A professional 3D artist in Atlantic Canada.

Report RSS I'm Making A Character

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Concept:

It's a bad habit, but I'm winging this one. I had a basic idea, gathered some reference images, and began working it out as I went. For those familiar with World War Z, there comes a point where the surviving humans start to get their act together and turn the tides against the zombies ("total war?"). There was a restructuring of how communities work regarding things like education and job placement (making sure everyone can be put to use), and the combat tactics adapt as well. BDU's no longer require camo and go back to a navy color, possibly because it is the cheapest dye, armor is geared more towards stopping bites, winter is the prime offensive season as the zombies become less effective due to the cold, guns are more modular but go back to using wooden stocks as its cheaper/easier than composite materials, and sometimes its just better to not use a loud gun at all (such as the Standard Infantry Entrenchment Tool: a fusion of a shovel and an axe).
This isn't quite what I'm doing, though it is very heavily inspired by such things. I'm a fan of zombies, I like the thought of simpler uniforms, a more classic looking firearm, and the thought of relying more on close-combat using swords and axes unless it couldn't be helped. I also like the thought where it is no longer the zombie apocalypse; the remaining civilization has adapted and dealing with the countless flesh-eating corpses is just another part of life. Some modern technology may remain, others cease to exist or take several steps back (UAVs and video feeds remain helpful, billion-dollar fighter jets and missiles not so much). It's a good setting for a story.

This isn't quite what I'm doing, though it is very heavily inspired by such things. I'm a fan of zombies, I like the thought of simpler uniforms, a more classic looking firearm, and the thought of relying more on close-combat using swords and axes unless it couldn't be helped. I also like the thought where it is no longer the zombie apocalypse; the remaining civilization has adapted and dealing with the countless flesh-eating corpses is just another part of life. Some modern technology may remain, others cease to exist or take several steps back (UAVs and video feeds remain helpful, billion-dollar fighter jets and missiles not so much). It's a good setting for a story.

I found a coat from Dangoon that can be quickly converted from a stylish jacket to more of a military-looking uniform, so to me it seemed like something that could be either standard kit for a soldier, or just a good choice for a survivor. I also feel in love with the scoped Kar. Both seemed like they'd be fun to model.

Modeling:

Nothing too fancy yet. Just a simple base mesh with extra control-edges thrown in so that it will hold its shape more during subdivision. I also try at this stage to allow me to work with as little retopology as possible. This is exactly what I wrote about earlier: Moddb.com

ZBrush:

This is the first pass in Zbrush, done to help me get a basic feel for things. Nothing is final, certainly not the folds. Around this stage I like to work in the clothing seams and whatever features would help guide me. I don't plan on getting too hyped detailed; my laptop isn't capable of pushing too many polygons in zbrush, and I at my target resolution I don't imagine a whole lot would would even show up too well anyway. Thankfully the coat is a thicker material ( a wool blend), so it wouldn't have a lot of folds or threads anyway.

Edit:

Continuing to work away on it when I can find the time over these holidays. The clothing folds for the coat are more finalized; though the pants I've yet to pay attention to (I'm still considering changing them so that they are tucked into the boots). I just thought I'd post to say I like checking how the model would look with different matcaps applied. Aside from my general hatred of the default Wedwax (why do people leave it on when taking screenshots??), different materials can allow you to see the forms differently (accounting for bounce-light and the like). This allow allows me to preview the object as different materials; while I was originally thinking of sticking with a more charcoal/black look like in the reference, now I'm considering fancier accents or trim. I'm also toying with some more additions, such as the metal plates/bracers. It might be time to add in the sword/sheath.

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