[Riot Art Contest] - Poppy (Original, Rework)

chayruby

Hey guys! So I've decided to give Poppy her much needed update. I took a lot of inspiration with the direction Riot went when redesigning Heimerdinger. I think that going forward all the Yordles would work going in that similar visual style. So my goal was to redesign Poppy, but make her cuter and a little more animal-like. Thus, unifying Yordles as small furry critters, rather than a collection of smallish people-ish characters.

Okay, so first of all I started with a rough idea of the base skin. I took design queues from Garen's armor. I wanted her look to be small and cute, but Demacian through and through!



During this concept stage I realized I was focusing too hard on trying to keep her "mean" or "tough" kind of face. From here I focused more on making her fall in line with the "cute" and "bouncy" qualities of the new Heimerdinger.



At this stage I realized that this sort of look was exactly what I was going for. So then I started modeling in Zbrush. Zbrush is my preferred method of sculpting characters, I started as a traditional media artist. Zbrush helped bridge the gap for me from traditional to digital.

Here's the first rough of the general size and shape I'd like her to be:


After this stage I started to block out the armors. Hard edge modeling is most definitely not my forte so any advice would be much appreciated:



In her pigtails I'm trying to emulate the furry/bouncy quality of Heimer's 'fro. I think that they are critical to selling her silhouette. Also, I've just realized I forgot to model the ears! So I'll save that for the next update!

The work I've seen so far in these forums is very inspiring. I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say! Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Good luck to everyone!

chayruby

Here's some progress I've made today. I added in roughs for the ears. I also began to create the separations in the hair/fur.

Oh, and the rough shape for the hammer. Hammer diplomacy!



Side note: Ignore the bug eyes, those are just low poly previews.

DiegoTeran

cute design

chayruby

So today I've been trying to retopologize to get her within the limit before I start painting the textures on. I'm still pretty new to modeling so retopologizing is a good exercise for me. Here's an in progress screen shot of the hair.

chayruby

Here's a color block. Added the final shape of the boots, as well as the new hair.

devingeesr

Hey nice design I love the concept. The body look a looks off for her size. Th way the arms are posed look a bit weird. Maybe reshaping them a bit will help.

chayruby

So here's an in-game mockup using a render I did in Maya. I'm having a lot of difficulty getting her to be within a reasonable number of polys. I'm so new to retopologizing and Zbrush's Zremesher is only getting me so far. This is also my first time working with flat lighting so that's been a very interesting challenge. I don't know if I'll make the deadline for the contest but this has certainly been a learning experience!

chayruby

Thanks for the critique! My intention with the size of the body was to fit very closely to Heimerdinger's proportions. Do you think I'm taking Heimy's hair into account too much? I agree that the arms do look a little strange, I'll try reshaping them and posing them how they would look in game rather than an awkward T-Pose.

DwarvenGiant

You might wanna make her eyes less like Gnar's. It seems like modernized yordles have normal eyes. (It can be kind of seen with Heimer's Blast Zone skin)
I think that you might wanna make her less thin too.

Other than it, it's awesome! I love it, and I can't wait for more updates and the final design!