Week 5: It’s a bird it’s a plane, it’s an eagle warrior

Howdy folks,

This week has been one hell of a week I must say, and I am certain that I have over-worked myself.

Nonetheless, I can certainly say this week has been the most productive week of my FMP. This is evident through my progress with my eagle warrior, but also with how I’ve been able to slowly, bounce back from troubles of the past 2 weeks.

Last week, I completed the block out for my character and I was able to see the character in zbrush.

However, although the anatomy has certainly improved since my last character project, I felt that the costume could certainly be worked on further, as it seemed quite uninteresting. To resolve this issue I did a paint over of the eagle warrior at the start of the week, in order to experiment with shapes to come up with a fascinating look for the character.

Through the paint over, I was able to find out what I needed to ad and take away from the character in order to make him look better than before. Adding hair to the character and a cape and red sash would make him seem more intimidating. In addition, adding more accessories would make him seem more grounded in his environment.

With the painter complete and checked with the tutors (who gave the thumbs up) I began modelling the new assets in 3ds max. I didn’t spend too much time here, however, I made sure that I paid attention to detail where needed.

Afterwards, I imported the mesh into Marvellous Designer to model the skirt. I had to look back at my references, in order to find out the shape of Aztec and Mayan Skirts, as well as the material used to make them. I made sure I looked at the books that I took out from the library:

‘Aztecs’ by Felipe Olguin

And ‘living Maya’ by Walter Morris

It wasn’t too difficult to create the skirt, but in order to get the right folds I needed to stich the skirt to a band and play around with the material presents .

When the skirt was complete, I went back to my concept just to sanity check my progress. I showed my peers and tutors and they told me that I could exaggerate some of the features, such as the headdress and shoulders in order to make him more intimidating as he would be abuses charter.

Upon this, I came across this Miniature stature of the Aztec Emperor ‘Montezuma’ by ‘Yamato model’. http://www.yamatomodel.com/?p=882

I loved the colours used to paint the figure, I think they are very vibrant and will certainly stand out. Furthermore, I like how the colours used in the figure are close to those of the ‘Quetzal’ bird.

This particular bird whose habitat is in Central America, has dominated the traditions and beliefs of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. A great example of this is the Aztec God ‘Quetzalcoatl’ who is adorned with feathers resplendent of the Quetzal. For this reason, choosing this bird as inspiration is a no brainer. Moreover, it makes my Character more rooted In Mesoamerican culture.

My tutors approved of this ideas and with this I continued modelled the rest of the assets in 3ds max. It was enjoyable to be fusing cool ideas together, especially the jade jewellery and the bracers, which I though, would be could to have the spinal cord of one of his enemies.

All though I wasn’t used to doing so, I decided to add a few more accessories for him to have, in order for him to be more grounded in his environment. However, I have to be careful not to overdo it, as the character can get cluttered very easily.

With this complete, I put the mesh into marvellous Designer, in order to create his cape. I didn’t want to spend too much time here, however, I needed to make sure that the cape looked thick and regal: befitting of a warrior of noble rank.

I was able to get some feedback during the week, by one of my tutors Teodara. She liked the design for my Eagle warrior, and even made the comment that I have one of the most interesting projects in my year.

Nonetheless, she told me that I could certainly push more features of my character, in order to make him seem more intimidating, especially if he would be a boss. She noted that if I push the forehead forward, the eyes larger, make the jaw more protruding I can make the eagle warrior look much more terrifying.

Similarly, I should think about tattoo designs and piercings as these were apparent features of Aztec and Mayan fashion. I hadn’t though much about it up till now, however, I will certainly look at references including ‘Apocalypto’ for inspiration.

This week I was able to get in contact with my personal mentor Del Walker. Del Walker is the lead character artist at Creative Assembly and I have had the pleasure of meeting Del and even having my work assessed by him. More importantly, Del graduated from De-Montfort University and so I feel that he can really understand my situation which is very beneficial.

Del's Portfolio: http://drawingyourdreams.com/

I told Del where I was at on my project and sent him a few screenshots of my work. He liked the design of my character and said that I should keep working on it, but pay attention to the anatomy of the character, especially the arms feet and of course, the face.

On Thursday and Friday, I spent the days sculpting more detail into my character. The detail pass, proved to be a challenge, this was because I have not had little experience with it in the past. However, I was able to use this tutorial to make stamps and alphas in Photoshop, to add more detail to my

character in zbrush.

With this complete, I went to work in zbrush, adding detail where I felt appropriate. I took Del’s advice and spent Friday focusing on the face hands and feet. I still need to spend more time on this, however, I have certainly made progress.

In addition, used the feather mesh that I created 3 weeks ago and baked the information on a plane. This will allow me to create High poly detailed looking feathers easily which is not costly for a video game. I am glad I completed this process, big thanks to Jake Roddis.

At the end of the end, the teachers gave me the thumbs up for my progress, they mentioned how he was coming along. (Success)

However, I am certainly behind the pack with my project, and I must say it has been something that is constantly on my mind as I work. Due to my decision to work on a different character, I have lost sometime which I’ve had to make up this week. That being said, I’ve definitely overworked and exhausted myself in order to make up the time. This isn’t particularly healthy and next week, I will need to make sure that I maintain a good work/life balance with more planning, perhaps an 8 till 8 routine would be better for me.

Nonetheless, I have certainly progressed this week and I treated myself to a hat party with my friends on Friday evening.

So there you have it guys, my crazy week, thanks for reading

Too-da-loo for now