As I am in my last term of doing game art it is time to start my FMP project. Since I am doing characters I will be required to produce 3 game ready characters, these can either be humanoid or creatures of any kind. I am really excited to start this project and I know I am going to have to work extremely hard to get all 3 characters made to the best standard I can for the final part of my degree. As this is an FMP I will be writing my own brief for each character I will be making, this will include all the technical specifications I will give myself along with aesthetic and presentation expectations. For this project I will be using other artists concepts to work from after gaining permission to do so. I am going to be choosing concepts which I personally find appealing as I will need to spend a lot of time on these projects and want to feel passionate about doing them. My initial thoughts on my fmp are that I would lie to make a female and a male and either another female or a small creature of some kind to showcase a range of my skills , I am also considering doing them in different  styles such as stylized, realistic and semi realistic to show a range of skills, this will also be good for my portfolio as I will be uploading the finished characters onto my artsation. I want to showcase that I am able to do a wide range of styles and have an understanding of different workflows in a range of areas. 

Week 1- 10.1.23

Juyeon Park artsation-  https://www.artstation.com/zewa

The images above are some examples that I have collected of final fantasy character models which help me get a clearer idea of what kind of style my character will be in. I am going for this very clean semi realistic style. Final fantasy is one of my favourite games, therefore I feel as if this is a perfect style guide for this project. 

Next steps for the end of week 1 going into week 2:

-Block out the base of the body using a range of realistic references with the body type I want to make in mind.

-Collect some references for the head sculpt, I already have a good idea of what kind of face I think would fit this character concept. I think I will be starting to sculpt the head first as I am going to be leaving the head and body detached and not dynamesh them onto each other since the character has a collar that will cover the line. I find it easier to do it this way so I can keep them at 2 different subdivs and poly counts. 

-In order to make the pleated skirt I am going to be using a pattern of a real pleated skirt from online as I think this is going to be one of the most challenging parts of my project. I am going to set aside a few days in order to do the things on marvelous including exporting into zbrush as I have has a lot of problems during this part in the past and I need to make sure I set enough time aside to trouble shoot these issues. 

Throughout my sculpt  I am going to be documenting each significant step on my blog and keeping it updated each day depending on what I do. I will explain my though processes behind doing each asset along with including any reference images I am using along the way. I will begin with the head.

I have actually had quite a few problems since I last updated my blog. As you can see there are 2 different versions of the skirt that I made above. The first one looks messy and not vey structured. This was my attempt as making this and from importing it into zbrush I had so many issues. I was trying soo hard to make it fit under the apron that it lost so much of its structure and because I messed about moving it so much with the move brush to make it fit it ended up looking so sloppy. I really wasn't happy with outcome as the pleated skirt looks very stiff and structured. I decided to give it another go and did it in using a more neat and meticulous approach. I slightly altered the skirt in marvellous to make the box pleats neater and more accurate to how I wanted them to look along with making it stick out less so I wouldn't have to use the move brush on it so much as It was rally disrupting the structure. After polishing the new version up a lot I finally managed to get it to to a point where I was happy with it and it looked a lot neater than it did before. This honestly was a really awkward and tedious process as the more i messed with it and moved it around the messier it got so I had to  be careful. I think retopping this is going to be quite a challenging since in some areas the folds are very tight and close to each other. I am going to alter my plan slightly to give myself enough time to retop this since it is going to be very awkward. Overall there is a considerable improvement from the first attempt to the second attempt and I am pleased I spent the time  trying to correct it. I have definitly learnt from my errors with this. The issue with the move brush in Zbrush as it is more for organic movements and shapes and can really disrupt anything with sharp clean edges so it wasnt appropriate to use for this particular piece of clothing. 

