[WIP] The V project - Overwatch fan character

laloon

Hi guys! I need to start being more active here since some my projects sometimes actually end up as lowpoly these days.

I'm currently working on an Overwatch fan character between a ton of other projects. I've been keeping a blog on my ArtStation but since I don't want to spam it too much a lot happens between updates which is not the best way to get feedback. Should've probably done this earlier.. better late than never.

Her name's Vee and she's a toxicologist from New Zealand. Still very much in the 3d concept phase so I'm just trying out whatever comes to my mind. I've played around a few designs and have my favorites, but I'm still trying to keep an open mind in case I get better ideas. 

She started as a very small project but I ended up making it a design challenge for myself. So while I'm just having fun with sculpting I'm also trying to focus on:
   - The silhouette, so it works with the existing heroes.
   - Color scheme, make it fun, make it unique.
   - Personality and how it reflects her design, how to differ from other heroes.
   - Weapon, mainly the type and silhouette but I'm most likely going to end up thinking about skills and play style as well.
   - ..probably something else too I can't think of atm

A few of her newer designs:


so much focus on the boots..

"Thumbnails" I started from:


Hair and mask variations:




So I'll continue from here. Feedback and critique are very welcome!

laloon

A tiny update!

Made a workable topology for the face. She has quite an.. animated personality so I want to be sure the base topology works and won't cause any weird problems in the future.




And a  few expression tests. Works well enough, not sure if an extra loop to the eyelids would be useful or just make everything harder to control. 

Popol

This is excellent, I wish I could give you some feedback but there is nothing to say other than "keep going"

laloon

@Popol Thank you, that works as feedback as well

Sketched a third design I've had in mind for a while. A more traditional hazmat suit which I felt was a bit of a boring idea, but there are some interesting designs in hazmat level A/B and space suits. The waist-down silhouette still needs.. something to be more interesting but don't want to just put tubes everywhere. Maybe a different boot design, I've kinda gotten stuck to the scientist rubber boot look so next update might be more focused on shoes.


I've always liked those ring mechanisms that lock two pieces of suit together, no idea what they're called but they're cool.

PyrZern

New face sculpt is very nice. Feels much more like Overwatch. If you can, add MOAR "hardsurface" stuff in there.  Knee pads, elbow guards, gauntlets, shoulder pads, greaves, belts, etc, pick one or two

AgelosAp

Really like what you got going on, I think the latest iteration is the most interesting and has more of a scifi feel.  Here are some crits:
-The backside is too empty at the moment.
-Folds are almost always sharp in OW.
-I'd go with version 1 and separate the kneepads from the rest of the boot, like Mercy's
-Not a fan of the bow on her hair, perhaps turn it into a small device/hardsurface adornment that can have a similar shape.

Aydhe

wait, how did you render transparency in zbrush o.O

theStoff

Looks really good! The face has a lot of character and the proportions feel right. I agree the back looks a bit bare and maybe the waist in general. Perhaps you could try some kind of belt? I also feel the gloves could use some silver/metal elements similar to how the boots have silver soles. Maybe the wrist band could be metal? Id go with version 1 but I like how the pants stick out near the metal bands in version 2

PyrZern

@Aydhe

laloon

@PyrZern Thank you! I’m definitely adding different materials and extra stuff once I choose which designs to continue. Especially now the below-waist area is too simple. I want to keep the big armor part as the main hard surface element to avoid her looking too tanky, but there’s room for details here and there.

@AgelosAp Thanks, glad the design doesn't seem as dull as I thought I love Mercy’s boots, such a nice shape though a bit too dainty for her so I have to explore with the boot design a lot more. I have this idea in mind that it should be a hazmat suit(ish) boot, which means that it’s 100% water and airtight = needless seams and details are bad. Buuut that doesn’t make a very interesting design so more work needed.
Also folds will be fixed once I start to polish, I’m in constant low res dynamesh mode so don’t want to waste time with them yet. Fully agree with the back, needs something more, especially to get some interesting folds there as well.

@Aydhe There's a simple transparency toggle as PyrZern shows, and some additional options in the render window. Weirdly the transparency stacks for some reason so I’m having trouble rendering both the mask glass and the containers


@theStoff Thank you! I’ve been thinking about adding a some kind of harness or a belt to the waist area, or something that still works with the hazmat suit idea. This has been the hardest design option so far to add details to, since the real suits tend to be quite minimal.
The gloves are kinda inspired by the plugsuits from NGE, so the airlock itself is under the glove material. I might have to make the lock visible or add additional details, too much black going on right now.

laloon

Cleaned up and updates all my three current main designs, the oldest was getting a bit too out of date. Still going back and forth which I like the most but overall I'll hopefully get a workable look for her after mixing and matching some of the elements. Currently the only "final" thing in these is her face. The main elements are there, but still need a lot of work.



