Week 20: 'It all ends here'
Hey Folks,
The final deadline is here and I'm freaking out!
With the hand-in deadline on Friday his week is the last week of the final major project. All of my hard work all of my trials and tribulations had all come to this very point, I've come so far and I am determined to give it my all.
Miraculously over the weekend I was able to retopologize and unwrap my conquistador character over the weekend. I was surprised over how I was able to do this, I've never worked this fast before, and although there are a few errors that I still need to polish, I am please with my progress so far.
I started the week, polishing the conquistador, just making sure everything was ready for the bake, this entailed packing the texture sheet neatly getting the right material ID's and making sure there were no mesh errors.
once complete, I baked the high poly onto the low using substance painter. My first attempt did not work and neither did my 2nd, I certainly panicked.
However after moving to a better computer I was able to bake all of my textures perfectly.
With the bakes complete, I began blocking in the basic textures for my character. As time was of the essence, I had to utilize the smart materials as much as possible to block in the various materials. Once this complete, I went in changing up the various sliders in order to get the desired effects that I wanted, this included , adding slightly more height detail on the clothing and surface noise on the armour.
I put together a reference board in order to make sure that the armour I was creating was accurate of 16th century armour and the types of attire worn by Spanish conquistadors.
I blocking in the skin tones of the character, like the eagle and the shaman characters, I began with the base colour and added hue layers. This was very effective, and I feel as though I am improving in my ability to create human skin in PBR using Substance painter. I even added cuts and dirt to show how he has been affected through his conquest to invade the Aztec Lands.
Texturing the shirt and trousers was quite a challenge, namely because I wasn't sure of which colours would look best against the armour.I spoke to my tutor Craig and he recommended that I look through the 'Dota 2' Character colour guides to help me decide on a colour scheme.
This power-point was very helpful in pointing out the different types of colour palettes, e.g quadratic and harmonious. Furthermore, it highlighted were it would be best to apply accents to my character.
For future projects I will need to learn more about colour pallets on characters, in order to improve my texture abilities.
when all of the textures were complete, I went through a dirt pass of my character, adding and applying dirt and grunge where necessary. this dirt pass looked especially good on the armour, of which I am very proud of creating.
And Voilà:
I exported the textures and imported the conquistador into marmoset. Initially, the conquistador didn't look great in the scene that I put him in, but after changing the scene and experimenting with lighting, he began to look impressive. The armour really came out well on the conquistador, he has certainly exceeded expectations, this is real-time armour. hazzah!
there are still a number of tweaks to be made to the conquistador, the face looks too plastic, and needs further attention. Similarly, I want to add more assets, such as a bed roll and some mugs and cups. however, I have put him aside for now.
With the conquistador textured, I moved back onto texturing the eagle warrior, time was certainly running out.
I had to clean up the eagle warrior in time for the hand in. This entailed, I polished his tattoo designs and re-baking some of the minor assets because their bakes were terrible.
It was frustrating that I had to rush this process, there was no time!
When complete, I moved onto polishing the crocodile warrior. It didn't require as much attention as the eagle warrior but I needed to add accents to her clothing and do a dirt pass of her skin as it was way too clean. I quite enjoyed this dirt pass, especially as I was able to demonstrate environment effects on my character as best I could.
I could not believe how far I had come, just a week ago I didn't know if I could finish or not, now here I am with 3 characters fully textured. I can't believe I've come this far.
When the characters were complete, I began rigging and posing my characters. This took a lot of time and required a lot of focus, both of which I had little of. By this time, I was greatly sleep deprived and I certainly feel as though I was going delirious from this project.
Nonethless, I was so happy to get to this point in my project. Posing my characters was a stretch goal and I was amazed by my progress.
the hardest to pose was the eagle warrior as his pose was quick dynamic compared to the other characters. However, when he was complete, I added the heart in his hands and this was the cherry on the cake.
So here they are my awesome characters based on Aztec, Mayans and Conquistadors.
there are many noticeable issues with these characters and clear signs of rushing, but I am proud with the final outcome. I worked so hard to get to this point and exceeded my expectations by having them rigged and posed.
This fmp has taught me:
The importance of time management
Anatomical proportions
Texturing in PBR using substance painter
Hard surface and organic surface modelling
Texturing hard surfaces and organic surfaces
The importance of character silhouette and colour schemes
The 3 levels of detail
And most importantly, this experience has taught me of the importance of believing in myself.
The FMP has been one hell of a rollercoaster, teahcing me as much about myself as character art. I will be polishing these characters for the degree show, but I am so happy to have gotten this far with this project. It proves that I can overcame any obstacle if I put my mind to it.
Thank you for reading!
It has been a pleasure writing about this experience, please stay tuned for more Denzil Forde Adventures
Too-da-loo for now