Development of the Opinicorvus

Character Turnaround-

When starting production on my 3D character model, I first drew out a turnaround sheet for modelling. My current anatomy skills are lacking, however I still used it for the model’s silhouette and shape language.

Model Blocking-

I expedited the blocking process by using the base animal blocking model we used previously in class as my character is also quadrupedal. In addition, I mainly used the lion muscle references shown in my pre-production to build the shapes of the lion body, then using my turnaround to build the head, wings and tail.

Initial Sculpt (Done in ZBrush)-

I continued working through use of both Blender and Zbrush as I aim to expand my 3D sculpting skills across different programs to gain better abilities that can be transferred into my career. Initially, At this stage, as we only need to focus on the silhouette of our character design and not anatomy.

Below is my initial sculpt, I changed the beak shape for more varied posing and rounded out the wings, which I can then fill out with separate feather models instead of sculpting them on the model.

Retopologized Model-

Due to the size of my model, I retopologized parts of the character as separate meshes and joined them together afterward to divide up my work. The tail as the segments had slight variations that made the reto. version look inconsistent, but I corrected them to the best of my ability and included enough loops to allow the tail to bend realistically without breaking the model. Furthermore, I also corrected my character looking too thin around the stomach and added a more noticeable connection between the shoulder blades and the wings.

UV Unwrapping-

After retopology, I then unwrapped and organised the UVs for texturing. I had marked the seams mainly along the character’s back as we were advised to choose what would be the least noticeable in our final render. I planned to frame my character from a low angle shot with an arched tail, hence why I decided my seams being along the back and top of the tail.

Below are screenshots of my model with the seams, sharps and tile texture applied.

Later on in the project, I realised that an error occurred when exporting my model for further sculpting, causing me to lose the seams and UVs. I marked new seams them on the low poly export of my sculpted modeland reorganised the UVS. Below is the new UV map of my character model.

VDM Brush & Feather Model Sculpting-

At this stage, I found myself struggling with importing my model back into ZBrush and with using the software efficiently due to my weaker hardware. Then I also struggled with creating the brushes I planned on using for my character’s fur and feathers, which caused me more stress as a result. I initially planned on using Primitives from sculpted shapes for my fur, then scrapping the plan as the brushes wouldn’t line up on my model. My initial VDM brush attempts also failed to capture the quality I wanted.

I then went to my initial inspiration for creating my model’s fur and feathers, an Owlbear sculpt video by “Ana Carolina Art”. I had found a recorded stream of her sculpting said Owlbear, which I used as a guide with getting my VDM brushes to a good quality, her video teaching me to use the masking tool to draw out the brush’s silhouette and then add on the detail.

I also took note of Carolina’s references for her Owlbear being carved bear statuettes. I never considered the idea of using real sculpts for my own model, so I collected several crow statuette references that resembled exactly what I wanted for my Opinicorvus, so I decided on using them for reference when applying my VDM brushes to my character.

Below are the two videos from Ana Carolina, crow statue images I referenced and the VDM brushes I ended up creating for my model, also including my early brush attempts.

VDM Brush Inspiration & Reference Images / Videos-

Owlbear Sculpt Time Lapse-

Owlbear Sculpting Stream-

From 12:20 to 17:06

Crow Statue References-

Sculpted VDM Brushes-

Early Sculpted Brushes (Unused)-

Feather Model-

I also took further inspiration from the Owlbear and sculpted a feather in ZBrush, which I would use to recapture the initial silhouette my character’s wings had in the blocking phase. I expedited the process of applying this feather by duplicating and adjusting it along the wing to add more variety to the silhouette.

Below is the feather I modelled.

 

Application of Feathers & VDM Brushes on Sculpt-

Below are progress shots of my model during the detail sculpting stage with my VDM brushes applied and my feather model applied to the wings.

