles on the corners of the mouth)

Key Art: Illustration by Hegval on Reddit, 

permission to create her was obtained before the project began :)

Shortfalls:

For this week, the main goal was to get all of the sculpting finalized to continue onto the retopologizing in the later weeks. However, I didn't get all the sculpting done, specifically on the gauntlets. The gauntlets use the same design as the gorget, previously described as the 'breastplate' or 'chestpiece' in previous weeks, which ended up being an extremely tedious process of breaking Maya.

The process I used for making the gorget involved modeling the key shapes onto a plane, focusing on the base glass, shapes then expanding outwards to create the frame. Originally, this was going to be achieved with alphas; however, due to the complexity of the gothic design and this talk at the 2023 Zbrush summit from Blizzard's Overwatch team, I decided to continue the design in Maya

The gauntlets bring their own challenges in the form of their complexity compared to the gorget; the shapes have very little breathing room against the other stained glass pieces, requiring them to be a tight fit.

This method led to its own downfalls, mainly there being an issue with the inner corner of the shape frames, the yellow polygroup, not going far enough in the geometry, causing the glass shape underneath to be fully seen

Closeup of the gorget

Same image above with polygroups

Another main issue I had was in regard to matching the reference image, because of the nature of posing and stylization of the drawing. Hegval notes the style is reminiscent of Hades, a lot of the anatomy works but is seen at a much wider focal length, bringing many of the details much closer together than I'm able to achieve inside of ZBrush. This could be a case of 'illustrator anatomy' versus realistic anatomy; however, I attempted to follow the reference as close as possible to the sections I could.

A common question I got when making this sculpt was regarding the use of orthographic versus perspective view mode. I feel somehow the issue above is related to the nature at which Ireena is posed; however, I don't know of a specific fix for this.

Orthographic view of Ireena versus Perspective

Resources:

I mentioned these resources last week, however I rewatched them over the course of working on this project and I really think they significantly improved the workflow and direction of this project. Being able to peel back the overall design concepts, both in a professional and casual setting, such as TBSkyen for League, and understand how and why characters are designed a certain way adds a whole new level to the creation process.

It is mentioned in one of the videos above, but Renaud Galand's gumroad has a fantastic free hair brush and matcap/material library that has fit in perfectly with my workflows!

Additional resources:

• Ruffle Insert Multi-Mesh Brushes for Zbrush by Alexandra Jackson
• Gio Brush for Soft Forms in ZBrush by Pablo Munoz Gomez
• Kirill Senzu's Clothing and Accessories Tutorial
• Mark Lambert's Hair tutorial
• Chloe Worthy's Beginner Headblock in Zbrush
• Sean Forsyth's Cloth Folds

Schedule

[05/19] BLOCKOUT [✔] -- Overall blockout complete; some secondary forms emerge, but the overall flow of the piece is present. Polypaint used to differentiate material types

[05/26] SCULPTING [✔] -- Detail sculpting completed. All objects have secondary and tertiary details present.

[06/02] RETOPO & UVS -- Retopologizing the model down to a goal of 30k tris, following reference from Overwatch 1's character models (Source).

[06/09] TEXTURING & RENDERING -- Use generator and mask-based texturing workflows rather than handpainting due to time constraints. Render in Marmoset Toolbag.

*During the retopology phase I'll be looking into different methods to work through the gauntlets and potentially redoing the gorget. In the meantime, they will proceed as normal until an alternative can be found.

Blockout & Unreal Blockout

Week 39 - Ireena Kolyana, Curse of Strahd, Sculpt - Blockout

Milestone 01 Check In: Blockout

 References

Since I'm following a single illustrative interpretation of this character, a lot of the focus was put into shape definition and anatomical structuring, particularly on the glabella (skin between eyebrows) and quadratus labii inferioris (muscles on the corners of the mouth)

Key Art: Illustration by Hegval on Reddit, 

permission to create her was obtained before the project began :)

Resources:

At the point I stopped working on this project on week 34, I started doing a lot more short-term studies, particularly of different D&D characters' faces and hairstyles. Since working on the first version of it, I've done a lot of studies into making good hair within Zbrush and the different methods utilized (see Week 35's Sketchbook Tour for some of them)

That being said, both Chloe Worthy and Mark Lambert have been two entirely different ends of resourceful help with these studies. Both have very comprehensive guides for how they do hair studies, with Lambert's being stylistically simpler and easier to digest, while Worthy is able to build on that understanding.

