And have them already in udk ;) deferred rendering has already been in full use, and flashy looking vertex blending is easily done on shader model 2.0.
The scale of the non-snow rock patches is much larger than the concept and makes the structure feel smaller. Maybe blend in a tighter noisy alpha, would help.
Added refraction, trying to get that impact effect again of release XD Added a status effect (bleed) Not sure about the leaves that fall on the ground after the release
I think you should try using a texture to control blending, the clovers look like they are currently getting covered by the sand when they would be popping through it.
Does Mari really have much going for it that you wouldn't be able to do in Mudbox or a more robust future update to Zbrush's polypaint with layers/blending modes?
Vertex or blend shape animation via FBX is tricky and not fully supported. If you have vertex animation the best choice is generally Alembic geometry cache files.
This is looking great! I prefer the blue because the gold seems to blend with the skin and kind of gets lost. Maybe you could give a trim of gold on the blue
Here are some blockout pictures from blender And here's materials for main platform and second floor platform. I used vertex painting to blend different layers.
My initial instinct would be to use the Skin wrap modifier to link the beard to the face (with morpher applied) and snapshot my face+beard blend shapes from there.
Did you look up for Blending Morphs? Faces rarely have direct bones in them in the engine, and those that do separate the head from the rest of the body.