Handheld Model - Rock Golem

Nemecys

Hey Guys,

Its Final Year at University

We have to model a Hand held character model to the same art style as Darksiders 2, below are some of the criteria we have to follow

•	Character limitations are as follows. (Counts are in triangles NOT polygons)

1)	Triangle Count of 2000
2)	Character must be designed with an Action / RPG NPC boss in mind
3)	Any Z-Brush sculpt should be kept to a minimum of 1 million pixols anything above that is overkill. 
4)	Textures resolution up to 1024 for 1* Diffuse, 1* Normal, 1* Specular, 1* Opacity and 1* Emissive. Any shader setup should work within the UDK Mobile PC Viewer.

•	Character must show significant planning for example polygon loops are present for deformation.
•	Character must have sensible polygon flow, i.e. the shapes used should create both function and form.
•	Character must be Unwrapped efficiently, wasted space will be penalised.
•	Character must be textured, direct use of unreferenced photos will be penalised.

I'm not much of a 2D artist and to be honest I'm really quite ashamed at how I can struggle with such a simple technique. Here's some of reference that I was looking at to get a feel for the characters.





Key Features to note:

- Asymmetry
- Large Bold Shapes
- Simplified Humanoid Shape
- No toes, Limited or No Fingers
- Elemental
- Environmental

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Thumbnailing really isn't my strong point, But here are a few shapes that I tried to give my own unique twiat, but I don't have the same flair I do with 3D programs.

One of the concepts I've come up with so far, is based very much on ELements, Lava and Environments. I want to try and combine small aspects of a living world, such as waterfalls, trees, volcanos.



I will do a paint-over or at least try to try and show you what I mean, if anyone has any recommendations on how to improve my 2D skills, or perhaps some abstract crazy techniques like photo mashing that would be grateful.

I'm afraid that the answer will be - Practice, but I'm prepared for that

Nemecys

What I don't understand is,

How can I churn out paintovers like this, with what seems to be an understanding of Colour and depth, but I can't handle 2D thumbnails on there own,

Either way, I want to incorporate as many features as I can through out all the maps, so really push the use of the AO, Emissive, Normal and Opacity

With this 2nd design, I realise the addition of other geometry may drastically increase the Tricount, but the ability for it to push a unique sillhouette is strong these key features im trying to imagine as I go along, my drawing skills fail im comparison to show what im imagining.



Just imagine more natural gemotry as you go down, sort of passing through different Biomes in Minecraft for example,

- Lava, Fire, Rock
- Vines, Waterfalls, Rainforest
- Desert, Sandstone, Temples
- Mossy, Muddy, Underground

I am trying to encapsulate as many of this different "worlds" into the model with as much prominence as possible, This may be too adventurous a model to be attempted within 2k tri limit on Handheld, but if anything its worth a shot