Month: March 2025

As I have UV unwrapped previous projects before, the UV unwrapping process for this project was fairly simple. Though, I seemed to overlook the thickness of some of the subtools of my model. Namely most of the cloth such as the capelet and the shirt- due to the thickness, it was easy to make mistakes when selecting vertices to create into a seam. Looking back, I should have kept the capelet and the shirt as as single plain thickness. I also observe that the face orientation was convoluted due to the thickness of these materials, and looking back, I should have adjusted them before I started texturing. I also feel that I have much to learn in regards to UV maps and unwrapping them in the most efficient method.

I also should have thought of more efficient ways to minimise the amount of subtools that I had. Despite the lack of complexity in my model, there were still over 85 subtools within the project, and moving forward I would have to look at how to reduce that.

After unwrapping every object , I moved onto testing how the textures would look on my model to try and weed out any errors.

TESTING TEXTURES

I imported my model into Adobe Substance Painter, as I was most familiar with this program when it came to texturing my model. Using textures from the program itself, I applied them onto my model for the sole purpose of seeing if the UVs were to my liking and to search for defects in them. However, most likely due to the quality of the textures and the cleanliness of them, I do not think I was able to see most of the errors in my UVs, as I was testing with only 1k resolution. After this test, I was satisfied enough for this model to go through higher quality texturing.

Before I could fully move into exporting the model into Blender for unwrapping and finishing the design, I sought verification that the design was cohesive and all the elements worked to each other’s favour. After receiving feedback about the helmet being too crowded, and should have more function and be more seamless with the hat, I adjusted the design so that the side plating of the helmet had a hinge that would allow the visor to be sat atop the helmet or in front of the main part of the helmet easily, as I thought about the efficiency of such a thing in battle. I also looked to several types of helmet models in order to gauge what would make sense and found that the design I ended up with made logical sense compared to my previous design which may have been too crowded. I wanted to add intricacies into the design, like various patterns, but I decided that would be more suited to do directly on the 3D model, so that the 2D art would be completely accurate to the 3D model (as there could be some details I could struggle to translate from 2D to 3D). After some final adjustments to the 2D design, I was advised that it would be better to figure out the logic and mechanics behind the structures in the 3D process.

With the advice given to me, I adjusted the render of my concept art.

Along with this, I adjusted the helmet within ZBrush and thought about how the helmet would latch onto the tricorn, so rather than a three layered design, I settled with a two layered one.

I then finalised the model by adding the bags on his leg.

USING BLENDER

I then imported the version of my model with the lowest subdivision levels into Blender. The polygon count was to my satisfaction, ending up at slightly over 200,000. Though this was still a lot, it was a vast improvement considering my skillset. I decided not to make the larger cape, the feather and the cloth around his waist on my model as of yet, along with the glass panels on the lantern, as I thought it would be easier to make in Blender using poly-modelling, as well as flat planes with no thickness being easier to manipulate on Blender. I began to make the planes on Blender, but realised that the cloth simulation in Zbrush could be utilised well for the cloth around his waist. I found that this got the desired effect for the way the cloth fell. I did the same for the cape, this time, manually creating the folds with several of the cloth brushes that Zbrush provided. I did this on Zbrush as Blender does not have not have brushes with such a specific utility, and I felt moving to Zbrush benefitted me more.

When approaching the design I used the masking tool in ZBrush in order to get accurate and clean shapes for my character’s armour. Using the deformation function ‘polish’, I managed to clean the topology of the chestplate, along with using the ZRemesher tool in order to decrease the polygon count into something more optimised and functional for the mesh, which I had not done for previous 3D modelling projects and found that my polygon count was too high for what my models were. Utilising this mistake as a stepping stone, I made sure to integrate a habit into my workflow that would make sure that my polygon count was as optimised as could be. I also learned through several tutorials that mesh topology could be further optimised by using the ZRemodeler brush, which I used to correct, deduce and add polygons that were needed.

It was my first experience doing hard surface modelling on a character, so I decided to look up many tutorials regarding the practice in order to gain habits that were necessary for efficient modelling. I mainly used the ‘How to Create Clean Hardsurface in ZBrush’ guide by Abe Leal 3D, which ended up teaching me many basic and necessary practices for my project. Rather than using the extrude tool to give thickness to any of the objects I used the Subdivision levels tool, where thickness can easily be adjusted and adapted to the shape of the object . Using the subdivide tool, I gave every object the appropriate level of thickness, thinking about the weight and necessary amount of protection. I used various polygon modelling techniques like insetting faces, extrusion, bevelling and inserting faces in order to give the desired subtools borders like armour trims. Looking back on my design, I decided to use the trims/borders I was making in order to achieve the extruding patterns that I conceptualised and that I would add the more curved areas in later when I do the high-poly details so that I could bake them on later as I have not baked much into my previous projects, and thus decided that I would incorporate that progress into my workflow. Constantly looking back to my references, I realised that the plating on the hip should have a clear connecting point with the main chestplate. So, as is present in many old models of armour, I added buckles- suggesting protection as well as full mobility in the suit.

