Assignment Goat Organic Character
3D Character Creation:
I already had a vague notion of my character's appearance to begin with. An animal's head attached to a human body is known as a therianthrope. In conclusion, I choose to go with the human body combined with a goat head.
Concerning the Character He wears a casual dress, is quite humble and nice, and has certain tattoos that are personal to him.
Character Design and References
To process my idea further, I have to clear some of the doubts about the character and the texture So I started with a quick outline sketch on Photoshop to make sure it suits the proportions. To begin with, I started searching for a simple forward-facing goat and body with a casual outfit and then merged them in Photoshop. Fortunately, the result was quite excellent and well matched my imagination.
Secondly, I wanted to make sure if there is a tattoo on the arm, the texture is visible with prominent details. So as a trial, I decided to try it on one of the arms so I took a random model and unwrapped it in a specific UDIM way such that the UV shell of the arm is placed in a different grid and the whole body on another grid. I textured the whole character in Substance Painter.
Well, the result was perfect as expected. As you can see the tattoo is well detailed and in good resolution.
Planning and Management
Initially, to ease the process I decided to go step by step starting with the list of props the character will be holding. For example, casual outfit, flip flops, Yerba mate cup, and Cap (Optional). First, I decided to add a cap as well to give it a fancy look but then I realized that it would obstruct the path of the horns and would look weird So I canceled the cap out of the desired props.
About the character's body. I decided to break it into two parts which I found to be the easiest and quickest way to approach. So by using Figma, I made a mind map for the whole character as follows:
To describe it in brief, I have divided the character into four chunks.
Goat Face
Human body
Wristband
Yerba Mate cup
Flip flops
All the props have a similar workflow which is to model, unwrap, bake, and texture it in a substance painter. I believe that starting with props will be an easy and convenient way to finish all minor chunks first rather than moving directly to the character. For the character, I tried to break it most simply by modeling, sculpting, and retopology goat's face, and body. Before moving to unwrapping, I feel that merging the face body will be a little bit complicated for me which depends upon my approach to retopology. Coming towards workflow, Once the merging and unwrapping is done, I have to pose the character in such a way that he is holding the Yerba mate cup and wearing flip-flops. Following that, the most efficient part comes from lighting. It is always important to set a lighting setup effectively to present the character conventionally. Lastly, Rendering passes and compositing or color correction will be done in software like Photoshop.
Execution
Flip-Flops
In my mind, I have already decided to go with the simple design and Nike logo. So I managed to find many references for flip-flops
Reference
Block Out
UV Mapping
Baking and Texturing in Substance Painter
It was quite easy and less challenging to model and texture flip-flops. As always I enjoyed texturing it in a Substance Painter. We have more freedom to design or add logos however we want to. Furthermore, As the Character is going to wear it, I kept it less detailed and optimized and gave the logo area more space on my grid while UV mapping so that It would look prominent even if observed from a long distance.
Yerba Mate Cup
Since I already know many athletes who drink Yerba Mate, it was straightforward for me to find a perfect reference in less time.
Reference
Block Out
I have to take a picture of the cup in Zbrush with Alpha's assistance to add extra details. I decided to combine the mesh into two groups while doing so. One has a group dedicated to details, while the other is a detailed group featuring a cup.
Adding details in Zbrush
After finishing the modeling part, I imported it into Zbrush to add details.
I spent a lot of time trying to find an exact alpha map to match with reference. Once I found it, I increased the subdivisions of the model and dragged the alpha with the help of a brush wherever needed. It was one of the fun parts.
After adding the details, once again I exported the lower subdivision as cup_low and the higher subdivision as cup_high.
As per my knowledge, I always prefer to approach the baking process by exporting both low and high poly from Zbrush instead of in Maya. As low poly which I exported from Zbrush is after detailing It has less chance to produce any baking issues in Substance Painter.
UV Mapping
The next step is to import a low poly model cup_low in Maya for UV mapping.
As I have added prominent detail of the flower on the cup, while UV mapping I have used UDIMS and kept detailed groups in one grid and less detailed grp in other ones exactly like I did in the trial on the waitress model. It gives me more space and prominent resolution for details.
Baking and Texturing in Substance Painter
The first time I baked the details they needed to be more prominent. So I have to alter some baking settings. For instance, I set the maximum frontal distance to 4 and baked it again and it showed a drastic difference in projection.
After that, While texturing in Substance Painter, I was facing issues with masking and grunge maps but thankfully through Canvas recorded sessions, I was able to overcome it quickly and was able to complete texturing seamlessly.
