Solar Showdown: The Mad Botanist

Solar Showdown: The Mad Botanist

This is the Mad Botanist, one of the two main characters for the student-produced game Solar Showdown by Brigham Young University. I had the opportunity to work on the 2D concept team for this character, and then to take the finalized concept through to its final form for in-game and cinematic uses. This included creating several proxy versions of the character in Maya, taking the final proxy model into Zbrush for detail and high-res sculpts, retopology of the final model, then finally UV's and texturing. It was thrilling to be able to bring this character to life and handle every detail of her final look. 

This character had several aspects that looked promising in 2D, but were difficult to translate into a successful 3D model. In her concept images, her face was very angular and impish. Taking the feeling of those images and recreating it in Zbrush was time consuming, but ultimately gratifying. She definitely comes across as an evil little plant scientist. Even more difficult was creating her hair. Her concept indicated it was "like a flower" and "flame-like", but otherwise the details were ill-defined and loose. This is where quick iteration in 3D was very useful, as the most important part of the design was making it read from our in-game camera angle. Below you can see part of the process that I underwent to achieve her final look. 

Final Concept Image

To put my 3D work into context, here is the final concept image that came together through a collaborative effort in a concept class. Final illustration by Britt Baird. 

Face Progress

Hair Iterations

Final  High-Resolution

Final Texture Turnaround

Game Assets

Solar Showdown is a real-time strategy game. Playing as either the Mad Botanist or the Corrupted Farmer, the player has 4 towers to use to build their solar farm and protect it from their enemy--giving them enough time to power up their giant space laser! 

The towers available to the player to build are: Solar Panel, Turret, Shield Generator, and Droid Factory . Each of these towers went through extensive 2D and 3D iteration processes, as my team attempted to solidify not only their style, but also their readability and functionality. I was in charge of the final models and textures for the Botanist's Droid Factory and her Droid. The tower also has several upgrade states, so the textures and models needed to reflect those changes in functionality in a way that the player would be able to recognize and understand. Her droid also presented challenges, as we wanted him to read as dangerous, but also cute--because every game needs a cute sidekick! Below you can see my final models and textures for these assets. I was responsible for high-res sculpts, retopology, UV's, and textures.

A Wild Environment

The Mad Botanist and her little "pinecone dog" minions, as they are affectionately named, battle the Corrupted Farmer on a foreign planet. Our team wanted this world to feel alien and alive, so tying in the Botanist's connection to plants into the world design was a must. Here are a few images of some  of the many plant iterations I created to flesh out our game's map. The most important aspect of these plants was getting their unique silhouettes to read from the 3rd person camera, so a mix of simplification and selective detail was integral.

(We also did a second level called Polar Showdown... with a special snowball mode! Be sure to check it out as well.)

Finally!

See the Mad Botanist and all her cool assets in action in our cinematic and gameplay trailer below! This game is the result of a year-long project with an amazing team, and without them the Botanist would just be a static model. But instead, you can play as her in Solar Showdown. Build your solar farm, destroy your enemy, and  dominate the planet! The game is free to play on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2408120/Solar_Showdown/