Sketchbook: Justin James Tai

taikaku

Hello! I figure making a sketch book will be a good idea to keep track of some of my fresh thoughts on a project during progress/completion and hopefully get some feedback.

I'm a 3D artist trying to improve my portfolio and skills. I graduated from game development 2 years ago, and worked in a visual merchandising company as a 3D modeler for almost 2 years. Feel free to check on my previous works in my website justinjamestai.com.

Critiques are welcomed and wanted.

taikaku

I just recently finished this project.
model

This is a 3D creation of Darwin (5* version) from Madhead’s game Tower of Saviors. Fully rigged and skinned.

I left out some secondary accessories from the illustration since I just want to focus on the character style in this practice.

This is a test I gave to myself trying to achieve a more cute SD/Chibi style which is new and exciting for me, and to relearn rigging and skinning, which I only briefly learnt once back in school.

The result I’m trying to achieve is an ingame ready model for a mobile game setting. I tried to go as low as possible for poly count ending up at 5k tris (maybe its still way too high for mobile game standard?), but feel like can go even lower with better optimization on the head or a further change in style (textured face instead of actual features, which I am also very tempted to explore). However on the other hand, during my process of rigging and skinning I notice some parts can use an extra edge loop or 2, for example the forearm  and eyeball.

Below is the UV layour:

There are 3 material ID for the reason of being able to possibly change outfits/weapons separately. 2k textures are used in the viewer.
At first my plan is to symmetry most of the UV to maximize UV space. However I quickly notice there's a lot of asymmetrical small designs everywhere (The suitcase should be overlapped tho).

Other mistakes that I notice includes mesh flow on the lips and a lot of  room for improvements on rigging and skinning.