Ghost in the Shell - Major Motoko Kusanagi

Ghost in the Shell - Major Motoko Kusanagi

(Jan-Oct 2022, Aug 2023)

Matching the concept
In the beginning, I modelled the mesh just by eyeballing the proportions. But the anatomy was off, especially when the model was rotated. The foreshortening on the limbs was a challenge.
A lot of time was spent as I went back-and-forth between retopologizing in Maya, re-importing the low poly back into Zbrush and adjusting the anatomy. I also had adjusted the face mesh in Blender when I plugged in the textures and prepared the model for render. Not your best workflow but I guess I was still figuring things out as I learned from other artists' working processes.

The 2 screenshots above were adjustments done in later stages (Aug 2023). Before then I didn't even have the concept of superimposing the reference image over the model as assistance lol.

Feedback from fellow artists also suggested that I separate components and work on them individually, which I didn't do at first.

The face and hair
I still need to improve my concept matching skills, but for this project I ended up camera projecting the face from the reference image.

I started with a demo anime head, and decided that I want to go with figure-like stylized hair. I ended up adding hair chunks and merging them together in Zbrush.

I felt that hair and face poly count can be further cut down. Face topology can be more regular and symmetrical.

Topology
I wanted to learn how to topologize properly so I put extra focus on creating clean edge flows. Gun/hard surface topology needs better understanding and improvement though.

Texturing 
I did most of the texturing in Substance Painter. Hair highlights and shadows were handpainted.

For model completion I opted for the 'figure' look: plastic materials, simplified details.

However in hindsight I think the textures can be reworked with more detail, with a focus in more shadows and highlights, more defined edges, seams, and secondary/tertiary material details for higher likeliness.

Scene setup for render
For this project I used a simple setup in Blender for showcase purposes : a black backdrop and default stylized lighting setup that came with plugins.