[WIP][UE4] Wuxia Girl

stororokw

Hey all. I originally wanted to start this after I had finished my current portfolio piece, but I think it might be better to start a concurrent project so I can keep productivity going.

I started watching some asian dramas lately so I wanted to create a character from the wuxia genre. I am trying to aim for style similar to the game Nioh or Dynasty warriors.

Hoping that I can learn and improve along the way. C&C Welcomed.

stororokw

I have been working on the head last couple days and mainly just messing around with the materials and lighting.

stororokw

I worked on the skin material some more. I created the transmission map which controls the amount of light that goes through the back of the skin, such as the nose and ears, and also the veins that appear when lit.

stororokw

I worked on the head some more.
Self critiqued the head:

• Fuller cheeks (more youthful).
• Softer looking eyebrows.
• Red eyeshadow.
• Smaller chin.
• Softer transition off the top of the eyelid creases.

I am probably going to start working/experimenting on the hair this week.

...and after Implementing the changes:

Sunray

Looks good man, The eyebrows might need some more work to have the match better with your references. And your ear tops could use some more geo. I like the eyeshadow! 

stororokw

Sunray said:

Looks good man, The eyebrows might need some more work to have the match better with your references. And your ear tops could use some more geo. I like the eyeshadow! 

Thanks for your input Sunray. Is there anything in particular about the eyebrows that's bugging you? I updated the image below.
I will add the edge loops on the ears nearer to the end of the sculpting phase or when I have to do the final UVs because sadly it destroys the layers in zbrush.

stororokw

I spent most of my time working on the hair material. Did a quick and dirty test to see how it reacts to lighting and camera rotation. I am going to redo all the hair planes and add either a ponytail, long hair, or braids at the back.

There also appears to be a bug in 4.17 with dithered opacity which kinda sucks.
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/678352/bug-hair-alpha-dithering-glitches-in-417.html

stororokw

More experimenting. This time I was trying to tackle how to add baby hairs or stray hair to the head. Part of the problem is the dithering caused by the opacity mask and how harsh the resulting hair looks.

I ended up using the same translucent material for the eyelashes and eyebrows since the opacity remains soft and sharp.

oreoorbitz

Hey man, she's looking good. I don't have any real critic just an observation.

She doesn't really look asian, or she does look a bit Asian, but mixed with Caucasian features. Her features do match the illustrated reference, but lack certain features present in the real life reference. In case you already know that and have been aiming for the mixed look, ignore me :P

stororokw

oreoorbitz said:

Hey man, she's looking good. I don't have any real critic just an observation.

She doesn't really look asian, or she does look a bit Asian, but mixed with Caucasian features. Her features do match the illustrated reference, but lack certain features present in the real life reference. In case you already know that and have been aiming for the mixed look, ignore me :P

Thanks for the comment oreoorbitz. I understand what you are talking about. She is supposed to be asian, but I guess I am still lacking in skill .
                                                
I finalised the master skin and hair materials. I just have to redo all the hair planes now.

Shyralon

Looks really good!
I think making the bridge of the nose a bit less defined and maybe some small adjustments on the shape of the eyes could make her look a bit more asian.
Would you mind talking a bit about your skin material? I am currently setting up a character in Unreal as well and I am having a bot of a hard time setting up good looking skin

oreoorbitz

CybranM

Looking good man

stororokw

@Shyralon @oreoorbitz
Thank you both for taking the time to critique my work. Hopefully I have not wasted it.

@Shyralon My skin material is actually the same one from the content examples linked below. I have a lot of unconnected nodes in my screenshot since its the same one I have been using since I started learning UE4 and was playing around:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/LightingModels/SubSurfaceProfile/
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The only extra thing I added was some hacky backlit transmittance to the shading model.

I think that using hdri on the skylight really helps. I am using the ones from:
http://polycount.com/discussion/164800/10-free-hdris-16000x8000-up-to-24-evs
I am also using Magdalena's substance painter skin tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywhVkZBtq8

@CybranM Thank you.
                                                                                   
A lot of updates to the face, but mainly:

• Added epicanthic fold.
• Much smaller eyelid creases.
• Wider nose.
• Narrower lips.
• Wider cheekbones/
• Longer nose, smaller nostrils and smoother transition to cheeks.
• smaller nose and midface in profile.