Dan Bullock's Final Major Project - Character Artist

DanBullockArt

Hi all! I'm Dan and I'm going to be posting updates here about my final major project at Uni.

It lasts for 20 weeks and I'm going to create a series of characters. I've decided to split my time up in to 3 smaller projects to make it easier to manage.

For the first project I'm going to make a Monster Slayer for The Game Challenge 2016 competition. My character is a tribesman, who has started to go crazy because of all the monster slaying he’s been doing. I'm going to do a full write up of the character description soon, but that’s the gist of it.

Reference Board

Over Christmas I spent time researching and gathering reference on the character that I want to make, and I also managed to do some quick concepts to begin to hone the idea.

I started the project today. I'm starting off by making an anatomy sculpt for the character, so here is one day’s worth of sculpting. Obviously still a lot to be done, but any crit that I could get even at this stage would be awesome.

Thanks! 

DanBullockArt

2 days of anatomy sculpting - looking for any crit on the anatomy that people might have
The character is meant to be strong, but malnourished. A tribesman that does plenty of monster slaying, but in a world where food has become scarce for him.

DanBullockArt

I received a lot of really useful feedback on my sculpt yesterday. There's plenty of issues, but the biggest one for me was my obvious lack of knowledge of anatomy of the back. So today I spent a lot of time watching Scott Eaton tutorials and tried to apply everything that I was learning to my sculpt. It's meant that I don't feel like I got loads done today, as I only improved on one section of my sculpt, but I am now so much more confident about my anatomy knowledge of the back.

I'll move on to addressing issues in other areas tomorrow, as well as changing the back to fit the character more again. I'm probably going to want to watch the Scott Eaton tutorials on every part of the body now which will slow down my process, however it will be incredibly useful for me to learn it all properly :P 
Anyway, if anyone has any more crit on the back at this point, or any other part of the figure I'd love to hear it! Thanks

Loose anatomy block in, then smoothed and refined 

DanBullockArt

Chest and abdomen today, and a few tweaks on the back. Really enjoying devouring Scott Eaton tutorials and then applying it Looks like I'll be spending more time working purely on anatomy, then after I've finished a full sculpt I'll adjust it to fit the character.
Let me know if you spot anything wrong :P  

DanBullockArt

No posts last week, my bad! Still just been working through Scott Eaton's tutorials and working on my anatomy figure. Only a few more areas to do, and then I'll post it up and I can start turning him in to a Monster Slayer.
Aside from that, I've also been working on some traditional sculpting throughout the week. It's not something I've done before, but it's been hugely enjoyable, and I hope I can squeeze in some time to do some more 

I also managed to get out an idea I've had in my head for a while now. Hoping to do some more similar experiments soon, as I've got a few more ideas and think it could produce some very interesting results. This was created using one of my older characters as a base, greeble plugin for 3DS Max, and a Flipped Normals lighting scene. 

DanBullockArt

Anatomy sculpt that I've been working on for the last few weeks. Watched Scott Eaton's Anatomy for Artists tutorials and learnt a ton along the way!

Still looking for more feedback and crit if anyone has any Now on to turning him in to a Monster Slayer finally!

Few more shots of it over on my Artstation 

DanBullockArt

More 3D experimenting this weekend.
Don't want to spam them all here, so put a load more of them on my artstation instead. https://www.artstation.com/artist/danbullock
Let me know what you think

DanBullockArt

Hey guys,
Properly started on my work towards my entry for The Game Challenge competition now. 
Looking for crit at this early stage of my character block out. He's going to be a fierce Native American warrior / monster slayer.

First 3 wips. Getting better, but biggest crit is that he still needs to be much more interesting and unique to make him stand out as a hero character

And playing with some quick ideas for war paint / tattoos

Would love to hear any crits anyone has, let me know what you think!

jacob thomas

Hey man, looking good so far. If I was to crit anything at this stage it would be the proportions of his arm. Bicep is about 1/4 of a head too long which is throwing the whole arm out. His forearm is also a little too narrow. For a slender guy his deltoids and biceps are quite large.

