Mad Science and Faust

Mad Science:
A garage-built weapon conceived by the mind of an engineer with a couple of screws loose! Based on concept art by the amazing Bruce Yu, used with permission

Original concept art by Bruce Yu, used with permission https://www.artstation.com/artwork/686mNn

Done over the course of about 4 weeks. I learned a lot in this project about how to further push the realism in my texturing. Working with the glass and lighting/post processing effects for the beauty shot was a lot of fun. There was a lot of focus on interpreting and translating a 2D concept into 3D which came with many challenges but sparked a very interesting thought process about the logic and mechanics of the weapon which helped me more confidently make a more well thought out asset. If I could redo this project, I would have removed many unnecessary bevels in the lowpoly and planned in more time for the presentation so I could plant it in a garage workbench environment to further push the "DIY, mad scientist, duct tape and bubble gum" theme.

Faust:
Fanart of Faust from Taimanin RPG, originally illustrated by K-SUWABE

The original in-game illustrations made by K-SUWABE that I worked off of https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/70653086

I immediately fell in love with the design upon seeing it which made me excited to create art for the first time in over a year, I just knew I had to adapt it into 3D. Done over the course of about 5-6 weeks. It was a great learning experience doing hard surface sculpting for the first time which helped me discover a new passion for sci fi. This is one of my first projects where I really started getting into the good habit of taking multiple steps back and carefully paying attention to the big picture rather than unnecessary details. Especially my texturing workflow improved a lot as I learned to focus on balance first, followed by readability and details last. I made the decision to change some things from the concept such as cutting the guns for the sake of my deadline (and because they deserve the attention of being their own project) as well as changing the emissive colours for the sake of the overall visual balance (the red was too distracting). If I could redo the project I would put more attention into optimizing the lowpoly, developing the look of the materials further in the highpoly and telling more of the story and purpose of the character by showing instead of telling.