Monster Character 3

This week I've being sculpting this and trying to figure out how to normal map, retopolgize and poly paint.
Next step would be to  actually start retopologizing and baking normal maps to the low poly model and start poly painting in ZBrush. FYI this is the high poly model and he is 6 feet tall, and I imagine the other characters are going to be around about 6.5 feet - 7 feet tall.

Re-Design & Figuring out things in ZBrush

I decided to re-design Monster Character 2 in order to come up of some kind of a varied monster, and in order to experiment with it. I will be going back to the original design and completing that soon.

So here is the re-design that I have being working on this week - it is incomplete.

This week I have also being trying to learn how to retopologize and poly paint in ZBrush and trying to see if I can do everything within the same program; I have also being experimenting and trying to learn ZBrush to see if I can transfer all the details from the high poly to the low poly. Since I do not know Zbrush that well everything is trial and error and I am trying to catch the errors as soon as possible so I can resolve it and move forward.

Retopology from high poly to low poly.

High poly model with a lot of detail and poly-paint. Trying to see if I can transfer texture into the low poly model.

Below you can see the retopologized model with details and poly-paint projected from the high poly model. This low poly model has 19110 tris and as you can see I have lost almost all the details the high poly model has. I need to figure out how to keep most of the details from the high poly on the low poly.

Chosen Monster Concepts

These are the monster concepts I and my team have chosen to put in our game. I am posting them here for clarification purposes. The next step is to take these concepts and continue createing 3D versions of them in ZBrush.

Main Character Concept - Improvment

After hearing Eawn's suggestions and opinions on how to make realistic characters and environments as well as my team's, I have quickly decided to improve this main character concept which was chosen by my team. I have used textures to add that little bit of realism. This is how it turned out - I could spend a few more hours on it improving the lighting and the face, but I think this is enough for now as it gets the main idea across.

The Testing Room/ Lab II

This is the rendering of the earlier sketch I have created. It is not finished, but I have done enough to get the idea of the environment across. I got feed back from Ewan on how to make my images better in terms of composition and realism and it was really helpful. I plan to use some of the techniques he sowed me to perhaps create and design the on coming concepts.

The Lab Area Sketches WIP

My sleeping pattern is official messed up guys. These are the sketches I have done for the lab area that Michael made a layout for. I have being creating sketches for them since Thursday, I plan to carry on finishing them up on Monday, because I seriously need to start my dissertation, I still haven't started it and I got a meeting with my supervisor this Thursday.

This is Michael's layout of the labs - Storage Rooms, Staff Room, Chemical Research Lab, Toilets. I have tried to base the sketches below to this layout as much as I can.

What you see below is the mood-board/references I have created to aid me in creating the labs.

So in the images below you can see the sketches that I have created, I am posting these up so you guys can see and let me know which one you might want me to start painting first - I am planing to start painting the storage rooms first - where they keep the bodies  and some equipments.

The Testing Room/Lab II (Where all the experiments take place)

The Chemical Research Room

The Staff Room

Testing Room/Lab III

Testing Room/Lab Sketch I

This is a sketch of the lab that I created the other day. My team suggested to include sleeping chambers/pods. I will experiment with other ideas  today and tomorrow also - I will try to at least create one decent image that is some what complete. I haven't used any reference for this or the other concepts that I have created so far, but I really need to start doing that.

We are still trying to make the interior environment subtle and muted in terms of colour pallet so that this aspect can contrast with the exterior environment - to give the idea that the inside is dangerous and  the outside is somewhat peaceful. I want the variance of mood from the outside environment to the inside to have an impact on the player. Originally  I wanted the whole map to be subtle and only when the player escapes the environment the mood changes but the latter can also work if done correctly. Michael wants for the outside environment to look similar to avatar all colourful and staff but I am trying as much as I can to make it not too cheesy and not too colourful.

Reception - Basemesh Paint-Over IV

This is a paint-over that I did on top of a base-mesh that Michael created for the reception. I did this about a week and a half go, it depicts the main character using his power to illuminate the path.

Monster Character 2 - WIP in ZBrush

On Monday I started to create the second monster character basemesh. This is the stage that I am at right now. -  Don't worry guys when I finish it is going to look scary.

This is on hold for now though, till I finish creating the lab concepts and possibly the main character concept as my team suggested. The reason for this is so that we can clearly present the idea of our game to the tutors.

Outside Environment Concept

This is another concept I started it is meant to depict the sea in the outside environment. Again I need to remember to use reference. This concept is on hold at the moment, I will continue it when I finish the other tasks that need to get done.

