# <21359999>_J5Z1020_journal.md
###### tags: `uni work Games Art`
https://hackmd.io/@MKLzYDLARp2xAVEqa7JVzw/HJe_bFx5s

# Week 1 Journal

## Character and Environment Art

This week I had a go with zbrush for the first time and I found it very interesting to use and far more ergonomic and it felt a lot more understandable. I had a lot more success experimenting with the brushes and also practiced with some harder edges.

I also worked on blocking out with Maya. it's apparent after trying it for the first time that it's important to do the concept art and the block out at the same time and to stick to a linear perspective, but overall, I think I will just try to keep it simple and add detail with paint overs.

I mainly focused on trying to get all my references together. Getting together plenty of images for the environment. Looking at different cityscapes. I'm still thinking of lure and background, but I have so far enjoyed collecting everything using PureRef as it was easy to get a good layout and I could easily collate images. I really want to do something atmospheric and dark, but I really enjoy thinking about the design and building this world.

When it comes to character designs, I needed to consider zbrush and what I can create such as the anatomy and look of the character. I'm fairly sure I want them to have some sort of mask. Looking at real life hazmat suits like NBC suits which have a very ergonomic smooth look that should be quite approachable with in zbrush.

Still concepting up a story and sort of building it along at the same time as doing the art work.

# Week 2 Journal
https://hackmd.io/@MKLzYDLARp2xAVEqa7JVzw/HyeDGQNQi

## Character and Environment Art
## World Building
I started working more and more on a story, something closer to a Russian fallout. Focusing around heavy use of nuclear reactors. Something like this but scaled down to a portable size and they would be accessed through some sort of terminal and these would be scattered all around the city. This would require people to wear these protective clothes but the power would be extremely plentiful.

Figure 1

Youtube.com Reactor Hall of Unit 2, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
[Online][Accessed on 10 Jan 2023]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOe_zzTQFV3o&psig=AOvVaw0-j4FzP7n5CwGXVknDHQr1&ust=1673448236228000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCNjkhtCevfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

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## Character Design
Figure 2

I first started collating images in a PureRef document, looking at sci-fi military characters that I liked whilst also looking into real world hasmat suits. I always liked the look of a mask or helmet on characters as it changes the look so drastically, distancing the character from a human appearance. I'd always been inspired by the Halo 3 and Halo ODST concept art. I loved all the bits of equipment and it really helped the characters feel real and more believable, rather than just a belt. I especially liked all the little straps coming off the character from where the knee armour had been attached. The shoes they were simple, but I liked that they fitted the characters look, so I thought a lot about integrating design elements into my designs in the future.

I then moved to look at the Warhammer 40k style with a lot more from feeling. Something I really liked with these and the jin-roh characters is the circular eye lenses, as it doesn't really convey much emotion, but it can do, depending on what way the character is tilting their head or if there is a lip of the helmet perhaps giving it more of a glare. I quite quickly established that I wanted something with more of a cloth undersuit, with armour on to, rather than a fully armoured approach, akin to that of a Starwars Clone Trooper, but I did really like the magazine pouches that they use.

Going back to Halo, I wanted to look at some concept art that had been done for the spartans and I found this quite realistic looking spartan armour with green netting and camouflage drapes stuff that had never really gone into the game. I did quite like the idea of a huge massively armoured character that still tries to be stealthy, maybe akin to a ghilly suit, but this would have to be different as with this theme being metropolis, it would be more akin to a concrete jungle with urban camo or perhaps invisibility clothing.

I really liked looking at the real life hazmat suits. Being interested in this stuff already, I knew what most of them were, but I wasn't aware of just how many different suits there was and how different they could look. The key points were the large eye lens, the respirator system, oxygen pipes in some cases and always the flat nose/face. I wanted to keep the theme grounded in realism or at least looking realistic enough to suspend disbelief. I also added later the Hissho from Endless Space, as I really liked the enclosed helmets and angular armour and was a style that I thought could be good to explore in some early concepts, but this was something I added to the board a little later.

The character design should be something that also matches that theme of nuclear and and also a hazardous environment style. Something possibly like stalker or something like that, as due to the abundance of nuclear radiation, everyone must wear some form of protection. I wanted a realistic military look with sci-fi additions, but not over the top and quite a gritty look.
Figure 3
Wearethemighty.com This is what your next MOPP suit could look like
[Online][Accessed on 10 Jan 2023]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wearethemighty.com%2Fmighty-tactical%2Fthis-is-what-your-next-mopp-suit-could-look-like%2F&psig=AOvVaw1PGhoX_qgVITwzZIoqylxJ&ust=1673448865712000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCJCzsvugvfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

## Environment Art
Figure 4

The first thing I thought of when I was looking at environments was The Division, as I thought the environment in that game was really good with the destroyed snow covered New York. It was a actually quite immersive with all the abandoned cars on the road, but I really liked the atmosphere, so I wanted to include it.

I'm playing Destiny 2 at the moment and one of the other things that came to mind was the scourge of the past raid which takes place in a city and you explore one as the game starts and has you complete a set of objectives to progress further. Unfortunately, it is not in the current version of the game as I would have liked to have had a look around again for inspiration. I liked the lighting and the simple style of the buildings, so from there I looked into other Bungie games and as I'd looked at the concept art for it in researching my characters, I looked into Halo 3 ODST. I really liked the early production and layout that I'd found for some of the level layouts and thought that it looked quite simple and approachable, as I wanted to put most of my time into getting my characters looking good.

I wanted to take a bit of a detour in terms of style, so I looked into some old retro futurist art and one of the city plans that always interested me Disney's Epcot, not so much the one that actually got made rather the concept for an actual city and its really interesting designs. From there I started to think about a more futuristic city, so of course, I found myself looking into Cyberpunk and this ended up being my main point of research.

I really liked the lighting of Cyberpunk whilst also having a gritty feel. I wanted to have a focus on lighting as I didn't feel confident in making any really complicated design and I think I will probably look into this deeper and do more of an analysis.

## Concept Art
I started some silhouettes work and drawing up one character just because I wanted to get something detailed down, so I had something I can look at whilst making silhouettes that keeps me on track with the look I want.
Figure 5

## Case study Cyberpunk 2077
With a lot of my environment concept art coming from Cyberpunk, I thought it would be appropriate to use it for a case study. I really like the contrast of the gritty architecture and weathered world in combination with these vibrant signs and lights, giving a sense that the advertisers are incredibly distant from the place where these signs are being placed. The emphasis on lighting in the concept art for cyberpunks work is what gives it that atmospheric feel, something that a story driven game needs to capture the brutalist simple feel of the buildings is something I really liked, but then they have been modified by the occupants with all the air conditioning units adding something. I would also like to include in my work these things that give a more lived in feel. I would also imagine that all these air conditioning units would probably be modular to make for easy use throughout the game as there would be a lot of the buildings in the game.

Figure 6


I really like the lighting in the darker rooms and nightscapes in the games. It really helps the light pop and adds that depth to the world with large shadows and reflective surfaces. Doing some sort of interior for the city would be quite interesting. A little self contained space with maybe a window to the outside so you could see more of the city, adding to that immersive feel. It is all the little things lying around like the tarp and the sheets, things that indicate that people have clearly been here at some point. I think the overall grime on some of the buildings is great, giving it that weathered look, whereas if everything was perfectly clean it would look a lot more fake in a way, not really capturing the grit of a city and the effects of the environment on the buildings.
Figure 7

The grim drab aesthetic is something I really like about the look of Cyberpunk with most of the colour coming from the lights and not much else, like in (figure 5) the greeny blue filter over the world really does look good and ties a lot of the colours together, emphasising shadows and taking away highlights. The overcast sky certainly helps to blend this environment together, as with no harsh light there is no accentuation of the edges or ridges of the buildings, letting them bleed into one another, creating depth in the scene, but also a sense of unity throughout. The buildings are all very simple and geometric with the 'All foods' sign being the only piece of colour and real piece of detail in the scene, helping to catch the viewers eye to a conveniently open gate.
Figure 8


Overall, I think it is a great example for a metropolis and really fits the theme that I'm looking for, with a gritty brutally styled world. I will definitely be taking examples for my environments.

# Week 3 Journal
https://hackmd.io/@MKLzYDLARp2xAVEqa7JVzw/B1tm05MVi

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## Zbrush
This week was great for me as we got to have a go at making a mouth much like the nose from last week.(figure 1) I started in the style of Edward Planteri, starting from a flat tile and building up. I think this is better than using a pre made low poly face as you have to build the mouth shape from scratch which gives you a much better understanding of the layout of the face. I found giving volume to the lips themselves the hardest part, making sure that I didn't over do it, but so it blended with the rest of the mouth using clay built up with very minimal pressure was great for this and then to increase the divisions so that the smooth was not as severe and so it would actually smooth the object rather than reduce material. When it came to the folds in the lips, I started with using the standard brush. Its softer edges worked perfectly for giving smooth blends whilst also conversely adding depressions and dips in the lips. Reference here was very important as it could be easily overdone making the lips look like a mess and it's only the middle of the lips that have folds, whereas the rest of the skin on the lips is more pulled back reducing the folds. I really enjoy using zbrush and intend on looking closely into different techniques for hard surfaces as I get closer to choosing a character to progress forward with.

(figure 1)

For the eyes, I started with a low Planteri head and then I cut around everything. I didn't need the ears and the mouth. I started with adding detail to the face so it had a bit more of a recognisable shape and made it easier to work into. Once I had done this, I started building up the eyelids and skin around the eyes. To make the eye, I made a new polysphere and put it in the eyelid. Once I was happy with that, I added more to the eyelid to close in the eye. Overall, I like it, but it could definitely be better with more detail under the eye, adding more bags and folds, to make it look more realistic rather trying to avoid that uncanny look.

(figure 2)

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## Character Design
figure 3

This week after finishing of my silhouettes, I started looking at thumbnails which is something I enjoy a lot more as I can really see what I'm drawing and that allows a lot more creativity. For me one of the main things I was thinking out was exploring more of the hostile environment theme and how far I can push the gas mask. As I did this, I made more and more interesting designs. It really helped to build up a story in my head, like what might a normal person look like, what would they look like as a criminal, what would their leader look like? Would he wear the same things? What would some of the higher ranking people in the city look like? what would the police look like? All these things really helped build out a narrative which dictated the style of my characters. I am still relatively new to Photoshop and digital painting so experimenting has been a necessity. With my work one of the best things I have found out recently has been the symmetry tool which really helped when making quick characters, but helped in the style as well with a lot more flowing symmetrical designs. From there I had my 3 characters chosen, a standard rebel style civilian, a tanky style police/anti-terrorist bomb disarmer and a alien humanoid species. I was really happy with the latter as I felt like there was far more going on with them in terms of character and style.

As of writing, this section I'm currently finishing the first painted versions of the 3 ready for iteration. Despite using the symmetry tool, I really like adding un even bits of armour and little gubbins and bits where I can to give some extra character to the characters, from keys to skulls, books, pouches and the like. I just feel it fleshes the characters out that bit more. On a slight tangent, I knew it wasn't a key deliverable, but I thought that my character would probably have some sort of weapon on them and I just thought about it on the side for example of the anti-terrorist as he's already quite a big guy. I wanted to give him a chain gun something insane for a man to hold thinking back to Jorge from Halo Reach who lugged around a chain gun of his own or Blain from Predator with his mini gun which had been taken from UH-1 Huey. That got me thinking as I already had real world military themes in my work, so my mind went to something modern and I landed on the 30mm 230 chain gun used on the Apache helicopter, this was spurred on in a way after going to a aircraft museum the week before and seeing a 30mm Aden canon from a Harrier jump jet and thinking to myself if I could get that into my work and how I would probably do just a quick mockup for how it could look, but I just quite enjoyed looking at some more tertiary work around my characters.

figure 4

## Character research

When I started my character research, I wanted to look more at a realistic gritty style of character with a military and more tactical feel. One of the designs that came to mind was Titanfall 2 and how they'd designed the characters after making them into maquettes and kit bashing the characters together using custom 3d printed parts and other pre made pouches and cloths. This was very inspirational for me as the style of using all the little pouches and straps was really something I wanted to replicate, but also being a model maker, the idea of actually making the character for real was something really interesting and something I'd not really seen before and would love to try in the future. (Titanfall 2 inside pilot design) Youtube.com, Titanfall 2 Inside Development Pilot - Titan Design, [Online] [Accessed 10 Jan 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxgq1ZBv9sE.

I started with a very militaristic theme, but as I went through the process of designing, I wanted to make something with a bit more of an alien feel to it, with the environments having an alien theme and with the monalithic towers built with unknown materials, so I wanted to design what those characters might look like. I've always taken inspiration from the Predator designed by Stan Winstone. The dreadlocks being an iconic part of the characters silhouette and is something I will often include in by alien designs, but I still wanted something that matched the other gritty characters I'd thought of, the Hissho from Endless Space two would be a good candidate for this, with them being a quite armoured design, with vibrant colours, but still had quite a realistic style and that was something I wanted to take into my designs.

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## Environment Design

figure 5

I started this week in my breaks to sketch out some simple perspective snapshots of the city, looking at it from perspectives of characters. I started with a very simple road next to a park with buildings behind it. I knew I already wanted something quite brutalist for the building design so these great big monoliths really fit that bill but I still wanted some form of light to be seen through the towers, so I added these divisions in the middle which gave a segmented look to the buildings. This served a double purpose however, as I could now make it modular which was something I had in my mind from the beginning, interestingly enough this design also spurred on my 3rd character design and story which I will talk about later on. With this drawn up, I took the parts I liked and parts I didn't and moved on. Liking the design of the building, I did a simple 2d image of the building with the segmented line and then added a light bar to connect the 2 segments. I added little windows as I imagined that it was a sort of apartment. From there, I built on this further, drawing a view from a ship window overlooking the city. I was really leaning to the monolith theme with the great big towers looming over the tightly packed homes below, then from there thinking about cabling as I think it really adds detail to the world. I then started to think about the little homes below in disrepair and damaged, thinking about how this whole world was nuclear powered. I thought that the buildings would not be completely derelict, but just not looked after as these would be crime ridden streets. As eventhough people have power, they would use that to get a more metaphorical power, so boarded up windows corrugated metal over doors where necessary for defence and machine guns on the roofs. This gave me a good idea of what these houses should look like and that then built out the world further. After this, I wanted to do something different. It was a view from inside of one of the apartment buildings. I wanted it to be like it had been raided, bullet holes on the walls and breaking the glass. Only illuminated by the lights of the room which match the outside light bars and the only other light was from the window. I really like this little scene, its got a gritty look to it with the cross hatch style that I have been using for a lot of my concepts. Finally, the last 2 were just different angles of the city, but not much of note, but definitely getting ready for a blockout next week. So far I'm thinking about the view from a van's back whilst people step out from the side door towards the entrance of one of the black buildings.

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## Story and lure
With all the designing that I have been doing, it's no surprise that I have been thinking a lot about the narrative of my world, mainly the people and factions in it. Still sticking with the nuclear theme, as I very much like that. I wanted to add another force into the mix, that being the aliens, however they are not here to harm humanity, but rather to help. They brought the black buildings, those being the safest places in the city as radiation and no fumes can permeate it, thus making it a safe haven, but the humans turned this gift into a way to make money, charging large amounts to stay in these buildings, further creating a bigger divide between the people. The aliens that brought the plans are very defensive of these buildings, believing them to be sacred once constructed, as the black material is a precious resource to them, thus they stay and act as the security force for these buildings. This all boils over, as now the citizens in the poor areas have been left behind in these hazardous living conditions, doing all the labour intensive jobs, thus they rise up using their tools. These primarily being the minors of the world who control the flow of uranium; thus they control the power. Their plan is not to destroy these buildings, but to force the government of the city to build safer buildings and give over the black material, but members of these militia groups are not as forthcoming in their ways. Instead attacking the buildings with mining equipment to try and scrape off as much material as possible, the aliens are having a great sense of duty to protect these buildings. They will hunt down these aggressors and deal with them accordingly. On the other side, is the police of the city in an unlikely situation of not wanting to bring more turmoil to the people, but they also can't let these crimes go unanswered. Overall, the world I have created is a fractured one, a place of incredible power and resource, but never enough to go around. No clear good guy so to speak, this was something that I really wanted to establish as I think it makes for a much more interesting world and makes for far more interesting characters.

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## Summary
Overall, this has been an incredibly productive week, developing my ideas and skills and I think that shows as the length of this week's journal is far longer than those before. Hopefully, I can start putting some more work into environments next week and develop the characters further still, working on a name for characters and game name.

# Week 4 Journal

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## Zbrush
This week was more difficult than the past weeks as we were looking at making a skull from scratch, which meant not using the pre made head model, instead manipulating a sphere with the move brush. This was the most I'd used the move brush, but it was extremely useful if you had a wide brush size. It was good for moving large areas to shape the skull. Having dynamesh on here was very useful as it allowed me to fix any problems with topology. Once the basic shape was there, starting from low divisions, I started to add shape with the clay build up brush and also used it to carve into the shape to remove excess material. The pressure sensitivity was extremely useful here allowing me to gradually carve out the slight recession on the side of the skull. Using the skull model together with reference was very useful for getting it looking correct. This was important when shaping the nose as due to using the clay build up tool to add a recess into the nose, it had widened it and pushed the sides out making it look far too wide and not as triangular and was missing the start of the ridge. So using the move tool I dragged the top of the nose out to add more of a ridge and then also to bring in the sides until I was happy with the results. Once I was happy with that, I upped the divisions, then began adding more detail like emphasising the bones around the eyes and starting to work on the jaw. Using the move tool to sculpt the jaw correctly. Once I liked the shape, I added the mouth and teeth with the dam standard. Generally I'm happy with the look of the skull, with an almost stylised look with accentuated bones for a more evil look. Overall, I learned a lot from this work and the anatomy of the skull.
Figure 1

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## Block outs and environment art
I started looking at environments more this weekend, using some of the sketches I made last week, looking at those and the ideas I thought about. I drew up some really quick sketches (figure 2) of different angles of a street scene so I had a clearer look of how it would be laid out for when it came to making it in Maya. Along with that I also made some more little mockups in Photoshop to go along with my designs. (figure 3)

(figure 2)

(figure 3)

I started in Maya rather than trying to model over a drawing and match the perspective. This was much easier to lay out. I wanted to keep everything pretty low on detail as the building designs were meant to be brutalist and it would be easier for me to add the detail in with paint overs. I just wanted to get an idea for the layout and feel of the shot, thinking about camera position and focal point was important, I had already talked about how I wanted to have the camera over the back of a van where the main character would be stepping out to with some other characters at the door step of the building, making sure the important things were in centre frame. I also thought about the camera moving to the players pov and then starting gameplay. I plan to start doing the paint over after I finish this write up.

figure 4

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## Character Art
This week I finished of all the three characters, so I can start iterating on my designs. I am really quite proud of these as they are some of my better looking digital works. A medium I am only just starting to use, having a wider range of brushes really helped as it meant that I could use different techniques and textures for adding colour and variation to the armour to get a much more weathered mottled effect with weathering being one of the things I really wanted to convey in my work to add character and depth to the designs.

figure 5

going from left to right

(left) This was my earliest character, being quite an early rendition and was mainly the product of looking into hazmat suites, MOPP gear and other types of military equipment. I'd always liked the 3 magazine pouch design present on storm and clone troopers and was something I'd looked at early on in my work with it being adapted from the MP 40 magazine holders. This I liked as the original storm trooper blaster is a modified sten gun. Sticking with the military theme, I chose to give him a camo jacket with hood and also a neck scarf, something that I liked from the Titanfall designs. The black cargo pants with pockets lead into the look of utility with the pistol holster on his thigh and give a nod to the sci-fi setting, a bionic arm and mask were added. With this being my first character, he was quite bland and fitted more into just being more of a malisha man for my story, just a normal guy with military surplus gear.

figure 6 Star Wars MP 40 style mag holder
 my image

(middle) I took inspiration from a range of heavy armoured characters and items from this design. Mainly the bomb disarming gear minesweeper teams use, that being most prevalent in the neck collar which I liked. The add on extra armour attached to the legs and arms were more themed after the kerbros armour and I loved the look of all the straps hanging off the pilots in Titanfall and wanted to replicate that with the look that all the armour plates are strapped on. I also continued the sten mag holders on the stomach armour with them being easily accessible and could also be pistol amo. Leaning into the bomb disposal look. Then on his larger left hand shoulder, I added the scientific symbol for explosive along with adding number and letter markings. I added plenty of scratches and weathering to the armour to really make it look used and worn down, but not quite worn down through the primer layer, just surface level scuffs, not showing any bare metal like on some weathered tanks. I really liked this character, but I really wanted to push the design further and make something really different.

figure 7

Wikipedia bomb disposal armour
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBomb_suit&psig=AOvVaw2ZN74flSkzoSvHYv_fJHfV&ust=1673470101596000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCIjS4ozwvfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAR [date accessed 10 Jan 2023]


Figure 8 - Panzer models tank armour weathering
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.panzermodels.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fnews%2Fweathering-effects-basics&psig=AOvVaw106AE-CRfoPmH_0jbYIMPJ&ust=1673470484449000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqGAoTCKjEycDxvfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABC3AQ [date accessed 10-Jan-2023]

(Right) The design I ultimately decided to go with having the most interesting look. I still wanted to integrate the gas mask with the 2 filters on the face and having a completely enclosed mask like the Hissho from Endless Space whilst also having dreadlocks inspired by Predator. I wanted a believable alien with logical armour, hence a modified, but traditional chest mounted plate carrier for armour protection. With them being a close quarters fighter, having the 2 part staff on his back, I thought it would make sense to have sharp spikes on the lower arm gauntlets and the same theme throughout the rest of the armour. I liked the idea of not having a traditional shoe or foot, instead having a mix of a high heel and a running shoe, giving a light weight look. I designed large metal inlets in the armour, these would be like magnetic points screwed in and attached to the undersuit. I wanted to think about how the suite would function with all the military real life design I had put into my other designs, I wanted that to be present here. That lead me onto my warning sign designs, the red arrow markings similar to what you might see on an aircraft. I liked the pop of colour it gave and the interesting style to the armour. Overall, I really like this design, I think it might be a little hard to make in z brush, but it's something I want to try.
figure 9
Steam Community Hissho leader https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcommunity.com%2Fsharedfiles%2Ffiledetails%2F%3Fid%3D1471296010&psig=AOvVaw0gRWsrZA5hLA84Uw5qvshe&ust=1673471055065000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCKie59DzvfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAR [Accessed 10-Jan-2023]

figure 10

Villians Wiki-fandom https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvillains.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FJungle_Hunter&psig=AOvVaw3-1BLPKbReHIFjmj_i8Z59&ust=1673471483595000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCJDatp31vfwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD [Accessed 10-Jan-2023]

## Conclusion for the week
Really starting to move into environment work and then touching on character iteration when I'm not doing environment work. Also to look into some zbrush techniques to see what could help me with my designs with them being very flat and armoured.

# Week 5 Journal

## Zbrush

figure 1
After looking at the skull last week, this week we experimented with z spheres and how it can be used to make quick characters and basic silhouettes to be added on to. I enjoyed using the technique. Although some things did feel a little difficult, but overall a useful technique.

figure 2
After this we looked at dynamesh extraction. We used this to make a neck for a basic head shape using a mask. It was was quite simple, but having the right brush size for the move tool was definitely essential to be able to pull it in the correct direction and not to end up with some messy topology, although that was fixed with re dynameshing the object.

figure 3
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, we looked at making an armature to start modelling onto. This was interesting to do as it helped with proportion. It was good to build out the character yourself. It revolved heavily around the move tool and pulling the sphere into the correct shape. This was really essential and also doing it in as little moves as possible so that the part was smooth and organic looking. It also obviously helps with speed and getting to the actual modelling part. This was a really important technique to learn as it allows me to make my own body types rather than using the pre made versions.

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## Character design
With my designs being finished, I moved on to doing some iteration, looking at alternate helmets and important parts like that. Looking at the shoe design was important as I wanted something quite nimble looking whilst also being light weight. I was really happy with my alien design, the armour layout and look was already pretty much where I wanted it, so I just experimented with helmets and how they should look, but I think I will still do some more iteration before I'm totally happy and then move to start drawing up a final version.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Here I was looking into different angles of the original design, as I'd only drawn it front on, I wanted to see what it would look like from different angles to give me a better understanding of the design. This helped plan out the rest of the design.

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figure 3 

These were some of my early renditions of the original helmets. I didn't really end with any. I liked small parts like adding more of a chin to the jaw of the mask, though I dislike the top right hand side one with the cheek guards. I thought they were a little too heavy looking for what I was going for.

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figure 4

Here I was exploring the back chest armours. This would not really be seen buy the cape. I'd thought about maybe having ventilation in the back, more like the one on the left, but ultimately I preferred the one with the larger rear shoulder plates as I, thought that matched with the tone of the armour better.

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figure 5 

Lastly, I wanted to look at how I designed the upper arm armour and the arm gauntlets and to get a better understanding of how they would look. I thought it would make sense to have the spikes removable from the gauntlet underneath, either to be resharpened or just to take the armour off or perhaps from a gameplay perspective, you could upgrade them, take the originals off and put some on that are different and this would be an interesting way of doing that.

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figure 1 

Moving on to character 2, or the big armoured guy as I had been calling him. I started looking at how his back pack would work, using nuclear energy to power a small furnace that can be used to melt down metal to replenish his ammunition as he would probably be using a chain gun which would not exactly be something that you could just find amo for. I also thought it would be an interesting game mechanic having the player take out an enemy run over and instead of just picking up the amo, melting the gun down in order to reload or interacting with the environment by ripping a pipe off the wall to put into the backpack.

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I also experimented with some alternate helmet designs for him, not straying too far from the original but mainly going for a more aggressive look. I could accomplish this be extending out the rim of the helmet to cover the top of the eyes giving a more aggressive glare to the helmet.

figure 2 

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I also looked into changing the chest rig around, adding more pouches instead of metal plates, though I wasn't as happy with this as I thought that it looked a lot more bland than the version with the armour plates.

figure 3 

---

For my third character, I looked at some more different helmet designs, all a lot more realistic than the past, with the middle being more like a pilot's helmet and the one on the right being more like a minor. With what I had come up with in my lure, I thought this would be appropriate.


On that same thought process, I thought about upgrades to the prosthetic that he might have, thus I gave him a jack hammer attachment. This felt quite fitting with the Cyberpunk world design and the use of prosthetic upgrades. I felt like this would fit in nicely and would double up as an interesting weapon.

---
## Weapon design

figure 1
I decided to experiment with a couple of potential weapon designs and how they might look, starting with a simple double barrel shotgun with a charging pack to reload it. Quite a simple design and not really something for my main characters to use and more like a standard of weapon for enemies. Next was a bit more of an eccentric weapon design, being the combination of an mg 3 machine gun and an AA12 shotgun. The weapon would have both magazines strapped together, as they both use drum magazines and the player could switch between firing modes. Lastly the main weapon for the bigger armoured character being the 30mm chain gun. The design was originally used on an Apache helicopter, but I thought that I could make it work as a hand held weapon. I thought it really matched the heavy duty look of my character and suit the form. I added some labels and some of my own design elements such as the cooling wire running along the barrel and the trigger and other handles, but the overall silhouette is there.

## Environment art

figure 1
figure 2

This week I finished 2 blockouts and paintovers starting with the blockout version of my original sketch. I decided I wanted to turn it into a blockout. It was quite simple, which is why I chose it. I wanted to keep it gritty like the original image, so I started doing quite a dark build up and impressionistic look to the image using a thin brush with the transparency turned down. I had envisioned that all the windows in the key towers had orange windows with an orange lighting theme throughout. I really quite liked the idea of the light shining in through the windows as it shows the toughness of the glass, that it hasn't completely shattered, but it still has broken. Moving on to the room itself being compromised as the radiation can now seep in, with the blood being added to tell more of a story in the room. I do find environments quite difficult as I much prefer character art, but I do like the more impressionistic look of the paintover.

---

figure 3
figure 4
After last week I wanted to make it a lot more gritty, with a lot more darkness in the corners. With the other buildings that aren't the main tower looking worse for wear as the radiation slowly erodes walls, whilst the tower stays clean. I wanted lighting to be important, with the windows inside the buildings emanating light. Getting that to work with the perspective was a little difficult, but I think it helped with the look, though I didn't want the buildings to have many windows to prevent radiation leaking in and only on higher levels where radiation is lower, will you see more windows, unless the building is just old like the one emanating a red light, which was built before the prominence of nuclear and they haven't closed their windows up. This inside would be unsafe hence the red lights. Overall, I like it, but I wish I had made the scene a bit bigger to accommodate more stuff and also add more detail to the buildings, despite me going for a more gritty brutalist theme.

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## Conclusion
I managed to get my blockouts done this week. Might do more at some point, but I really wanted to focus back in on character design and looking into techniques on how people create armour, as I think that is where my strengths lie at the moment. I want to add more iteration with some of my characters to show development in my ideas.

# Week 6 Journal

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## Zbrush

figure 1

Unfortunately, this week there were train strikes which made it impossible for me to attend my zbrush session, but I did get a chance to do some practice in other sessions and attempting to make my character with a mouse which I think went surprisingly well all things considered. I experimented with trying to get a flat surface for the armour. I found great success with the planar tool which cut and flattened. Using a mask whilst doing this was essential to prevent other surfaces being flattened out, but it made it quite easy to allocate panels and then flatten them out. This will be prevalent with my character, having a smooth undersuit with armour on top, so it will be important to make sure that the two surfaces don't clash.

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## Character Art
figure 2
At the time of writing this, I am currently finishing off the back pose of my character, with the front on stance being completed, which can be seen below. I used a picture of myself to get the pose for the character and then started drawing over the top and using my finished thumbnail sketch for help. Looking at my iterations for little bits, I wanted to change along the way, like the slots in the legs for example, I thought would look good taking inspiration from some of the helmet designs I had done and thought it added a lot more interesting detail then just leg plates. The same can be said for the grey inserts in the legs to add a bit of colour separation throughout and keep the black of the undersuit as I felt like the thigh armour was feeling a little bland and empty and needed some colour differentiation, so those little inserts worked nicely as the green can be quite an aggressive colour. I used the same technique to get the armour looking the way I wanted it. That being using the Kyle Ultimate inking thick and thin brush and turning the opacity down and then working back and forth with a large brush size, mixing between the dark colour and the mid tone to get the shadow effect. I wanted the benefit of using this so that the blends and transitions are not perfect, which I used to get with old Photoshop drawings, making them look lifeless, whereas here, I feel like I have a greater control and get a much better result. The same technique applies to the highlighted part from on the underside, which I used a normal soft round pressure opacity to create the smoother look I was looking for in slight folds rather than hard ridges in clothing. Overall, I was really happy with how it was looking and now I just need to finish off the back so I'm ready for Monday's session.
## Conclusion

This week was bit light on other things, but that was because a lot of my time was dedicated to getting the character sheet done.

# Week 7 Journal

## Zbrush

figure 1

This week I started on my zbrush character. I used the same model that I used as a practice. After a dynamesh, I managed to fix some of the imperfections such as the mouth line poking through the mask. To do this I upped the divisions on the dynamesh to equal the same amount of divisions on the model so that it didn't degrade the detail. I then started adding all the other plates, making simple shapes with the clay build up tool and then using dam standard to outline the panels which gave me a better guide line to work into. For the clawed fingers, I simply used the move tool to stretch them to a nice point. For the spikes on the arms, instead of using a dynamesh extraction, I painted a small mask line, inverted the mask, then dragged the spike out and into shape which seemed to work well. Overall, I'm quite happy with it for my first real start as all the ground work is there to begin working on, but there is still a way to go, so next week I need to really start accentuating those hard surfaces and have some well defined plates.

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## Character art
figure 2

This was really one of the main focuses of the week, getting my final concept done for my character and being fully happy with the design. For the back, I did the same thing that I did for the front. I simply took of a picture of myself and then drew onto it adding a simple symbol onto the back of the cloak and adding them to staff segments onto the back. I took inspiration from the angular geometric border style that had been used to present the Cyberpunk art as I felt like it fitted the theme with all the hard surface armour and then colour matched it to match the armour itself. I am extremely happy with this piece as I think it sufficiently displays my character and has a dynamic pose to give more life to the drawing. The only thing I might have changed was the rear view. It could have been a bit more in motion, but overall, I am still happy, as it allows a clear view of how the cloak sits on the character.

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## Environment art
figure 3

This week I started working on my final environment city scape. I chose to do a cityscape after my two blockouts had been made and I thought that it would be a more interesting thing to make rather than an interior. I wanted to make the main tower the real centre of attention as it should really be one of the largest buildings in the city and its architecture should stick out as being hard and very simple. In comparison, most of the real differentiation in the buildings should be through the textures applied to them, rather than the designs of the buildings. For the playable features, I wanted to add cover to the pavements. A great reference for this was The Division as it keeps its pavements clear apart from repeating the same connected pant pot and box that can be used for cover. These are present on all the streets in the game along with cars parked on the road which I will try to implement into my scene. I think I will add some larger lengthways buildings behind the main tower to add some depth and probably the same for the other side. Still early with this, but I'm confident in making it look believable in terms of scale and depth, but I am most looking forward to the texturing and adding different layers of weathering to the model.

## Conclusion

This week has been mainly devoted to getting the final designs started. I think I'm mostly going to try and get the character to a high level, as character art is what I'm most interested in and what I understand the most, but I still want a really good environment, so making sure I put enough effort into both is very important.

# Week 8 Journal

## Zbrush
This week I started to refine my character by adding more definition and depth to the armour. One of the most helpful tools to do this was the pinch tool which can straighten out lines and is also great for making edges in armour, so that you can add height and depth to those parts. Once I'd outlined the parts with the pinch tool, I then flattened the surfaces with the trim dynamic tool, so that the armour had a nice flat surface. After that session of adding depth to the character, I thought about how these parts would look after retopologising and realised that it would be better if I was to make some parts separate pieces. I made the new shoulders which looked a lot better and had a far better separate look. As they actually were separate parts, I will choose different parts that could do with being changed so that they feel separate to the model such as the knee and chest armour.

I also exported my character into Adobe Painter just to see how it looked, which I found to be not too bad, but I wanted to add more detail to the main face as the eyes seep into the mask rather than looking like separate parts, which is something I want to work on probably through using a dynamesh extraction to separate what I have already made.

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## Environment art

figure 1

Really starting to build out the environment now, probably close to calling it done. It has some nice variation in buildings whilst also having quite a set theme to the world. The geometric brutalist architecture look makes it also easier for me to make different buildings quickly. With the extrude and cut tool for some of these, I imagine them as being apartment buildings, whilst others are more for advertisements and lights. Still haven't added cars or anything like that yet as I anticipate those actually being one of the harder things to model and get looking right without them becoming just squares with wheels. Right now there are no lamp posts, as despite my world being nuclear powered and having plenty of energy, I still wanted it to be mostly dark, only illuminated through advertisements. I think there's an interesting message there, but it's also just a bit different to the norm of a city. Right now I'm happy with the way it's coming along, but next I'm going to be moving on to trying to texture the buildings. With it being mostly concrete and metal, I don't think it should be too hard, but I will see how that goes. I mainly want to focus on the weathering and grime on the walls, rather than the concrete itself, as I think that will give far more life to the buildings and for the tower to be a different cross hatch diamond pattern to add onto that outlining a different feel that I'm trying to convey in its design.

## Conclusion

As I move into more of the final stages now, a lot of this is just refinement especially for the character. Just trying to get the armour to stand out and read as a separate piece, rather than something built into the undersuit. I'm hoping that I'll have more interesting things to talk about next week with my environment, as I should be able to start texturing and weathering.

# Week 9 Journal

## Zbrush
figure 1

This week I refined the upper body so that the plates and armour were more defined and having harder more pronounced edges. I worked on the mask so that there is more separation between the parts like the eyes and the face mask. I did end up running into a problem with the file size because it was extremely large, so I had to find a way to solve it. The problem was that I had been saving my history to the file which was making the file way bigger than it needed to be. I saved a new version without the history on it and that was far better and also ran better in zbrush. I once again relied on the pinch brush to get the precise look I was going for and it also helped me map out the edges that I wanted to make. To do that, I would make the edge with the pinch tool, then I would lower my divisions, then use clay build up on a low intensity and slowly carve off layers. Clay build up was great for this with its square shaped brush, making it easy to follow the line of the edge. Once I had done this, I then used the trim dynamic tool to soften off the lowered area or raised area (depending on what I was making) with the trim dynamic brush to flatten out the panel.

figure 2

Lastly, I started adding the dread lock style belts to the head. Using a belt tool, it worked well for adding some, but others for some reason lost their top face which made them look incorrect. I am still experimenting with this as it is something I have not used before and is quite different to a normal brush. My hope with this is that I can make the hair on a different layer to the rest and then I can get rid of the place holder hair that I put the current belts on, so that the neck can be its own thing, as I can finish off the top straps on the chest piece.

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## Rigging practice

This week I imported my character into Maya to test how the rigging system worked. I tried an auto rig just to see what it would give me. At first I thought it had completely crashed and frozen, as I couldn't do anything and Maya wouldn't even close, but after 15 minutes it finally added the rig and it wasn't that bad and had the connection points almost perfectly correct. I was actually quite impressed as all that really needed doing was moving up the shoulder joints and adding points to the fingers and the feet, but not a bad test and I definitely feel more confident with getting the rig set up now more than I did before.

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## Conclusion
I am satisfied with my environment for now, but I'm currently focused on the character. I'm also working on my other submissions, but I'm getting there with the character. My main goal for next week is to focus on the legs and dreadlocks, but mainly legs and adding shoes to the model as that's the part that needs refining the most.

# Week 10 Journal

## Zbrush
figure 1 

This week I focused on the legs and feet. I started adding more definition to the leg armour so there was more visible differentiation from the main clothing. I started by using the trim dynamic tool on the raised plates on the thigh armour, then using the pinch tool to make the edges more defined. I then moved on to the knees which I decided to use the pinch tool on, but I wasn't happy enough with it, so next time I plan on extracting them so they'll be better to use when rigging and won't bend when being animated. I spent more time on the calf armour, picking out the edges with the pinch tool, then building up the more armoured parts with the clay build up tool, then smoothing it back down. I then moved onto the feet/shoes.

figure 2

I started by extracting the feet so they were on a different layer and deleting the left shoe, so I only had to work on one. I needed to get rid of the holes between the toes so dynameshed it with a lower resolution and I also inflated the toes and dynameshing again until there were no holes in them. I then began building up the shoe with the clay build up tool and carving out the sides until they were more square, at which point I could start using the pinch tool. One of the harder points was the arch between the heel and toe and getting it to look correct and then straightening it out with the smooth tool. Once I had the shape of the shoe looking correct, I added the plates to the bottom, This was a lot easier as all I had to do was use the cut tool to make it correct and then fitted it into place. Once this was done, I mirrored the shoe to the other side. Now all that's left is to add the top shoe armour plate and the ankle armour.

figure 3 

I also began adding creases and folds to the undersuit using the cloth nudge brush. It was far more realistic than using the standard brush and smoothing it that way. I did this around different parts of exposed cloth, but sometimes especially around the knee. I didn't really like the result as I found that the brush doesn't really make divits. It does at it says and more or less nudges the mesh and if there isn't enough material, you end up with some odd looking ridges with no divits and very flat folds.

figure 4

I managed to fix the dreadlock belts this week by redynameshing the mesh and then using clay build up on them to smooth them out. In this picture, this is how they looked just after dynameshing, but I have made some changes that will probably go into next weeks write up, but they are starting to look far more like dreadlocks.

## Conclusion
I am feeling much more confident in both my ability to finish off the character, but also to the level I want. As I have Z brush at home now, I can work on it far more than before, which is extremely helpful. Hopefully after next week, I can start texturing my environment and character.

# Week 11 Journal

## Zbrush

figure 1 

This week I focused on just getting my model finished, as I wanted to move onto texturing. I started by adding the ankle armour. I had to make a few changes such as the band around the ankle armour that floated around. I decided that it would be easier without it, but I think it still came out looking fine. I used the move tool to add the v shape, then built it up with the clay build up, then smoothed it out as I had done with the rest of the model. I made a circle with the mask tool, then inverted the mask and used the move tool to drag the circle down, which worked great for the bolts. I also smoothed out the dreadlocks and gave them more of a defined look so they matched the look of the character and each band should be easily discernible. Next, I extracted the knees so they were separate and were easier to rig and also so they would be easier to texture. I also fixed the spikes on the shoulders by removing the old ones, then extracting two lines and shaping them to look like spikes and flattening them out with trim dynamic. The only thing not on the model is the cloak, but I think I might add that in Maya, but I'm not sure right now, as I could make one in Zbrush, but I would like to make a dynamic cloak.

Reflecting on the model as it is now, I did take some creative licence in changing parts of my design, mainly the disc like rebreathers on the face mask. I did try them to see what they looked like, but I was not a big fan of them as I felt like they clashed with the edge on the cheek of the mask. I did have to simplify some of the design elements, but overall, I think it has come out looking pretty close to the original art.

## Texturing

I started trying to texture the model. I first decimated the model, then merged all the layers and unwrapped it. Exported it as an fbx. This is where I ran into a problem as the file took over half an hour to load, then was also extremely laggy. I thought it was just my laptop, but it could move fine when it didn't have substance on my other screen. Not to mention that the uv that zbrush had done was not right with there being a massive mess of polys in one part. I'm still trying to figure out what to do, as with the load time of the file it's hard to do anything and substance won't let me save the file either. I have managed to get it into Maya and I'm hoping that I can perhaps edit the model that way. I did paint on some colours in zbrush and that may have to be my backup until I can get this working.

figure 2

## Conclusion

In conclusion, I'm happy that I got the model finished, but having a problem that I'm not really sure how to handle isn't great. I'm going to have a another go at how to sort this, but if not, I might have to ask around to see if anyone has any ideas. Worst case I'm going to just have to add colour in zbrush and then rig it and maybe do some refinements in Photoshop and then texture my buildings in substance instead.

# Week 12 Journal

## Zbrush

figure 1

So, after my difficulties from last week, I decided to try removing the dreads as they were being really difficult to work with and the uv always came out looking strange. I merged everything other than the dreads, then decimated them than rather than unwrapping in zbrush, I directly exported it into Substance Painter and surprisingly it worked perfectly. It imported in a reasonable time and ran smoothly, admittedly it was in a bit of a low res, but I was happy with it. I used the matt plastic to get the painted metal armour look, as I didn't want something too reflective as it was more of a brushed rough texture in the art and wasn't highly reflective.

figure 2

You can see here the model in its finished state ready to go into Maya. You can see especially round the eye that there are problems with the resolution of the model, but from a distance I was fine, however I moved on as I wasn't really sure what I could do. I liked how the substance painter metallics looked, as they really helped to add depth and contrast to the model. As only the knees and shoulders and feet where separate, I painted on the colours by hand, which I think looked pretty good. I think I'd done a good enough job in zbrush of adding definition to different parts of the armour, though there was a problem which I was not yet aware of which I will come to later.
figure 3

Next, I wanted to try and bring back the dreadlocks, so I tried the same process I'd done to get my model into Zbrush. I first decimated the asset, then tried unwrapping it, eventhough this hadn't worked on the model originally, I just wanted to see it was working. Then it stopped half way and was like that for over an hour. I just decided to leave it and do other work until I saw that it said operation failed. I wasn't going to close it, though I was just about to. As I was about to go to bed, it jumped along and completed, so I quickly imported it to substance and surprisingly it worked on the first try and was uv'd perfectly.