I found Worthy's tutorial "ZBrush Beginner Tutorial - (Very Beginner) Perhaps the Beginner of all time"  extremely helpful for getting a secondary look into how a master artist approaches head sculpting

Additional resources.

• Ruffle Insert Multi-Mesh Brushes for Zbrush by Alexandra Jackson
• Gio Brush for Soft Forms in ZBrush by Pablo Munoz Gomez
• Kirill Senzu's Clothing and Accessories Tutorial
• Mark Lambert's Hair tutorial

Schedule

[05/19] BLOCKOUT -- Overall blockout complete; some secondary forms emerge, but the overall flow of the piece is present. Polypaint used to differentiate material types

[05/26] SCULPTING -- Detail sculpting completed. All objects have secondary and tertiary details present.

[06/02] RETOPO & UVS -- Retopologizing the model down to a goal of 30k tris, following reference from Overwatch 1's character models (Source).

[06/09] TEXTURING & RENDERING -- Use generator and mask-based texturing workflows rather than handpainting due to time constraints. Render in Marmoset Toolbag.

Resources for the texturing section:

• Overwatch Character Creation Pipeline - Blizzard Entertainment Overwatch Team - 2023 ZBrush Summit
• How Overwatch 2 Heroes Are Created

Blockout & Unreal Blockout

Week 33 - Ireena Kolyana Sculpt

Out with one Dungeons and Dragons project, and into another. This time I am focusing on the main NPC of Dungeons and Dragon's 2016 Curse of Strahd Campaign with the central NPC, Lady Ireena Kolyana

Ireena Kolyana is a central NPC in Curse of Strahd, serving as the reincarnated soul of Tatyana, the lost love of Count Strahd von Zarovich. As his latest obsession, she is pursued, bitten, and under immense psychological distress, prompting her brother Ismark to ask adventurers to escort her to safety in Vallaki

She is my party's favorite NPC in our campaign and pivotal to the majority of our stories; as a result, it is bittersweet to be able to connect with her character through art. 

Beauty Shots:

Key Art

Illustration by Hegval on Reddit, permission to create her was obtained before the project began :)

FEEDBACK:

Feedback from Caden Peterson regarding the previous version:

• Overall, you'd do better with strong planarization of the face, then adding volume back as necessary, like literally take the slice tool and just start hacking away at excess geometry.
• Furthermore, the brow and cheekbones are giving you quite a bit of trouble. You're putting too much emphasis in the mandibular notch when in reality it's just high cheekbones that don't need to be as pronounced as you have them.
• The opposite is happening with the brow, you aren't stressing it at all. The bridge of the nose is far too smooth. and has no plane change like I would expect.
• The general proportion is alright, but the eye shape and position on the face is killing you, they need to be a bit higher up, and the eye shape needs to be tweaked. Remember that the eye is surrounded by a bunch of fat deposits and loose skin that make up the eyelid and protect the Maxilla
• Also EYEBROWS—you love putting eyebrows above or below the brow line but never at its apex; the brows always, always, always, ALWAYS go on the outermost point of the brow ridge. the frontal bone of the cranium

The previous version that Caden critiqued:

I found that I really struggle with understanding what makes faces unique and the structure that they are built on; as a result, I tended to copy one face and then use it elsewhere; however, to avoid same-face syndrome, I tried to make her feel unique from Purah.

I decided to make custom alphas since many of the shapes were repeating throughout the design, breaking them down into their basic shapes, I would be able to work later on to add the more finite details, such as sharpening the notches on the triangles into proper points.

I designed the alphas in Adobe Illustrator and depending on the mesh used them as straight alphas or used Zbrush's ability to turn the alpha into mesh to boolean into the right shape.

Example of using the diamond star pattern and extruding the bottom to create cuts in the skirt

Reference Board:

Resources:

One area where I wanted to differentiate Ireena's project from Purah's is in the end result. Since this is a concept that relies heavily on a dramatic lighting setup to make the textures pop I  wanted to use this as an opportunity to bring her through the character workflow to eventually be painted. As a result I started looking into ways to improve my retopology workflow through Zbrush, which now includes EaZYREMESH by Francis-Xavier Martins

General resources used for this project, all of which were used in Purah's sculpt:

• Ruffle Insert Multi-Mesh Brushes for Zbrush by Alexandra Jackson
• Gio Brush for Soft Forms in ZBrush by Pablo Munoz Gomez
• Kirill Senzu's Clothing and Accessories Tutorial
• Mark Lambert's Hair tutorial

Week 25 - Ice Druid Sculpt

FEEDBACK:

All of these critiques were labeled as 'critical critiques,' meaning they are fixating on small details that may or may not be worth changing in the grand scheme of the project.

