Week 19: Son of Cortes

Hey Folks!

As you can tell from the last post, I'm certainly on edge from the deadline which is only one week away and there is still so much to do!

I started the week, texturing the eagle warrior using substance painter. It took a while to get the bake correctly, especially as some of the assets just did not bake regardless of how many times I altered the mesh and repositioned in 3ds Max.

To resolve this issue I needed to separate these assets and work on theme individually then combine them in Photoshop at the end of the texturing process. This was a bit more work, however it would be necessary for me to do in order to get the results.

From last week, I worked from the character colour concepts that I created previously for my eagle warrior.

I blocked out the skin of the eagle warrior in substance as quickly as I could, this phase did not take too long, especially as I learned a lot from texturing the crocodile character. When the base colour were blocked out then I added the various skin hues.

Initially the skin tones were too dark, so I had to lighten it. Once this was complete, I added finer details, especially around the facial area and hands.

Texturing the blood on the hands and the war paint was very enjoyable, I think this was because of the artistic freedom I had with it, but also how it added a degree of narrative to my characters, which I had never explored before.

Once the skin was complete, I moved onto blocking out the basic clothing colours. I was unhappy that I had to rush this phase, however, it was necessary that I got this complete on schedule. I was able to work quickly throughout this process though.

I mad sure I did not make the same mistakes as the previous character and added dirt, mud and grunge to the certain areas on the clothes.

Now, I had finally textured my eagle warrior. I was disappointed able to texture to the best of my abilities,, however I was proud that I was able to finish the character and now I am 2/3 of the way through my fmp.

With the Eagle complete, I moved onto the conquistador. There was a lot that needed to be done since I put it aside a number of weeks ago. this included getting the clothing proportions correct, sculpting details and modelling the minor assets.

Nonetheless, I started by sculpting the basic shapes in 3ds max, I had to go back a step in order to polish the shapes of the breastplate and the shoulder piece.

Previously, Rich Carey (character artist at Creative Assembly) noticed that the shape of my armour reflective of 16th century armour and it would be best if I payed closer attention to actual reference. Is a result, I used a number of reference images in order to attain accuracy with my designs.

once complete, I imported the mesh into Zbrush and began sculpting. I began with the big details and worked my way down.

I wanted to demonstrate that I understood the different levels of detail with a character. Eventually I began adding engravings to the armour, this was fascinating, especially learning how to sculpt via poly-groups.

once complete, I went to work on sculpting the face. I did not spend to long here as time of the essence. I noticed that my skills in sculpting faces had gotten faster and I am a lot more confident. (oh yeah!)

I wasn't able to add hair, but I will implement this for the degree show.

at this point, I was surprised with how quickly I was getting through this character, I t was like I was on fire!.

with the sculpt mostly complete, I just went through a detail pass of the Conquistador, adding scratches, dents, stitches and surface detail to the clothing.

It feels weird, but I'm oddly proud with the outcome of this character, it has only been a week, but I like the results. He demonstrates:

• Good proportions (except the hands)

• Shows he is well weighted and evenly balanced

• Good variation between areas of rest and areas of interest

• Good level of detail from large to small

• Effects from environment: scratches and dirt.

If I had more time I would add more tears and fraying in the fabrics but this is a goal for after the hand-in.

This weekend I will need to retopologize and unwrap the conquistador, but overall I am very proud with how this character has going and amazed by how little it has taken.

next week Is deadline!!!!!!!!

next week I will need to finish texturing the Eagle warrior and the Conquistador. it's a big stretch but this is the final push I know I can do it! bring it on!

thanks for reading by for now