I have added some hard surface details today such as the buckles onthe front of the belt and also on the leather strap which will attach the spell book to her waist. I did these assets in 3ds max as I am much better at using this for hard surface modelling than I am with Zmodeller. I do need to get better at using zmodeller since it can be a powerful skill to have when used well. I imported the crosses and buckles in from max and polished them accordingly. Furthermore I have also added in the part of the skirt which goes over the top of the pleated skirt and under the apron part. I did this on marvellous again since it is super easy. Since this piece of fabric is very simple in terms of structure It was quite easy for me to add it onto my model unlike the pleated skirt. It seems like the fabric that this is made from is quite thick therefore any creases and folds will be big and not very complicated. I will include a side view of my character later down the line to show the leather straps that she has from either side going over the top. They dont  seem to be doing anything other than being there for aesthetic purposes on the concept. I think they look good though since they break up the fabric of the overskirt. They are fixed on with metal buttons. 

I have also made the big leather gloves now which I have polished  up alot and added the different leather panels to them. These are a key point of the silhouette as they are such a unique shape around the wrist area. I really tried to capture this and also slightly exaggerate it in order to replicate the concept and translate it into a 3D scenario. To make them I ripped off the hand from my yakuza character and then inflated then to give myself a better base to sculpt into. To make the cuffs I extracted shapes and polished them accordingly. I also add seam lines which will be picked up within the bake and by curvature and dirt generators. I find making hands quite challenging since they can look very obviously anatomically wrong. I found these slightly easier since I didn't have to add any of the tertiary details such as the lines on the palms or knuckles and they are a bit chunkier since the gloves are made of a thick leather.  Any leather details will be added on through grunge maps and texturing. 

 I am almost done with sculpt on zbrush I just have to add some final details onto the the folds and make the shoes however these are quite simple since they sit very close to te legs and can be baked on. 

I have added some more smaller details onto the face such as light pores and eyebrow details since I want these to be picked up with generators. Since my character is young she doesn't have much facial details such as large pores or wrinkles so I didn't add much surface detailing only a slight amount. Most other skin texture details will be done in substance painter as this is a much less destructive workflow than committing to the details in zbrush. I am quite happy with how her face is looking so far as she definitely looks like a final fantasy style female and has kind of a cute pretty vibe to her. I am going to get some feedback on the facial structure before I start baking and texturing just to check all the proportions are looking good. 

I have now finished the sculpt in zbrush and 3ds max. I am really pleased with how the book has turned out, I chose to model it in max first and then import it into zbrush so I could polish it up and add any surface details such as stitches or binding. I am still not amazing at using zmodeller so I didn't feel confident enough to use this and for times sake I wanted to stick to what I was comfortable using in this scenario. I will be trying to improve my zmodeller skills in the future as when used well it can be a really powerful tool for hard surface whilst keeping the entire workflow in zbrush. Since the concept I am using is from a 3/4 view I had a clear view of what the book and side view looked like and how it was attached to the hip. I also used a range of reference images online of some old bibles or spell book type props to help me further with translating this into a 3D space.  Since there are a lot of straps and buckles it has taken me quite a long time to make sure everything fits together and attaches properly but I am pleased with the results. I have added some small meal broach type things to the gloves as seen on the concept. These were also done in max and imported in. Using dam standard I gave the gloves some seam lines to add some definition around them. Finally I finished adding any big stitches and buttons around the model plus refining any folds and creasing in the fabric.

Overall I am pleased with how she has turned out with my sculpt process. I faced a few challenges especially with the layered skirts and also some issues with the proportions of the legs and shoulders. I think looking back I may slightly adjust the muscular structure of the shoulders as they are a bit too straight and lack curvature, it must be noted however that there is some padding in the shoulders to make them look more structured and pointed however I think they still need some reshaping near to the neck area. I will have a look at some anatomical sketches and models to correct this. After some feedback I also made some changes to the legs as the space between them was too wide and they looked a bit bowed. This was an easy thing to correct.  I m most happy with how my characters clothing has turned out since it was quite a complicated concept with many layers to it. I am glad I used marvellous especially for the pleated skirt since the tools within were straight forward and allowed for non destructive adjustments. 

My next step in my project is to start the retop process and have another look to see if the facial structure is right as after receiving more feedback it was brought to my attention that the space between the eyes was incorrect along with the shape of them. This will be easy for me to correct.  I have set aside a good amount of time for me to retop this since I think I am going to struggle with retopping the pleated skirt like I said before.

