Dichotomous Character Project: Part 3

Once I had the concepting essentially finished (there would be minor changes and development throughout production and before texturing) I knew that I could begin modelling the model. However I actually found it hard even with my sketches how the form would work better in a 3 D environment. I decided to look around for reference and actually sculpt the model in a general form to understand how it works.

I made the physical models making a wire skeleton first bore adding the modelling clay. Because of a lack of funds I used resources that I already had and used animation clay which mean that the models cannot dry. The benefit is that they could be posed while the downside is that its  much harder to keep and sculpt finer details.

My next step was actually modelling them. I decided that I would make some low poly models and I also decided that I would make LODs (levels of detail) so that if they were put into a game the engine could save power by swapping in between LODs when far away. My high poly models had an upper limit of 6000 tris (triangles) but both were much closer to 5000 tris. My mid poly models were 2000 tri models and my low poly ones were 1000 tris. From this first model attempt I realized when feedback was given that the topology on the faces could be adjusted but also that the cheeks were too rounded for my Jamie Hewlett art style and I had to sharpen up.

I fully rigged and textured all my LODS and models. They had diffuse and normal maps. I decided against secular maps because the light information would be painted into the textures. For some reason in renders the seams on the textures showed up much more then in viewport and engine.

I then quickly made an idle animation for the pair with the little time I had left. There were still some deformation issues that couldn't be sorted out on time but I had finished the project and everything I had set out to do had been achieved to some degree.