Especially worked more on the latest design 3 based on the feedback. Added a belt thingy which is ugly as hell but hopefully helps to make her backside a bit less boring.

Also a slight variation, wanted to try different height boots:


Also felt the legs felt way too thin so I fixed them. But now that I look at reference from game, god damn those ladies have thin shins. Fixing that back in next iteration

Pav3d

This is really cool! Theres a lot of good ideas in the design, itll be interesting to see how it turns out. One thing Id suggest is placing those knee seals a bit differently. You could angle them slightly so theyd following the angle of the muscles a bit more, or mirror the glove design on the ankles, or something else, they just dont seem very naturally integrated atm.

laloon

@Pav3d Thank you! That's a good point, I have to do more research how the locks work in hazmat and diving suits. This one I took without thinking from spacewalk suits where the lock sits very rigidly on the waist.

Wanted to quickly try how the overall silhouette works with the weapon sketch I have now, and if it's too similar with any of the existing heroes. Not sure if I prefer the coated version over the hazmat suit, though the coat is a nightmare to pose. Every one of these came out looking really heavy, so she's holding it like a minigun really. I'll probably try making a lighter pose version as well, with a shoulder strap so she can free her hands at times.

I haven't given a lot of thought to the weapon yet other that it being flamethrower-like in shape (long and thin), has to have a tank for liquids (so they can splash around in them like Mei's), and Vee has to be able to play air guitar with it (she loves rock music).

Some of my current inspirations. She basically built the weapon herself so I want it to have a bit of a scrapper feel, similar to Junkrat's. Lots of tape and bad decisions.

What the weapon actually does, I have no idea. Something to do with toxicity for sure but I've also been thinking about non-newtonian fluids and how it would be cool too choose between liquid and hardened materials depending of the skill or mode.

Vexod14

Such a nice and clean sculpt ! I can't wait to se her textured it should looks really good !

The only feedback I could make is about your folds which may needs to be more precise ( use pinch or a dam standard with a low intensity ). Also about folds in overwawtch, I may be wrong but most of the time they can be simplified as alveolous patterns

Anyway, keep up the good work, colors are well done too

laloon

@Vexod14 Thank you!   Yes I'm still in the sketch phase so haven't paid much attention to the folds yet. Looking forward to it though, I really love the level of stylization they have and have a ton of references ready to go. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it interesting.

Giving the rest of the body a bit of a rest so gonna focus more on the head area. I soon realized that I haven't thought about her actually moving her mouth with the mask on, so did some tests and ran into some problems. After some edits the current shapes do work, but they always end up looking a bit bulkier due to the extra space. Currently I'm feeling the more minimalistic design like on the right, but the mask really needs to be developed together with the hair and armor so I'll get the right amount of detail and shape.

Haven't yet found many animated references that have masks like these, but the Asari helmets from Mass Effect have a similar idea.

Also realized that if the hairdo is framing her face (which I currently like), the black hair and mask is going to be too hard to read and loses the silhouette completely So some actual colors are probably needed, but the good thing is it fits her personality really well.

If the hair is up, I don't think the problem is as big.

laloon

Been working on adding some details and folds to make things look a bit less unfinished. Chose to continue with the hazmat suit since it seemed to be most liked and I do prefer it's silhouette.

Boots desperately need a pass or two, and the armor is giving me a headache but overall I'm pretty happy with the direction this is going.

Though I'm not very good at designing seams and patterns, and Overwatch style has a lot of detail in those. I have to make sure there's enough interesting things to look at while still keeping the overall form clean and not too fancy. Now there's probably not enough detail.

I like her goggles a lot but they make her seem a bit too engineer-y, which she is not. Might have to change their design or remove them completely.

The main references I'm using besides a ton of screeshots:

AgelosAp

Really loving how this is coming together!

If you don't mind a couple of suggestions mainly on details since you mentioned them.

• Glove is something similar to what Sombra has.
• Butt-pockets could have this shape for a more futuristic aesthetic?
• And I connected the two vials on her waist via a series of little tubes running with both key

laloon

Took a small break from this and worked on some other projects in the meantime. Now I feel like getting back to this so time to start finalizing the basic form.

@AgelosAp Thank you so much! Got inspired by your sketch and made a couple of variations of the back to get some more detail there. Really good ideas for other details as well, once I get to properly detailing her I'll try those out

Latest update:

• The waist seemed way too low so lifted the fabric up to make the overalls feel more natural. 
• Added some tubes, I like the extra color but it might be a bit too much for the silhouette. Not sure.
• The boots are still a bit odd but I like the simple silhouette. They need some detail but don't want to loose too much of the rubber boots look.

Then some absolutely barfy color scheme tests with Photoshop hues: