Shay's 3D Character Art Sketchbook
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Most recent piece!
This will just be a large thread of all the projects i'm working on in my own time!
I used to split everything up but i kind of like the idea of keeping everything in one place so its easier for me to update regularly.
Thank you for stopping by!
Most recent piece!
This will just be a large thread of all the projects i'm working on in my own time!
I used to split everything up but i kind of like the idea of keeping everything in one place so its easier for me to update regularly.
Thank you for stopping by!
Replies
Thanks for stopping by!
A splatoon gun fanart and some hair studies. I'll be doing the hair in lots of different styles and haircuts but its fun to just do something smaller for a little while.
Some more swooorrddsss
The textures are pretty much done for now so its time to rig then add some FX! Excite!!
Artstation renders here!
SO here we go!
This is what Sakura looked like about a year a go when i stopped working on her:
The updated sculpt version!
Baked and retoped!
Thank you for stopping by!
The OG concept is by Xuexiang Zhang, I love all of his work so its been a lot of fun so far to work on this Parkour boy.
This is where he is currently, hopefully i've have the highpoly done tonight and then i can clean it up and start on retop!
High poly all done! Retop time!
I have some big updates! His textures are almost done but i thought i would post up a little dump of my work over the process.
^ ^ ^ Base colours with baked lighting and some simple gradients are done here
^ ^ ^ At this point his skin and materials are still very plain, everything felt too much like plastic. So i spent a day just finalising and poking at the values.
^ ^ ^ Played with the skin roughness. I don't like to keep the skin a uniform gloss/roughness because oil builds up mainly in the tzone of the face so i like to add some variation there so it doesn't feel flat.
^ ^ ^ Playing with metals so they have some variation for the light to pick up BUT keeping it soft enough that it doesn't look realistic or noisy.
Stay hydrated kids!!
^ ^ ^ And then i like to add variation in fabrics across the model. The design is all about block colour and i could keep it simple by keeping all the blacks in the same material across the board but that's not extra enough for me so i like to add variation where i can.
Breathable fabrics are my jam and they are an easy way to get in some cool pattern work without adding too much noise.
Add that shit everywhere please! Yeah booooy
Then a little before and after of my base colours and materials to the final edits and mats. I still need to get some nice renders of the final textures so you can see it all up close but i still have a feeeeew tiiiiiny things i want to add here and there.
Thanks for stopping by!
@LeahM
You can either steal the green channel of your object normal and create a clipping mask above it of a solid colour in Photoshop or there is a "stylised baked lighting" generator in substance painter (i think Quixel has an equivalent too but i forget its name right now).
I really wanted to put him in a crazy parkour action pose but my rig limitations were so bad that i didn't really have the scope for it T^T
Maybe one day someone will want to animate him and will do all the crazy stuff i couldn't!
And the final textures with a cheeky little poserooni
Original concept by Xuexiang Zhang
www.artstation.com/mrxuexiang
He has been a lot of fun to work on and i'm really glad i had the time to really push myself and make him something special. The shape language in Xuexiang's work is always so fun to work on and i hope i did it justice!
On to something new!
Work is a little slow so i'm trying to keep to the 9-5 lifestyle with personal work, at least i'm doing something and keeping my art muscles in use. I haven't done anything hand painted in a while i really wanted to update my dusty skills in that area.
Normally i will try to replicate the concept super close but i haven't tried to explore my own hand painted vibe so here is the perfect chance! I saw Geneveive's really cute fox boy called Willow and she kindly gave me her blessing to build him in 3D!
A little process gif of the block-out
Because i'm obsessed with gif's obvs
Hands up who else's models look like hot scary trash for 40% of the process before it actually looks like the concept!
The sculpt was pretty quick to get to done as i only want it to bake out a nice diffuse but i wanted to add extra details like folds, stitching and some wear and tear to push the model a little further. My last hand painted character was very simple and i want to really push this one! Maybe i should use this character to practice my rigging skills too! WHO KNOWS?!
It's probably a little late into the project since you're already onto the low poly bakes, but that chest / neck tuft would look really great along with the same style you made his tail. Either way it'll be awesome to see the next updates!
The only reason the neck tuft isn't there is because i just couldn't make something i liked work in zbrush, for some reason it always look very awkward like a neck scarf? The 2D does it perfectly but i couldn't figure out how to get something so thick to fit between his shirt and on his neck. I'll give it another go in the low poly as it may be simpler. I think the colours help a lot to communicate he is a fox rather than a cat though which is good!
For now i have the base colours from substance painter on and its not time to polish and get in the texture and hard edges into the paint. I've left it all quite soft for now as i prefer to paint the harder details by hand than to let it be generated.
