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[PAID] Looking for a 3D specialist for stylized leaf work and a few small pieces

omatase
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omatase polycounter lvl 5
We're a small team of people building an Indie game and are looking for someone to come on to do some finishing work for us in our environment and for our characters. We're reaching out to find someone to help with this last bit of work because there are a few pieces that our current 3D generalist doesn't quite have the time for and so we're really looking for someone that will do a small amount of work, but will really knock it out of the park. We're not looking for someone for whom this will be their first foray into this type of 3D work and we're not looking for someone that can't match our current style or that of the style of our reference.

We're offering $600 for the work plus we're offering 1% of all game revenues for 2 years upon release. 

Topic #1, Leaves

The leaves for the environment have been the biggest sticking point for us since starting this project. The look for the leaves that we're going for is a highly-stylized look, they aren't intended to look realistic, but they have to look natural and that they fit well in the scene. There are a few styles of leaves we would be fine with, so if the artist has a suggestion for a different style of leaf that s/he can do for us we're open to a dialogue about a different style. 

Basic requirements for the leaves include: Must be animatable (either by Unity terrain animation system or by a shader) - you won't have to do the animations, we have a VFX guy for that. Must look like it fits in with the tree. Must look good from multiple angles. Must not kill performance for the game. The goal of this game is that it run well on aging hardware, what would have been top-of-the-line 5 years ago. 

Here are two leaf styles we are looking at right now:



The first might be impossible to do in-engine because it would kill performance but it could be done with just quads so maybe it could work. The second would certainly require fewer polys, so might be what we need to go with. In either case we'd only do the close trees in this detailed style and we'd do 2D for all background trees for the sake of performance. 

Below is an example of what we have been able to achieve in the past. Here are a list of most of the reasons this look is not acceptable:
  • You can see the hard edges of the leaf plumes
  • The plumes also jut into the bulb of the tree at odd angles and hang off the edges of the tree bulb.
  • There isn't a lot of variety in color, shape or size of the leaf objects.
  • The leaves in the reference have soft edges. This might come from post effect filters and lighting, we want to work with someone that understands the limitations of what can be done in pre and post effects even though it's likely we'll have someone else do the post effects stuff. We need to have someone that knows the limits of what you can accomplish with static 3D objects and what can be left to post effects.



Topic #2 Extra Character Animation Assets

We have a few character animations that require custom 3D work for pieces that aren't in the Character models. An example of this is we have a tree character that will thrust his fist into the ground causing vines to grow across the field and entangle an enemy character. In this animation the tree's arm changes to look like a growing tangle of branches and vines. This same tree also has an effect where they will cause a palisade of roots to grow around a character and protect them. We have an animator / rigger to animate these assets, but we need them created. Here's an example of what root palisade will look like: 



And a video of what this looks like (skip to 1:27):

https://youtu.be/6dm6SL-XIJY?t=87

If you're someone with these talents and want to work on a team of hard working indie game developers that are more interested in making a good game than throwing something out fast. If you're someone that is good at taking critiques and criticisms and are willing to rework things that don't work, then we'd love to have you. PM me or reply to this thread!
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