Bone Whip Hunter / The Whisperer in Darkness

BONE WHIP HUNTER (LOOKDEV CHARACTER) 

Lookdev project done over 6 months during my Advanced Diploma course at 3dsense Media School based on Meltifire's concept 'Whip Woman'.

CONCEPT AND REFERENCES 

I collected images that inspired me or would be useful to aid me in visualizing how the final artwork would look like. Focusing more on areas that I anticipate might need more care such as the face, hair, and wear and tear of the clothing. 

MODELLING 

I started sculpting the head first, using poly paint to draft out the look and expression I wanted the face to capture. 

Pore details were created with Texture XYZ scans using ZWrap. A quick block out of the hair is done in Blender and brought over for refinement in Zbrush which will later be used to generate guides used for XGen. 

After finalizing the sculpting of the head, the body base is posed before moving on to creating the rest of the character. Fabrics and softer meshes are created in Marvelous Designer while ropes, bandages, and belts are modelled in Maya.

HEAD LOOKDEV

After the sculpting, I move on to fine-tuning the look of the character. Enhancing the face texture in Photoshop while adjusting the XGen of eyebrows and eyelashes simultaneously to ensure the features compliment the face together. 

HAIR XGEN

The hair guides were created by converting the mesh into curves in Maya and then guides in XGen. I have split the hair guides into multiple descriptions; left, right, back, and flyaways for easier control. 

Modifiers were added to create variation in hair texture. The hair was then converted to interactive grooming for cleaning up and further tweaking. 

TEXTURING

After unwrapping the character in Maya, the models are brought into Substance Painter for baking while displacement maps are exported from Zbrush. 

LIGHTING AND RENDERING

For the last step, I have set up different lighting for each camera angle to highlight the features I want the render to capture. Experimenting with the tint of lights and angles that would cast a visually interesting shadow on the character.

THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS - ENTRANCE
(GAME-READY ENVIRONMENT)

Game environment based on 'The Whisperer in Darkness - Entrance' by Cmy Cai created with Unreal Engine 5.

REFERENCE BOARD

The reference is broken down into sections for easier tracking of assets required for the scene. At this stage, I also take note of the props and materials that could be used as modular assets to increase efficiency in recreating the scene.

BLOCKING OUT 

I modelled the scene in Maya, ensuring the models were organized by grouping them into their respective sections. The books were blocked out using cubes to get a general idea of how I wanted them to be arranged before the individual mesh was created to replace it. 

TEXTURING

Unreal Engine decals and vertex painting were used to texture bigger assets like the wallpaper, while the rest of the models used tileables textures and texture atlas to optimize the amount of textures needed for the scene. 

For models that have high details, I created a lower res model and baked the details in Substance Painter.

ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING

Lastly, I used multiple point lights and spotlights to set the mood of the scene. Adjusting the shaders of the material to ensure that it captures the light and reflection as close as possible to the original concept. 

                                     Thanks for viewing!