Today I have started the retop process by retopping the face and torso. This actually took less time than I thought it would since I am getting better at looping out areas of deformation and then linking them up all together.  I ensured the face has all the appropriate areas which will deform such a the eyes and mouth most importantly.  I also made sure to add the shoulder pads and loop them around. Since the puff sleeves are quite round with complicated shapes I have found this area quite awkward and will be going back to it once i have finished the little flap parts to make sure the topology is straight and even. After some feedback I am going to straighten some of the geometry up using edge constraints. For my retop I have a few references for how to do the joints correctly to make sure I am doing it to ensure proper deformation.

The images above show how I go about retopping any joints that will deform. I start by making the loops with as little geometry as I can so that it is easier for me to join everything together at the end. I like working from very low poly upwards and adding swift loops when everything is correct as things start to get really confusing when I am trying to work with large amounts of geometry. The image on the right shows what the same arm looks like when I have started swift looping to add more geometry.  

As I thought I have had a lot of issues with the retop of my pleated skirt. I have had to retop it twice now because it keeps going wrong. I have to make sure all the geometry loops round the whole thing so that it can move nicely with the rest of the model, however the issue I was having was that because the pleats are so tightly together I am struggling to retop in-between them. I tried zremeshing it however the loops were incorrect and it was spiraling, I also tried the retop modifier in max and this also didn't work well. Another issue with it is that because the fabric has thickness the conforming keep catching onto the other side so I am having to drag out verts by hand. After my second attempt at hand retopping it I have finally managed to get it to a point where I am happy with it. I found the best way to do the inner faces was to use the shell modifier. I optimized this since it ended up being really high poly by deleting any areas covered by other layers. This was a real challenge and took me a long time, if I was to do this again with less time pressure I would have liked to make the geometry run more straight around the model, however when I was trying to straighten it it was messing up pleats to much. 

I have almost finished retopping the clothing now and will begin retopping the extra assets next. I need to finish the hands as well since they are also taking me a long time as they have so many loops in them. I am struggling to get them all to match up so I have left it and will go back to it with fresh eyes as I have really confused myself.

Also I have made an effort to make any items that overlap each other have topology that match up to one another as this will help with deformation. There are areas where i really couldn't do this though but for these areas it shouldn't matter too much. I am really trying to push my retopoloy to be as clean and game ready as possible in these final projects as I want to maintain a professional workflow and get the highest standard of work out of this as possible for my portfolio.  

I have now finished the retop for my first character. I spent a long time once I had a low poly for everything making sure all the geometry had good edge flow, looped correctly and was as straight and optimized as possible. I only just kept it under my budget with the hair cards I will be adding a bit later. The colors on the images above indicate how I have split all the parts up into the UV sheets. I have tried to keep parts with similar fabrics on the same sheet along with considering what size the sheets will be to make sure the texel density is as consistent as possible. I think this retop is a lot better than my previous ones as I have considered professional practice a lot more meticulously than in previous projects and learnt from past errors that I have made. 

I will now move on to my unwrap and pack.

Posed in mixamo, corrected in max

I have now finished unwrapping and packing my character today. It did not take me very long as I have had so much practice with this step now. I did struggle to plan how I was going to split everything up since I need to consider not only my texture budget but also what size was needed for each uv sheet. I spent the most amount of time packing everything together as best I could. Since most of the pieces were organic shapes and not hard surface i was not able to straighten the UVs as it was making them look too skewed. I find packing organic shapes to be very awkward as making good use of the texture space can be challenging with uv islands not fitting together well. I tried to utilize as much of the space as I could after playing around with different placements. Further down I will explain what size each UV sheet will be. I think the total texture budget for the character will be 1 4k sheet so 4 2048s split up into the relevant sets. 

The next step in my process is to begin baking and texturing in substance. I will import my low poly into substance just too check that I have assigned all the correct material IDs  to the correct objects. 

I was really nervous about baking my character since in the past it has taken me whole days to fix baking errors and try to work out what went wrong. To my surprise after test baking it at a really low resolution I only had some very minor artifacting which I easily fixed by adjusting the cage settings this was such a relief. After I had gotten the bake perfect on a low resolution I wacked up all the settings and baked it at a high resolution with a high antialiasing. I am so happy with how my high poly sculpt has baked onto the low poly as it has really picked up all the details that were in my sculpt and will hopefully apply to the generators. The only thing I need to do now before starting the texturing is quickly bake an ID map so that it will be easier for me to make masks for areas such the sleeves which are not separate meshes but will be made of different fabrics. 

I am going to be texturing alongside a lit marmoset file since it is a lot easier to see what the textures will look like in real time since substance looks very different to how they textures look in engine or marvelous and I end up having to go back and make lots of changes. I will also be showing my texturing process through screenshot from marmoset as this is more what it is going to look like. 

I am starting off my texturing process with masking out sections and adding base colours just to get an idea of what the colours are going to look together on the model. I did get a bit carried away with the eyes and skin and started adding in further values. I collected many refences of skin tone theory such as the yellow, red blue diagram and started blocking in the colors on the face depending on areas of thicker skin, more blood flow and areas of more or less fat. I did this using mostly layers where I could quite easily change the base colour if needed so my workflow was completely non destructive. I put some makeup around her eyes to add a bit of definition and also added colors to the brows lips and cheeks to make her look more alive. I have been using a mixture of references from both detailed images of real skin, final fantasy characters to look at the texturing and also an article about how to texture realistic skin which I will link. As said before since my character is quite young she does not have a lot of skin texture such as pores or wrinkles so there will be minimal surface detail. I have collected numerous references for this to ensure accuracy. So far she is looking very matte and doll like so I will be adding some light grunges to suggest skin pigmentation and blood vessels along with having a look a the roughness properties. Younger skin tends to be less dry and quite oily. 

I really enjoy texturing and it is my favorite part of the whole process. I am going to really push my texturing skills as much as possible to get the highest quality outcome which fits my brief and style of semi realism or final fantasy style. 

I have also made a box in max and imported it into marmoset so that it is easier for me to control a lighting scenario in order to push the characters textures as much as possible. After some feedback from my lecturer I have decided to add some kind of texture or image to the background to make the character stand out against it more and kind of contextualize it into a 3D environment.

I still have a way to go in my texturing process and want to really refine them to my fullest potential so not only push the quality of my work but my characters overall narrative and personality. The concept I am using is really strong and lends itself so well to both my brief and a 3D game ready character so I want to be able to do it justice. Currently all the textures are 4k in marmoset as this is the resolution I will be taking my beauty shots, however when I hand in in unreal engine they will be changed to the correct resolution. 

I have also added a cross motif on the chest with an alpha stamp, this is not on the concept itself however when i was testing it out I really liked how it looked as it added some further narrative to the character and also tied in the book to the character a little more. I also decided to use the same alpha to add a gold embossed cross motif around the bottom of the leather pleated skirt. I felt as if the character was lacking some smaller details and I wanted to think of some relevant ways to add more detail and interest into it. 

Currently my marmoset render looks a bit weird and uncanny as I have not yet added the hair cards for her bangs and also her eyelashes so she looks a bit bald. I also need to push the textures further since they still look a little plain and flat. I think I would like to make her look a bit like a nurse since I want to tie her in with my final fmp character. I am happy with how the embossed crosses are looking on one of the leather assets as they add some variation in texture due to the added metalness and height information. I have been adding some changes to the concept I relation to how things are looking in a 3D space and how I want to add further narrative to fit how I am building her character in my own project. 

To make my hair sheets I used photoshop to edit and hand paint the maps. I used the normal map generator on photoshop to generate the normal and this worked surprisingly well. Since she only has a very small amount of hair at the front I think this simple method will work well. I placed the planes in max also. 

