Reallusion Character Design - Philsip

Philsip

I am going to be working on a young woman from a noble medieval family. Right now, I am toying with the idea of a hunting trip with a hawk and/or pet fox. I look forward to trying out some of the reallusion tools and seeing how they might fit into my workflow.

Here are some preliminary sketches:


Let me know what you think as I progress! I'll keep you posted.

Here are a couple of my previous models on sketchfab, for anyone who might be interested.

Philsip

Here's a mood board with some ideas for the materials and styles of her clothing and accessories:

Philsip

Alright, I've gotten access to the Character Creator and have started on her body. I'm going for a young, semi-muscular, short, not-entirely skinny character. So far, I think this is moving in the right direction.


I'm sure Character Creator has some paid upgrades that allow you to play around with age more, because it is difficult to create a younger teenage model using the existing modifiers.

Either way, I enjoy the freedom that we do have to adjust all of the separate body areas!

Philsip

A bit more fiddling has resulted in a younger looking lass. I think this variation is much more interesting.

Philsip

Here are a few progress pics:

Some rough modeling of her outfit:


And a test import in Character Creator just to see if I could get it into the program. It took a few tries, and the rigging is a bit rough, but everything seems to be working pretty well!

Philsip

Here's my first attempt at adding physics to her garment...

...
Not exactly what I had in mind.


Let's try that again, this time with a crude weight map attached.


Better, but not quite there yet, is it?

And here we have the collision shapes set up. We're on the way to getting good looking cloth!

Philsip

My usual modeling method is to make the whole outfit out of a single piece of geometry instead of modeling out each aspect separately. This time around, I'm going to put Reallusion's Layers system to the test and make each layer and then have my girl wear them all on top of one another. It isn't quite as efficient, but it definitely allows for more flexibility and customization, which I do enjoy. 

Here are a few sketches of ideas for the various clothing layers:



And here's the base layer in Character Creator. I didn't put a lot of time into this one since pretty much all of it will eventually end up covered by other layers of clothing: 

3levan

Love her proportions. Are you going to render out an anim test every time you add another layer to the clothing? I'd love to see how you build up her clothing and accessories.

Philsip

I wasn't necessarily planning on doing an involved test each time, but I'll definitely be importing into Character Creator and testing with a few animations just to make sure that the layers are working the way they should. Don't worry. I'll document it all pretty faithfully I'll definitely post an image at the least each time I add another layer. I love thinking in layers and that was one of the things I really wanted to go for: multiple layers of different materials and colors stacked on top of each other. It turns out that Reallusion's tools are pretty much perfect for this.

Philsip

Here is some quick progress on some of Ronya's (I'm naming her that now) accessories.

Low Poly


High Poly



Quick material render of her fox pendant. I might give it gem eyes or something in the future. I haven't quite decided yet.

3levan

Images arent working : (

Philsip

Really? I can see them just fine on multiple computers on my end. Can anyone else confirm or deny?

mirandacheng

I couldn't see the images few minutes ago either, but they work now!

3levan

Working now!
Looking awesome, thats a really nice material

Philsip

Good to hear!

Philsip

Doing some work on her fur trimmed cloak. I haven't done fur at this detail level before and am definitely finding it a challenge. 

Here is something that looks somewhat furry and yet not at all what I want it to look like yet... 




At this point I'm thinking that I might need to try placing the hair cards manually instead of generating them with the Hair and Fur modifier in 3ds max...

Does anyone have any good tips for how to do good looking fur?

Philsip

Continuing hair experiments. Now attempting to make some shells. 



Obviously not quite there yet either... We'll see which technique I end up sticking with as I continue experimenting. 

Philsip

And another WIP image of her hood. This time, it's the base texture. I think it is looking pretty good, but I still plan on adding some alpha planes to break up the shape somewhat. 



The high poly was sculpted in Sculptris.

phrontistes

This is coming along really well. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Philsip

Ignore the mismatching fur colors for now, this is just a test. I think that hand-placed alpha cards is the way to go.

