[WIP] Arabella Realtime Character - UE5

HarlequinWerewolf

Latest 15/12/23:

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Started a face sculpt months ago and decided to make a full character. I'm planning to get her in UE4 and originally I was going to do an xgen hair groom but I think I might do cards and try and GS Curves tool. Honestly, just seeing where this character takes me. Long term I'd like to use her for hair practice and make her a bunch of different outfits but that's future me's problem.

Finished with the sculpt and I've started retopo.

HarlequinWerewolf

Been a while but I was impatient to mess with texturing and getting the gold 'seams' from my concept so I did a basic retopo and threw it into Substance Painter.

Face needs more contrast but it's a decent start. I suppose I should think about retopologising the rest of the clothing now... Or... I could start hair cards

HarlequinWerewolf

Worked on the second UV set I planned for the clothing today. Retopoed the clothing and unwrapped before doing a bake and I'm pretty happy with how the bakes came out.

Genuinely not looking forward to all the smaller retopo stuffs...

I also made some tweaks with the face textures to add more contrast but I think I need to brighten it a little more for the wide shots.

HarlequinWerewolf

It's been a minute, but I picked up the sculpt for this again after over a year to see if I could improve it and I am much happier with the results now! I don't think I'm going to do a full character but will hopefully make a portrait of sorts. My main goal is to practice some xgen hair. So next up is finding some reference for an interesting hair style. Suggestions are welcome as I hope to make more than 1 style!

HarlequinWerewolf

Made some dreadlocks. I want to try a couple of different hair styles before I commit to this one but I'm really happy with how these look in engine. Full XGen groom exported to alembics and brought into Unreal Engine 5. 

HarlequinWerewolf

OK, new plan and new design. Gonna keep this real simple and focus mostly on texturing/rendering quality. Blocked in some clothing tonight, took the shoes from the first high poly and going to see where this goes. 

HarlequinWerewolf

Calling this high poly done for now. We'll see how I feel about it throughout the week but I suppose it's time to start retopoing... 

HarlequinWerewolf

Super quick update cos I was impatient (again) to try messing about with the gold 'seams' of this character. Threw some textures on and spent a while painting up the gold areas, it actually became kind of therapeutic.

I suppose I should retopo the rest of the character now...

HarlequinWerewolf

Finished up the retopo for this girl. I'm a little nervous for texturing as I'm not entirely set on a colour scheme but we'll see how that goes. Otherwise, she's on hold til I move!

HarlequinWerewolf

Tiny update as I'm in the middle of trying to move! Threw the character into Unreal to get a feel for it. Still lots to do but I was messing about with emissives cos I can.



I also started messing with mixamo animations and then adding the sleeves with a cloth sim but something went horribly wrong 

HarlequinWerewolf

Been picking away at this here and there. Finally gave her some eyes ripped from the digital humans project and threw some basic skin textures on with the groom I made a few months ago. The other textures are just the baked out normals and some gold patches 

I'm going to add the sleeves separately and sim them in engine. 

HarlequinWerewolf

Again, small update. Messing about with colours and also attached the sleeves to the rig with simming. The cloth does look good in motion, I just need to skin the character properly