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Marleen's MA Game Art Thread

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Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
So I'd want to keep up a thread with all the work I am doing during my MA Game Art at Hertfordshire. I have seen some incredible progress on the last years' threads so I hope I can keep up something similar to motivate me. 

The first weeks I will be posting mostly art from a course called "Practice 1 Media". Basically 7 one week projects of which two are fleshed out in 3 weeks at the end of the semester. All these weeks have different themes.

First one: Red chases Blue
I tried learning some Marvelous Designer. Up untill now I mostly made stylistic characters and I lacked the knowledge to make realistic characters. I mostly "faked" those stylistic characters as well. I did not know much about anatomy and I did not use much reference. This all frustrated me because I felt like I was cheating. I really want to use Marvelous to make some realistic clothes again!




Second one: Places of the Mind. Giving a try at realistic zBrushing. It's all very rushed as I wanted to focus more on character design, which didn't really work out in the end. 

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  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    So the third project: Memories and Nostalgia. We are supposed to recreate an environment or character from one of the games we loved to play as a child. I will be making the Queen of Gleeba, Voluptua. She is one of the characters of Dragon Quest IX. This series is one of my favorites from my childhood. I played it so much on the Nintendo DS that my dad once threw it out of the window (luckily the DS survived). In honor of this game I will make Voluptua. She is an incredible vain person with a pet lizard Dracky-Woo.
    Before I chose a character I wanted to play the game first. One of the first things I noticed were the awful word-jokes in every single name. As a child I did not understand these because my English wasn’t that good yet, but right now I still love the game. The jokes only make it better. 

    I'm lucky there is still an original concept art picture to find on the internet:


    This is the work I did today:
    I started blocking out the shapes and looking which subtools I would need. I will take most back to Maya. The legs and arms still need a lot of work. On one side I am worried that her face is not going to be recognized, but I don't want to use the style the concept art is drawn in. Not sure yet if I am going to use another face, I like this more adult look...


  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    Looks great!

    Just remember you have to cite all of the alphas you use that you didn't make and didn't come with the software :disappointed:
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    @almighty_gir Thanks! And I will keep it in mind :)


    Today I mainly worked on creating a own custom zBrush UI. Pretty happy with how it is now, but I really need to move the left bar to the right, easier to access with the tablet pen :). I also worked on the upper body to get more finalized shapes. When I have finalized everything I remove symmetry and add some scratches and that kind of stuff.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    BTW, for the people interested in my UI set-up you can download it here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwcA6TJ05PH7bFpOeWExa19rV2s

    • I use 4R8 with a 2560x1440 screen resulotion
    • You can load it with Preferences > "Load UI" and with enable custumize selected you can customize it. If you press CTRL+ALT you can move stuff around and put your own brushes/materials/stuff in the bar. Don't forget to store the Config as well if you want to keep it.



  • carvuliero
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    carvuliero hero character
    I am almost sure that her arms are too short for her body also hand is almost the same length as forearm(remember hand should be as long ad her face - chin to hair line or 6/7 ) , her belly is too wide and clavicle have strange concave curve , some of medial knee volume is missing also her jaw definitely need some fixing  just to point a few things that doesn't look right to me 
    Why do you need so much junk on your UI - cintiq ?
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    Thank you! I was feeling there was something wrong but I couldn't really pinpoint it. The hands were indeed way too big which also caused her arms to feel too short. They were in fact a little too short as well. I'm trying to fix the rest as well now. 
    I thought that putting everything in my UI would speed up my process, but it was overcrowded yeh. I removed some junk and moved the bars to the right positions.
  • carvuliero
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    carvuliero hero character
    At least for me custom dropdown manus are the answer  ,  you could try one just to see if its something for you 
    You have less things to distract you on the screen / don't have to move so much to get what you want as if you assign it to a hot key will always appear where your pointer is  / good organization with this approach / 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    For now this project "Memories and Nostalgia" is finished. I am happy with some parts, but some parts really need a rework. Shoes are still in blockout but I am happy with the whole first pass overall. The brief for next week is "Light and Shadow". I want to focus on making a scene where I can render my characters in Unreal with different lighting set-ups and different backgrounds. I need to find some good tutorials because lighting is a big weakness for me, but I look forward on working on it!
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    https://youtu.be/jGjaMHxnZU4

