Game Character - Hera, Divine Paladin || Full Creation Process
polycounter lvl 18
Ho' there- it's me!
Been working on this character for a smaller game project for the past few months.
Her name is Hera- a Paladin who follows the God of Justice. As one of their chosen agents, she's been granted a boon- the Divine Aegis.
It's an ability that grants her supernatural armor that defends her body, making armor unnecessary. She... Dresses down a bit more than usual, because she loves showing off the power of her Deity (She's actually a huge fangirl for her). She'll even go as far as giving her opponent a free shot before fighting them, as a display of her Deity's might.
I decided to be smart this time, though, and actually iterate on the design BEFORE I started the modeling process. This is me learning from 9 years of redoing model after model due to design after design.
Here's the concept process, from late January all the way to last week or so:
Started off with a random idea based on some designs from Bravely Default and such:
Iterated a week or so later with some ideas I had to make the design more consistent:
An iteration with altered proportions better for sprites. At this point, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the shoulders/shawl area works:
Had an idea and gave her a full surcoat with a front-flap, and a big 80's hair foof- an attempt to bring back the heroic confidence of the first one after a friend said she was starting to look a bit villainous:
Said friend later mentioned that the headdress didn't really fit with the rest of the design, so I did some concepts.
I eventually settled on a combination of 2 and 5, since I really liked the segmented spikey bits.
This is also where I tried out a bit more simplification with super stylized eyes:
This was just a rough action sketch I fleshed out- I ended up really liking the bold outlines and general presentation, so I settled on that idea for the art style:
As you can see in the final render, I eventually abandoned the stylized eyes in favor of the old ones, as they better fit the character's personality.
I then began the modeling process after drawing up some orthographic layers:
I decided to use an interesting method I saw on Twitter that used a base of side-view silhouette meshes:
It turned out pretty well:
The modeling, itself is completed
I add the secret ingredient: Vertex colors and hand-drawn lines:
And then I adjust the eyes and compete the rigging process:
And the final result is as you've seen:
Been working on this character for a smaller game project for the past few months.
Her name is Hera- a Paladin who follows the God of Justice. As one of their chosen agents, she's been granted a boon- the Divine Aegis.
It's an ability that grants her supernatural armor that defends her body, making armor unnecessary. She... Dresses down a bit more than usual, because she loves showing off the power of her Deity (She's actually a huge fangirl for her). She'll even go as far as giving her opponent a free shot before fighting them, as a display of her Deity's might.
I decided to be smart this time, though, and actually iterate on the design BEFORE I started the modeling process. This is me learning from 9 years of redoing model after model due to design after design.
Here's the concept process, from late January all the way to last week or so:
Started off with a random idea based on some designs from Bravely Default and such:
Iterated a week or so later with some ideas I had to make the design more consistent:
An iteration with altered proportions better for sprites. At this point, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the shoulders/shawl area works:
Had an idea and gave her a full surcoat with a front-flap, and a big 80's hair foof- an attempt to bring back the heroic confidence of the first one after a friend said she was starting to look a bit villainous:
Said friend later mentioned that the headdress didn't really fit with the rest of the design, so I did some concepts.
I eventually settled on a combination of 2 and 5, since I really liked the segmented spikey bits.
This is also where I tried out a bit more simplification with super stylized eyes:
This was just a rough action sketch I fleshed out- I ended up really liking the bold outlines and general presentation, so I settled on that idea for the art style:
As you can see in the final render, I eventually abandoned the stylized eyes in favor of the old ones, as they better fit the character's personality.
I then began the modeling process after drawing up some orthographic layers:
I decided to use an interesting method I saw on Twitter that used a base of side-view silhouette meshes:
It turned out pretty well:
The modeling, itself is completed
I add the secret ingredient: Vertex colors and hand-drawn lines:
And then I adjust the eyes and compete the rigging process:
And the final result is as you've seen:
Replies
In-game!
No irises yet- I'm just going to hand-draw them in due to angle issues.
Experimenting with smear frames.
It was an... ExSMEARiment, if you will.
I feel you- initially, she had a more hunched over run where she leaned further in, but it didn't feel right for her base travel speed.
I'll probably use such an animation for sprinting.