For the warpaint I prefer 2 and 6.

Keep at it man. Your traditional work is quite inspiring and you are definitely improving.

DanBullockArt

Thanks for the crit Jacob, I appreciate it. I'll make sure to put in those changes. Cheers

Another day on this, trying out variations on the clothing. It's getting better, slowly. Just need to keep pushing forward. 
Would love to hear any crits anyone has

DanBullockArt

More progress. getting there slowly. Worked on the face a bit today, trying to push him toward looking like the Native American I'm aiming for. Then more overall tweaks and I also spent longer than I should have at this early stage making the necklace, ah well :P 
I've been doing these scribbles over my wips most nights to figure out direction for the next day, thought I may as well show it today. Ignore it if it's just a mess.

DanBullockArt

Had a pretty slow day today. Spent the morning struggling with the design of the character. Annoying, but probably necessary, and hopefully I can get back up to full speed with the sculpt tomorrow.
For now, I'll just show you some of the quick skull variations I sculpted for my character. Planning on having them a few as accessories. Started from an old skull study and worked from there. Crits welcome  

DanBullockArt

Update on the block out, feeling a bit happier with it now, still looking for crit though Not sure whether to give him a headdress or something similar. Thoughts?
Should be starting to refine stuff and make everything properly next week. Let me know what you think.

Ged

this is starting to come together really well, his attitude and character are beginning to shine through

DanBullockArt

Thanks Ged
Few more developments, nothing major though. Need to knuckle down and refine everything now, time's a wastin! Screenshots of the base made for the clothing in Marvelous Designer, although at the moment I think I might do most of the work in zbrush, We'll see.
Let me know what you think! 

DanBullockArt

Another day pushing forward, refining the clothing and the face. Crit welcome

DanBullockArt

Had more fun working on the face today, although I can never seem to shake the feeling that I'm being overly self indulgent when I do so. I know it needs to be done, but in the back of my head I'm reminding myself I don't have loads of time and it's not that important. Ah well, having fun anyway :P 
Also worked on the top a lot today. sculpting a lot, and then experimenting with making frayed edges and cool details. Really hoping that it comes off in the final result

Crit welcome

DanBullockArt

Quite happy with how the top is turning out. Going to move on to other parts of the model now
 A few things I'm not happy with, like the obvious topology stretching on the front right part. Not sure how to fix that without having to redo all of it atm, any suggestions would be much appreciated  

DanBullockArt

Back to work on just refining everything this week. Had a file corrupt last night which was a pain, completely lost the tomahawk that I made. However, could have been much worse.
Here's one more shot of the cloth from the end of last week, and some trophy skulls that I made yesterday. 

DanBullockArt

Making progress, still working through each part of the character individually and bringing it up to a standard that I'm happy with. Still quite a few things to go, but should hopefully have the high poly finished by the end of the weekend.

Looking for any crit anyone might have, big or small! I want to make it as good as I can before moving on to the low poly.

DanBullockArt

Hopefully only one more day on the high poly, let me know if you have any crit 

DanBullockArt

So nearly there with the high poly! Just a few more things to finish off and then I'm moving on to the low.

DanBullockArt

Finished high poly!
more images on my artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wEzR6

future-fiction

Wooow that looks awesome, how did you do the cloth? Is it a UV'd mesh with an alpha on for the frayed bits? Looks sick!

musashidan

Just went through the whole thread. Great to see the design choices you made and the evolution of this character turn out so well. Although the skull roped at the groin looks great, it also looks very impractical: imagine the consequences of running with that positioned as it is....  

And for me I don't think that the feathers on the head suit the character. I'd much prefer the animal skull on his shoulder as a sort of helmet.

Great stuff. Looking forward to the game model.