    This video shows what I have been working on for the last week. The assignment was basically to use lighting in Unreal. I have used Unreal before at my internship, but I never used blueprints or created a lighting set-up so this was all new for me. The goal for me was to create a scene where I would be able to show off some of my works in different lighting set-ups and different views. I struggled a lot but I was determined to get the whole thing to work. It might be easy to create in the end, but for someone with not a lot of knowledge of blueprints/coding it took me a while to understand. I like doing it though :)

    Tips on creating a good lighting set-up in Unreal are very welcome. As I am still very new to this I would really appreciate some :)
    (for this scene I used models that I already made before)




  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    So I put the Unreal project in the freezer for now. I have added some functionality and would love to make it some kind of standalone portable 3D portfolio, but currently I don't have the time/knowledge to do it. I definately going to be working on it later though.

    Continuing on what I am doing right now;

    The Queen Voluptua lowpoly. For the 3D printing brief I have chosen her. I don't know yet which materials we are allowed to use, but if we can use the white powder printer I definately want to use that one to add another model to my collection :). I am not only going to 3D print her, but I also wanted to make a game ready model with some (facial) animations. Would be nice :).


    And the brief I have chosen to progress further; the traditional Dutch girl. I mainly want to focus on making a realistic character. I already love the clothing a lot, so I decided I wanted to focus on (facial) anatomy. I know there definately is something wrong with her, around the eyes? Or the jaw? But I have been staring at it for too long and can't spot the mistakes anymore at the moment... Would someone be able to help me? Tips on how to achieve a realistic sculpt are also very appreciated. Btw, I used Doutzen Kroes as reference and the hair is just temporary...
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    Made some changes to get it more realistic, need to fix the area around the eyes tomorrow again though because I got some valuable feedback. The length of the neck needs to be fixed as well. Today I mostly did detailing on the hands.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    A little more progress on the Dutch dress girl. I'm getting a bit of tunnel vision on the dress right now, so this week I will be moving on to fixing the hair and making the accessories (shoes, necklace, earrings). 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    Finished the Dutch girl model. I will leave it for now and pose her in a few weeks... Need to move on to my next project, the old tribal guy.
    Critiques are still very welcome as I will come back to this project in a few weeks.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    I found some free time to pose my girl. I'm happy with it for now, but I might change it later. Background orange is the national color of The Netherlands. There is a Marmoset viewer on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/owE44

  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    Looks really good! I think the orange, while thematic for a dutch girl, draws attention away from the character, and makes her seem a lot more muted and lacking in contrast than she could be.

    This is in part down to basic color theory: Large areas of brightness and saturation, will make small neighboring areas look dull by comparison, for example: 


    Another issue is in your materials themselves, particularly the black parts. There are very few materials that are so dark that they absorb all light. And due to the varying angles across the waves of the fabric, you would probably see a lot more of the fresnel type cloth reflections (caused by micro anisotropy).

    All that said, i know how much time you had to work on it and how much other stuff goes on at the same time (multiple essays etc.) so it's a decent result =]
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    @almighty_gir Thank you so much once again :). When you mentioned it I saw it as well. Sometimes a second pair of eyes helps to fix stupid mistakes :)



    The second brief that I will explore is the Tribal Guy one. I got really stuck into progressing this further during the brief because I couldn't make a character design. But the moment I touched it again it seemed to flow easier than it did before. Currently I have made everything up until the first texture pass. I still need to make the tribal minions and pose him after that.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    2016
    2016
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    vs. 2017



