This project is a work in progress, based on the original concept and art by Zhengyi Wang (https://www.artstation.com/rangerwang). My intention here is to create an animatable/rig-able character appropriate for real-time rendering in Unreal Engine 5. Render to the left is of low poly geometry + textures, taken from Unreal Engine 5.
Final pose for presentation. I'm considering a version where the dove companion is perched on Vassago's hand, and they're wearing their mask instead of holding it. Perhaps when I have the crocodile modelled up.
With the creature's face hidden in the concept art, I decided to go for vague face-like features. Maybe there's a face under the main skin. For the mask, I decided to go for a gold metallic paint painted on wood, with a tar like substance for the rorschach pattern.
Just a fun back view that shows off the back scales.
I intend to create the crocodile companion as well, and hope to have the main demon guy sitting on them, like in the original concept.
Close up of the dove companion, and the worn leather of the hat. I interpreted the hat as a little nest for the dove to sit in, that has been busted open in the middle and perhaps reinforced later. Please notice the cool veins in the eye socket flesh.
The tail tip just doesn't get enough love in the other renders, so here it is!
Final model with the textures in Unreal Engine 5.
Please enjoy these screenshots of the completed texturing, just taken from Substance Painter. Textures use standard PBR structure, namely colour, roughness, metalness and height/tangent normals. I will be rendering the lad in Unreal Engine 5, and do a quick pose with Transpose Master in ZBrush.
Found a look for the skin that I'm real pleased with, it's a shame the character is masked! I also added some gnarly veins in the dove's eye socket flesh, very fun.
Close up of the scale painting and the finer fur detail. Edit: The odd zig-zaggy bit on that left (character's right) side of the armour piece has been corrected in an updated version of the mesh.
Finished sculpt (ZBrush).
Full low poly topology, including costuming and the "dove" companion. Full topology sits around ~37K. If I needed to push further geometry optimization, the undersides of the costuming would be my first target (perhaps in a future update of this project :) ).
Low poly topology of the main body and claws only.
Close up of hand and feet topology. My read on the concept art is that the character has primate-like feet capable of a hand-like grip.
Topology of the dove companion. I've treated it like its own minor character that can be posed and animated whilst nested in the hat.
UV layouts of the main body (left) and the dove companion combined with the hat (right). For this project I intend to use one material with 2K maps for the main body, and have split the remaining accessories across three materials with 1K maps. They have split into the following groups: (dove + dove's eye + hat), (chest piece + mask + claws), and (shoulder pieces).
UV layouts of the chest piece, claws and mask (left), and shoulder pieces (right). Shoulder pieces could be stacked for further optimization, in which case I'd move at least the claws into the spare UV space.
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