5. Final Output
After completing the props, It's time to move towards Character.
My approach for the character is to start sculpting the goat face in Zbrush, then retopology it in Maya.
Wristband
I modeled a low poly wristband and unwrapped it in Maya
After that using layers and grunge maps, I textured it in Substance Painter
To begin with, I started to find references for Goat Face which I managed to find. As it was my first time sculpting the face of an animal, I was not quite sure where to start.
So I started browsing for some external tutorials on YouTube specifically for goat face sculpting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAd-7plBxO8&t=7775s
Tooking a video as a reference and following the steps, I was done with the blocking briskly.
I learned many things from the video. I always used to jump to secondary details quickly right after blocking. In this case, I initiated sculpting three things simultaneously face, eyes, and horns which helped me to adjust the proportion of the face and finalize the basic shapes such as lips and eyes area.
After that, I slowly started to add details starting from muscle flow, and polishing the shapes around the nose area. I always take feedback from both the professors Richard and Carlo and from this, I came to know that there was some mismatch with the proportion and details near the eye area. For now, I do not have the image of that but before starting secondary detailing I fixed it.
Secondly, a Small but efficient thing I learned was that it is always easier if we start with a low-intensity brush.
REFERENCE
I faced many issues while sculpting but eventually, I overcame the issues by focusing on different areas at the same time. For instance, as you can see, Lips was the toughest part for me while sculpting the face. But later I moved towards the neck muscle and focused on basic shapes It gets easy and fixed quickly.
For sculpting horns, I explore many brushes Curve Alphas, Snakehook, IMM Primitives, and many more. Since I wanted a simple one instead of a fancier and detailed one, for the horns I didn’t follow the video and decided to go with the Snake hook as it was optimized. After which I applied Zremesher on it increased subdivision and started sculpting details.
FINAL OUTPUT
Now after getting done with the goat head. To start with the character body, I started browsing for references. I decided to start with the sphere using a reference in the background for proportion.
I managed to find many poses and detailed references for the main body through the various E-Resources which are provided on Canvas. First, I referred and went through the Anatomy for Sculptors. The book is very which includes multiple poses of the human body which defines the squash and stretch of the muscle flows according to the pose of the body.
For my character, The only thing I needed was the detailed arm and legs as the whole torso is covered by a Shirt and Shorts.
Coming toward the sculpting, There are two methods:
First, start with the sphere and mask and extrude the hand and leg portion
Second, use a Zsphere to block out the whole body.
Initially, I decided to start with the Sphere and mask and extrude the hand and leg portion to complete the basic blocking. Since I was blocking in Zbrush for the first time, I faced many difficulties while doing so. It was taking a lot of time
So I decided to go with a Zsphere method, Before starting I prefer to search for some methods and external tutorials for basic blocking of the body using Zsphere.
As my character is holding the Yerba Mate tea. I felt like It would be easy to pose with the Zsphere method.
I found a tutorial from the YouTube Chanel Aung ye’s Sculptbberish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aOd2X5iqH4&t=1061s
From this tutorial, I learned many things starting from the Zsphere navigation and the blocking the whole body with the prominent proportions. Since the video is based on the stylized character, It covers the basic muscle flow of the torso, arms, and legs as well.
After completing the blocking and sculpting, As you can see the body is not in the fined proportion. And as I have already subdivided it. I was not able to deform and sculpt as I wanted to. So instead of working on the same model, I decided to create multiple versions of the blocking using the same Zsphere method with the pose that I need for my character.
After trying it three times, The result was quite better than the previous one. Once the blocking was done, I started sculpting muscles and the basic form of the body in low resolution as it is easy to change the proportion.
To adjust the proportions of the character, I used the transparent texture wheel.
I have to show that the character is holding a teapot or something like a cup So I took a reference of various athletes whom I know who drink yerba mate tea and tried to adjust the fingers accordingly.
After a while, our professor Richard conducted an in-person lecture on feedback.
After taking feedback I caught on the fact that posing while blocking is not a great idea as I may face issues while retopology. So he helped me by deleting the half portion of the body and using a mirror and weld. It was fortunate that the issue was solved then and there.
Moreover, He instructed me to go with the A pose as it is more convenient.
Following the implementation of the feedback, I continued sculpting the visible muscles of the character’s arms and legs. I used various references from Anatomy for Sculptors
Arms
Reference
For arms, I started with shoulders to make them broad and muscular and slowly moved down toward the wrist adjusting the proportions. Since the character is an athlete, I also had to make sure I was not adding more muscular tone to the body.
