[Finished] Cthonic Knight
polycounter lvl 2
This project is now complete. It can be found on my Artstation. Here are the final renders:
Original First Post:
Hello. Since we're reaching the halfway point of October, I wanted to start this thread to get some feedback on my current project. After making a bunch of armor sets over a few months, I wanted to take what I learned and apply it to a 'hero' type of armor asset. As my other armor sets were very harsh and crude-looking, I wanted to create something more refined and feminine. Here is a collection of my main references:
I set myself a limit of 70k triangles and only a few 2K texture sets (Partially inspired by work like this). Because I anticipate creating very complex assets like hair and a cloak for this set, I've been trying to keep my armor's polycount low while still giving it enough topology to maintain a decent level of detail. Here is my current character sculpt in zBrush, which I baked down to my lowpoly using Substance Painter:
So far, everything except the sabatons and the gauntlets have been sculpted. I wanted to give my character thinner proportions and elongated limbs like the From Software characters I used in my reference, but without going too overboard. I also wanted to leave as few gaps in the armor as possible, but maintain believability.
Here is a test render of my current retopologized mesh in Marmoset Toolbag, using three 1K texture sets:
My current polycount is 38k triangles, which leaves me ~32k for the remaining asset pieces. I have begun blocking out the hair (Which can be seen on my sketchbook ), which I anticipate will take another 10-15k of my polycount budget.
I wanted to start this thread now since I have a decent amount of work done but I still have time to make corrections. Any feedback or critiques are appreciated!
Original First Post:
Hello. Since we're reaching the halfway point of October, I wanted to start this thread to get some feedback on my current project. After making a bunch of armor sets over a few months, I wanted to take what I learned and apply it to a 'hero' type of armor asset. As my other armor sets were very harsh and crude-looking, I wanted to create something more refined and feminine. Here is a collection of my main references:
I set myself a limit of 70k triangles and only a few 2K texture sets (Partially inspired by work like this). Because I anticipate creating very complex assets like hair and a cloak for this set, I've been trying to keep my armor's polycount low while still giving it enough topology to maintain a decent level of detail. Here is my current character sculpt in zBrush, which I baked down to my lowpoly using Substance Painter:
So far, everything except the sabatons and the gauntlets have been sculpted. I wanted to give my character thinner proportions and elongated limbs like the From Software characters I used in my reference, but without going too overboard. I also wanted to leave as few gaps in the armor as possible, but maintain believability.
Here is a test render of my current retopologized mesh in Marmoset Toolbag, using three 1K texture sets:
My current polycount is 38k triangles, which leaves me ~32k for the remaining asset pieces. I have begun blocking out the hair (Which can be seen on my sketchbook ), which I anticipate will take another 10-15k of my polycount budget.
I wanted to start this thread now since I have a decent amount of work done but I still have time to make corrections. Any feedback or critiques are appreciated!
Replies
Best of luck good to see a thread in the ol'pimping spot. Hope more c&c for you, i can't twist their arms to do it though..nice work.
Here is a small update with my current progress:
I've managed to finish all of the armor pieces, and will be moving on to making some better hair cards and a cape. First though, I want to make a head and neck to take up space inside the helmet and give me something to build the hair off of. I'm pretty happy with my current progress, but critique and feedback are always welcome!
I have completed the cape, head, and hair for this character. The current polycount is 45k triangles. Next week I'll move on to finalizing the hair cards and correct some small issues with the lowpoly mesh. Feedback is always welcome!
I finished creating the final cards for the hair, so to test it I created a basic strand and put it into Marmoset to make sure the Emissive maps were working correctly. I'm very pleased with how it looks so far. I also made some eyebrows and eyelashes:
In addition, I went back and revised an earlier estoc asset I created a month ago so I can use it in the final composition:
All that remains now is some final tweaking of the hair cards, then I'll jump into making the final hair clumps and preparing everything for a final render in Marmoset.
I managed to remain well under my polycount budget, so I have plenty of room for corrections if I discover issues while rigging.
The next update will probably be the final one barring any glaring issues. The final polycount is a little under 53k triangles (including weapon).
Additional images and a model viewer can be found on my Artstation.