After coming back to the project, I found that my chestplate subtool had corrupted, which resulted in this:

I did not know the error that could have led to this corruption, but I surmise it was due to too many insertions near a poly-loop, which would result in empty ‘gaps’ between a line of vertices though it would appear flat. Due to this error, I had to remake the entire chestplate, but made sure to avoid mistakes like the potential one I made.

This new chestplate was indeed more stable than the other one and the topology, especially for the neck hole area was actually much better than the last one.

I moved back to my 2D art program, Procreate to roughly conceptualise some alterations to the armour’s composition. As with the previous design, I wanted to make it functional in terms of mobility, taking into account that the character is active and deals with constant threats. I wanted the overall silhouette of the previous design to still be present, though I feel that I should have experimented a bit more. I gathered several references of real pieces of armour, focusing on the chest-plate area as that was the area that I was most unhappy with regarding my previous design. I thought that rather than making its overall shape unique, I would use several patterns and intricate details in order to achieve this. I did not want to omit the chest-plate all together as I wanted the armour to cover the main vitals of the design such as the heart, head and knees. I wanted to replicate the distinct uniqueness of the armour sets from Dark Souls III, Elden Ring, Lords of the Fallen and more, but making sure to stay within the line of realism.

With the moodboard as a reference, I composed several armour sketches with the previous design as my basis to test whether or not I could incorporate the old chestplate into the re-worked version of the design. I also played with the formation and composition of the plating, taking into account that I would have to make this in a 3D form. In the end, I heavily referenced the more coherent chestplates that I saw in the moodboards,

FINAL DESIGN

I went with a similar structure overall, making sure to tweak the armour so that there would be compositional harmony. I decided to still go with the upturned amour above the shoulders, and doubled the plating in response to some feedback regarding the armour composition. I also stayed with the chestplate being slightly longer as it looked cohesive with the design and was preferred within feedback. Looking into the era of clothing and points of inspiration that I constantly referenced; Victorian male fashion included capelets which they would be attached to their coats. I decided to put a capelet onto his design as it was a nice dark contrast, and also showed that he is of a high rank within his current affiliation, which I wanted to convey using the capelet. I accentuated this fact by keeping the garment in tact, as I had previously made it appear dishevelled and torn. And I further translated this by adding gold accents to the capelet when I had added colour to the design, invoking an air of status. To harmonise with this element of the design, I added a gold trim to his hat, as well as the feather- a feature that I thought should be somehow present and consistent to those who bear the title of Tidal Soldier. I wanted to convey his old, years past affiliation with another faction that had been lost to time and also the fact that he had awoken from an imprisoned slumber. So, I made his cape colour contrast with the oceanic themes of the design by making it red and more torn and singed than the capelet, to hint to his affiliation with the Sun. I thought this was much better than the initial green that I picked, not only having a lore-related reason, but having a pleasing warm/cool visual contrast. I thought this would also have an interesting implication as the Tidal Captain would have to work underwater, meaning the red would actually make him stand out more within the blue sea, showing a sense of justice and selflessness in battle that has brought many victories to his soldiers.

DEVELOPMENT AND LOOKING BACK ON CONCEPT

I started off by looking back into my overall moodboard that covered the entirety of my narrative as I had wanted everything to align to the overall lore and aesthetic that I had made. Though I was uncertain I would get to some of the characters mentioned in the moodboard, I would be sure to still take their designs and aesthetics into account for the sake of continuity and cohesiveness. For this project, I kept in mid that I wanted my character to be in somewhere like the Fishing Hamlet in Bloodborne (2015), so that I would have an overall mood to keep in mind when creating the model. I also looked towards the aesthetic of the Abyssal Hunters from Arknights (2019), as there was a mix of sailor and hunter that I found was similar to what I had wanted to go for. Along with this, I looked to many armour sets within Dark Souls III (2016) and Elden Ring (2022) .

TEST MODELLING

I began with some initial block-outs in Zbrush as I had learned Zbrush well and plan to expand my skillset with this program. I wanted to verify my concept’s structure and to see if the armour would translate well into a 3D model. I already found a few structural issues regarding my concept such as with the shape of the helmet. I found that it did not look good from a forwards angle, nor did the chestplate’s multi-layered design live up to my satisfaction. Despite a few modifications and minor tweaks to the design, I decided, in the end to not completely go through with the full details of this design and attempt to interpret it into something that was more logical and that aligned with the nature and function of old armour. I then moved onto improving this concept as even aesthetically I did not think it would work at all, despite being quite unique.