Legs
Reference
For sculpting legs, I started with managing proportion and adding primary details on the knee area.
Hands
Reference
Hands are one of the most important of the characters as it was visible. So I decided to pursue it with hands at last. Initially, I faced difficulties detailing the hands as it was quite low resolution and the shape was also not prominent.
I cut the hands from the wrist to add another one
Firstly, I tried to make a hand with Zsphere. It went very well but again it was difficult to match the proportion and resolution to add details.
So I went with the second method which is to model it from scratch in Zbrush. To match the proportion. Since I was facing difficulties with the palm, I decided to follow the external tutorial from J Hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HPmy28SdOc&t=439s
In this tutorial, I learned about the workflow and the various approaches to model. For instance, Paying attention to all the areas simultaneously is very essential. Moreover, I learned about how to use playgroups for different fingers. So that we can isolate each group while setting a pose.
Before starting with tertiary details, as basic body proportion was done I started with the shirts and shorts
T-SHIRT
1 2
3
Initially, for the T-shirt, I masked the area of the body and extracted it as per the needed thickness. Following that, I resized it and applied Zresmesher to have a prominent edge flow.
Here, (1) is the masked area, (2) is the result after extraction, and (3) is the result after applying Zremesher.
To add folds and detail to the shirt, I searched for various references as I wanted it to look natural on the character. I increased the subdivision of the t-shirt and started sculpting the folds according to the reference.
In the same way as I did for a shirt, I masked out the area for socks and extracted them.
Retopology of socks. Initially, for socks, I started looping around the main areas from which I was going to cut edges while unwrapping. After which, I filled the gaps and connected the edge loops.
Reference
After adding the folds, I exported the shirt's high poly model to Maya for retopology as I had to bake it in Substance Painter.
Problem Faced
Right after importing the model in Maya, as we can see in the below image were unable to apply both object and world symmetry in quad draw the mesh.
After checking in Zbrush, I came to know the whole model was not on a grid, and positions X were not Zero. I have faced this exact issue previously in class and got my doubts cleared by the professor in class itself. So after fixing the positions, I exported the model again and the symmetry issue in Maya was solved.
Retopology
Final Output
To initiate, Considering the cuts needed while unwrapping UVs, I started with the loops just like I did it with the goat and socks.
Shorts
For the shorts, I followed similar steps that I followed for the shirt. First, I mask out the area and then extract it. This time not only do I want to add folds but also pockets and chains.
Reference
After extraction, It divides the normals into polygroups. So I have to make sure that I delete the remaining two playgroups as we want it hollow and will increase unnecessary poly count.
After that, I will increase the subdivision and add details.
After adding detailed output
Retopology
Just like I retopology shirt, I used the same method with pants. Starting from the edge loops where I will be adding cuts while unwrapping.
After baking both the Shirt and pants in substance Painter, I textured them using layers, various maps, and alphas.
After being done with the basic blocking of the whole body, I merged the goat face with the high poly body.
Coming back towards the main body.
I came across many references for nerve flow over the arms for tertiary details on arms and legs.
Reference
Tertiary detail
I enjoyed adding nerves to the character’s body. To add details like muscles and nerves connecting to it, I decided to switch off the X symmetry as it looks more real when it's not symmetric.
I always wanted to try adding noise texture to the whole body so it looks like real skin. So I followed CGRave Tutorthe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBteZ31poqQ
From this, I learned the uses of Morph brush and how it plays an essential role while making major changes to the model. To add noise, I found it very easy with the help of surface attributes. Moreover, I was able to change the alpha texture and apply it to my mesh quite easily. However, I tried to keep it in low resolution as the character is semi-realistic.
Retopology
To start retopology, I divide the whole character into sub-parts for an easier approach. I started with the goat head which took me a lot of time.
First, I roughly designed the loops with the help of paint software.
Following this, I brought the model in Maya and started with basic loops around the mouth, neck, eyes, etc. as we can see in the below picture.
The above image is the feedback I received from Professor Richard, to optimize the edge flow. For instance, areas like the head and back of the neck don't need the amount of edges. So we can redirect the edge flow and optimize it.
After completing the major part of the face, I moved towards the ears. As ears were a little complicated to pursue, I left them for a last.
For horns, I used Zremesher for the low poly model which worked perfectly fine.
One of the backup methods I did was to:
Take a model in the Zbrush
Cut or make the separate polygroup of the ear.
And apply Zremesher on it accordingly.
I kept this method as a backup plan but it was not a good option as edge flow was not prominent.
Coming towards Maya to give it another try.
After trying twice, I decided to approach the ear in class. So I first deleted the connecting faces and started again. Eventually, With the guidance of the professor, It went very well and I was able to complete it quickly.
After this, I moved towards the body which I have divided into four sections.
For instance, I started with looping the torso, completing both the legs and arms, and then I approached the hands which was a little bit tricky to manage the edge flow with the wrist.I took the help of various YouTube tutorials in their ways. For legs and arms, I refer to the video of Maya Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aup2Oqw3uIw&t=1s
In this tutorial, I learn about the edge loops required in knee and elbow areas and how to connect them so that even if we add edge it will not affect the other areas.
And for hand, I found many videos with different approaches and styles. it also depends on how detailed the character is. Since my character is semi-realistic and posed, I found Sir Aiman’s Tutorial very convenient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdQv6W7zbKU
This explains how to approach the hand starting from the knuckles, completing fingers with the little dense areas in the middle. Furthermore, the thumb was a little bit tricky part, to loop around in such a way that it would connect to the other side of the hand.
After getting familiar with the various concepts and methods, I decided to give it a go for the remaining part by myself.
After completing the Retopology I did the UV mapping. As a workflow, I decided to use UDIMS to have a better resolution with a good pixel density. For instance, I placed the UVs of the hand and leg in separate UDIM for texturing tattoos.
Texturing
I did first the baking part on all the models so that I could deal with issues separately before beginning texturing. Fortunately, I found the workflow very convenient when adjusting the issue UV shell vise.
I can say that using a substance painter for texturing is a very easy and interesting part of this project for me. There are a lot of options to solve the bake issue and also many varieties of brushes and grunge maps.
I started with the goat head which is the most detailed part of the character.
I used various grunge maps for basi skin texture. It took me a lot of time to search for references for the color combination and patches on the face. Since my character is semi-realistic, I used various brushes and tried to create a hairy texture on the face of the character.
I refer to one of the support sessions for adding details and subsurface scattering maps to the skin using layers with various colors for different types of details using grunge maps. Moreover, I added a subsurface scattering layer on the character using a thickness map.
After that, I started with the basic props like socks and flip-flops.
Unexpectedly, I spent plenty of time selecting particular tattoos and applying them.
For texturing eyes, I decided to refer to the tutorial blog https://3dtotal.com/tutorials/t/realistic-eye-texture-painting#article-introduction. At the end, I also added small reflections and some effects on the eye using layers and various brushes in Photoshop.
Posing
After applying texture using a substance plug-in and setting up the scene in Maya. I decided to pose the character in such a way that he is holding the yerba mate cup in his left hand.
I decided to rig it in Mixamo and pose it in Maya after that.
Lighting
For lighting, I decided to go with the 3-point lighting with one additional light that illuminates the background. Moreover, I added a slight reddish color to the rim light So that it will illuminate the Sub surface scattering.
Final Renders
Final Thoughts and Consideration
I believe that this project enhanced my technical and practical skills. Since I have used this software before, I was able to troubleshoot problems that I was facing. However, This was the first time I approached the character from scratch. Choosing the animal face and human body was a little bit tricky for me. From this assignment, I have learned many things.
I used a Zbrush for sculpting details on a hard surface but while sculpting the goat and fingers, it was really interesting to study the muscle flow and depth while adjusting proportion at the same time
While sculpting my body, I have learned many methods to approach the human body. For instance, using Zbrush was very convenient and quite easy for me to start and finish blocking quickly.
Last but not least, It was a little bit complicated, but I learned about various ways and tricks for retopology especially near the elbow, knee areas, and hands.
Self-Critique and Reflection
I feel that even though I now have a good understanding of ZBrush, I still have to do a lot of practice to enhance my sculpting skills to avoid basic mistakes like the dynamesh model very quickly without checking the proportion.
At the starting phase, I was struggling to manage time for two modules. For instance, I decided on the character quickly, however, I spent days planning how and where to start.
I faced many issues and there was a little bit of reworking in certain areas which I had to improvise.
In this project, I feel that instead of completing the shirt and pants separately first, I should have initiated with the whole character at a time. It might have saved a lot of rework for me
To conclude, I am aware that there are a lot of areas to improvise and I think I have learned from my mistakes.
However, I am happy with my journey until now. Even though I could have managed more appropriately. I tried my best and this is the most important thing for me.
Thanks for reading and see you at the next one.
Maahish.
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