FMP Week 5&6: PBR Championship Ashe - Project Planning & Blockout

Things have been all but calm this past week - crazy storms which make me afraid my electricity will be cut off any moment, amazingly surreal stuff happening career-wise which makes me too excited and scared to sleep and last but not least, my fun Championship Ashe PBR project which is turning out to be a real challenge.

I spent the first week cannibalizing my old meshes to try to put together a decent basemesh which would also fit the proportions seen in the Wild Rift showcase. I studied the differences between the versions in Wild Rift and current in-game models ->
1. much more detailed but still feels way cleaner
2. proportions are more stylized, more pushed
3.  not as much emphasis on models looking good from one angle, rather looking good overall
4. asymmetry added by adjusting the old design, don't be scared to add additional meshes
5. more personality shown (e.g. stance, or even through clothing, more room for storytelling, use it)

I gathered some references and worked out my main concept sheet. I overpainted a few bits, possibly still not final as I'm adjusting things as I sculpt/model:

Main changes to the concept:
- more detail everywhere (e.g. hair strands, cape decoration, etc)
- asymmetry in the chest piece
- adjusting the leg guard design to fit the taller proportions
- adding details to things like leg/arm guards, gold trims? more geometrical shapes as seen in Wild Rift redesign?
- asymmetry in the shoulder pad: heavily guarding the arm holding the bow and detracting from the armor on the arm which is supposed to pull the bowstring -> more fitting for an archer? I'm not sure about this one as it's a drastic change to the original design and I'm scared it won't read as the original skin anymore. I'll try both versions and decide later.
- adding a finger glove to the hand which pulls the bow string, look up archer ref
- adding feathers to the shoulder guard as seen in Wild Rift redesign (?)
- face closer to the Wild Rift reference (larger eyes, head, more stylised look, slightly anime?)

I started working on the blockouts by extracting and Zremeshing stuff in ZBrush and cleaning it up in 3dsMax, once again, GoZ rules. Some process screenshots I remembered to take:

Current WIP (very rough blockout, especially armor-wise):


I'm trying to keep everything as low poly as possible - I found that my previous Kled and Kai'Sa projects (mostly started by polygon modeling) have made it easier to do things in 3dsMax than sculpt dynameshed stuff out in ZBrush and then retopo. And it's cleaner.

One of the main things I'm finding challenging at the moment is adjusting the concept. It's a constant exercise of proportions, figuring out what shape design looks most appealing or even imagining how the shapes will look in the final composition. I'm having fun doing it because it allows me to put a bit more creativity in the process but I'm realising this constant iteration costs valuable time and I have to be faster with my decision making. Wish someone made a Gumroad on how to balance it all :D 


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