[Finished] Inventor character (3D)
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Hi! Thanks for looking at my post! I found this amazing drawing from koyii kong on Artstation ( https://www.artstation.com/yikong ) and wanted to make a 3D character of it! In this post i'll share my progress!
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First, I made a rough sketch to see what the proportions of the body approximately are. I did this by drawing horizontal lines to measure at what height all body parts are in the drawing. then, I was able to make an estimation of how the body would look like in an A-pose, relaxed.
Then, I put the sketch in Blender and I started making the blockout, putting the basic shapes into place so I can do the first sculpting pass in Zbrush!
I exported the blockout and imported into Zbrush to start on the first sculpting pass.
After the first sculpting pass, I made rapid progress and defined the hair and face a bit more, since the most of the body would be covered in clothes. I also added basic colours for improved shape reading, and added the blockout for the clothes. Curretnly working on the hat, using the zmodeler brush. Because i'm not really familiar with it yet, it costs me a good amount of time to get things right, but it's going okay!
Hey, cool project!
I think currently the proportions are a bit off: Arms seem short/thin, hands and chest too small. The 3d character looks less muscular. You could do an overpaint on top of what you got so far, while checking additional references, to plan adjustments.
Keep it up 💪
@Fabi_G thanks for your insights! i tried to make adjustments, and i see what you meant with the arms being thin. i tried to add some volume, especially on the lower arms since i saw a bigger difference there!
Finally done with the sculpting phase: created the goggles and added the tools to the belt, and did an additional detail pass over all the parts. Pretty satisfied with the result, the only thing that is really missing is the insides of the light bulb part, but I will model that in Blender.
I am now pondering over what the best way of dividing up the texture maps would be. Since the hat will need some 'special' maps (emission and opacity), I would prefer to keep that separated as an object, so I came up with this division of maps:
If anyone looking into this post has any suggestions about a better/more efficient division of texture maps, let me know! Having multiple texture maps for a game-ready character is still quite new to me and I need to learn what would make sense and what would be most efficient. :)
After receiving some feedback regarding the division of texture maps, I decided to split up the maps differently. There will still be 3 texture maps, but this time it is better divided between body, clothes and accessories.
I have started retopology for the model! At this time, I finished the body retopology, so the hair, facial hair, head and the part of the arms that is visible. I also started retopo for the clothes and will eventually work my way towards the end!
Finished the retopology! After, I modeled the inside of the hat and added that to the accessories. I managed to stay under 20.000 tris, with a total tri count of 18.884 tris.
Did some map baking for the character! Went through some trial and error, but eventually I got bake results that I thought were satisfying. I'm still contemplating whether I'll texture the character in Painter or 3DCOAT. But for now, I'll probably leave the character alone for a bit and focus on the little prop that is also shown in the illustration.
Hi! Got to say that the shading looks incorrect. Green channel needs inverting?
Different applications use either OpenGL or DirectX normal maps, difference being the direction of the green or y channel. Check out this part of the wiki: Common Swizzle Coordinates. If Blender is your target application, you could either export a OpenGL normal map or invert the y channel in the shader.
Keep it up!
@Fabi_G you were right! I actually forgot to flip Y on the normal map within Marmoset Toolbag! Thanks for the heads up, my brain was probably fried that day, so I think I forgot. Also thank you for the link to that wiki, that may come in handy sometime!
Finished the first part texturing today! Did texturing for the skin, hair and eyes today, and I'm satisfied with the results so far. Did some manual clean up in the normal map too, as there were some harsh edges at some points. That was something I hadn't done before within Substance Painter, and I think it's a valuable thing to know how to do that!
Below, a quick snippet from Marmoset Toolbag with very basic lighting. Almost everything is textured within Substance Painter, but I handpainted the eyes in Clip Studio Paint for a better result (in my perspective).
Made a lot of progress in the meantime! I textured the clothes and accessories too, and did an additional correction pass after seeing it come together in Marmoset. Some colours didn't match the reference, so I went back and corrected some small details that would give it a better finishing touch. The test renders below are the full character pre and post correction pass.
^ The character before the correction pass. The colours of the hat base, gloves and boots were off in comparison with the reference. The character also has some sort of an upper lash line, which I wanted to paint on in Substance Painter. Also, the tools and belt buckle were too dark in colour.
^ Post correction pass. I also rendered against a darker background so the light bulb would pop out better. The gloves, boots and hat base match the reference better and the upper lashline makes the eye pop more as well. The tools and belt buckle also match the reference better.
Next step is to add a little prop, then rig, pose and render the character!
Finished the prop quite quickly! Made a high poly sculpt in Zbrush, did some retopo and textured it within Substance Painter. Overall little issues and got it done pretty fast. I did have to take some creative liberties regarding the design though, because it was hard to figure out some of the perspectives of its parts. In the end I think it still resembles the prop enough to match the character!
Below - low poly mechanical heart prop
Below - mechanical heart prop with baked maps and textures, snippet from Marmoset 4
Below - character and prop together in the Marmoset scene
above: character with all controls visible
wiggly weight painted butt