VDM Brush Application-

Feather Model Application-

Final ZBrush Sculpt-

I continued the rest of the details on the sculpt after testing my VDM brushes. This included adding feathers to the wings, the muscle structure of the lion, and the finer details of the scorpion tail.

Below are screenshots of my fully sculpted model.

Front-

Side-

Back-

Angled-

However, I ran into extreme difficulty with exporting this sculpt as an FBX. I learned that the exported file was too big to be loaded in Blender, which was due to the duplicated feathers as they were too high poly. I attempted to reduce the polygon count with several methods, eventually needing to go back to the original sculpted feather and remeshed it, then fully reapplying it to the model. I used a different arrangement this time with less feathers to keep the file size as low as possible. Below is an image of the new feathers applied to my model, which was taken in Blender.

This ended up working which was a great relief, however the process of fixing this issue took several days, and many of my attempts were very time consuming. Which had been pushed me back a fair deal on my schedule not only for this module, but also my Animation Strategies module. As a result, I decided to expedite parts of my process moving forward to ensure I have enough time to finish both assignments.

Texturing-

Due to technical issues, I was not able to access Substance 3D Painter for a majority of the assignment, so I worked hard during our final classes to get my model textured well enough so I had something in case I wouldn’t be able to access the software at home. As a result, I felt that my first texture work on my model looked lacklustre, but after gaining access to Substance on my personal device again, and dealing with a couple extra technical issues, I was able to go back and touch up the textures to a quality I was much happier with.

Below are screenshots of my textured model, my high poly model being baked onto the low poly model as a normal map.

Posing-

I already had an idea on how I wanted to frame my character in Unreal 5, which made posing very easy. I planned on framing my Opinicorvus flying at a low angle shot at the left of the frame with many ruined buildings in the background. This choice helping me with building my environment as I would not have to focus on detailed textures or props, only needing to place buildings based on the camera angle, which I feel is a necessary choice due to the setbacks I had experienced earlier.

Below are screenshots of my model’s armature, along with a viewport render of my posed model. Whilst applying the weight paints, I realised I needed to include bones in the wings in order to have the parented feathers move properly when the wings are bent.

Unreal 5 Environment Building & Final Render-

As stated before, my plan to build my environment around my camera angle allowed me to focus more on appealing composition and lighting instead of creating a detailed, realistic environment. Furthermore, Unreal 5’s blank project template is a large desert environment, which was perfect for what I envisioned for my character.

My idea for the environment was a “Post-apocalyptic Victorian Era”, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to fully flesh out the concept as we are using free assets from the Quixel Bridge and Epic Games Marketplace, so I did my best to convey the idea using the “Modular Gothic/Fantasy Environment” package by Stormcrow Studios.

As I was limited with my props, I didn’t prioritise gathering references for architecture. Instead, my main reference was the lighting and colour in the location Goodsprings in Fallout New Vegas, which utilises a large amount of desaturated yellows, browns and greys to convey the hopelessness, decay and desolation of the apocalypse as seen below, something I aimed to replicate in my own environment.

When building my environment, I turned up the exponential height fog to give the impression of a sandstorm, allowing me to skip blurring the background in photo editing. Initially, I also wanted to add sand textures to my buildings for extra detail, an idea I had gotten from a previous lecture, however the props already had professionally made material instances and I couldn’t understand how to add the sand textures without breaking them. So instead, I opted for using the landscape mode to portray the buildings and props being partially buried in sand, conveying a lot of time passing after the apocalypse and heightening the dynamic topology of my environment.

Lastly, I added several light sources for my character, highlighting their physical traits to the audience and adding an appealing rim light effect as seen in my final render, along with adding extra lighting to the background buildings to add more contrast with the environment and to give them more prominence in the shot.

Below are screenshots of my environment in the unlit view, showing how I constructed my setting with the camera in mind, along with the final render of my character and environment.

Unlit Screenshots-

Lit version of towers-

Final Render-

Reference List-

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