My next project is to make a low poly character asset. We have been tasked to make a gladiator model for this project and I am really looking forward to it as this will really push me out of my comfort zone because I am not used to doing themes like this. I will firstly start out making a research page highlighting some of the key features of Roman gladiators and decide on what kind of build and general design I will be taking forward into 3ds Max. I do not want to spend too long on the designing process as I want to try and optimise the actual model to be as well made and clean as possible. This brief focuses on a lot of good topology so this is something I will be taking care with throughout this process. I have kept a brief journal of my process in a word document and will now record my reflective process in my blog.
To start my modelling process, I began by re topping a high poly head which had been made and imported into 3ds Max from ZBrush. This was a new skill where I had to really look at where all the facial loops were supposed to be positioned. It was a trial and error process for me as I made sure to go back and correct any quads which I thought weren't accurate or not as cleanly placed as they could be. During this time, I was able to use many new tools in 3ds in the modelling tab which I am keen to take forward into my own personal projects. Next time, I would really like to model my own head in ZBrush. This is something I will practise in my own time as I am keen to learn.
I found this initial process of retopping quite tricky as I was getting confused about which loops had to connect together to form the perfect topology. After spending time making sure everything looked correct and using swift loop checking, things looped nicely. I moved on to moving the verts around in order to get the exact type of facial stricture I wanted for my personal gladiator design. As the brief has stated that body type and gender was up to us, I opted to doing a more feminine face with a smaller nose and larger eyes as I think I will be able to take this design idea forward and develop it more with armour in order to create an interesting and unique design. Moving the verts around in a way to not ruin the topology was challenging and took me quite a while. I found the muzzle of the model especially hard to model correctly. After this, I moved on to constructing the main parts of the body, keeping the symmetry modifier on at all times. I also added lashes.
As I was modelling the body, extruding faces and adding good topology onto the forms, I was making sure to focus on what body type I wanted my character to have and to make sure that it fitted with the concept I had in mind when modelling the head. I found modelling the body challenging as I had to keep in mind the anatomy of a human figure whilst modelling. I used a few human body references when doing this process, to look at how the forms and shapes were on a petite female figure. It took me a few attempts to get the figure looking good and I was trying out different methods to make the breasts.
The hardest part of modelling the body was the hands. The topology had to be very accurate on this as later on when I come to rig and weight paint they won't move properly if they were not accurate. They took me a long time to make. Once I had finished making the hands and I was happy with the initial body type, I did another check of the topology to ensure that I had not accidently moved anything or deleted anything along the way. Throughout this process, I was very careful in checking this, as during my last project a challenge I faced was a lack of optimisation of my model, so for this project I really wanted to improve on that and ensure that everything was correct.
After modelling the body, I began adding armour and clothing to my model. I made sure to refer back to my mood boards in order to create a gladiator which looked convincing. I used the topology which I had already made on the body and began pulling parts out in order to make a statement chest piece and other pieces of armour. I added a long cloth skirt and a lot of other elements which I would make in red fabric.
After feedback, I had to shorten some of my fabric assets as this would prove to be a big issue when it came to rigging my model. I chopped down the long skirt so it was above the knee. As I have never rigged before, I had to think carefully about what would be viable assets for me to add, taking this process into account. I will have to make changes to my model later on if I am unable to rig and weight certain parts of the model well. I also made some design changes to the armour based on feedback, as some of the parts were too spiky and would actually injure the character in battle. Therefore, I have now shortened down some of the extreme spikes on the metal parts. I have also moved the leather belt down to a better position which creates more of a balance to my model. Thanks to the feedback, I was able to improve my design and make it look more convincing.
I next went on to modelling the hair which so far has been my favourite part of the process. When doing my research, I found that a lot of female gladiators wore plaits in their hair along with metal bands. Therefore, I have modelled a funky looking style with 3 pony tails. When hand painting, I intended to make the hair into plaits. Using the geometry on this hair piece, I added some depth so that the plaits will look more convincing with the lack of topology as the silhouette will be affected. I had a lot of fun modelling the hair and enjoyed researching some different ways to go about it. As the brief was low poly, I didn't have the budget to use something like hair cards as these would be too expensive. However, I am very interested in looking into ways of making hair and will definitely be keen to try it out in my personal projects. For this project, I used a block method such as the one used in League of Legends. I was advised to have a look at some existing models which had used this method so I looked at some for reference.
