2018 Sumo Digital Rising Star
Stage 2 Character Art Sketchbook
Kial Oliver-Gibson Sketchfab link:
https://sketchfab.com/models/d33535935629415681695a0dfbb34279
My character is Ashley, though she prefers Ash. She’s a teenager who’s grown up on Pandora [the setting of the Borderlands games], a savage wasteland of a planet filled with bandits and monsters. Naturally, having grown up there and now in her late teenage years, she’s jaded and bored by the whole experience, spending her days scavenging the barren wastes and looking for something interesting. Her main outfit started out as a onesie and has been repaired and customised multiple times. The choice of outfit lets her express her child-like nature in an apocalyptic setting. I chose to make a unique character that would fit into the Borderlands games as an opportunity to try more stylised character sculpting and hand-painted texturing. Her child-like nature gives me an opportunity to play around with a mix of cute and apocalyptic themes. For the poses I really want to push the ‘teenager’ aesthetic. A mix of bored, moody, and youthfulness. For the first pose, I’d like to do an ‘introduction’ splash screen, similar to the ones used when new characters are introduced in Borderlands. For the other poses, I’d like to make a couple of accompanying props if I get time, mainly a claw machine with a single teddy bear inside that Ash really wants to win.
Once I read that the Stage 2 brief was more open-ended, I knew I wanted to do some sort of post-apocalyptic character. I’ve always been a big fan of games like Fallout and Borderlands, and really enjoy the aesthetics of films like Mad Max. From this, I decided to go with the generalised, low-level character concept ‘Wastelander’. This gave me the freedom to concept anyone who might live in the wasteland, while also keeping it tied down to the post-apocalyptic theme. I started off sketching character silhouettes/thumbnails and gathering references as I went and incorporating ideas from them in my designs. Once I had chosen the silhouette I liked the most and started drawing a full character concept I was heavily influenced by the designs of Gaige and Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2.
[PureRef was a really helpful tool for compiling all my reference images into one place]
Borderlands was a big influence. I liked the designs for Gaige & Tiny Tina, especially Tina’s concept art.
I liked the tribal aesthetics of Horizon Zero Dawn and was considering fusing it with postapocalyptic themes.
The makeshift but practical outfits of Mad Max appealed to me a lot.
After looking at some of Tiny Tina’s concept art, incorporating a post-apocalyptic onesie into the character’s design interested me.
I sketched a number of character thumbnails during the early concept stages. In the end, with the help of my tutors, I chose 2 silhouettes to take to the concepting stage [underlined yellow]
The characters colour scheme is based on a palette I found using Adobe Color CC, searching for Borderlands-inspired colour palettes. This concept art is of Ash, my final character. She draws influence from Gaige & Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2. In the end I got rid of the skull on her shoulder after critiques that it doesn’t fit the personality I was going for. My key influence was these pieces of concept art for Tiny Tina that were unused in the final game.
The characters colour scheme is based on a palette I found using Adobe Color CC, searching for a ‘Tribal’ colour palette. This concept art is of WalksOn-Bones. The idea was to use Horizon: Zero Dawn and Mad Max influences to design a post-apocalyptic tribal. While I could see an opportunity to make something cool with this concept, I chose to create Ash instead, as I found that concept to be more visually striking, and I was excited to do something Borderlandsinspired.
After I decided on doing a Borderlands art style, I gathered lots of reference from the games, including looking at high poly models & texture maps and going into the game myself to get more specific references, in order to make sure my character fit the art style.
Before I could start sculpting, I also needed real life reference. Good proportions and cloth folds are important to get right, so I gathered some anatomy reference and some references for the main part of the outfit. This picture was my main anatomy reference.
I separated the head to a different subtool so I could use dynamesh & subdivide without ruining the work done on the body.
After feedback from peers, I changed the face somewhat to make her expression more relaxed. I started the clothing by masking off parts of the body and then using the extract tool.
I used Zbrush to sculpt my character. I started with Zspheres & used clay build-up and smooth to sculpt the base mesh from scratch.
I made the goggles in Autodesk Maya to work around my lack of experience doing hardsurface in Zbrush.
I started the hair with the CurveTube brush, then used TrimDynamic to flatten out the sides, creating a stylised hair look.
This is the final high-poly sculpt for my character. I chose to render it in Marmoset Toolbag 3 to get a nice presentation in a program that could handle such high-poly models.
This is the final high-poly sculpt base mesh for my character. I ended up not sculpting toes because my character was wearing shoes, however in hindsight it would’ve been a good idea to sculpt feet, for practice and in case I want to use this base mesh for another project‌
This is a close-up view of my final high poly character’s head.
I used Autodesk Maya’s Quad Draw tool to retop my character. It ended up being 23,282 tris. For my UV map, I had the entire model on one texture set, and used a 4k texture size. Originally, I had the entire head UV’d, but I later made it so it was symmetrical to get extra texture space for the face.
Old head UV map:
I baked a normal, curvature & occlusion map in Marmoset Toolbag 3. I then began the process of texturing in Photoshop. I hand-painted the entire texture, mainly relying on a diffuse map to stick to the Borderlands art style. I started each section by laying down a base colour, then drawing the black lines, followed by some fake shading & highlights to get the cartoony, hand-painted feel.
I added more blue part-way through texturing to break up the brown/orange and make the character stand out more.
I changed the position of the pigtails close to the end of development. I did it as a test one day and decided I liked it. In addition, I think it helps make the character stand out from Gaige, who has a similar hairstyle.
Here are the final textures for Ash. In hindsight, it would’ve been a better idea to split the textures up into 2 lower-res maps for head and body‌
I used 3ds Max 2016 to rig and skin my character. I started with a default Base Human CAT Rig and posed it to fit my character.
I then imported a ‘cut down’ version of my character, with fewer edge loops and none of the accessories and skinned that manually.
Afterwards, I used the Skin Wrap modifier to transfer the skinning from my cut down character to my full character, then fixed any odd deformation by hand.
I used Animation Layers to store all the poses I was testing in one document and easily revert back to the TPose.
Now that I was happy with my character, I decided to make a small scene that I’d use in a couple of my posed renders‌
I started by posing my character, whiteboxing my scene and setting up the camera angle & lights in Toolbag 3. The idea for this pose was that she would be leaning against a broken claw machine, holding a teddy bear. It’s implied that she broke the machine out of anger and stole the bear.
I then made a high poly for the claw machine in Maya, using vending machines from Borderlands and a real claw machine as my main references.
I retopoligised and UV mapped the machine, getting it down to around 5,000 tris, and used a 2k texture sheet.
I started the base textures in Substance Painter to create the base materials quickly save time. Then took it into Photoshop to paint the Borderlands-style outlines & make edits.
I designed a bit of a logo for the machine. I tried to picture a toy brand that would appeal to the bandits and scavengers of Pandora.
Later I changed the colour of the machine to a darker, lesssaturated red, to make sure it wasn’t blending in with the character, and that the character drew the interest of the viewer before the machine.
Unlike my character, the machine consisted of lots of reflective materials, so having a specular and gloss texture was more important. I included a bit of a glow map to imply the machine still had power, and that Ash broke it out of frustration after trying to play it, rather than that she broke it because it wouldn’t work.
The claw machine needed a prize, so I set out to make a teddy bear prop…
I took the placeholder bear that I threw together in Maya for the blockout into Zbrush and sculpted a worn out bear, something that would fit in Borderlands.
I retopologised the bear in Maya. It ended up being 840 tris. I used a 1024 texture map, but given how small it is in the final scene, I probably could’ve managed with 512… I modelled it in the final pose, intending for the character to be holding it in her hand. This saved time as I didn’t have to rig/pose it later, but it made it difficult if I wanted it in another pose later.
I textured the bear in a similar way to the character, hand painting in Photoshop, then overlaying a thread texture in the normal map to bring in a bit of material definition.
Something was feeling off in my scene. I decided it needed a base to ground the whole thing. I played around with a few ideas, including having it on a broken concrete slab, or just having a plane with a sandy ground texture, but ended up trying out a cylindrical podium-style base that I really liked, so I committed to that.
I made a simple podium in Maya and took it into Zbrush to quickly make a plaque and use some stylised brushes to add weathering. Originally I thought the base would have a rocky ground texture, similar to environments seen in Borderlands.
I retopped the base, getting it down to 828 tris. I used a 1024 texture sheet.
I originally textured it in Substance painter to save time, but found it looked boring and generic, and I quickly changed the sandy floor for a tiled floor, imagining the setting in a bar or arcade. Eventually, most of the work done in SP had been painted over in Photoshop‌
After choosing a tiled floor for the base, it looked a bit barren, so I went into Borderlands 2 to take a look at the bar in Sanctuary. After getting inspired, I made a few simple props that I quickly textured in Photoshop. They didn’t take too long, and I think they really add to the vibe of the scene. Finally, I thought the orange ring around the base was looking plain & boring, so I decided to paint it a bit like concrete slabs to make it more interesting, again using Borderlands 2 assets as reference‌
I still had some time to spare, so I decided to complete the scene with Ash’s baseball bat, the tool she used to break the claw machine‌
For the baseball bat, I wanted something used and worn, like most things in Borderlands. I started with a baseball bat shape I made in Maya, and sculpted cracks and quickly made a wrapped cloth handle for it in Zbrush.
I retopped the baseball bat using the high poly version I made in Maya and removing edge loops. I got it down to 316 tris. I used a 512 texture sheet for the baseball bat, since it’s a small background asset.
I hand painted the textures in Photoshop. I went for something that would fit the character by adding graffiti and paint splatter to it.
I sourced images from Google & used paint splatter as masks. I mixed multiple together on the same layer to make more unique splatters.
I really liked the way characters in the Borderlands games are introduced with their own custom cartoon-y screen. I wanted to do something similar for my character, so first I gathered references from existing characters in the games.
I wanted something similar to Fiona’s intro from the Telltale Borderlands game. I already had a neutral hands-onhips pose from playing around with posing earlier, so I used that as a starting point…
Since I didn’t have any experience with facial rigging or cloth physics [and this was only for static images], I made the facial expression and hanging sleeves in Maya, using the Soft Selection tool and repositioned vertices on meshes exported from 3ds Max. When soft selection would effect other parts of the mesh [like the hands] I’d extract the part I was working on, then merge it back together when it was how I wanted it.
