Initially, I was hoping to have a weekly blog post on this project, but the last two week were such a mad rush to get this thing finished on time (and it was exploding servers & databases season at my day job, which really didn't help things) that I just couldn't fit it in. Onwards! (If you missed the beginning, here's
part one and
part two)
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| kinda boring |
Last time, we left off with some very preliminary renders, and a dead pompom. At least the skin looks like it's coming together, though the highlights are still far too chalky and uneven. Since I can't have fluffy pompoms, I decide to explore some leathery materials. Also, the front part needs some kind of accent piece. Bow? too cute, rose? nah, some jewelry stuff? I don't have proper gems. How about a knot?
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| now with knot |
A paper tissue is great help to figure out that kind of stuff. I add the very basic geometry in modo and then flesh it out in Zbrush. I've also been playing some more with the materials and the light setup, and this dotted metallic one looks rather nice. Also - new skin! old version on the left, new version on the right.
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| also, various shoe colors |
Doing the various skin colors leaves me totally puzzled and it takes me a good time to figure out something, including repainting everything in Zbrush to get separate layers. After a lot of fussing around in PS, and thanks to some helpful pointers from skin-making friends, I finally get some decent results. The texture here is not the final one either, in the end I removed a lot of the heavy shading on the top, as it could easily be mis-read as toes ending far too high up.
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| cannibal shoes |
And after that, it's just the madness of "productifying" it all. More nail polishes, fixing small issues here and there, writing scripts and building a HUD to handle the tinting, taking pictures, fighting bugs, etc. Yes that's about as boring as it sounds.
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| all done! |
I hope you enjoyed reading this little series of posts! (And if you didn't, why are you still reading?) This has been by far the most challenging project I've undertaken lately, but it's good to stretch and learn.
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