The images above show some of my first (terrible) attempts at making her hair cards. I really hate how they looked initially so I made a lot of tweaks to the alpha I was using and also used a range of tutorials for how to properly make hair cards look like hair in marmoset. I found that I had to change the alpha mask setting to dither rather than cut out otherwise the hair looks chunky and unrealistic. Once I had done this the hair cards started to look a lot more like my desired final fantasy like style. Initially I made the base colour for the hair cards grey like in the context and I also started to go really overboard with adding them in and she ended up with a bob which looked terrible. I decided to move away from this and have a bit of a rethink in design. I have now decided that I am going to make her hair a dark grey/ black rather than this great colour as it is not working at all. I am also going to adhere to the concept and only give her a strip on hair in the middle of her forehead coming out of her hat as I do not have the time to start adding loads of cards since they will take me so much time to place and do properly with out them looking like straw. 

I have now made the changes to the hair and it looks considerable better than it did. I'm not really why the grey hair looked so bad but I am pleased with how this looks now. I spent more focused time on a smaller section of hair and the results were much better than when I was just placing them everywhere. I didn't realise how long hair took to place and get right and after some trial and error I am more satisfied. I am actually quite interested in learning more about making realistic hair and after looking at some characters from horizon zero dawn I have really been inspired to improve my skills with hair cards over summer. The hair on the final fantasy characters is also amazing and I'm so impressed by how the artist execute such dynamic styles whilst making the hair look convincing. This is an area I would like to specifically focus my time on in the future after playing around with it a little on this project since it is my first time making hair cards. 

On the image above on the right I have changed the lighting set up along with the background but I am really unhappy with this as it is casting a shadow on both sides of her face and due to the complexity of the lights it is washing out my textures a lot. I am going to rethink the lighting set using references from how other characters on art station have been presented within this kind of genre. I have also added a blurred image to the backdrop cube that I made on photoshop however I really do not like how this looks as it has no normal or ao info on it so it looks very odd. I will be making some quick designer textures of some stone in order to push out my character from the background and be able to generate some pbr texture sheets. I was originally looking at lighting scenarios from films specifically that of the 90s Romeo and juliet as the chapel scenes are amazing however for presenting characters I have come to the conclusion that using the  3 point method is best for flattering the subject and textures. I think using films as refences is good but only for colour pallets rather than for where the lighting is coming from.  

I blurred the background a little it however I am still not happy with how this is looking as it is really not helping my characters textures stand out. I do like the blue light that I have added above as it looks like moonlight coming through a glass window. I think it lends itself well to her concept. I am really excited to add my final character which is the nubby frog into the scene with her as is really going to give them both some context I am hoping.

As you can see I have also added the nubby frog into the scene, the textures on him aren’t done yet however since him and my nun link together in the same universe and he is her little familiar. It definitely helped me to make these final decisions in my texturing to have the nubby frog in the scene. I think my favorite change that I have made to her textures is the red Ombre position generator I have added to the apron. It has broken up the white colours and also tied in elements of the red further. I think it lends itself well to the style and also the narrative of her being a healer. 

I am almost done with this project and to wrap it all up I will be rendering some final images and videos along with correcting any textures on the back and rendering her in real time. I am so excited for how this project has turned out and I have absolutely loved doing it :) 

Please see below some of my favorite renders from marmoset along with the file I have submitted of them all. I am so happy with how many renders have come out. As for the lighting concept I have gone for a kind of candle/ torch lit room with some moonlight coming through a window to add some color contrast to the scene. I think this brings out the textures on her skin well. As you can also see I have added her nubby frog familiar along side along with a few baby ones with no saddle sat on her head and shoulder hehe. 

Overall I am really happy with this character. Since I am such a big fan of final fantasy this kind of character art really appeals to me and I have enjoyed every second of it. I definitely found the retop for this character the hardest part of the project since her design is very complicated but It has definitely been worth it. I have loved using the concept by Juyeon Park as a base for my ideas as it is such a beautiful concept and lends itself so well to my style and texturing choice and has translated well into a 3D space. I think if I was given more time on this project I would like to work into the textures some more as I do think I could really make them pop out with some more surface detail as I was struggling to add this as I wanted to keep her very neat and clean but I was finding it hard to break up the changes in surface. I have enjoyed this project so much and I definitely think my skills using marvellous designer have vastly improved as I have discovered a range of new tools to use in future projects. Thank you so so much for reading my blog ;)

End of blog- <3