DanBullockArt

@future-fiction Thanks so much! The cloth for the skirt is just sculpted normally, then with a noisemaker with a cloth texture applied to get the details. The frayed strands on the skirt were made with fibermesh which was then converted to geo. And the top was mainly made following this tutorial 

@musashidan Thanks man, I appreciate it. Yeh you're right, carrying the skull like that really isn't very practical. And yeh, I considered doing a skull / helmet thing but guess I decided against it in the end. Looking at it now I think I'd agree that the feathers don't really fit in as well with the overall design. Thanks for the crit  

DanBullockArt

Been a while since my last post. I've just had my head down working away at the low poly, but It's finally finished! Retopologised, unwrapped and baked; now to start texturing. It was difficult to make such a complicated character only 20000 tris, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out in the end.
Retopo'd in 3DS Max, Unwrapped in 3D Coat (then packed in 3DS Max), baked in Substance Painter (+ a little bit of xNormal), rendered in Marmoset.
Let me know what you think

DanBullockArt

Texture wip and playing with some really quick lighting just for fun. Still a way to go, but happy with the texture progress so far

snoop

DanBullockArt said:

No posts last week, my bad! Still just been working through Scott Eaton's tutorials and working on my anatomy figure. Only a few more areas to do, and then I'll post it up and I can start turning him in to a Monster Slayer.
Aside from that, I've also been working on some traditional sculpting throughout the week. It's not something I've done before, but it's been hugely enjoyable, and I hope I can squeeze in some time to do some more 

That hand reminds me of a certain scene from the End of Evangelion. The proportions for the fingers and the palms are what make me think of it even more. I know I'm probably just being a nerd here, but any chance it influenced this? I know it's a pretty normal position for a relaxed hand so it's a pretty big stretch, but if it were somehow related I'd have to laugh. In any case, all your work looks great!

DanBullockArt

@snoopHaha, afraid not, sorry. Literally just happened to be the position my relaxed hand was in when I was sculpting it. Thanks
Little texturing update

DanBullockArt

Mainly just been working on the skin shader today. Still far from perfect I'm sure, but happy with the results so far considering before today my approach probably would have been to just throw on a gloss map and leave it :P Let me know what you think, looking for crit on anything people can pick apart. Only got a few more days before I'm going to have to call him finished! 

DanBullockArt

Nearly there! Just a few more days.

DanBullockArt

Finished the Monster Slayer that I've been working on! This is my entry for The Game Challenge, run by The Game Workshop.
Thanks to everyone who offered me crit along the way, I really appreciate it. 
Higher res and marmoset viewer here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zXWg2

DanBullockArt

Hey guys, for the next 4/5 weeks I'm going to be working on the ArtStation challenge, so I'll be posting frequent updates there instead of here. I'll hopefully still keep this up as a general improvement thread, and I'll return back here after my ArtStation challenge submission is done. 
Check it out and please feel free to follow and chime in with crit whenever Thanks guys
https://www.artstation.com/contests/the-journey/challenges/2/submissions/2405

karytsukino

Nice references Dan!  Cant wait too see where it goes! Good Luck
 

DanBullockArt

Just finished my submission for the ArtStation Journey challenge! Let me know what you think

More shots and high res here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1XGm3

WIP thread here: https://www.artstation.com/contests/the-journey/challenges/2/submissions/2405

Going to be reviving this thread now for the final part of my FMP, stay tuned  

DanBullockArt

Over the last 2 weeks I've been working on modelling this AKM, with the help of this tutorial. I'm using this project as a way to practice my hard surface modelling techniques, as I was very aware that this is an area in which I'm pretty inexperienced. Haven't been posting regularly throughout as I've just been getting on with modelling it for myself.
Just finished the modelling stage, moving on to unwrapping now. Final low poly model is 18,828 tris. Any crit is more than welcome thanks

DanBullockArt

So I've officially finished University now. Here are some shots of the final AKM model that I made for the the last project of my FMP.
More shots in hi res and marmoset viewer here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BVmQA