WIP League of Legends - Mega Gnar fan art
EDIT - Project done, final shot, more shots bottom of page 1:
Hello Polycounters!
I'm posting a new project I started yesterday.
The aim is to show something not biped/humanoid on my portfolio, as well as improving my hand painting skills.
I'm doing it as it is in game, the closest I can to the in-game model.
So here is my refboard; I can't seem to find any official concept art online except the one below which reminds me of the spongebob meme (this one http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/018/259/55181940.jpg lol).
But thanks to Lolking.net I managed to get some poses, even a T pose and took screens of it as a work base.
(Mega Gnar has his head looking above in T pose, which makes a lot of sense skinning/animation wise, but its also kinda hard to compare to in-game refs to see if its good)
So after something like 3-4 hours in, here is what I have. Of course it's early early WIP so lots of things are off. (Head was subdivided just to test some things, ofc it's off and blobby, I'll just get back at working on it on the lowest subdiv level 
)
Sculpting is fun, but I already can't wait to get to the painting part.
Any crits are welcome!
Replies
Another progress shot on Mega Gnar.
Some parts are still blockout shapes. I worked mainly on refining shapes, and sculpting head, arms fur, hands, and tail. The fur on his back was a previous attempt as I didn't know how to do it properly. I then tried on the tail, using furry characters projects for the 2014 Riot contest as reference to see how people do. So now I kinda know for the low and mid freq fur. High frequency details will come when everything else is done.
Again, critique is welcome!
Here is the final sculpt, I'm now gonna retopo it and jump to texturing. (I could add more fur detail in sculpt but it will be a lot faster and easier directly painting it)
I narrowed the hips, as you suggested @Tectonic, you were right.
He looks like he's missed leg day too many times; the forms for his thighs could use some work. I'd also recommend softening the transition between his bicep and forearm a bit.
@Sebeuroc Haha you're right. I'll work on giving him fake legs as I'm sure he never did leg day anyway... Also smoothing this armpart. Then jumping on to retopo!
Here is a little GIF of the whole character low poly model with an unlit black color, to see if the shape reads well.
(the small hole over the head is the bottom of the skull, I'll plug it lower in the fur once it's baked)
Currently it's 6987 tris. I've been aiming under 7000, after having downloaded and studied the topology of two League meshes found on the web, which are Snow Day Mega Gnar (6505 tris) and Bard (6679 tris). I am curious to see Mega Gnar's in-game model and compare it's topology to mine, to see if I can improve areas, but I can't find it anywhere, and I don't really want to try these "rip models of the game by doing so many instructions using many tools" tutorials.
What do you think about it ?
Now I can unwrap it (legs, lower torso/back, head and arms will be symmetrical) and bake an AO as well as a cavity and a normal map in case I need some quick masking for global tweaking.
I'll post shots of the wireframes with the bakes when they are done.
Now, time to make some "play of the game", kek.
I've been busy these 3 last days, but I've still managed to work a few moments on this project.
Here are 2 progress shots of it; I baked maps and cleaned/setup the base .psd so I can just start painting easily.
The unlit mesh with base texture .psd ...
...and the wires:
So yeah, still eager for some critique
Started painting the fluffy cat. (what is in grey is still flat color + AO)
I also had a view on the official in-game model; it's 11K tris, and I realized only one ear is bitten. If I need to give more geo to certain areas after texturing, I still have 4K for it, lol.
So yeah, here is the current progress:
Crits still appreciated
I get what you mean by some texture parts needing to "pop". I'll continue working as I did until here to finish this first big texturing pass on the whole thing, and then I'll check the contrast, saturation, and levels.
Here is a comparison between bakedAO+flat colors (left, which is what you saw in greyscale earlier) and handpaint (which is wip ofc) I think it pops more, what do you think ?
Also, for the top-down lighting, I already set up a gradient map and a global AO baked on 3Dcoat from my lowpoly model. I have them ready to be added and tweaked after the texturing is done. (it's what I always do, so I have max control over it and can adapt anytime. (if you have another method or tips, I'm interested)
Here is the said map:
Cheers.
tectonic > yeah true but Imho he wants the head to read first, not necessarely the top of the back, so I guess the gradient is good like that.
New progress here, texture is done, except for small tweaks based on feedback if I get some, hehe.
