3d Character Dev based on 'Lost Boy' by Ash Thorp (fanart)

mik.fisher

Hey there,

This is my first post in the community trying to share some of the work I am currently working on.
For my final year personal proyect at Teessiode Uni, I was creating a 3d Character based on the 'Lost Boy' world by Ash Thorp.
http://www.ashthorp.com/lost-boy
Here there are some pictures of the development process. The final artwork will be an in-game character fully textured. Still so much work to do but enjoying the process so far.
I will try to keep updated this post as I do with the personal blog for the uni. 
http://blogs.tees.ac.uk/masteringpolygons/
Hope you like it. Can't wait to show this bad guy finished  

Comments & feedback are always welcome

mik.fisher

Some screenshots of the retopology progress. It is not finished, still needs to be polished and add more parts of the design.

mik.fisher

I've been testing the model using KeyShot. I did a quick pose and captured a few renders 4 fun. Hope you like it 

mik.fisher

I had planned to post stuff more often, it is just I am not used to. Anyway, I need to create a habit from this.

There are some updates since the last time. I worked more on the face detail because it was one weak part and one of the most important aspects of a character. I applied some alphas on it and tried to blend all the textures in order to achieve believable skin surface. For the coloring, I used several photos and painted the model using the ZApplink tool. I knew this method, but it was the first time I used it in Zbrush and I felt like I had more control than other techniques. I found a few disadvantages but I am really pleased with the overall result as a base to work with.

These are some images of the first tests and something I could call final (still need to fix a few things) rendered in Keyshot. 
Feedback is always welcome, I would really appreciate any constructive critique. 

mik.fisher

One of the purposes of this project was to learn Substance Painter and add this tool to my workflow. It became a standard in the industry in the recent years, so I gave it an opportunity and it has not disappointed me. I spent a week learning some tricks and found it really useful for hard-surface and clothing. The only disadvantage I find is in organic texturing, think it is difficult to manage it in the way it works and I can get better results using other software.

The following shots show how I applied some texturing techniques on the mechanical arms of the character. I would say that this is just how I've been testing the software more than final results, but I think it is getting there (not a hard-surface type of guy). There are parts I still need to figure out how they would look like with the concept illustrations and some references. Also, I need to play a bit more with the roughness channel.

As always, comments & critiques are welcome.

mik.fisher

This is the first time I do real-time hair. I tried to figure out the best option to do it achieving a good quality. I was not a fan of the photo texture or creating my own with some brushes in Photoshop, so... I came up with this. I did a base using Fibermesh in Zbrush that was awful but worked for what I wanted. I rendered the base hair to get the diffuse map and the alpha mask that I applied to different planes with opacity. I also baked a normal map using Xnormal to give it more depth.

I am sure there is another tutorial on the Internet explaining the same process, but I didn't research enough. Also, I don't know if there is a better way to do it or maybe with another software. I have to try more options, but, at the moment, I though this was the easiest and fastest way.

About the final result, I still have to modify a few things, but, as always, comments and critiques are always welcome.

mik.fisher

There is only one week left until the deadline for the final submission. It isn't much time for what I want, but, in any case, I will continue working on this bad guy in the future.

Last week, I posed the character, fixed some problems with the topology, added more pieces to the model and modified the unwrap. Also, I have been playing with Substance to improve the textures. Still so much work to do on this side of the project.

Next week I will post some shots with the character posed, a turnaround, some tests with a proper light setup, etc.

I keep going, hope you like the progress and, as always, feedback is always welcome.

Luc4998

I really like it maybe its me just ntpicking but mabye add a part to the side of his glasses where its screwed in to his skull or something. Or maybe some scars around the edge?

mik.fisher

Luc4998 hey thanks man   

yeah, I know what u mean and he will have this kind of detail in the final version, I don't think for this week, but I have things planned for the future.
I am using this concept as the main reference. I want to add some skin detail as u mentioned, scars, maybe some blood over the face, stickers on the mechanical arms, pins on the punk jacket and damage more the clothes. 

http://41.media.tumblr.com/8e6b462a0449ee7d64186c0a7353ed89/tumblr_n2dt823Vwk1qetwo2o1_1280.jpg 

mik.fisher

I have to call it done because 'deadline'.

I reworked the texture of the arms, added more detail to the clothing and polished a few more things. I will finish some things I have in mind in the future.

Gonna do renders n stuff. As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

mik.fisher

Last week, I did these images for the final submission. I still want to add and fix things, but I'm gonna leave it by now.

Hope you guys like it ! I'll try to keep posting more and new stuff. C&C are welcome.

mik.fisher

I did this comp to showcase the model, I added a few things and still plan to add more. This is rendered in Marmoset.
I would really appreciate professional feedback in order to improve rendering, lighting and composition.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wZVx6