Mechanic Super Mario

Breakdown of my First Project: Mechanic Super Mario

Idea and finding references

- The main idea for making this 3D Model came when my instructors gave me the task of making a project where I would be able to use all the skills I had acquired from the lectures at that time. I thought about where I could use the skills and decided that the most suitable for that would be to make a character, so I came up with the idea of making Super Mario, not in the classic version, but as a mechanic.

- My next step was to find references, I managed to collect references for the form of Mario's body. For the clothes I found a reference of how he is dressed as a mechanic, so I decided that would be the main reference for my first project.

ZBrush

- The first point from which i started to working on this project was ZBrush. Here i begin with the most basic work, blocking the the body of Mario. After I blocked out the body, I continued with sculpting the model, i.e. defined the main features, then continued sculpting the clothes, shoes, backpack, hat, glasses and so on.

- The process was fun for me, I enjoyed a lot because there was an opportunity to express myself creatively on a project that I chose, and it was also the first project I worked on from the knowledge I had developed.

- Step by step i managed to make the highpoly model and this is where I finished the work in ZBrush.

Autodesk Maya

Since I finished sculpting in ZBrush i moved to the next software, Autodesk Maya. Here I continued working on the model. First i started to retopology the model. After completing the retopology, my next step was to unwrap the model. Here i chose to use UDIM's.

Substance Painter

For texturing the model I used Substance 3D Painter. The process of texturing the model was more fun for me because the model was already getting his final look. For texturing the model I used various methods, i.e. some parts have manual painting, while for some parts i used the generators offered by Substance 3D Painter (dirt, metal edges wears..) and i managed to get what I want.

For posing the Model I went back to ZBrush, pose him and exported back to Autodesk Maya where I set the textures on the model and i rendered with Arnold Render. 

That's the whole process of creating my first Project at M3DS Academy and hope you enjoyed in this little journey of creating my Mario Mechanic :)