Major Project - "Gold": Texturing The Zmeu

 The texturing for Zmeu was the most tedious out of all of them. I used fill layers and masks as much as possible to give the scales some depth, but since the scale texture was mostly flat even in Zbrush, the shadows that I could create using the Curvature and Ambient Occlusion maps were limited. 

Therefore, I had to manually paint the top of the scales lighter to give them some dimension. 

I used the Dirt generator to get some deeper shadows into the cavities, as well as give some texture to the scales and skin. I had to mask some of it using a white mask, as I only wanted the shadows and dirt texture only in certain areas. 

I painted the center of the torso a light colour and blurred it out using a blur filter. 

I then used a fill layer with a mask editor generator in order to highlight the edges of the scales.

I then hand painted the shadows between the scales to give more depth, then used a blur filter to even it out. For even deeper shadows, I duplicated the mask and, using Levels, made the shadows closer to the scales darker.

I then used the same gold material I used on the Hero's chestplate to texture the necklace and the jewelry on the horns, as well as the armour on the claws. 

I then textured the horns, highlighting the edges of the planes using a mask editor generator on a fill layer. I also added some darker colours and some lighter details around the eyes to highlight them. 

When texturing the cloth, I used the same material on the Hero's shirt, only in a different colour and with a stronger colour on the position generator layer. 

For the cloth patterns, I used Tatar traditional patterns from a stock photo website. (https://www.freepik.com/)

Since I wanted him to look foreign from the other characters, I used patterns from a different culture. 

Major Project - "Gold": The Zmeu Final

The Zmeu was the easiest one to finalize. I didn't encounter any errors while getting him into Unreal Engine. I used Mixamo in order to rig and skin him and give him a pose. There were some things I had to fix on the Mixamo skin, the biggest one being the tail, but otherwise it was mostly small things that were fixed quickly and easily. 

I used the 3 point lighting system on this one too, this time opting for a redder background, as well as orangey light to fit with it. 

Major Project - "Gold": The Zmeu Retopology and Unwrap

When retopping the Zmeu, the tricky part was the face, since it was different than that of a human. The jaws are protruding forward, so I used the same method I would for retopping an animal such as a dog or the fox from second year's Animal Project.  

At first, I hadn't given him deformation loops around the elbows, which was a mistake since this character, as the villain and a possible boss fight, would be moving a lot in a game. I fixed that mistake before proceeding to unwrap though. 

For the hands, I tried to get in some deformation loops between the rings on his fingers.

I unwrapped the Zmeu into two UVW sheets: one for the upper body and one for the lower body and tried to straighten the skirt's UV as much as I could, to make it easier to pack, but also when applying the patterns later when texturing. 

I believe he was the easiest and fastest one to retop and unwrap in just one week, while also working on the other two characters in the meantime. 

 

Major Project - "Gold": Sculpting the Zmeu

As a base for the Zmeu, I used a male body I sculpted a while back and modified the proportions in order to make it bigger and more muscular: I widened the shoulders and made the arms thicker. I also curved the legs in somewhat like how lion's back legs are and how most dragon's hind legs are depicted in artworks. I also gave him a slightly exaggerated S curved posture, since lizards' chests tend to push forward more. 

I then started to sculpt the face using some basic undefined shapes at first, which made him look more like a friendly gecko than a fierce dragon. I also made the base for some pants using extract. 

I then went in and started defining the features of his face, blocking out the horns and thickening the neck as well as making him even bulkier. I narrowed his hips more as they were too curvy and looked slightly feminine. 

Taking into consideration his tail, I decided to give him a skirt-like cloth around his lower body instead of pants. I think it also give him a more tribal appearance, which fits the vibe I was looking to give this character. I made the base for the skirt in Marvelous Designer, then dynameshed and zremeshed it to simplify the shapes. 

I then went in and detailed his face, polished the planes and sharpened the edges. I tried my best to give him a human, intelligent spark in his eyes, which I think I managed. I believe it makes him even more menacing and intimidating. I also gave him a gold necklace around his neck, to break up the plain surface. 

