[Horizon X Overwatch] Aloy

Lad

Hello guys !

It's the first time I post something here I'm a bit nervous actually !

I wanted to share with you my current project, hoping to get feedback to push it beyond what I would usually do. 
I had the idea to combine my favorite solo game, Horizon: Zero Dawn, with my favorite Multiplayer game, Overwatch. I want to create an in-game character that could match the visual style of Overwatch (how original right ? ). 

Halfway through my design I noticed while randomly typing "Aloy Overwatch" in google that Satoshi Arakawa was already working on this exact idea. I tried to adapt my thing so it doesn't look like his, I really hope that's alright !

So first of all, here are the various design iterations I came up with. These are the ones that I found the most relevant, as I did a bunch of other variations that I didn't like !





I was too shy to create a topic at the time to help me choose the right outfit, so I came up with this one:



I hope she's recognizable !

So now, I have worked a lot these past weeks on and off when I could find time on the HD Model !
I would love to know what you think, it's really hard to have a fresh eye on it and identify what is wrong and what is right with it

Here is a quick render in zbrush.
I know there are several things to improve, such as the hair, that is not good enough at the moment. I don't like the shape of some strands, and of some braids. Plus it's too symetrical ^^
I'll also add a quiver hanging on her belt, and a bow.




Anyway I don't have much else to say. 
I'll work on the bow design when I find time to, and I'll hopefully have a fresh eye on her body and maybe so nice tips from people here that will give me the possibility to improve her !!

Thanks a lot for reading me !

Cheers !
Lad

carvuliero

Two things really stick out for me :
Gesture - In side view her silhouette gesture is all straight line -> face is straight and from breast to shoes is all straight + knee pads make her lead with her knees and she looks like she is dragging her feet (angles create illusion if her knee are bend even they are not )
Face - her face is one big blob lacking any skull structure 
I would move arms forwards a bit or make cross section smaller 

Lad

Hey ! 
Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me here

Gesture - hmmm I see what you mean. I definitely agree there are some issues with her posture, and I'll work on that again taking your notes into consideration. A friend already pointed out what you said about the legs, and I will definitely work on this again !

About the head, meh. I feel what you mean ! The thing is, Aloy's face is really ... particular. I think I may have lost that skull structure at some point when working on getting her likeness. I'll work on that again and try to improve it

Freemouse

Can't wait to see more of it, I saw your post on 10k and it blew my mind ^^ Her face is definitely a challenge... Maybe you should try to define the cheekbones a bit more because we can definitely see them even if her face is kinda "chubby". Maybe something like Zarya in overwatch ? I tried a paintover on your sculpt to explain but obviously I suck at it, sorry xD

Lad

Thanks for the kind words man ! 

Yeah her face is a challenge as you say !! Yep i'll definitely need to do something about those cheekbones, that's for sure ! I see what you mean with your paintover ! Btw, thanks for making this man, really helps  

What's hard is that, i want her to be recognizable as Aloy, but Overwatch female faces are much smoother than the male ones... I'll work on this more for sure, it's hard to explain what I mean :P 

Thanks again !

slosh

Hah, I am indeed doing an Aloy Overwatch hybrid as well lol.  It's sort of on hold for me right now but cool to see you taking a stab at it too.  The face was a huge problem for me as well.  In the end, I wanted the Overwatch aesthetic to be more apparent than the Aloy likeness.  Aloy can still be very recognizable via the hair and outfit.  Which brings me to my main crit for yours.  The outfit feels very un-Overwatch.  You have a lot of detail with small lines and rivets.  This is the opposite of what you want if you are trying to create a character in the Overwatch world.  I would stick with larger silhouette breaking shapes and even smaller details should be exaggerated.  Looking forward to how this progresses though!  I plan on hopping back on mine soon as well so hopefully we can push each other to finish!

Lad

Hey man thanks for your comment !

Hmm. I think you are right about the details on the outfit. Damn this is really hard ! The problem is that sometimes, some characters (like Lucio or Zarya's legs) are really full of tiny details, cables, holes, and in the meantime, some others like Mei or Widow are smoother. I'm really struggling to get it right. I think i'll indeed get rid of some tiny details that I added and, as you say, focus more on the overall silhouette.
Thanks for the tips, really appreciate it !

looking forward to see your progress on yours too

RocketBryan

One of the key hallmarks of the Overwatch style is the relationship between "areas of rest" and "areas of detail". As you noted, plenty of the OW cast have very detailed techy bits n' bobs, but those are generally 'islands' of detail that are broken up by larger, more simply defined shapes. On top of that, it's usually those same larger shapes that also determine the overall silhouette read of the character. Take Pharah for example - she has plenty of tech lines, gold pieces, and joints, but those are details interspersed between large plates and panels. Even her black under-suit has virtually no detailing because it's primarily there to break up shapes rather than draw attention to itself and a lot of the panel tech lines are fairly subtle for the same reason.

You do actually have some of this happening in the chest plate, the back of her skirt, and her pants, but there's also plenty of detailing that's all equally spaced out. On top of that, Aloy herself was not designed with the Overwatch aesthetic in mind, so she's missing a lot of those larger shapes that would separate her from the rest of the 'cast' - her overall silhouette is just...human-shaped. So @slosh really does point out the primary challenge here: figuring out where to depart from Aloy's design to bring it within reach of the OW style.