Painting almost everything in 3D Coat. I did the AO and Gradient thing with the mesh rotated 30° from its T pose so its more accurate than previous baked maps.
I also made the fangs unique (were symmetrical, I mean too obviously symmetrical) and one bigger to break symmetry. Also played with the teeth a bit to make them more chaotic, and gave his legs some more flesh and muscle again.
More T pose shots:
And a little mockup over a Summoner's Rift screenshot to see if it fits:
What do you think about it ? Any feedback appreciated. ( or tips, especially on painting fur, I find this incredibly hard! )
So now I'm gonna try and skeleton/skin/pose him so he can relax is neck muscles and stop being so rigid (He hasn't moved an inch during the whole texturing process, what patience he has, lol).
Looking at the image you posted and the one in the top right of your reference collage; things that stood out for me:
Congrats though, he's still awesome, but a few more tweaks and you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference.
Good luck
Hi @pixelpatron, well, THAT is what I call a feedback
Thanks a lot, really!
I understand every point, I'll tweak each one tomorrow and see if I manage to push my model further.
On another point, I noticed on your portfolio you did the environment on Metroid Prime: Hunters... Man, I want you to know I have been playing this game for more than 5 years online, had like +6000 hours on it, it's one of my favorite games ever. The 3D was incredible for NDS and the gameplay was unique, something that sadly never came back on this console. It's also the game that made me want to become an artist for games. So, huge thank you for that too, haha.
You got me even more motivated.
Cheers!
So the multiplayer was you and another artist's work ? Wow. Maps such as Alinos Perch, High Ground, Outer Reach, Vesper Station, Combat Hall...
Damn I'm getting crushed with nostalgia lol.
Sadly the Nintendo WFC service ended in May 2014... Would have been a pleasure and an honor though!
About the model extracted from the game I took as a ref for the texturing pass, it's this one:
As you can see it's a lot brighter and does not look as in the game, I don't really get why.
But yeah, time to sleep and I'll get this guy all textured up tomorrow.
I also tweaked a bit the geometry, moving the eyes area a bit to give them an angrier look, and moving some hands fur spikes points to make them a bit more... spiky. I also darkened the elbow, and brightened the biceps with light blue.
He looks way better now to me, what do you think @pixelpatron?
I will call the texture done now, at least as long as skeleton/skin/small environment socle aren't. Still taking any crits of course!
Here is a gif showing the pose idea, but it's very wip and the pose isn't even dynamic yet. (He will be more like jumping mid air over it, in a more acrobatic style, lol)
So the scene idea is to have Gnar jumping over this bark, chasing something little that flies (bird? butterfly?), like a cat would chase a fly in an appartment.
I want to show the wild aspect of Gnar, like a beast following its rage after something as stupid and meaningless than a fly (but a fly isn't cool enough imo, sorry flies, no offense)
Here is a little sketch to show what I imagine
This would be for the main beautyshot and Marmoset/sketchab viewers. I will probably (thanks to my messy and broken rig) manage to get some more fun shots, like these:
As the environment and character are unlit I'll paint Gnar's shadow on the ground or use and alpha plane with the shadow just over the floor, I'll see later.
Some progress shots, very WIP (grass and rocks need huge work mainly)
As said, black sphere will be a bird on the main shot
Alpha flowers and grass planes will probably be used, later
Any thoughts?
Marmoset viewer and every shots there: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lZrbY
Thanks a lot to everyone who gave feedback! ( and you can still give feedback!
)
Here is the sketchfab embed:
model
keep in mind that bird's wings have anatomy similar to the human arm
dunno how much you care, but its the kind of anatomical flaw that distracts from your work's overall presentation
You're right, I missed accuracy in this area. I don't have much time to spend on reworking the texture and every shot atm sadly. I may do it later when I have the time. Thanks for the input!
@Cremuss thank you man. Damn I didn't realize this bird was acting like a scumbag stealing all the attention lol. I definitely need to rework the wings and size him down on screenshots.
I was totally off with the wing anatomy. Now if it's not totally accurate it's at least a lot more acceptable and doesn't steal all the attention on the shots. I also had more space to enlarge Gnar in the shot. I don't have the time to spend hours on the bird sadly I will stop here. Again thanks for the feedback!
Here's the new shot.