    And my year recap of 2017! I like to do this every year to see my progress. While last year I wasn't able to even fill the 9 spots, this year I had made too many projects. Left top is the oldest to bottom right is the newest. I am happy with the progress I made this year, but there is still so much to learn. The master at Hertfordshire has already payed off a lot, I'm curious to see what my next projects will be. Let's see what next year will bring!
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    And for now this guy is finished as well. I wanted to do more, but the deadline is tomorrow sadly. I've been ill for a week, but it is no other way. First time for me handpainting a character and in the end I am pretty happy with this guy. On my Artstation you can find more pics and a Marmoset viewer: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XLLgY

  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    So the last three days I have been working on the Search For a Star contest. The deadline is in two weeks and I hope to finish it in time... 
  • izaakb
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    izaakb triangle
    Dude, it almost reminds me of Dishonored. So cool, loved seeing your progress on these! Keep it up!
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    Steadily working on my man. Still need to make 4 poses in total and his warhammer for prop. Deadline is next week :open_mouth:
    Textures of the clothing are a combination of Substance Painter and Photoshop. Skin textures were done in 3D coat with the photo's that were in the 3d.sk christmas packages and a combination of Photoshop.

  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    Deadline this sunday. Finished the warhammer and the final 4 poses. Still need to do rendering in UE4 and the documentation. Posing was a bit rushed, except for the first pose that I made. But they are quite more dynamic than what I am used to do :)


  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    I managed to finish the whole thing in time. In the end I had a lot of fun with this project! I decided to redo the last pose as it looked strange. The renders are made in Unreal, not really satisfied with lights. The shadows are too dark and I am not that good yet at fixing the lighting... But overall it is one of my best characters yet again :)

    model

  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    So I've been helping out a bit with making a character for the Hertfordshire third year final project "The Resistance". You should absolutely check it out if you haven't done that yet, these students are making something absolutely amazing! https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/work-in-progress/1364232-the-resistance/page4

    It's good to finally make another model that is actually going into a game, instead of making something just for practice or my portfolio :)
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    So this week we started on a live-project brief from Rewind. It's very open. We received some concept art of a dystopian world which showed mostly snow, (after)warzone, mechs and some empty buildings in what seems around Poland. The brief was to either make a garage for the mechs or make the pilot. We have four weeks for it.

    Today I've been working on some concept art for the character that I want to make. It's been a very long time since I have tried to make some futuristic stuff, but I'm ready to give it a try again ^^ 
    So for this  character I was thinking that he is humanoid, but heavily modified. Hands and legs are replaced with robotic parts and seeing his "one eye" you discover that this guy isn't actually human, or that he might once have been. I really would like to add some animation to the eye of the model to make it possible to give him expressions with just that eye. Humans use their eyes a lot to express their feelings, so I might have some fun with that. His torso will be the only part to contain the "flesh" body, so that is the only part that need to be packed warmly. The rest is robotic anyway, so doesn't really need to stay that warm.

    Some parts in the concept aren't really right, but it is more of a guideline when I start in 3D. Still; Critiques are very much appreciated :)
  • TheLittleJay
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    TheLittleJay polycounter lvl 5
    Since this is a character that is based in a garage / workshop, perhaps you could spin him as a mech mechanic. Maybe the robotic limbs can be swapped out for different tools (some of these other forearms could be hanging off the waist or something). Or maybe he has a very ramshackle, asymmetrical design if your going for a 'more machine than man' vibe. 

