[FINISHED] Vex - Demon Character

HarlequinWerewolf

Finally finished! Check it out here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQPDR9

Hello Polycount! I spend so much time lurking here it's about time I actually do some work! I sketched up a character a few weeks ago and actually really liked her so I want to now take this character and turn her into a 3D model. I'm still new to ZBrush so my plan is to build up my sculpt (bear in mind I'm using ZBrushCore so I'm missing loads of tools) and then take the sculpt into 3D Coat which I've never used and retopo, UV and hand paint my character. I want to try making her diffuse only with some nice hand painted textures so I'm hoping to learn as much as I can!

Initial sketch and colour tests


And tonight I started out with blocking in the proportions as best I could using a base mesh I downloaded from Bad King about 2 years ago! 



She's dynameshed and the resolution is SUPER low right now just so I can keep moving stuff around. Still a long way to go but any critique early on with help me out. I'm also live streaming when I can over at twitch.tv/harlequinwerewolf 

My next step is to do a paintover and keep shifting the model around until I'm happy. And then I'm not sure if I should keep her dynameshed and keep building detail and then retopo and project the detail or retopo as soon as and build detail on that  

carvuliero

Legs could use some trimming especially calfs

HarlequinWerewolf

@carvuliero
Agreed, I think I'm just going to build the boots and throw them on rather than spend too much time on them.

HarlequinWerewolf

Did a rough paintover this morning. I'm just going to model the boots next and put them straight onto the character so that i don't have to worry about getting her legs proportionate. I haven't done much in the side view so I might come back to it after I make these changes. 

HarlequinWerewolf

Wow, March seems like a long time ago! I really like this character so I'm coming back to this project! I've spent the last few days tweaking proportions and smooths out the lumps to get the block in I want... now onto clothes... Don't really know how to do that

HarlequinWerewolf

Been working on clothing and such and tweaking little bits here and there. Gotta sort out whatever is gonna go on her arms now... oh and sort out her tail 

HarlequinWerewolf

Putting the high poly on hold for now and gonna focus on the ArtStation Challenge! But I think I'm pretty close to finish the high poly

HarlequinWerewolf

Digging up this project again!

I'm really struggling to focus on one thing right now so I figured I would try and finish something that I had already started :P So I've gone back to this high poly and tweaked some anatomy and added in things I had originally intended but either didn't know how to do at the time or did very badly! (Like the shirt...)

I can't belive I started this over a year ago. I have learnt so much since then and intend to keep learning with this project. I'm now going for a Borderlands/Comic book style for texturing. I'm also still not sure what colours I'm going to go for... maybe purple? Still a few things to tweak, I want to look over those arms again then see where I'm at for retopoing

HarlequinWerewolf

So the retopo took longer than I would have liked. I changed a few things as I went and it didn't help that laptop isn't really working properly right now and keeps crashing/blue screening... Anyway, I'm pretty much done with the low poly. The eyes aren't final and I'm sure there are a few places I could remove geometry in the near future. Next up in unwrapping... yay...

HarlequinWerewolf

Quick test bake! I did a quick unwrap just to see where things are at for the body. Got a few things to tweak/mess with then I'll get to unwrapping everything properly

HarlequinWerewolf

After much unwrapping and back and forth between ZBrush, Maya and Marmoset, I got my normals baked. This is the first time I've baked a character in Marmoset and man, is it nice! I love the control I have over the cage and how quickly I can update things in preview mode. I ended up giving all of the horns their own UV space and gave a little more detail in ZBrush. Still got a couple of cages to clean up a little then I'm gonna bake out my other maps tomorrow and do some tidying, especially on the AO map, then I start getting some colour on Vex!

Oh, I also made some teeth and a tongue!

HarlequinWerewolf

Messing about with colour since I never really settled on anything. Torn between the red and purple now

HarlequinWerewolf

We're going with purple! Red was too cliched, plus it makes her seem like the bad guy :P Spent some time in Substance Painter over the last few days. In previous projects I think I only scratched the surface of what I can get out of the software so I thought I'd try push it a bit more, if I can. I'm still learning texturing so any advice and critique is super appreciated

I might take a break from texturing and give her a rig to try and give her some life!

HarlequinWerewolf

I think... think... I'm done with the textures, but I'm sure I'll open the file tomorrow and I'll want to change something

HarlequinWerewolf

I've never really put much effort into blendshapes but I want to try get some decent animation from this! Lots to learn and lots to do and fix but I think I'm on the right track

HarlequinWerewolf

So my laptop died and it's taken me a month to end up just buying a whole new one... so that's fun... In the mean time, I whipped up a rig using Advanced Skeleton. I'm not a rigger and it took a few attempts to get it doing what I wanted it to do but now I'm pretty happy with the actual rig. 




However, there are a number of issues that I think I can improve, I just have to start again. But I've saved the base skeleton so the only main thing will be repainting the skin weights but AS did a really good job of skinning her to begin with! So before I make the additional controllers for the jaw, tongue and blendshapes I'm gonna redo the rig

HarlequinWerewolf

Made a sword



This is the first weapon I've ever made and I gotta give a shout out to my colleague, Faivu for helping me with baking the HP to LP. Baked in Marmo and textured in Substance, same as Vex

akiratang

Looks cool, i like her fishnets
She looks like shes animating well too .

HarlequinWerewolf

akiratang said:

Looks cool, i like her fishnets
She looks like shes animating well too .

Thanks so much! Yeah, glad I went back in and added the fishnets If I can get her rig to a place I'm happy with, I'm gonna send her off to an animator friend and see what he can do 

HarlequinWerewolf

OK... Rig is done. It is not perfect, but it does what I want. Gonna send it off to a friend and see what input he has



And I also had a little play to make sure my blendshapes worked together

HarlequinWerewolf

Testing out poses and lighting in Marmoset. I'm still quite new to rendering in Marmo so any advice is super appreciated!!

HarlequinWerewolf

Calling this girl finished! It's been an amazing project in terms of learning so it is time to move onto something else with all this new knowledge More pics and a Marmo viewer on ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQPDR9

Nuclear Angel

Awesome finish on the character. Also that you made the rig is great for your portfolio, totally worth the time you put in to it! 

HarlequinWerewolf

@Nuclear Angel
Thank you so much! Yeah, I'm glad I made the rig, I learnt loads doing it and actually had a lot of fun (Except for the skinning ) 

HarlequinWerewolf

One more! Cos I quite like this image too
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQPDR9