Sylvanas Windrunner - World of Warcraft Character

Ying

Hi guys! I'm relatively new to polycount so I hope I'm doing this right!

I'm working on a 3D character model of Sylvanas Windrunner. My goal is to bring her to a full game-ready asset and texture in Substance Painter referencing Overwatch's style.

This is Sylvanas (and Overwatch's Widowmaker as quick ref):



I'm going with the World of Warcraft  'Cataclysm' and 'Wrath of Lich King' concept art designs above. I'm also pushing her proportions to be similar to the ladies in Overwatch (Widowmaker, D.Va, Symmetra etc).

My WIP rough block out from yesterday:



My current most recent WIP. I fixed some anatomy (chest, back) and changed her boots shapes to fit her lower leg better:




Feedback is very welcome! Thanks for taking the time to read this and checking her out!


EDIT:

SHE'S FINISHED! Thanks for checking her out everyone!

More renders at Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Pmqbbr

Ying

Current WIP for Sylvanas! Still blocking out her armor and re-adjusted some anatomy. Trying to get a feel of all her main design elements together. There are still some armor designs I gotta get in there, but I'll be moving on to blocking out her bow and quiver next.




Some before and afters:

Carabiner

Looking good so far! A few things:

Her face could use some love. In your sculpt it feels soft and cute, whereas in your references it feels more harsh and angular.

Also, her arms seem a tad short too.

Pandan

I'd say her legs are too long, it's making her arms seem too short.
Also personal opinion I wouldn't wear a metal bikini at least without some leather between it & my skin. LOL :P 
Looks great, the armor is coming along nicely. 

Ying

@Carabiner: Thanks for the feedback! I went ahead and lengthened her arms a tad and it felt much better. I haven't had a chance to go back to her face yet but I hope to do so soon once I'm done blocking in everything.
@Pandan: Her legs are long because I wanted Overwatch's female proportions. Her arms were a tiny bit short though and I've since lengthened those. Thank you for the feedback!


Current WIP! I did a rough block out of her weapons and checked proportions on arms and legs:




Aside from lengthening her arms a bit I haven't revisited her face and body yet. All I've done is blocked out the designs for her bow, arrow and quiver.

Feedback is greatly appreciated! I plan to rework the shapes in her cape, add the belt going across her chest for the quiver and then block out her hair more. I hope to go into high poly detailing soon. Thanks for checking her out!

Ying

More progress images. Did a ton of adjustments. I discovered she was 9 heads tall and I wanted her at 8 heads tall which was what I measured Overwatch's Widowmaker at. I pulled her shoulder armor in closer to her head. Made adjustments to her face and chest. Shrunk her feet a tad. Redid her hair entirely. I plan to add more hair cards later.

I haven't touched her weapons since. But I'll be moving on to sculpting soon! Some quick polypaint:







Before and after:






Feedback always appreciated! Thanks for your time.   

LRoy

Dig the changes. Main thing that sticks out to me is her face. The proportions are more child like with big eyes and a large forehead so it doesn't lend itself to being menacing, but it depends on what you're going for.

dGreenberg

That recent update really pushed things forward, @Ying; she's looking awesome! Piggybacking on LRoy's comment, I think her face feels a lot softer and younger than some of the more serious characters in Overwatch. You nailed it with your original reference including Widowmaker's face since I think she'd have the perfect features and spacing for Sylvanas. 

Without changing anything major, I bet elongating her face (keeping the nose where it is, but moving the eyes / brows up, and the mouth / chin area down a little further) would really give her more of an edge. I tried doing a paint-over and ended up narrowing her eyes along the way, since her current look is piercing but still very round and youthful. I hope this can help a little, and it'll be awesome to see how she looks with future updates. 

Ying

@LRoy @dGreenberg: Thank you guys for the feedback, and the paintover! It was very helpful. I agree, she could look more menacing. I did a quick paintover the other day - although mine is a slightly different direction. I hollowed out her cheeks, narrowed her eyes, made her pupils smaller etc. Let me know what you guys think!

dGreenberg

The sunken cheeks and eye changes definitely give her more attitude. I'm still thinking that she looks pretty young but that could just be a style choice (and maybe I've been stretching out my character faces too much). The added widows peak shrinks her forehead a little more which is also a good fix. She's coming along nicely!

Ying

@dGreenberg: Thanks for letting me know! I'll shrink her forehead a lil more when I start sculpting her face and keep everyone's feedback in mind!

I have started chipping away at her sculpt now that I think her base block out is ready. Here's a WIP of her shoulder pauldron with the skulls and feathers. I plan to create an alpha map for the feathers:





Feedback is always appreciated! Thank you!

Ying

I finally finished sculpting the high poly for Sylvanas Windrunner. I'll be moving on to retopologizing and bakes next! Any feedback is always welcome!











Thanks for your time!

Ying

  HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 

Just thought I'll do a quick small update since it'd be quite a while before I can share more progress.

I've started retopologizing Sylvanas. I'll share more screenshots when she's closer to unwrap and bakes.







I know it isn't much, but just letting you know what I've been up to with her currently.

Thanks for your time!

Ying

I've finished retopologizing/UV Unwrap for Sylvanas. Here's a turnaround of her test bakes and some screen grabs of her wireframes.









I hope to begin texturing her soon. Thanks for your time, feedback is always appreciated!

Ying

Here's my first work in progress textures with flat colors and bakes. Trying my best to match Overwatch's materials prior to detailing. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated!









Thanks for your time!

slosh

This is looking really nice.  The hair kind of looks too uniform IMO.  all the strands are same length, same width, same everything, completely mirrored.  I would change that up a bit to get it looking more natural.  

dGreenberg

Dang, her first pass is looking good @Ying! I think her skin, eyes, and cloak are already reading really well. Are you texturing her in Substance Painter? 

You had some images of this in your first post with the reference images, but I think it'd be nice to see if a blueish or greenish skin tint would work better than the current purple. Her armor is pretty much always purple but if her skin was different then it should give you some better contrast. It'd also take her skin color further away from Widowmaker's, which could be really cool to see. Either way she's looking awesome!

Ying

@slosh Thank you so much for your feedback! I'll try soft selecting the ends of her hair and move those around. Try my best not to stretch out her bakes too much. Perhaps shorten one side of her bangs a little more. I was going for a medium length blunt cut, but I could definitely see having sculpted it more asymmetrical. I'll be more mindful in the future!

@dGreenberg Thank you so much for your feedback! Yes, I'm using Substance Painter. I went ahead and did some quick experiments with her skin color:



Out of all of these I liked the blue-er skin tones the most! It definitely added more contrast. I'll probably be moving forward with that.

Thanks again for the time and feedback everyone!

seimax

this looks reeaaally nice Ying , great work , your shapes and silhouette are so clean !

Yuzach

Wow, she looks so cool! Thank you for sharing the process. The shapes are great, can't wait to see more

Ying

@seimax @Yuzach Thank you so much! 

rabbitsleuths

This is so gorgeous! Please release a tutorial on how you made the armor cause it's so cool! 

Ying

@rabbitsleuths Thank you so much! I'll keep it in mind! 

Ying

Here's my current progress for Sylvanas. Doing my best to get the materials and textures to match Overwatch. Feedback is always appreciated!   








Thanks for your time!

Ying

Decided to test Mixamo out for a base rig. Seems to work pretty well. I'll be moving forward with skinning her and continue with textures and new final lighting after.

Ying

I've finally finished Sylvanas! I hope you guys like her, I've personally really enjoyed working on her and definitely learnt a lot. Special thanks to everyone who helped me out and offered great feedback! It was a long journey but now, onto new exciting projects! (ง •̀ω•́)ง✧

More renders at Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Pmqbbr