However this is really stellar work thus far and I absolutely love that hair. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you solve the riddle of her character.

Lad

Hey Bryan !

Yep, as much as I tried to understand videos, designs, and everything I could about Overwatch's aesthetics, I totally lost sight of what you mean: areas of details, and larger shapes. I think you, and slosh, are totally right about this, and I'll definitely work on the outfit again, while keeping this in mind !

Moreover, I think i need to work again on that silhouette ! Make her more unique !

Thanks a lot of that help Bryan ! And thanks for your kind words !

Absolutely love what you did on that succubus, looking forward to see it finished  
Cheers !

Lad

Hello !

Started working again on this character now that I've spent my last 3 weeks on Monster Hunter :'D

Reworked pretty much everything according to everyone's suggestions, I think it's better !

If you see anything that can be improved, I would love to hear it !

In the meantime, I'll start working on the bow design!

Cheers !

Tectonic

looking awesome! a lot of the overwatch characters have their ankles pulled in to get that thick-thin-thick look

and maybe make her upper arm like 30% bigger around

Lad

Hey ! Thanks !

You bring up really good points, now that you say it, it seems pretty obvious ! I'll modify this asap !

LSheridan

In addition to that ankle comment, I feel like the shoulders and arm armor could use more volume. Perhaps extrude the shoulder armor down over her deltoid. More volume on the forearm would also help continue that thick/thin look.

Lad

I was talking about this with a friend following Tectonic's comment, and you are right on all accounts ! I was already planning to work on these areas and probably thicken them a bit ! Your comment confirms my thoughts ! 

Thanks a lot !

Mehran Khan

this is such a good idea makes me want to make one as well.

Irensay

nice idea hahahahaha

Lad

Hello !

After a long while, deep into Baking and substance tutorials, I realized the design was not working. Something was off. I asked Svartberg if he could give me some feedback, as his Leona was super cool and he gave a lot of nice ideas regarding another cool piece here, a Ciri/Overwatch. He gave me really really nice ideas to improve it, and I decided to follow his advice and remodel a lot of stuff.
I think it's a lot better ! Modified the head, removed a lot of useless tiny details, remodeled the chest plate, the skirt and the boots. Tried to get closer to Aloy's original outfit.

Now i'm going to retopo it (again ! A chance i kinda like this) and try to get awesome textures :'D

Hope you like it !

Svartberg gave away his shader parameters for Keyshot, so I tried myself to use them and get those nice HD renders

(you can find his parameters here, at the bottom of the page, in case you are interested: http://polycount.com/discussion/187654/leona-overwatch-style/p1 )

I can still change stuff, so if you have any ideas of stuff I could improve, that would be cool !

I really need to stop going back on the HighPoly soon tho, I'm tired of this project, I need to move on

Thanks for looking ! Cheers !

Svartberg

Wow! Looking awesome man! A great improvement!

Lad

Thanks man ! Your feedback was really cool, really appreciate it  

dGreenberg

Her renders turned out great, @Lad! Compared it to your first update it feels like you really shaped her to better fit the Overwatch style.

This is really nit-picking and not at all necessary, but it might be really cool if her high poly shot had some accent of color somewhere on her gear or outfit (just going off the idea from some of the other Overwatch high poly sculpts). Either way I'm looking forward to seeing your low poly and textures; she looks awesome!

Lad

Thank you so much man ! 

Yeah I thought about the color accent, but I couldn't quite figure what part of her outfit would be best and interesting enough to "highlight" it. So in the end, decided to leave it like this

Lad

Hey !

So I think I might be done with the retopo, UV and bakes. It looks clean to me but I'm no game asset expert so I might be missing some weird stuff I guess   ! 

I found a post with some Overwatch polycounts. Tried to stay within the same range as much as possible ! Right now I have 37,500 tri. 













Cheers !

Lad

Hey guys !

Damn I'm so not used to be on Polycount that i totally forgot I had a thread going on here

Here is my progress so far !

I think I'm gonna call it done for the textures and shading. I might of course change it later, but for now I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. I'm just gonna make the fur a bit darker as it's really popping out at the moment. Just realized this ! ^^

I'm doing some tests to see how i can blend her with a background and if it looks believable. I'm also doing some tests with various backgrounds and lightings to see how she reacts to it !






I also recorded a video turntable of it in Marmoset:


Now I'm gonna try to find a cool (and I hope) easy to use auto rig tool, in order to hopefully create a simple rig and do an idle animation. If I can't, i'll just pose her in Zbrush.

The bow is done too ! Here are some images of it !


Hope you guys like it !!

As always, I'm really open for critics and i can of course still change a lot of things

Cheers !
Lad

Alex_J

I've not played either of this games nor am I very interested in the cartoon art style, but I really enjoyed the final colors, specifically the gradient on the hair and leggings. Has a simple but appealing look. Well done.

StraightDraw84

Very cool blend!

Lad

Thanks a lot guys ! 

Happy you like it despite not initially liking the style or the games BIGTIMEMASTER !!