I compiled the image in Photoshop, starting with a render of my character. I added a gradient of the character’s key colours (desaturated slightly) as the background, and some black borders, then went in with a medium-opacity brush and roughed things up a bit. I used the Impact font for her name. I used the 3D extrusion feature on the text, then made them uneven to fit the theme. Afterwards, I painted in some cracks and such. I added the graffiti in the background after comments that there was a lot of empty space. I looked at my references and saw that each background is related to the character, so I included some graffiti related to the character…
[The logo and background are re-used from development of Pose 03. I go into detail about them on the next slide.]
The first pose I knew I wanted to do was with Ash leaning against something holding a teddy bear. The pose existed before any of the scene, and it shaped the character’s development, influencing the other poses and her presentation as a whole…
The pose and framing didn’t change much throughout development, but I was constantly tweaking the lighting and camera positions slightly. I knew I wanted it to be a portrait of the character, having her looking off-camera, hints of anger and suspicion in her expression…
Reference:
BL2 vault symbol:
The background used in the latter 3 of my renders was made in Photoshop, inspired by the Borderlands 2 menus. I did this to have my renders presented in a way that would fit the game, rather than just having them floating in a grey void. The logo is inspired by the Borderlands 2 logo, using the custom name I made for Pose 01 on top of the BL2 vault symbol.
My logo:
I knew I wanted one of my poses to be of the character sitting down, looking slightly bored and lost in thought. I played around with ideas of her sitting on top of the claw machine, or sitting crosslegged, but in the end came to the one of her sat more normally, looking quite relaxed.
The final pose was the biggest challenge, as I’d done everything I knew I wanted to do in the last 3, so I had to come up with a new idea. In hindsight, doing sketches and planning them out beforehand would’ve helped me out with this…
I played around with multiple poses, including an action pose, featuring Ash ready to fight, and a pose of her smashing the claw machine, a “prologue” to the 2nd render.
I ended up with a render of her leaning against the claw machine with a finger gun to her head [an homage to the Borderlands box art]. Out of the 3 poses I’d done, I chose this one because the character model is the primary focus, and it suits her personality the most. I avoided the “action pose” because I thought it was a little too generic, and I avoided the “smashing the machine” pose because I thought it didn’t have enough weight behind the stance, and it doesn’t really highlight the character.
Rendering turned out to be quite a challenge for me. I’ve become so used to rendering in Marmoset Toolbag 3 that using UE4 to present my final assets was a new and difficult challenge, at first.
While developing my assets I previewed them in Toolbag 3, and I had a lighting set up and scene that I liked, but for the final render I was restricted to UE4, so I had to make the switch…
I spent a long time messing around with materials and lighting, starting from scratch with new levels twice. I couldn’t get the metallic look I wanted for the base, so I ended up using the baked lighting filter in Substance Painter to bake the metallic reflections into the diffuse map.
Here’s a comparison between my Toolbag 3 render [top] and my UE4 render [bottom]. There are pros with both, but overall I’m happy with how close I got the in-engine render to the my target.
In the end I found the settings I wanted with help from a couple of tutorials… I used an edited skylight, some yellow-tinted point lights, and blue/yellow tinted gamma/contrast in the post process volume. The colours I used were to mimic the colour palette of Pandora, which is often bright and sunny.
[FINAL UE4 RENDERS]
Overall I’m incredibly happy with the character I produced. Of course, there are still things I need to learn… My sculpting could still use some work, mainly in making realistic cloth folds and getting in those smaller details like the backpack pulling down the fabric on the shoulders. Also, I think the concept itself could’ve used more work. I don’t think my character stands out as much as official Borderlands characters like Gaige or Tiny Tina. I think this is because of the choice of clothing and lack of accessories on the outfit. It might have been interesting to add some armour too. On another topic, I think the topology and UV mapping could be improved. There are some unnecessary edge loops, and the geometry of the face isn’t 100% optimal for animation, mainly around the nasolabial folds. As for the UV mapping, I think it would’ve been more optimal for a game character to have the head & hair on one texture set, then the rest of the body on another. I could’ve then used two 2048 texture sets instead of one 4096 texture set, reducing the performance cost and file size [this is likely dependent also on the character’s intended purpose though. Tiny Tina, an NPC, uses one texture set, whereas Gaige, a playable character, uses two]. The skinning wasn’t the best, though it served its purpose for posing a character, it’d need more work to be a fully animated game-ready character. Learning about facial rigging would also be a good idea for my next project, since posing the vertices on the face by hand isn’t exactly optimal. Also, I could’ve done with modelling the inside of the character’s mouth. Being limited to closed-mouth expressions really limited the amount of expression I could get out of the character… The props could’ve used some more time too, though I’m not as concerned about them because they’re not the main focus. Though mainly I think the baseball bat needed more time spent texturing, and the logo on the claw machine could’ve looked better as proper vector graphics, sticking closer to that Borderlands vending machine style.