Naomi Hermans - Rookie Awards Entry

I'm Naomi, a student at SAE Perth from the quiet west of Australia. I started my journey in 3D in 2021, and here's what I have to show for it!

https://www.artstation.com/naomihermans

Mermaid Princess

Lana the Mermaid Princess is a model I completed in conjunction with the fish model, and forming an environment scene. This was all for the Yagan Square Project 2022 where my work would be displayed in the centre of the city on the large cylindrical tower.

Lana the Mermaid Princess is a model I took through the entire production pipeline, from conception to rendering. I first developed a character bio which would guide my design choices, before sketching to solidify colour scheme and character composition. I then photobashed my references together to have a better idea of what to model.

Straight into ZBrush, I blocked out the mermaid with primitives, Dynameshing then ZRemeshing for better topology to sculpt with. I then took it into Maya 2022 for retopology with the quad draw tool

Finalising the sculpt, I ZRemeshed the accessories to a lower polycount. Using the higher subdivision sculpts, I baked the normals on the retopologised model for the animation workflow.

As for hair, I had sculpted a sphere in ZBrush to determine the flow of the hair, before moving into XGen and placing and sculpting guides to generate the groom, including different descriptions for fly-aways, eyebrows, baby hairs, eyelashes, sideburns, etc.

My renderer of choice was Unreal Engine 5, as I wanted to experiment with the cutting edge software. Once I realised that UE5 supports simulating XGen grooms, I decided I wanted a long styled groom, more fitting of a mermaid. The original updo was for animation purposes as I wanted to circumvent clipping issues.

I executed all of my texturing in Adobe Substance Painter, after baking normals in Marmoset Toolbag 4. I exported the textures packed for UE5, including sub surface scattering, and translucency and opacity for the fins. I used a female face from Texture XYZ, projecting it onto the model in Substance Painter, altering where needed.

A peer of mine James Goodchild rigged the model, another peer, Mia Dator helped with animations. I utilised the cloth simulation in UE5 to allow for the underwater flowing movement of the fins.

Betta Fish Model

The betta fish inspired the design of the mermaid, and is also a model I wanted to create for the final project. I took this through the entire modelling pipeline as well, with help from James Goodchild to rig it. Steps included sculpting in ZBrush, retopologising in Maya, animating in Maya, baking in Marmoset Toolbag 4, texturing in Adobe Substance Painter, and rendering in Unreal Engine 5.

Victor (Hidden Intentions)

Victor is a stylised character I created for the short interactive experience project Hidden Intentions last year.

https://hiddenintetions.itch.io/hidden-intentions

I took great inspiration from the art leaked images from Arcane, before the Netflix series was released. Inspired by the teslapunk theme, I concepted Victor from scratch, taking him through the modeling pipeline as well, with my first taste of the Marvelous Designer workflow for production. Steps included sculpting in ZBrush, retopologising in Maya, modeling clothes in Marvelous Designer, baking in Marmoset Toolbag 4, texturing in Adobe Substance Painter, and rendering in Unreal Engine 5.

I retopologised the clothing with ZRemesher. Looking back, and with my current skillset, I'd rather retopologise by hand to ensure poles are placed in appropriate areas.

That's all for the work I'm most proud of at the moment! I feel as though I've come very far in the last year and a bit, and I have a long way to go with learning and improving! Let me know if you have any feedback, key areas for me to focus on, if you like something of mine in particular. 

Don't hesitate to connect with me:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-hermans-95129313b/
Art Station: https://www.artstation.com/naomihermans
Email: [email protected]