Philsip

Fur  is looking good. Compare the top (without alpha fur planes) to the bottom (with alpha fur planes)



Here is a shot showing the wireframe.



And a final shot showing the alpha cutouts I'm using to give the fur transparency. 

3levan

Your fur looks amazing! Carded hair is doing my head in so im impressed seeing somsoen else with such a handle on the texturing and alphas. Great update as always

Philsip

Well, I've got some nice looking fur into the game, but I am quite worried that it might have been for nothing. Getting the fur looking good while MOVING might be a much more difficult endeavor. As soon as I start animating anything, the mesh just goes crazy. I'll have to fiddle around for a bit longer, but this might just be more complicated than it's worth.

Philsip

Fur is starting to look a little better. The animation really makes the illusion of the fur cards break down, though, so I might have to double the number of cards or something to get a good effect. This process was super tedious, so I don't think I'll tackle that unless I happen to have extra time...

Philsip

Moving on to the boots.

3levan

Looking fantastic! The deformation is looking really solid, im so envious lol!
Hair has definately become the first thing I havnt enjoyed doing in 3d.. maybe I'll feel diffrently with creatures but its not something I can see myself spending alot of time on again ;/

Philsip

I'm not quite done with this, but it's coming along quite nicely. 

3levan

Looking fantastic! nice materials and textures. might be worth dropping the specularity on the fur though?

Philsip

Thanks! Here's a bit more progress. 


I tried playing with overlaying the diffuse on the specular for the fur in order to limit the shine to the lighter hairs, but I'm not quite convinced yet. I think part of the problem is that the slight border around the hairs is visible. I seem to remember there being an alpha slider in Character Creator that I can use to determine exactly the amount of falloff that I want, so that should take care of that problem once I get it ready.

All in all... I wish I owned these boots in real life

Philsip

Here is a gif of my process for making a leather etching of a fox for Ronya's pouch.


And here is the progress on her accessories.

douglassoares

 thats awesome! 

Philsip

Tiny update for today. Just a quick WIP of the skirt.

InfinityComplex

I really love the level of detail, and design, going into every aspect of this character. Even into her blade. Awesome product, can't wait to see the finish.

Philsip

Here's some more progress on her skirt and padded coat. The colors are all temporary as I plan to sit down and try out a few different themes once the costume is pretty much complete.

JOELO_YONGCHUANG

That's really nice! Especially your awesome techniques in tackling with fur physX.

Philsip

Thanks JOELO_YONGCHUANG! I'm just learning these things on the fly. The fur definitely complicates animation, but I hope it will be worth it in the end.

Philsip

Here's some progress on Ronya's vest and belt: 



Everything is coming together. Next I think I need to tackle her hair.

Chronicle

I'm really liking the material work you're doing with this one.  The way you did the kinda celtic knotted etching was a cool way to achieve it.

Philsip

Here is the first shot of Ronya in her complete outfit. The colors are not finalized and I might end up making her some gloves too, but this is a good indication of her final look. 


And here's an extra shot without her fur hooded cape.

Philsip

Here's Ronya looking more or less like she will in the end. From here on out it's rigging and animating.

Philsip

Here's a gif showing Ronya's  full costume.


Now on to rigging and animating her.

zetheros

Nice! The AO and color adjustments really bring everything together.

Philsip

Thanks! We're almost there. Added some simple gloves. Now she's dressed for the weather.

Philsip

And we're done, folks. It was a pleasure competing with you all. There are plenty of deserving entries on here so I wish you all the best. 

Here's mine:

After the tragic death of her father, a young noblewoman named Ronya finds herself the ruler of a barony under siege.

Also check out the Baroness on Sketchfab, as well as a turntable video showing her in more detail and with PBR rendering.

 model

Turntable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpb9-szjsPk&feature=youtu.be

Work-in-progress thread: http://polycount.com/discussion/174556/reallusion-character-design-philsip

Philsip

And here are a couple of screenshots from the sets of my video: