Game artist
Jennifer Stevens
Digital Dreamer
Games Production – Style Matrix
Name: Jennifer Stevens
P number: P13203711
Email: p13203711@myemail.dmu.ac.uk
Semi stylised character
Overview: This is a low poly character specified to be under 7000 tris but came to 5,005 tris. The model has a hi-poly bake, created in Zbrush, to give the character more detail without increasing the tri count. The model is textured with one 1024x1024 targa hand painted texture as well as one 1024x1024 targa normal map and one 1024x1024 Ambient occlusion map. The model was designed to relate to a concept given to me in the brief.
Research: My research includes 2 mood boards looking at typical aviator gear and reference images as well as a second board investigating into military women in oversized uniform.
Draw overs looking at the concept in alternative outfit ideas. Strongest silhouette was carried forward.
Orthographic to use as reference for modelling.
After receiving feedback about the trousers I quickly painted over a render of my model and determined a more appropriate shape for the garment to take.
Viewer: Aviator character
Unwraps:
Textures:
Beauty shot:
Conclusion:
Overall I am in mixed minds about what I have produced. On the one hand Im very proud that I learnt Zbrush within a week and my hi-poly sculpt looked quite impressive. However due to my lack of experience with baking hi polys down onto low poly I feel that if I was to do this project again I would take the time to use more tris on the base mesh during re-topologisation to fit the shape of the hi-poly model a bit better. This would avoid the render errors I encountered during the last few days of the project. Texturing I would like to look into poly painting next time however I think the hand painted textures I have produced are lacking for the quality of hi-poly model I have produced. In particular the dirt smudges that are on the face and arms of the aviator are lacking in realism. In future I would really like to improve my overall model quality but I feel this will come with more practise and use of the programme. As a note for my future self I would not take on a character project next or until I have understood texturing better and how to bake hi-poly model onto more effective topology.