    If his torso is where the remains of his fleshy body reside, then having his old organs visible through an outer shell (General Grievous style) could provide a interesting part of the design. 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    I've made a really simple blockout and started on polishing the face a little bit more to test out how to do hardsurface. And it is HARD! Way harder than organic stuff :worried: . Next up I will probably try to finish the first pass on the face and do a little more concepting to incorporate the mechanic ideas :). I'm thinking of scrapping the legs and start over with them, because the style doesn't really seem to fit the rest of the body...
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

     And some more The Resistance stuff! I have edited the guard that I made before to a lord :). It was not much work, but my Substance kept on crashing my PC, which used up quite some time...
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    Today I finished detailing the mask. Moving on to the Marvelous part tomorrow. Hoping to finish the complete highpoly by next week...
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8



    The last days I've been working on the upper body. The head is a low decimated version for now, because else the polycount gets too high and I still need to make the thumb. The coming days I will be working on redesigning the legs. Currently I'm having a lot of fun with this project, it's different compared to what I've made before and adding those mechanical parts in is really enjoyable, even if it's just a little. 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    Some progress from the last couple of days
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    I had done quite a lot these last couple of days. The final lowpoly is 63k triangles, with 3 4k materials. Today I decided that I wanted to create the environment, so I spend my day on that. The deadline is Tuesday (for me at least) and I wanted to at least show a little environment so the cyborg wouldn't be boring to look at. He's going to be presented in the ViveVR, so a little something around it would be nice. The environment is not really that well made (quite some problems with baking in Unreal that I still need to fix), but it was better than nothing. Tomorrow I hope to finish the final version of the cyborg's textures, as there are still quite some things left to be fixed. I also want to add some decals etc. And finally adding some animations as well :)
  • Finnn
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    Finnn greentooth
    That is one great cyborg, especially great texturing.

    The environment is drawing alot of attention though, if your cyborg is supposed to be the center of attention you could do some changes to your scene. For example making the orange of your env. textures less saturated, and or light the env. less than your robot.

    Just some thoughts, keep your good work up!
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    So the Rewind brief is finished! Tomorrow the presentation. In the end I desaturated the walls. It was nice to do a hardsurface character once. I really want to look into it more, because I feel like I just scratched the surface!
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    So last couple of weeks I posted mainly finished stuff. A couple of days ago I finished my last model for The Resistance. You can find the characters that I have created for that on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mGyde . From today on I will continue on the start of the research and design for my final MA project, so you can expect more WIP stuff! 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    Finally starting a new large project to do next to my final major project for the weekends! Sadie the Goat/ Sadie Farell, a pirate known for her headbutting. I will combine her story into a goat/demon-captain. I had a lot more to show but then I took a blue to the screen when I tried to save :|. It's basically adding all my favourite parts to sculpt: horns, pointed ears, old people and fancy clothing in a fantasy setting. I tried adding some pores, but I probably will change her wrinkles quite a bit more. She needs to look old and weathered because of the sea, but not too much.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    Some more progress on the pirate ladies face. ready to blockout the body and look a bit deeper into the concept.


    And here's the start for my final major project! The deadline is the 15th of August. I will redesign the character Vivienne from Dragon Age: Inquisition to a style referenced from Dishonored 2. My goal isn't to completely copy the Dishonored style, I will use it for a reference. Everything is going to be presented in a throne room environment similar to both Dishonored and DA:I. She is going to be fully animated with some blendshape animations as well on her face. 

    For the last two days I worked on the face and anatomy. I've come to the conclusion that the anatomy in Dishonored for women is actually pretty weird. The arms all seem to be very short compared to the body, but because many of the trousers are pulled up so high it doesn't seem to be that way. As for the long neck; Viviennes original concept has a really long neck, I wanted to bring that back with a bit more elegance than the original 3D model in DA:I. Also many of the women in Dishonored are very flat and thin. I added a bit more fat on the hips and bust area. Although she is going to be fully covered up with clothes, feedback would still be greatly appreciated :smile:
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    Some more progress, slowpoly working up to down
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    Need to finish the left-hand armour part and then I'm done with the first pass on the upper body. Critique on the designs are very much appreciated :).  
  • BoonS
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    BoonS polycounter lvl 7
    I'd advise tightening up the neck straps, or just keep its wrinkles in parallel to it's length instead of diagonally/perpendicularly. At the moment they kinda look like wrappings resting on the chest, which is a bit of sore thumb compared to the high elegance of the other parts that you sculpted (which are great.)


