Where i am at

Here is my High poly mesh so far, presented in marmoset toolbar, running in real time.

It is about 9.5k Tris and has 3K out of the 4K texture allowance used.

This does have Ambient occlusion turned on in Marmoset, I'm not sure if that is something handled game engine side or if i technically need a AO map for that.

Now to start the low poly mesh.

Problems With Maps

As i have to bake out maps of the head body and hands all at once, there are parts that different settings aren't working on. If i use a small cage the normals on the hands and face look fine, but the body gets confused, and the opposite with a high cage.

Because of this I'm going to cut and paste the different normal and colour maps together to get the result i want.

I ended up with these.

Fixing

Something has been annoying me with the design for a while, and i think i figured out what it was, the shoulder straps were far too thin for the character, so i have gone back into Zbrush and started making new straps to hold on the armour. This shouldn't result in the need to remesh anything and should only need me to quickly bake out a few maps as the straps were made with normal maps, not geometry.

Almost finished model

After spending today baking out maps , this is my high poly model running in real time in Marmoset Toolbag. 

The normal maps for the boots decided they didn't want to live anymore so i will have to re export them to stop the broken and very shiny appearance, and the gaps between the fingers had some serious problems as well.

This is a 9,500 ish tri mesh with a 2k colour map (also being used as a subsurface map) and 2k normal map.

Starting UV Unwrapping

With UVing i have less experience than i would like so i have looked into multiple pipelines, including using Maya, UV Unwrap and Zbrush to make my UV's

Here is my attempt using Zbrush.

This worked quite well and the unwrapping process was very quick, but before it could be unwrapped i needed to separate everything into poly groups. The controls for moving the UV around are also strange, so a combination of Zbrush and Maya may work well.

Also to use Zbrush to unwrap i need to first import it into maya, then use GoZ to send it to zbrush to make sure the size and orientation stays the same, adding multiple steps to an already complex pipeline.

The next new method i have tried has been using UV layout, i have really enjoyed this and it seems like a far more intuitive way of UVing than simply using the UV editor. Its very quick and clean and gives a great idea of where my seams will end up being.

UV Layout fits far easier into the pipe line but is more hands on that using Zbrush to unwrap, though will undoubtably reap better rewards.

Remeshing

Using Topogun i have remeshed the model. Its ended up at roughly 9,600 Tris, but that includes a few that could probably be removed, such as the back of armour pieces and the mouth bag.

An example of my process in topogun. Using the reference mesh i extruded rings inwards for the knee pads. Because parts of the knee pads were so thin it dragged some through the back of the reference.

The finished knee pieces, maintaining entirely quads.

An in process shot of the body model, i tried to minting edge loops down the arms and add more geometry in areas that would deform such as knuckles, the wrist, elbow and shoulder.

The finished high poly model ready for unwrapping.

Rendered Turn Table

Final Render movie, only quick because i haven't quite got the hang of turn tables in Zbrush yet.

Rest of the Poly Painting.

With the rest of the model i just carried on laying down base colours then adding in brighter colours and variation. I also used the poly painting stage to detail and scratch the metal, i found it easier to do it this way as i could colour the small indents as i made them rather than after.

Front and back paintings, the leather straps on the legs have had more detail put into them, sharpening the edges and trying to make it look more like they are overlapping. The paint on the body was added as a layer, which caused problems when i tried to bake it down, but i managed through trial and error to get it to bake succesfully.

The painted face, the colours brightened up a lot for this render and i don't really know why, but you can still see the level of detail in the face, down to the stubble under the skin and the paint dripping down the face.

More areas of detail, such as the tattoo and armour. I wanted the tattoo to look like it was carved into the back, to amplify the brutality of the character.

Poly Painting the Skin

Now after the model was detailed i began the painting process. A lot of it was don't through adding base colours then using "Mask by Cavity" to select lower or higher areas, especially the leather and metal parts. 

The Skin was done by painting layers of deep reds and purples onto the mesh with a rough alpha map, then layering on skin tones to try to simulate the depth and subsurface colours of real skin.

Detailing the parts.

The shoulder plates and knee pads were made using the same method as the trousers, i just increased the thickness and used the hard polish brush to get the shapes. The lip was made by masking off the edge and extruding it again.

The straps were made with an insert brush, and the buckles as an insert mesh that i moved the straps in front of. 

This is the fully detailed sculpt ready to start painting. The knee pads have been added, the shoulder pads detailed and the straps moved close to the body to reduce the chances they will need a separate mesh.

Adding detail to the body.

I derailed the upper body more, adding scars and further defining the muscles and skin.

After importing the bust into the file i projected through the detail of the head into the body mesh, combining it into one part.

I extruded trousers from the surface of the legs, and would later take boots and a belt out.

Knowing the legs would never be seen i deleted the lower part of the body mesh, to both speed up zbrush and lower the end poly count

Sadly as a result of using dynamesh i don't have a lower res version of the boots, but this is the basic shape i was going for, leaving space for the knee pads above the shins.

Detailing and Adding Parts

After making the block in of the body i moved on to making a head sculpt, to try and get a sense of the character in a 3D space. Using a variety of digital tutors videos as reference i started modelling the head from a dynameshed sphere. I extruded out a neck and used the move tool to create the basic shape of a skull.

Sadly i lost the process pictures i had from a computer crash, but the final sculpt below was created by layering the muscle and skin onto the skull with the clay buildup and clay tubes brushes.

I dynameshed it to a certain extend but soon gave way to subdividing the mesh to get details such as the wrinkles in the skin and pores. 

I kept the chin large, and the eyes small to give a sense of a strong and more menacing character. The nose is large and flat and the ears are thick to give the impression of someone in a  lot of fights.

Subtle parts of the mesh are asymmetrical, the ears are at very slightly different heights and the eyes are slightly tilted, and the right nostril is slightly larger. Individually they are tiny changes, but overall they add to give a more realistic appearance. I could probably have pushed these further, but i wanted to keep the remeshing process simple down the pipeline.

Here is a variety of lighting tests to show the detail in the head , they were done for Creative Research, but they will influence the decisions i make when presenting my final model.

Modelling The Character

I've neglected my blog lately, but boy do i have a lot to put up.

This is a history recording of my sculpting process, building up the initial forms and muscle groups from the Dynamesh. 

Using Zspheres i blocked in the main shape of my character, as well as the separation in the fingers. Using my character drawings as reference i exaggerated the size of the shoulders and the length of the arms to accommodate the over muscled frame i was going to build.

This is the "Adaptive Skin" produced from the Zshperes with a few of the larger muscle groups pulled out. I went back down to the base layer to sculpt it later, but this was how i figured out the silhouette. 

Last of Us Character Rigs

A rigger from Naughty Dog talking about what details they have put in their rig and what advancements they have made since their Uncharted series.

They have advanced facial rigging using a combination of blend shapes and bones, the blend shapes themselves only have subtle effects, but when combined with the bones they amplify the effects and make the character silhouette deform.

They also have twist in the shoulder and fore arm that simulates the muscle and bones twist in the forearm.

From this i have learnt a lot of things about next gen game rigs, and also how complex and intimidating they are.

I am not sure how many of these features i will be able to implement, but i am going to try to include the advanced forearm and shoulder twist