Next, I began the unwrapping process onto 2 UVs. Before this, I tried to connect as many assets to the actual body as I could as this would help me when I come to painting out seams. I was only able to attach the chest plate and gauntlets as the other pieces didn't follow the topology of the body accurately enough. Once I had finished unwrapping my model, I moved on to hand painting textures on Photoshop like I did with the bubble tea shop and chest. However, I found this part of the process challenging as, even though I had tried my best to conceal any seams in places, painting out was extremely difficult in places where I couldn't hide them. This was a long process and I had to go back and forth to my model and Photoshop to check to see how well it had gone. I again used lots of texture references in order to paint some gladiator type designs and embellishments onto my metal and sleeves.
As for my my design ideas, I used my mood board, which I had made at the start of my project, to design the elements and textures I would include. Firstly, I decided to choose a trident as my weapon as this was a very commonly used weapon by gladiators during Roman times. I also really like the look of tridents and felt that It would go well with my design, to link it clearly to the time period. I also included a red cape as reds. golds and silvers were often used in the armour for gladiators. I added white sleeves which would be connected to a bandaged top and tied by a draw string. I really liked the look of the use of weight in the more god-like Roman drawing and wanted to incorporate this into my gladiator. I originally started painting the armour gold; however, I much preferred the silver tones with the contrasting gold trident, along with the leather assets which I had included. I painted bandages directly onto the skin as I didn't think I would need to model these in.
After I had finished texturing, I then started rigging my gladiator using a biped. I found that this process took a long time but, once I had understood how do do it, I got into a flow. It was quite tricky as I had to ensure that all the bones and set up had been done to the best of my ability and accurately. The next part of the process was definitely the part I have found the most challenging so far this year. The skinning of the model took me a while to understand, especially with the hands. I had some issues trying to figure out which parts to weight to which part of as they were all so close together. It took me some trial and error in order to get this weight painting as accurate as I could. I had also made an animation to help out with this and to check how the model moved with the bipeds. I experienced some challenges during this process and really had to work hard in order to get around them and make my gladiator poseable. I eventually got to a stage where I could put her into a nice pose using the animation. After checking everything is correct, I will now export my biped and model, along with weapon, into Unreal.
I imported my model into Unreal and created an appropriate set up using folders to separate my materials, meshes and textures so that I could easily access and change anything if I needed to. I used the animation that I had made in Max to put my gladiator into a dynamic position which could further add to the representation of her character. In the last project, I didn't correctly organise my folders, so this time, I ensured I had followed this as it is good practise for a work place. I decided to light up my character in a dark room with a light floor plane so as to lift up the brightness and highlight the texture naturally without the use of another light. I used a combination of the 3 light technique mentioned and a YouTube video to help aid with coloured lighting. I did some slightly contrasting cooler lights as I think this helps bring out the colours more. If there was too much warm light, I think the textures would feel washed out. I'm going to go back and tweak some of the texture sheets in photoshop because there are some parts which need touching up. It was very challenging to get the seams to match up and they still aren't perfect so I will do another pass to get them as seamless as possible. Some of the shadows on my texture also look slightly too dark so this is something I will also try to correct back in Photoshop. The image below is before the cleaning up of lighting and textures.
Overall, this project was a new and exciting challenge as I am really interested in learning more about characters and also going on to do some more. I think that learning how the topology worked on a face and body has really helped build up my knowledge of the process and is something that I will now apply to my own projects, maybe making some of my own high poly models in ZBrush first. I also learnt a lot about how rigging and posing a character would be done. For me, this was the most challenging part and something that I will need to do more of in order to create a higher quality and smoother rig and skin. I will continue to study good topology in relation to character modelling.
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