Major Project - "Gold": Hero Final

After placing the character in Mixamo and giving it one of the longbow poses, I had to edit some of the skinning as some bits such as the shoulders and arms were slightly deformed. The chin was also deforming, following the left shoulder and I had to weight it completely to the head bone, while making sure at the same time it wouldn't clip through the shoulder pad. There ended up being some slight clipping, but it's nothing very obvious and couldn't be avoided without deforming the shoulder armour. The chest armour was also deforming weirdly, especially in the underarm area, as parts of it were weighted to the shoulders and arms. I welded all of the chestplate to the spine bone to keep it from deforming. There's a little bit of weird deformation on the laces on one of the leather braces on her forearms, which I spent some time on trying to get it fixed, but as time until the deadline was running out, it couldn't be helped. whether I tried to weight it to the forearm or the hand, it either floated off the brace or part of it would clip in. 

Final step: getting the character into Unreal Engine, putting the textures together and lighting the scene. 

For the presentation, I put together a pedestal and made the texture for it in Substance Designer, then used a parallax occlusion node to give it depth. 

In terms of lighting, I went for a simple yet effective method and used the three point lighting system. I set the colour of the light to warmer tones, to fit the hero's kind and calming, yet strong vibe. 

Overall, I'm really happy with how the Hero turned out. I think it resembles the Overwatch style I was going for, while still showcasing my own personal touches and style through a more hand-painted look. I'm quite proud of the result as I can see how the quality of my work has improved from last year and even last term. I am also very pleased with how much personality the character has and how the design fits the protagonist trope while also being original in it's portrayal of Romanian traditional elements.

Last, but not least, I am very happy I could bring the stories of my childhood to life, in the form of video game characters. This project was as much a personal project, as it was an FMP, and it had so much significance to me as the "Gold" concept and old designs for the characters were part of the portfolio that got me accepted into university. 

The tale and these three characters are dear to me for these reasons, and so I'm happy I could do the Hero just with this final design.