[FINISHED] Leona, Overwatch style

Svartberg

Hey, cool cats.
So I've been working on this fan art for some time now, sort of in a vacuum. 
I figured it wouldn't hurt to post some WIPs and maybe get some fresh opinons.  
I'd be grateful for any and all critique.
Without further ado
It's Leona from League of Legends appropriated into Overwatch style

The original character is by Michael Maurino

Initial 3d dummy overpaint


Further concept development


3d WIP


Face closeup

Svartberg

Right. So I'm pretty satisfied with the progress. Right now it's mostly dynamesh and general shapes.
Next step would be to clean the model up and add some bells and whistles.

kreativbloc

Wow man. This is amazing work. Great adaptation of the original. Definitely going to keep an eye on this one. Very much looking forward to the final model with materials and such.

Svartberg

Right, so I took a long look at the model and realized it's actually not very representative as far as characters go. The one thing that stands out in Overwatch character base is their distinct readability via silhouette and/or walking animation. So i took another crack at the character idea and decided to try and capture that paladin connotation that Leona gives off in League and transfer it into a heavier, more readable silhouette, without taking away too much of the femininity. 
There's probably going to be a tailcoat like detail in the back to add more weight to the lower half of the silhouette and improve general balance. 

I would love some input if you guys have any
Thanks



@kreativbloc thanks mate! Glad you like it.

Svartberg

So i ended up scrapping the designs above and alternating the initial version. It came out a little better and I think I'm going to settle on it. 
After all, perfect is good, but complete is better.

Tits

Cool design and sculpt!
Looking forward to see the progress!

Svartberg

Done with the highres. Feels good man.

Elithenia

OH I love Leona. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!  

MisterWolfen

This is looking really nice so far dude, sculpt is really well polished too, keep on smashing this out, it's gonna look awesome when it's done

lotet

I feel the head is looking a bit tiny, other then that it looks great!

slosh

Damn that looks clean.  really nicely done!

Svartberg

@Elithenia, @MisterWolfen, Thank you guys!
@lotet I'll look into that, thanks! 
@slosh Thanks man! I've been checking out your Aloy thread. Really cool progress so far, can't wait to see next step.

karytsukino

Looking good. You worked really well  in the armor design, to match the overwatch style  

Svartberg

Some progress!

I've rerendered the highres with slight tweaks, Bigger head, slightly looser fingers, pulled the model down to the main plane.



And I've finished the gameres model. Tirned out just under 31k, so pretty much in with Overwatch standards. Pretty clean, I guess I'm overall satisfied. Before textures I gotta work on the weapon and shield, so that's probably going to be the next update.



@karytsukinoThanks!

lotet

Looks good, topology looks great and the bake seams clean as well.
my only crit (which might be a bit late now, but its a quick rebake) is the collar is just kinda smashed into her chest, there should probably be a chamfer edge there.

Svartberg

@lotet Thanks man, I totally missed that. But you're right, it was a quick half-hour fix

slosh

If you can, maybe try and get your hands on some of the textures for the OW models.  I would almost paint this in flat diffuse mode only and worry about materials later.  The OW texturing is super subtle but there is quite a bit going on in terms of how they paint their materials and the colors of course.

GravityBwlast

Really liking the progress so far! Eager to see it done.
I second what slosh said, I'd even say starting with flat colors and gradients only first will help you set values and see what works and what doesn't before even going with the subtle material painting.

lotet

Looks much better!

Svartberg

@slosh @GravityBwlast Thanks for the heads up guys! I will definitely do that.
@lotet Thanks man!

The long overdue update. I'm finally happy with weapon designs and can move on to weapon game resolution models and then textures.

dGreenberg

Man this is looking terrific, @Svartberg! You really captured the style in your high poly, and I can't wait to see how it looks with all the textures in place. Good luck moving forward with it!

kanga

Nice work! Dont know the original characyer but this one looks worried and surprised. Prolly too late but I think it has something to do with the eyebrows. Great stuff man!

Svartberg

@dGreenberg Thank you! This means a lot!
@kanga Thanks! I'm going with mostly neutral expression for now. Well, as neutral as possible without making the character visually unappealing. Later I'll have it rigged and apply facial expressions for the beautyshots.

Svartberg

Hey guys! Kind of an update
I've completely reworked the face and the hairdo! And added some honest corneas for proper eyeball glare. Very happy wtih the result.
Huge thanks to @shayleen_hulbert for outstanding feedback. 


I've retoped and baked sword and a shield.


Not being a fan of Marmoset, I've setup the scene in UE4, baked all additional maps and I'm finally ready to texture!

nekromantikko

Looking really good! I think it looks very close to the official Overwatch style. The only criticism I have really is that the eyes might be too large still, overwatch characters generally have actually pretty realistic-sized eyes (except maybe Mei).

Svartberg

Did some minor work on the textures. Roughness consists of flar colors now, so it's mostly base colors at the moment. 



@jpr thank you! 

lotet

Nice work, looking really good.

Jager

This looks amazing!!

GravityBwlast

Looks super cool! Love the balance between cloth and metal, and the baking is super clean.