After sculpting the legs too and adding the folds and the final details, I used Substance Designer in order to create a scale texture, then used that as a mask in order to manually apply the scales on the character's body. 

Major Project - "Gold": Saint Friday Final

Before getting the character into Unreal Engine, I used Mixamo to pose it. Since the pose wasn't too extreme this time, it didn't take that long to fix the Skinning issues. I also moved her hands inward a bit, as they stood awkwardly beside her body before. I brought the backpack in last, and weight painted it to one of the spine bones so it would move together with the animation. 

 When finishing up the project, Saint Friday was the one who caused most trouble. As I put the textures on, they didn't match with the model. Turned out, my 3ds Max file somehow lost some of the recent versions and reversed to the one where  the UVs were different. However I tried to think of an easier solution, nothing came to mind. Therefore, I had to bring this new low poly mesh into Substance Painter, bake it again, paint over the baking errors once more, then get it into Mixamo and fix the rigging and skinning. 

The trouble was worth though, as this is the final result: 

Though at first I intended on giving Saint Friday irises and pupils, in the end, I decided that the empty white eyes added to the eerie feeling of the character. 

For the presentation, I used the same pedestal as I did for the Hero, and the 3 point lighting system. 

Major Project - "Gold": Saint Friday Texturing

Texturing-wise, there is not much I can tell, as I've used mostly the same techniques as I did on the Hero and used most of the materials across all three of the characters, since all of them are part of the same world and need to maintain the same art style and look cohesive. 

For the skin, I first added the tones of the face: some red on the cheeks and chin, some blue on the jaw and some yellow on the forehead. For Saint Friday, I used more of the yellowish tone and didn't lower the opacity of the layer as much, as I think the yellow makes her skin look older. 

I also made the cheeks and chin a bit glossier using a fill layer with only the roughness on. 

I then used fill layers with generators (mostly mask editor) in order to darken the cavities and lighten the edges, as well as add some ambient occlusion. 

Lastly, I painted some darker spots on her skin using a Splatter brush. 

For the cloth I used the same material as the Hero's shirt and only changed the colour. 

I used the same leather material as I did on the Hero for the shoes, but had to control the edge highlights using a white mask and erase them as they were too strong and some of them placed weirdly. I also used a position gradient in order to control where the mud would be on the shoes and keep it only on the bottom part. 

I used the same shirt material from the Hero together with the height information from the Wool smart material in Substance Painter.

I then used stock photos from the same site I got the patterns used on the Hero, as well as pieces of patterns mixed and matched from different photos in order to create my own pattern for granny's apron and headscarf. The most well known version of the popular costume is the red cloth one that I got inspiration for the Hero from, but I couldn't repeat that. So I used the colorful patterns on dark background version for it. 

For the dress: same material as for the Hero's shirt. At first, I also intended to keep it the same colour, but after getting feedback I realized that might not be a good idea. So I went through a few other options and decided on this shade of blue:

While texturing the coins, I used the metal material I used on the Hero too, only I toned down the wear and tear and the roughness, as I wanted the shiny coins to contrast with  the rough beads. When texturing the beads, I used a fill layer with a procedural in order to make it look like the paint and lacquer on them was wearing off, revealing the lighter wood underneath. 

For the backpack, I kept things simple. For most of the objects I used materials from the Hero: the blanket and the bag were using the shirt material as the base, while the pouch used the same leather, and the metal on the boxes was the same as the one used on the Hero's armour. I had to make the metal on the wooden box's lock look more worn, as it was a bit too shiny and didn't quit fit. 

I added details such as blood dripping and staining the bottom of the green bag, making you wonder what granny is carrying in there and adding to the creepy subtext along with the bones and fingers hanging onto the backpack. 

At the end, I used a dark blue fill layer with a position gradient all over the backpack, in order to add some unity to it.