Blendshapes for the kid, progress

So after getting some great feedback from Ben and Andy, both saying how much they liked the hat, I decided to move onto the blendshapes for the kid. I have got most of them done here, as you can see and I need to show Clym to make sure they will be ok for rigging. I have done all of the mouth shapes, and most of the eyes, only a few remain.

Hat finished + flippers

Right, here are shots of the finished hat in maya, with the normal maps applied to the different pieces. I personally think it looks quite nice. I also finished the flippers which were quite simple to do. I will wait and see what the rest of the crew thinks about this, and then next up will be blendshapes for the kid.

The hat in zbrush

So I have started work on the hat, and taken it into zbrush for some high res details to be added. I am nearly done, although I forgot to save the flaps, so they are done but if tweaks need to be done they would need to be made again. This is just another painful reminder why we must save every 5 mins. But atleast I have the final product so hopefully Andy will like it and everything will be fine. For this hat, I just used some brushed to create the stitching and creases, and then stamped a few alphas all over it to create that leathery, beaten up look.

Next up, back to work on the kid.

Right, so I showed Andy the tweaks I made to the submarine and he was pleased with them. He then told me the kid needed to be worked on some more, so Clym and myself have a few things to do (as it has become a joint effort). I need to model the flippers, detail the hat, and create the blendshapes. I will get onto this as soon as possible.

Tweaks to the sub model

Right, so Andy asked me if I could make a few tweaks to the existing submodel. Just small things, like adding the fins at the bottom, the dome at the top and tweaking the sail to fit the section appropriately. I will show the tweaks to Andy and see what the thinks.

Next up, Tweaks to sub model

Andy asked me to make a few tweaks to the current sub, which I will get onto asap. Its just minor things, like adding a few pieces and tweaking the sail.

Review of Kid for Heroes 1.0

Right, so I finished the child for Heroes 1.0. The only problem I had was creating the head in 3D. The original concept I was given was extremely stylised and minimalistic, which may have caused me to have some problems as I am quite used to extreme amounts of detail and creating quite high res assets. So this change of pace has had an effect on me, I was unable to produce a head that I personally found to be acceptable, so there was no way I would give that to Kofi. I explained this to him and showed him the bad attempts, and he understood. So I have passed the model onto him and he asked me to possibly add some wrinkles to the clothing in zbrush when I can. This I will do as soon as I can.

UV mapped Kid

Here are shots of the UV mapped child. As UV mapping is a specialty of mine, I got through it quite quickly with relative ease. These parts of the kid are now ready for texturing.

Kid model finished

So here are shots of the kid model finished (aside from the head). I spoke to Kofi and went back and forth fixing the shape of the model to make sure he was happy with the shape and proportion. I attempted to create the head a few times but I had no luck, because they all came out looking crap. I dnt know what the problem was but I was just unable to produce a good looking 3d mesh from the very stylised concept.

Making of Kid - Heroes

Here is a quick making of shot of the kid for Heroes 1.0 I used a fairly simple poly edge extrusion method. I showed the model to Kofi a few times to make sure he was happy with the shape, and make sure I was headed down the right path.

Next up

So after getting the base done for the kid in the deep, I spoke to Kofi and said I would work on his character next. Hopefully I will be able to create a proper head this time round.