We are trying to sell the idea that the environment is in another planet similar to earth - Michael gave me the idea of putting two moons/suns in the concept. The game is going to depict night time so I need to keep that in mind also when I continue with this concept.

Prison Guard Rough Sketch

This is a character sketch I started a while back, but I forgot to post it here and haven't developed it or continued creating more prison guard concepts because it was low priority at the time and things kept on moving fast. It is still low priority at this time along with the scientist, prison guards and prisoners until we get the important things done first.

Main Protagonist Concept

This is the main character concept I started - still WIP. It is put on hold for now because I have to focus on creating the lab concepts and the idea of the main character has already being established in some sketches I have done earlier, so creating a detailed character concept is not the priority at the moment.

My aim is to start using references when creating concept art so that the concepts can look more realistic like I am doing when creating the characters in 3d.

Moodboards

These are the mood boards I have constructed in the very early days of the start of this project. I have done these research to help me and my team members visualise for what we were planing and still are planing to create.

We were planing to create characters based on the mood-boards you see below for example - Guards, Monsters, Prisoners, and scientists. At the moment in terms of character creation the priority is being put towards completing the three monster characters and we have determined that the environment the characters are going to be in is in a planet similar to earth. When these mood-boards were created I was thinking that the game was going to set on earth but the game is grounded in reality and realism and I find these mood boards really set the tone and helpful. 

Michael and David, don't forget to put up the mood-boards that you have created to the Blog also, and say a little bit about the staff you were thinking about when you created them and what we are doing right know at this time.

Monster Statue

I started to create this monster statue a while back for the project - here it's is now in all is glory. I haven't really found time time to finish because we had and still have other priority tasks at hand. I was going for a surreal type of character with the statue, I was thinking maybe it could act like a logo of the facility where the experiments takes place.

Monster Character 1 - WIP in Zbrush

Below you can see the work in progress of one of the monster characters that I have started to create in ZBrush. It is taking me longer than I expected to complete. I am having trouble with the hands and feet plus I have to retopologize the whole model later down the line which might take some time as this will be the first time I'll be doing it.

At the moment I have started everything in ZBrush, but I might have to change my workflow to save us some time in producing the characters.

When the character is posed in the same way as the concept art - you will be able to tell the similarities although it will not be exactly the same.

Outside Environment Concepts

Just playing around and having fun with concept art.

(Michael) Edit:

So i really liked Yodahie's picture, and my comment related to adding more texture, and shadow, so i did a comparison with what it looks like when you add a simple dirt texture on a multiply Filter. The result gives the picture more detail.

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These are concepts of what the forest might look like. On the next environment concepts I am going to use textures of leaves and forests from photos to help me create that added realism. This idea of adding textures was suggested by my awesome team members when I mentioned I was having trouble creating realistic environment concepts.

Today I am going to continue sculpting the monster base-mesh in ZBrush and in my spare time I will try to create more environment concepts and a concept of the main protagonist.

Tree Concepts

Hello,

So we have being doing a lot of pre-production in the past couple of weeks. Michael has being working in unity, experimenting with programming and animation implementation to get the core game play working. David has being creating assets in 3ds max. I have being working on some pre-visualisations of the environment concepts and starting a base-mesh of one of the monsters in Zbrush. Very exciting staff, I cant wait to see what we come up with in the end. :)

These are some of the tree concepts that I have created. They will be pretty low priority at this time but they show what we are thinking about. We are trying to go for a peacefully vibrant forest to contrast with the inside environment. I will upload more environmental concepts to the Blog soon. The trees show the an idea to the scale of the environment, but they also show how David might approach modelling them.

Reception - Base Mesh Paint-Overs

I am not a very big fan of paint-overs but below you can see the paint-overs created after Michael provided me with a Base mesh of the reception he created. He provided me with different views of the reception and my task was to do the paint-over and try to create a mood in the environment. I was going for the abandoned and mysterious look as discussed with the team so the colour pallet I used was limited.  I am going to do one more paint-over where the main character is depicted using his special power.

I plan to experiment on how Tom's hands and arms are going to look e.g. tattoos no tattoos? how far the trench coat will reach hands, what the trench coat will look like etc.

Monsters Concepts

Here some monster concept sketches. We have chosen the ones that we like and I will soon start creating Basmeshes in ZBrush and eventually rigging and animating them so Michael can experiment with them in Unity. David  is going to lend a hand with the rigging and animations.

Protagonist Sketches

So here are some quick explorational concept sketches that have being created to give our team an idea of how we want to visualise the main character - Tom. Our team seems to like the guy with the trench coat holding a cool pose - so look out for a more better looking sketch down the line.