Lets see how it goes!
I think i'm going to paint a little bit of fur detail on rather than creating large chunks like the tail. In the drawing you can cheat adding a lot of mass on a small neck all the way to the jaw but in 3D i just didn't like how it filled out his collar and made it feel cramped
A little update on his textures so far!
I haven't had a chance to work on his leather or weapon yet but after some feedback from some buddies i think he is slowly on the right track!
I still have some feedback to work on that they have given me but anything else is always appreciated!
Anyway I feel the neck is still missing something, perhaps a little too thin and long. Maybe if it were to be wider and not so separate from the jawline, like nick from Zootopia? It's your boat either way, just enjoying the ride.
The paint on the belt buckle and the gem in the sword are sweet!
So in terms of updates, i finished the fox (i know this was back in march 2019 my gosh)
It can be seen here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mqEbNa
I've worked on a few things since then but my current project is a Medabot collaboration with a friend of mine!
Here is the progress so far -
The design has changed quite a lot over time, at first a rhino beetle but now we are going for a Scarab inspiration. The plan is to have lots of animation opportunity like rocket wrists, retractable swords, 2d screen eyes, his elytra (i think that is what its called) is independent and can wiggle and all the joints are very flexible etc so i hope its a lot of fun to see in motion!
Here is the current state:
I have rebuilt most of the parts in Maya using the sculpt as a guide then i'll take it back into Zbrush to clean up pinching/bad modelling then and add details like bolts, panelling, damage and inset details. I could also do this in the texture but i prefer how it all looks when baked? We shall see, i'm still undecided.
The progress so far! Still got a little work to do on the hands, i have a ref on they type of mechanics i'm going to use but the thumb just isn't playing nice so i'm going to try and figure that one out. Do robot thumbs always look strange? That a thing? But other than that he is pretty much done.
I also made an IMM to make floating inset normal details so i hope that test works out so i can stop doing it with booleans forever (yeah i could do it in the texture but it never looks as nice!)
They have both Male and Female variations,
I also have the toys from 1999, in there you can see their hands aren't as blocky, indeed, they're kinda squishy and have 3 rounded screws.
Would be cool if you could make a custom Medal for it as well, maybe a stand design?
Progress is good so far! I'll follow the thread.
@LuisCherubini Thank you! I noticed that they are originally gloves, I think that is for ease of animation? But i really wanted to do a mech hand as a glove seemed to visually contradict my own design. I'm making a Medabot but i'm modernising it a little while trying to keep the chunky charm.
I will be making a medal though! I'm thinking of having his gemstone lift up so you can put it in there.
Still have the medal to do and fix up the hands some more but I couldn't help but make a fun render
A quick detour of a study that I want to work up to game res. That way i can practice my skin texturing technique! I've done dark rich skin tones before but i don't think i ever fully pulled it off so here is a chance to really break it down and try to nail it.
I did get feedback for my Medabot, so i have to rebuild the jetpack so it can open for a medal to go inside and then i will start retop!
Trying to steer away from my usual stylised roots and try to lean more towards realism. I'm not going for photo real but just trying to branch out a little from the usual. I got some feedback on the head and i have a little more to so in terms of cleaning up the planes.
I always get the angle of the nose into the face wrong!
I think i need to be able to see more of the eye from this angle and maybe the face is too flat in general? Will take a look this weekend before working on the medabot backpack
After a little more feedback on proportion and working on the planes a bit more. I think i have her closer to my ref and definitely looking more her age too which is a bonus!
I'm going to move onto retop because i think the texture will do a lot to help with making her feel more fleshed out as i don't want to work on the skin textures in the sculpt
I got some feedback about some of the shape language from the concept artist that i fixed then i reworked the hands to look more toyish and functional (closely used the Gundam hands suggested by Nandx).
The backpack now opens to allow the medal to be put inside of it, There is still some little edits i want to do to areas i found were too plain during the retop phase. Like the jets in his wrists and backpack. Just a cone shape isn't enough for the jets, i think some little ridges or something would help further the narrative that this is where he propels from.
As LuisCherubini asked, There is now also a medal design! It needs a little cleanup but overall with how tiny its going to be i don't think it needs much detail to look impactful. As long as it's cute!
Retop is also done! Got a little clean up to do here as i could have done better in areas like the chest and crown but overall i'm happy that I've been able to retain a lot of the shape. We shall see how well it does once baked!
Working on two things at once has been quite refreshing, if i get stuck or bored with one, its nice to have something so different to switch back to.
Zuri Also has her retop and unwraps done. Really looking forward to diving into the textures there too! I just decimated the scarf because it isn't the focus of this exercise and felt like it would be hell on earth to do by hand.