Starting a GAME CHARACTER [WIP] Anime Style

dogzer

Starting a new character. I'm a bit rusty.

Going for the anime style. I didn't want to overdo it, but it still looks quite anime, oh well. I'm a litte rusty, hadn't touch zbrush in more than a year I think. 

This will be low poly, fully animated with facial expressions rigged with bones.
Never used sketchfab, but will try to post it there as soon as it's low poly.

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Magihat

Great start! Strikes me as maybe more of a Disney-style than what I would typically associate with anime, do you have any references you are working towards?

artofmars

If your looking for solid reference for an anime style in 3D, this is my favorite.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kk2

dogzer

Magihat said:

Great start! Strikes me as maybe more of a Disney-style than what I would typically associate with anime, do you have any references you are working towards?

Yeah!! Thank you for the comment! 

It makes me happy that it has Disney style. I want this character to be expressive!

I mostly browsed around sketchfab, figured it's the perfect reference, to zoom in and rotate ...
So many female models in this style, though, it's amazing, almost no male examples. Male characters are in other more realistic styles, or they're non human.

There's a bit of Hero Six main char in it.

dogzer

artofmars said:

If your looking for solid reference for an anime style in 3D, this is my favorite.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kk2

I didn't have that reference site, cool! 
This is going to be useful 

dogzer

Doing an anatomy study!

dogzer

model

Feel free to download model!

JHS

The head makes it look very weird. I don´t know if you plan to go from a realistic study into a cartoonstyled body. The head is very stylized and all proportions are shifted, so you would expect the body to have the same characteristics.

dogzer

JHS said:

The head makes it look very weird. I don´t know if you plan to go from a realistic study into a cartoonstyled body. The head is very stylized and all proportions are shifted, so you would expect the body to have the same characteristics.

Haha It does look super weird. I went crazy with the anatomy study, but here's a softened version:
thanks for the comment! I should have perhaps not posted the anatomy study along with the head

dogzer

dogzer

This is the smoothed out version

Feel free to download!

model

Will probably add a vest and gloves, and start retopoing. More clothing will be different meshes.

dogzer

adding polypaint + pairing it with a bit depth for the wrinkles, so it works well with normal map

I will do the best I can in polypaint, but want to do the real cleanup and details after it's projected on the low poly mesh.

dogzer

dogzer

Made the retopo and imported character to Unity!

Chronicle

Cool start.  Anime characters tend to have pointier features, even when they have a little weight on them.  I'd work on the chin, nose and jawline to reflect that a little more.  Anime Eyes tend to be much larger as well and more angular.  Even if this is a more Caucasian character, anime tends to show them with sharper points in the corners and with much bigger irises.

Really like what you've done with his hair, really feels like that's what got the most love on the character.  The highlights on it are great.

lilJohn

I think the eyes are great! pulled this from google as an example of how much anime eyes differ from each other. There is no blanket style to any one character feature.

dogzer

Heeeeeeyyy!! THANK YOU!!


Here's a bit of progress. I think I've got 10% closer haha! But you have it right, pointiness is the way to go. I really have to get the style right because I want to do several characters of the same style.

@Chronicle: I put some effort on the eyes now. An now I'm going to work a bit more on the jawline and chin. Thank you!!

@lilJohn: Thanks you sir!! Yes. And also I'd like to orbit "loosely" around the Disney feel. I want a subtle touch of 'Hero Six',

Chronicle

I already love what you've done with the eyes.  Just those subtle angle changes really went a long way to hitting anime style more.  Great job!

dogzer

@Chronicle Thanks bud!! I also think it did the trick! Of course it could be a lot better but I moved along to rig the character for now.

Here are some animation previews:

[spoiler]
To avoid feel sliding, this is the speed for each animation:
Walking 1.5 units per second
Running  4 units/sec
Sprinting 7 units/sec


[/spoiler]

dogzer

Here are some facial expressions:
[spoiler]



[/spoiler]