Nuclear Angel

Really nice progress so far! I think you can bump up the yellow colors and make them a bit more saturated. Also in the concept you are working from she got these brown red tones on her cloth, but maybe try making those tones purple like the original league design? It might not look as good but might be worth a try. 

Superb job though and good luck! 

polygonmonster

This is looking great! keep it up the good work.

Svartberg

@lotet@GravityBwlast @Nuclear Angel @polygonmonster @Jager
Thank you all so much guys! Your comments are a great motivation!
I've been working on textures almost non-stop for the whole weekend. I think the texturing finish line is on the horizon!
Regarding the color of the cloth, I'm planning to do color variations, like the actual overwatch skins have. I'll play around with hues and maybe alter cloth a little.





I'm still not entirely sure about the flow map. I've used on the guides on  the internet. Gonna experiment a little more.

dGreenberg

Wow, man! This last week's worth of work is really showing. Between the metal, the fabric, and the hair, everything is looking way better from your previous update. Looking forward to those color variations and some cool poses in the future.

lotet

Nice work!
I think the flow map for the braid part is looking good, but there are definitely some issues with the rest of the hair. It kinda looks like you drew the flow map in the wrong direction or something.

I also noticed all the gold is the same colour, I think it could be really nice to have some break up with colour variation, to add some more interest. You could probably brighten it up as well, making it a bit more yellow or white-ish.

It would also be cool to see some purples in there, like in the original skin.

mutatedjellyfish

Wow, sooo nice. It feels really solid. I wonder if a single contrasting color would help the pallette? Her scheme seems very monochromatic. In any case, you're certainly in the right rendering and stylistic space. 

almighty_gir

the flow map looks fine, the problem you're likely to have is that Overwatch hair has one thing that Toolbag doesn't support: a map to drive the anisotropic offset. That's how they get those cool wavy highlights.

karakan

Wow. So far so good. Love how it looks.
Will you show us some actual textures?  

Gabriel Fernandez

Keep going! you are in the right direction! 

Svartberg

Thank you all for your comments and feeback! 

Alright!
I think I'm finally done with texturing. I've cleaned up excess noisiness from the base textures, slightly adjusted the hair and have done the shield and sword force field parts.

And here are some promised variations. These are done in photoshop for the moment.
Base colors with reds slightly turned towards magenta. Looks alright actually

A couple of regular color variations. These are mainly recolors.


And an epic type color variation. I was going for Jem type of glam-pop style. 

The material that I had In mind should roughly look like this. Sort of glittery look with flakes.


And, last but not least, here's how opacity looks on those glowy parts
 
What is left right now is to have her rigged and do a series of poses to fit her into game screenshots for maximum game immersion.

Svartberg

I am finally done with the rig and posing. Here are some of the poses I've been able to set. I'll put off the final renders a little since I've already borrowed a lot of time from my Riot art contest piece. But overall what's left is to make some Overwatch screenshots, render the character in fitting light and paste her there. I also have half a mind to model some static VFX. But that's later. 

Cheers!

Svartberg

So I've been working on the textures some more, cause it didn't sit right with me






Looks a little better IMO.
Also, turns out I'm not very good at rigging. If by any chance you're a rig artist looking for a character to work on or you know someone who might be one, I'd really appreciate if you hit me up here or on twitter  

Cheers!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Whoa, how'd you get the render done?  This is encouraging me to re render my Leather Daddy reinhardt.

lotet

Nice work, looks much better!
the new colors are a lot more distinct and at the same time harmonious. I am also curious how you did that render? is the background just an image or are you actually using it for lighting, is there geometry?

floon

Great outcome !

Svartberg

@lotet, @Brian "Panda" Choi  Yeah guys, it's a simple image set as a background in marmoset and a shadow catcher on the ground plane.
@floon Thank you



Here's the backdrop in case you need it

Nuclear Angel

I really like the color changes you did, so good man! And I like the in game shot and turnaround, fits the style! One thing I personally feel is that her shield should be larger, to fit the lol theme of the character, as the shield is her major feature, while I also think it would help her feel more like a tank. But I dont know what you are going for, but just a consideration. 

Skinner3D

I giggled so hard at the Truly Outrageous skin. Very nice work.

Nikolas3D

Nice work!! amazing!

STRIKER

good shit!, love the renders! howd you capture their render look for the high res model shots?

Svartberg

@Nuclear Angel I was thinking about the overall heaviness of the character and decided to make the overwatch version a little lighter, not exactly like a heavy tank, but more like a knight. Something more mobile and nimble, but still relatively armored. I also removed the back skirt to lighten up the overall silhouette. My main argument for that was that in League we see character from the top down and larger shield and overall larger shape of the character itself work better from that angle. As for Overwatch, where the shape's gotta be readable in seconds and visual information is mostly at eye level, I decided a lighter version of the character could prove to be more readable and overall play into the rest of the aesthetic 

@Skinner3D @Nikolas3D Thank you guys

@STRIKER Ey thanks man! 
The render is basically me opening official renders on one screen and Keyshot on the other, side by side. Several days of noodling with standard plastic material and I kinda stumbled into a decent look.

It's a simple beige plastic with dark-red AO. And I did a glossier version for the eyes 

Sage

This looks great. She reminds me of Julia Roberts for some reason.