--FINISHED-- Last Airbender, Azula Redesign

SgtBabbit

Hello All!
I've been working on this in my free time for a few weeks now. 
The concept is by Oviya Vendan / @Bluemist72 on twitter, and they gave me their permission to try to convert their exciting Azula redesign into 3d!
I'm getting close to completing the high poly, I'll be moving on to the weapons next. 

Lewis_kennedy

I think the metal and  fabric seems a little thick to be honest, the edge needs to be thinner and sharper like the concept art, also the leg band is meant to be one singe piece of metal that flicks out instead of 2 individual pieces, the stick of the hair piece should be thinner as well, in general I think the metal pieces need to better convey the idea of sharp and light like fire, the current thickness and weight of the metal would fit better with the more heavy set earth nation style

SgtBabbit

@Lewis_kennedy Thanks for your feedback! That'll be my own personal style coming through, I've been indulging myself a bit :P I agree with you on the thickness of some of the metal though, I'll be doing a pass and thinning some of it out

SgtBabbit

Still working on this! Might have got a little distracted with some world of Warcraft  the retopo is nearly done and the unwrap is underway. I’ve started baking too. I decided to break up the character into similar uv sets (skin for one, cloth another, metal armour another etc). This will give me more texture resolution, as well as make it easier to create the different material definitions. I’ve started on the body. I’m also not baking in the ao on places that I know will be moving (such as the skirt on the legs, the sleeves on the arms) since I don’t want odd shadows when I’ve posed her, and thinking ahead to if this character were rigged and animated. I knew I was going with PBR for this, I couldn’t resist with all those pretty golds, so I can rely on the real time shadows to do that work for me. 

I haven’t decided yet if I want to try doing hair cards or if I want to stick to chunky stylised hair. I know hair cards are a gap in my knowledge that I want to fill, but maybe this piece will look better with stylised hair? Not sure yet so the hair is still pretty blockout

SgtBabbit

--COMPLETE--

Marmoset viewer on my ArtStation

Crazy_pixel

Great work! 

shayleen_hulbert

This turned out great in the end!! All the layered fabric must have been a lot of fun.

SgtBabbit

@Crazy_pixel Thank-you!!

@shayleen_hulbert Thanks! yeah..lots of fun Next character is going to be in a lycra body suit or something, I swear haha

Zonvolt

Awesome work, she looks badass!

svi_graphics

Very good work. i love the tatoo

de_cbble

Hey! I'm just chipping in to say, this is awesome work- She looks amazing!
Could I ask how you approached the tattoo on the arm?

SgtBabbit

de_cbble said:

Hey! I'm just chipping in to say, this is awesome work- She looks amazing!
Could I ask how you approached the tattoo on the arm?

Thanks! Of course! I drew it entirely in substance painter. It was far easier to draw it on in a similar way that a tattoo artist would freehand a design. This meant I could form it around the curves and musculature of the body and not worry about seams, which wouldn't be the case if I was to do it in photoshop or something and try to wrap it around.

-I started by really roughly sketching it on and then refining the lines
-Turn on Lazy Mouse, it helps you draw smooth curved lines 
-I used a fill layer, and painted the tattoo design in a mask on top. This means you still have total control over the colour and opacity of the tattoo after you've drawn it. I didn't use roughness here, tattoos have the same roughness as the skin they're on, so I let that come through.
-I made each colour variation (in this case, light, medium and dark blue) their own layers too. It took a little tweaking to get them to look like the reference, but because I had used masks this was super easy!
- I knocked the opacity back on the design to make it look more a part of the skin, tattoos do show through a bit of the skin tone they're on. I used my own tattoos for reference!

Yuzach

looking epic! I thought you've made the tattoo in Photoshop above the texture Thanks for sharing!