Are you not entertained?... Gladiator Project

Making a Gladiator

Right so recently I've been working on my 3D skills and as a project I made a gladiator. This is my first time character modelling and it was an interesting exercise in making the topology flow around the model to create the organic shapes of a human. The tri budget for this gladiator was 2800 tris and we had to rig it with a budget of 28 bones. I did enjoy this project because I used a lot of new tools and modifiers for the first time so it has broadened my knowledge of 3ds max and modelling in general. Because I rigged it I also had some fun loading in animations and testing the rig. I also eventually animated the camera so it followed the gladiator as he did a dance.

I used box modelling to make the body, hands and head separately referring to the same references so they all matched. I then attached them all together to form the complete body. I then modelled in the armour and weapons and attached them to the object. As part of the armour I use the poly draw tool which allowed me to draw planes around the shape of the gladiator. I used pelt unwrapping and view port canvas when making the textures and unwraps where my knowledge of unwrapping increased. I made use of welding the seams together in the unwrap so I could remove as many seams as possible however this did mean that the texture space wasn't used as effectively as possible. Using these new tools meant I was understanding more about how to make my models and reinforced the skills I already knew. During the last 3D project I was just trying to grasp the way a good topology would work but as I worked through this project I am truly starting to understand it. If I keep working hard eventually I might be a decent 3D artist. And seeing as I'm doing lots of 3D work when I'm not drawing I probably will.

What I've learnt the most though is effective time management. In the past I only really applied this to manage my 2D process because that was something I struggled with but as I have been upping my workload and productivity every couple of weeks I decided to apply it to this project and it worked wonders. Normally I must admit with the 3D projects so far I will be quickly finishing it on the hand-in date but with this project I have finished with 4 days spare. This has given me time to present the work well. I have added a camera to one of my saves and rendered it out as an animation where the camera follows the gladiator around.

I'm definitely going to continue putting my all in especially now I see that balance between my 3D and 2D pays off. My gladiator is also on my sketchfab page.