Feedback from Noah Hunter

Regarding the last version

There are features that are too soft currently, like hair chunks, eyebrows, transition lines from lip tissue to not-lip-tissue (idk the anatomy of that part), and earring hone points could be sharper.  What if one of them was chipped and missing the point? What if her horns had a couple that were splintered? That could break silhouette and symmetry and be more interesting.

Regarding the final version

How are the vertebrae attached to the character? Wouldn't it read better if the vertebrae had some interaction with the cape?

The fingers on them also look very thin, especially if you are going to print them.

HAIR PROCESSING

Another attempt down, this project has made me learn two things:

1. A big portion of Zbrush tutorials regarding hair focus on longer styles OR entirely simplifying the shapes so much that they don't break off whatsoever.

2. Everyone has a different method for hair, and no one is 100% right.

This caused a lot of problems for me, since regarding Purah's design, her hair works best as a short, messy design, notably longer than her first form, but not extensively so. I took a lot of inspiration from arcanegold_'s character Maple, who has a very similar hair design, minus the horn protrusions.

I was able to talk with Roanna (@Roanna_0) on Twitter about her character Naiá and how she did the hair as a reference. It ended up being one large piece of geometry at the back with sculpted in lines. Although this wouldn't help with Purah's as much, it helped give a visual as to the different subtools in the final product.

Progress of the different variations of hair from final to sketch (left to right).

For the very last version of the hair, I tried something new; I remembered using Dave Hasan's stylized fur IMM brush in my Kakx sculpt to add texture to the fur. One of the main issues I was having with the hair was the lack of volume; as one friend put it 'her hair has the resemblance of a wet cat.' 

So I took the hair design of a previous version and overlayed a few IMM brushes in specific sections to create pieces of geometry that pull out from the main body while not flattening the hair itself.

Additionally, my favorite artist, Mark Lambert made a return to the scene with his very simple but extremely helpful dynameshing and ZRemesher process.

ICE TEXTURING

One of the last things I did was a brief check/polish of any props in the scene; this included adding a light amount of tertiary detail and adding secondary detail to any overly smooth shapes, especially the antlers.

I used Hossein Hatami's VDM ice brushes as a good base, especially the ice shards, which worked really well in adding volume and variation to the horn sheaths.

FINAL SCULPT

It's very interesting to me to see how the reference board for this project has grown over the time working on it. I'm a big fan of adapting projects if they are or are not working. This project has been a great example of what does and does not work and how to pivot and take time on it.

Final PureRef

Starting PureRef

PRINTING

While trying to get a license for Reallusion's Character Creator (please JR get us a license), I realized I was hard blocked by wanting to pose Purah before I could begin posing. However, I was reminded of a creator named h3LL Creator who has a vast library of popular media characters for people to print, specifically how they have both a full-body print and a smaller 1/2-body or bust for around $5-10 per month.

Example with Mollymauk Tealeaf from The Mighty Nein on Amazon Prime.

I decided to make her pose in this instance a bit more complicated, using a relatively hidden part of her design, her ice knife, to surround her. This weapon is a part of some integral moments of her character during the campaign and helped convey her design without many of her other tools.

One adjustment I will be making as soon as I get Character Creator is a slight edit to the pose, which is based on KamuiCosplay's Xalatath Cosplay pose. In this Kamui keeps both of her shoulders straight since the camera is on a lower angle and looking up to her. Since Purah is the opposite, looking up past the viewer's straight-on eye level, I'll be adjusting one arm slightly higher than the other to create more varied sight lines and asymmetry.

In terms of the half-body, it is five pieces in total: a base, the body, and the three swords. The swords have their own keys into the base, with the body carving out its own key in the middle. I do want to test out a secondary version, since one has already been requested by my party member, where I insert a key for the body into the base and reduce it in the cylinder of the body.

I'll be looking at h3LL Creator's outlines for these models as shown below.

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE

For these projects, and because I want to get more statues from creators similar to h3LL Creator, I decided to get my own printer. I ended up going with an Elegoo Mars 5 due to my good experience with FIEA's Saturn 5, although the price point is too high for me at the moment.

As mentioned a few times in this section, I'm trying to get my hands back on Reallusion's Character Creator 5 since my trial expired in January. Unfortunately it seems I'll have to buy my own subscription; however, they do have a pretty large discount for individual student licenses (60% off). Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, I'm still waiting for approval after sending documentation.