Abyss Watchers (Dark souls 3) - Game ready fanart

Yahya_Jadi

   Hey guys, I thought I would share this project I recently finished: A fanart of the Abyss watchers of Farron from Dark souls3.
This Is my second attempt at making a fully optimized, game-ready character from scratch, so any critique is very welcome! 
For the software and tools I used for this project:

Maya/Zbrush for modelling and retopology
Marvellous Designer for the fabrics
Substance painter/substance designer for texturing
Marmoset toolbag for rendering (Using the Unreal Engine 4 material template)
Hope you like it! Link for more renders: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q9AD0N

Torch

No comments? o_O Looks fantastic dude, thought it was actually the original model from the game nailed it!

EDIT: Meant to ask, how did you do the fraying/cuts around the cloth draping off his neck? Did you just boolean out holes where it was ripped? Also, adding those bits of string/linen to where the holes are? Thanks

WildeDev

Wicked! 

Nuclear Angel

Nice, really moody good looking renders here! 

Yahya_Jadi

Torch said:

No comments? o_O Looks fantastic dude, thought it was actually the original model from the game nailed it!

EDIT: Meant to ask, how did you do the fraying/cuts around the cloth draping off his neck? Did you just boolean out holes where it was ripped? Also, adding those bits of string/linen to where the holes are? Thanks

Oh my, thank you thank you! Thinking that it was the original model would probably be the best compliment for me since I love the game so much xD

For the cuts, holes, and strings on the drapes and cape, booleans, and really any sort of complex mesh computation is out of the question since this is a game model. So for optimization purposes, they were made through an opacity map all in substance painter, here's how:

-  First I made the fabric material in Substance designer, applied it on the mesh in substance painter as an .Sbsar file, then I added some variations like stains, wetness spots, small scratches etc

- After the material is applied and finished (procedurally, to preserve a non-destructive workflow in case I wanna change the material), I add two layers: One with an opacity channel, and another on top with color and height (the values of both depend on your artistic approach and the project so you have to set them yourself)

- Then I group these layers together and add a black mask.

- On the black mask, I add first a generator with a UV border distance to fade out the edges of the drapes, to give some sort of a head start

- From this point on, It's all about painting out the holes yourself! I add a few paint layer stacks with each serving a different level of detail (For the brush you can use whichever you see fit as long as it has fading borders, the Artistic brushes are quite nice for that as an example) 

And that's pretty much it! Thank you for the nice comment and if you have any other questions absolutely do not hesitate ^^

Iaido

This is really good!

I just watched some cut scenes from DS3 and something I noticed about their in-game model is that there is more contrast in the brown tones. Right now (in my opinion) your model is very muted with all of your colors. 

Maybe bring some life back to your brown tones?

Also something else I noticed from DS3 was red glowing eyes, have you tried this?

Really impressive work! 

I don't think I could do this 

Yahya_Jadi

Iaido said:

This is really good!

I just watched some cut scenes from DS3 and something I noticed about their in-game model is that there is more contrast in the brown tones. Right now (in my opinion) your model is very muted with all of your colors. 

Maybe bring some life back to your brown tones?

Also something else I noticed from DS3 was red glowing eyes, have you tried this?

Really impressive work! 

I don't think I could do this 

Thank you I appreciate it!
And yes, I completely agree, the base model in the original game has some harsh contrast and a much more defined silhouette which I definitely noticed while making the model. However, (and I have to insist, this is a personnel preference for me and an opinion) I wanted to go on a more "realistic" approach? And remove the little semblances of stylized aspects in DS3's base art style, so it was definitely a conscious choice on my part.

The glowing eyes if you noticed, appear in the second phase of the boss fight after the last abyss watcher becomes embered. 
I wanted to make a whole version of him being embered, sadly I'm not skilled yet enough to incorporate game Fx into a character, and the whole mindset of the project (and really any project of mine at this point) is to either do something correctly or not at all. So I didn't wanna incorporate some botched fiery effect on him and I skipped this phase altogether, along with the glowing eyes. Maybe sometime in the future!

Thank you for your kind words and don't fret! If you think you can't do this that's fine, but just so you know: If a year ago you told me that I could make this, I would have called you crazy. 
So keep on working, strive to be better every day!

Iaido

Very well said!

AlexKola

The materials mood and lighting are all spot on! Awesome captures, it shows off really well. I would watch your geometry density on your next model. There's a few areas here with really dense geo that isn't needed for deformation or to hold baking details such as but not limited to the hilt of the sword. Also it's a good idea to flow your geo with the details of your sculpt, on the paldron there's some deviation from the sculpted grooves for example. But those comments aside this is a wicked piece my dude!

DavidCruz

Nice level up from previous works, surprising, congrats. Agree with the post above mine. ^

Yahya_Jadi

AlexKola said:

The materials mood and lighting are all spot on! Awesome captures, it shows off really well. I would watch your geometry density on your next model. There's a few areas here with really dense geo that isn't needed for deformation or to hold baking details such as but not limited to the hilt of the sword. Also it's a good idea to flow your geo with the details of your sculpt, on the paldron there's some deviation from the sculpted grooves for example. But those comments aside this is a wicked piece my dude!

Thank you thank you! I appreciate the kind words and the feedback ^^

 And I agree, when I finished the piece, I examined and I realized yeah, I could have definitely done better in terms of geometry, and optimization overall. And I will definitely be keeping that in mind for my next project, that I'm working on right now (another dark souls character *wink wink*)
Cheers!

DavidCruz said:

Nice level up from previous works, surprising, congrats. Agree with the post above mine. ^

Oh my, I really appreciate hearing that! It wasn't easy I can tell you that xD I will definitely make sure to take it up a notch for my next piece!