    Actually, I'm also interested in your re-design of the facial features. I have no idea what kind of character Vivienne is (and that's why I'm asking), but the original head looks a lot rounder and softer than your interpretation. Also if I consider the original modeling being 'dishonored-fied' I'd imagine it taking more advantage of angular structures over harsher wrinkling. Was there a certain aspect of the character you wanted to explore? Not to put you on the spot or anything.. just curious.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    @BoonS Thank you for your feedback :). I changed the neck straps. Vivienne is this high court mage, quite a stern character in my opinion. In the original concept art she looks a lot less round than in the original DA:I model My model however is a few years from after the games. I mainly chose Vivienne to create because her clothing is based on high fashion, which I really like. But I also didn't really like her original ingame armour at all so I wanted to redesign that. Currently I actually barely used the Dishonored style sadly, there are some aspects, but because of the time limits I decided to leave it as it is. Would love to explore it more though.



    The last week I worked on finishing the highpoly and creating the lowpoly, around 50k triangles. The coming days I will spend on fixing some parts like the back of the boots that don't really fit the rest of the character, the connection between the padding and the hood and UVing her.
     
    I also am looking for a rigger+/animator. First I would like to have a simple standing posed idle animation, but however the time permits I would love to have an animator go all out on her and create something cool :). She is going to be displayed in Unreal in a throne room environment.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    First day of texturing... Right now I'm thinking of keeping it pretty monochrome. Trying to improve readability. Not happy with it yet, there are quite some things that need to change.
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8

    So I managed to finish the clothing texturing yesterday night. After looking at it this morning I think that the bottom leather part of the coat definitely needs thickness to it. I also might add a few folds/ stitches because it feels so empty... Next up I will probably add some more polygons to the folds of the trousers and sleeve. After fixing that moving on to the skin. Would love some feedback on the texturing. (The pose is done in a couple of minutes using Mixamo, just to test out the design)
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    So it has been quite a while since I last showed something of my project. I went of playing with the environment but I wasn't really satisfied with the textures so I decided to come back to it again. I hope it reads better now. I went a little over the top on purpose with the make-up, but I would love to know what you guys think!. I really didn't like the version on the left so I did a rework (the right side) with all the feedback that I got. All the jewellery on the right side is still WIP. Most of the rework is in the textures. I added for example normals in the coat, and repainted some (normal) information on the face, like the eyebags and the eyebrows. I added some geometry on the coat, belt and horns. 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8


    So these changes might see small, but I fixed the last problems with the model before moving on to rigging the model! Fixed the scarf and ear textures/normal. Textures are finished now (I guess??). I started with creating blendshapes for the first time. Having a lot of fun with them! I have two sets: one for the eyes and one for full facial expressions/mouth. Since I'm just posing the characters with an idle animation I don't have to do a full range of blendshapes, even though I would love to explore it. 
  • Enalrem
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    Enalrem polycounter lvl 8
    So I guess it's time to finish this thread. My final project has been submitted, the presentation is done. All that is left now are the results!
    This year was incredible for me as I have learned so much. After I finished my BA I ad a couple of characters in my portfolio, but they were not good enough to land me a job as a character artist. I knew that if I wanted to enter the industry as a character artist I would need this year to work so hard. In the end I managed to earn a job as a Graduate Character Artist at Frontier in Cambridge. My year at Hertfordshire not only improved my portfolio a lot, but also critical thinking and more managing/researching skills have made me better than I was before. All in all the MA Games Art and Design was definitely worth it for me!

    More detailed pictures on my Artstation: All Final Pictures
    I made the character, full animations and rigging/skinning. Part of the models are mine, although some models are also from Turbosquid and have been retextured. I did put together the environment/lighting/cinematic as well.






    btw; if you want to ask me any questions about the MA (or anything else) don't hesitate to ask them, I'd gladly answer them :)!
    I will probably continue any personal projects now in my personal thread which has been inactive for the past year when I was using this one :)Personal Improvement thread
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