Final Fantasy Fan Art - Alexander

admrodrigotm

Hey guys, how are you doing?

I'm working on a personal project to put in practice everything that I learnt in 2016.

ABOUT ME

My name is Rodrigo Marques and I'm from Brazil. I started my studies about 3D in january and since that I studied modeling in 3DS Max, sculpting in ZBrush, texturing in Substance Painter and material creation in Substance Designer. I also read some books to learn some basics of modeling and texturing and how computer graphics works.

When I started, I already had some knowledge of Unity 3D, Photoshop, design, composition and color, but not advanced. I also studied a little about these subjects throughout the year.

I'm aiming to be an environment artist to work on the game industry, but I also trying to get knowledge about rendering, since there aren't many game companies where I live and I think that I'll start my professional carrer in companies that make content to the advertising market.

GOALS

In this project I will try to make something awesome that requires everything that I can do with the aquired skills along this year. This means to put in practice my skills with each software that I studied and what I learned about environment art for games.

I am also recording the time spent on the project through Toggl to know how long it will take to do something like this.

This will be good for me to know my weak points and this will help me to plan my studies for the next year.

THE PROJECT

In this project I will try to make an environment inspired by Alexander, a summon/eidolon/esper from the Final Fantasy game series.

Here is a screenshot of him from a Final Fantasy IX cinematic. He is the big guy that looks like a castle with wings:

I won't make a summon/eidolon/esper. As I aiming to be an environment artist, it will be a castle that hides a big robotic structure underground. When the kingdom's army and all it's resources aren't enough to stop the enemy, the castle becomes a combat machine. The underground structures are composed by legs and body. Above the ground are the head, where is the castle, and the shoulders, where there are two different districts: the intellectual district above its right shoulder and the commercial district above its left shoulder.

Here is an image to help the understanding of the overall shape:

PRESENTATION

As I want to be an environment artist for the game industry, I will create an environment in Unity 3D, wich is the game engine that I already have some knowledge.

I'll start my studies about rendering in the next month, so i decided to also make some beautiful renders with post-production in Photoshop.

So, that is it. I'll post regularly to show the progress. I count on you to receive honest and constructive feedback.

Thank you if you have read all this. lol

Anchang-Style

can you show your Conecpt Art / mood book or whatever so one can get an idea of what you want to achieve?

admrodrigotm

This image is just to have an idea of the current state.

I started with some sketches on paper, but didn't spend too much time on it, since my drawing skills aren't so good.

I feel more comfortable trying things with basic shapes using 3DS Max.

So I made the blockout trying to translate the concept to 3DS Max, but making some adjustments in some parts that doesn't read well in the tridimensional space. I also created some new details that I find that would be interesting. In this phase I tried to find the parts that should be ok to use instances to make things easier in the next steps (UVs and texturing).

After that I started to build the details that a normal map wouldn't handle well. I still in this phase.

admrodrigotm

Here is the mood board for this project:

admrodrigotm

I made some modifications on the project description and added some images to make things more clear to understand.

Well, here are the updates:

I finished the body and the castle blockout on the weekend:





This morning I have been planning the commercial district.

Here is what I have in mind for this:





I also made another mood board. This one is just for the commercial district:

Tomtegubbe

Wow this is a lot of work, I'll be following this because Alexander is cool, how do you plan to create the wings?

admrodrigotm

@Tomtegubbe, thanks for follow my project!
Actually I do not planning to create wings. As I want to build something to show that I capable of create environments and to put in practice and test the skills aquired along the year, I think that the wings aren't necessary. What do you think?
I also notice that there is a lot of work to do for just one person and I intend to finish this until February to continue my studies.

admrodrigotm

Well, I made the basic shape of the commercial district and defined some basic structures that will populate this district.

There will be a cathedral in the center, a square right in front of it and a beautiful lawn with trees and flowers behind. Just behind this lawn there will be a garden and a graveyard with some mausoleums and tombstones.

There will be lots of commercial tents on the market-place in front of the square.

On the streets, there will be lots of huddled* houses and shops like a slum, but a beautiful slum.

*I don't know if that is the correct word in english, but what I would like to mean is that buildings will be really close to each other.

I tried to make some paintover to help explain what I wrote above, but it became so ugly that I'm ashamed to show this here. At least I realized that this is something that should be good to study in the next year.

What do you guys think about it? Drawing and painting are really important skills to someone that want to be an 3D artist especialized in environments for the game industry?

Tomtegubbe

It might be less effort than you think to make the wings, firstly you would only have to create one wing since they're symmetrical. Also most of the feathers are pretty much identical, they have just got different sizes so the feathers won't be that hard to make either. You could just sculpt the bony parts of the wing, sculpt one feather then export them and duplicate/realign them in whatever program you're rendering in. Here's a nice way to create feathers in zbrush, the wings might add a lot to your final render and make it clear that your architecture is from Final Fantasy.
http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/2063-the-making-of-the-harpy-photoshop-zbrush-by-katie-hallaron

In that screenshot it's also clear that the wings emit light, imagine if you would put those wings above your beautiful architecture and have them lit up Alexander, it could look amazing. It's at most an evenings work I think, definitely worth it.

admrodrigotm

@Tomtegubbe, you're right.

I'll make it and this tutorial and these references will definitely help me.

Thanks for that.

I'm returning to work on Alexander today.
Soon I'll show more WIPs.

admrodrigotm

Well, I did the basic blockout of the Commercial District.
Here are some screenshots:





The next step is to build the basic blockout of the Intellectual District.

I started to use Pinterest recently and it's a great tool for collecting references. I created a folder with some references to the Intellectual District.
Here is the link for anyone who wants to see:

https://br.pinterest.com/admrodrigotm/references-intellectual-district/

admrodrigotm

UPDATES:

1. Intellectual District blockout:

There is a big building right in front of the entrance of the district where people study engineering and architecture.

Behind of it there is a square with a fountain.




In the back of the district there is a building where people study black and white magic.

On it's sides there are magic fountains of black and white magic.

2. Body blockout:

The body shape was very strange. I did a lot of modifications and added some structures that looks like armor parts to give it a feeling of a holy robotic warrior. Planning to use some gold in that structures to enphasize that holy feeling.

3. Wings blockout:

I have been thinking about the @Tomtegubbe suggestion to add wings, but I didn't follow the examples that he gave me. That's because I'm not planning to create a living creature, but a robot. So I made the wings, which made the overall shape get much more interesting, but I made them in a robotic way.




CURRENT STATE:

Perspective view:

Ortographic front view:

NEXT STEPS:

Now I have to plan how to put everything in Unity before move to the next step, wich will be modeling the final version of everything. I was thinking about also make a playable environment with a third person controller with a lot of different cameras spread by the scenario. The cameras would always point to the player like the Final Fantasy IX style. This helps to asure that the player will always be looking to a beautiful shot of the environment. As I have some knowledge of C# this doesn't sound like something difficult to do.

I think that this is it for now. Soon I'll post here with a better explanation about that camera system and the updates about the modeling phase.

Tomtegubbe

The cameras would always point to the player like the Final Fantasy IX style. This helps to asure that the player will always be looking to a beautiful shot of the environment. As I have some knowledge of C# this doesn't sound like something difficult to do.

I'm a fan of this, seen how they did in the FF10, maybe you could have the camera track the player through the scene.