It was at this point I ran into yet another problem, as when I started putting the textures onto the model in Maya, I realised that though the shoulders where separate in zbrush and substance painter, in Maya they were not and I had exported the shoulder textures as different textures so they couldn't go on the model. I merged and dynameshed the original model, re painted it in substance and then it worked.

figure 4
I now need to light and render the model, but I think this does look fairly good, the only problems were that the feet seemed to be a lower resolution than the rest, as I couldn't add the gold trim to the model, but on the whole I'm happy that I even got it in Maya. I also tried out Mixamo this week and I'm currently choosing a pose and looking for the character, but the first test is looking good with only the crotch armour stretching in really elaborate animations.

## Conclusion
This was definitely a more successful week, being able to get over the previous problems and getting close to having my character finished. I have definitely learnt a lot over the past few weeks, as a lot of this is new to me but I think I'm getting there. I'm having a one week break for Christmas, but when I get back, I should just need to get some animations on the model, then maybe see about getting it up on Sketchfab.

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# Week 14 Journal

## Environments
With my character being pretty much ready to go, I went back and started to texture my buildings.

figure 1

I started off with the main tower. I had an idea in mind for a diamond etched pattern all the way round as it would look completely different to anything else in the scene, with everything else being metal and concrete. It also had a large light fixture in the middle, so I wanted that to be orange. One problem I did run into and this was applicable to a lot of my models, was that they were all one, so I had to paint in windows and lights individually and also strange parts that were stretched or where colour would appear where I didn't want it, but as a lot of this was going to be in the dark, I was fine with it.

figure 2

Inspired by some of my earlier research, I looked at replicating the concrete style buildings from Halo 3 ODST and Halo 2 and 3. I liked the simple brutalist architecture and the mix of chipped rock and burn damage and just overall grime that all the buildings had. I used a dirt brush to go around the building making streaks and accumulations. This worked well, so I used it on all my other concrete buildings. A lot of the buildings and assets are quite similar, using different concrete textures and then being weathered up. The same could be said for the metal. I really just wanted to get it all situated and looking good for some nice shots of the environment with a heavy emphasis on the lighting. If I was to do it again and had more time, I would have ideally liked to spend more time on the uvs, so that I could get less stretched textures, but I think it still looks fine.

figure 3

## Lighting
This was something I was really looking forward to with Cyberpunk being something that I looked into and was trying to mimic. I wanted to replicate the lighting of Cyberpunk. I wanted to avoid any street lamps and have everything lit by the buildings. I started with adding a directional light coming from above with a soft of white glow, this helped to give a slight brightness to the scene, but still left plenty of shadows. One thing I notice the most now and I'm still not quite sure what causes it, is the light speckles that seem to come from the area lights. My guess is it is because I have them on such a high setting, but that was the only way I could find to get enough light out of them. In a lot of cases, I ended up reflecting the light at the model to make it look like they were emanating from them. I decided not to add lights to the second set of buildings as it felt like it added depth and just having the other lights reflecting on them was better.

figure 4

I do really like the street view with the lights coming from the windows and doors, a lot like my original block out. In some shots like this the speckles are a lot less prevalent.

figure 5
I then added my character to the environment and took some different shots of him in the world with the lighting illuminating the armour. This was actually the first time I'd actually seen my character rendered. To give it some more life, I used one of the animations from Mixamo which also gave a good stance.

figure 6

I took some larger shots with more of the character in view. I really liked how the light hit the eyes in this one, really giving the sense that they were glowing bright and this was something I want to reinforce with the editing down the line. I didn't really expect the armour to be as metallic as it is. I thought it would be rougher, but still with a blurred shine, but I still like how it looks.

figure 7

In this shot, the speckling is extremely prevalent, seemingly crawling up the building, however it still inspired me to do a sort of burned city, as with some editing it could be fire or sparks or falling ash, which I thought could be interesting to experiment with.

## Rendering my character

figure 8

I first started by adding a simple area light, then changing the light output to 100 and working down from there with 40.000 being the best at keeping the shadows whilst also giving the armour a nice green colour. There are some problems with the mesh mainly the crotch and thigh stretching. I could have fixed that if I had made the thigh armour separate, but that's something to do next time. Overall, it still all works quite nicely together, nothing looks extremely out of place. I do think I will do some edits, drawing in the lights and making the eyes pop a bit more, but overall, I think it came out great. Unfortunately, with the time constraints and trying to get everything working, I haven't been able to make the Ncloth cloak for the character. If I somehow get some time before I submit, I may attempt it, but I just want to get everything finalised. Here are a few more renders.

figure9
figure10
figure11

## Conclusion

My next step now is to put all my work into a more presentable style with borders and perhaps enhance some of my earlier sketches and if possible, get my character into Sketchfab so that it can be viewed more easily and also things like my overall write up, but this week has really been just getting everything finalised and ready to go.

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## Final week
With this being the last week and the renders done, I wanted to get my character into Sketchfab so that it's easier to be looked at. At first I was having problems trying to get the models textures to appear, until I realised that I had to apply them, so I did that and that worked fine from there. The second problem was getting the animation on the character as I was struggling to export both at once. I went back to Mixamo and exported it that way and that worked fine.

figure 1

Here you can see the file before I uploaded it, so you can see the search terms and names.

figure 2
This is how the model looked in the 3d viewer. I was happy that this had all worked as intended and made things a lot easier then trying to present it another way.

The link to the file on Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/character-and-environment-character-21359999-e8f063a74206464ab60a3e89c781df19

## Final conclusion
Looking back at all the things I have made, I'm really quite happy as I only really started digital drawing last year and hadn't really drawn characters that often either. I'm extremely happy with what I managed to produce. I really would have liked to delve into the n cloth, but with the other projects needing to be finished and with some days being taken up by technical difficulties, I just could not allocate time to it, but it's something I might do after completing the project, just to see how it works.

I really found Zbrush to be the software for me, with it being so easy to use and far more intuitive and ergonomic than Maya, as someone who has experience modelling and likes a hands on approach, this was perfect. I could really push my designs and try things out myself. It felt easier to experiment on and was something I could just pick up and go with which was nice. Texturing is something I definitely want more time on. I recognise that modeling the armour all together made things harder and that is something I will do next time and actually split my parts up into different sub tools so that texturing them is faster and more streamlined. This could also be said for Maya as I wish I could have approached the uvs differently. If I had had more time, but I think what I got was sufficient to make a scene out of. I really liked lighting the scene and this wasn't something that I'd really done before either.

I really did learn so much over this project. It was definitely difficult, probably the hardest part wasn't really this project, but rather balancing the other projects around it to make sure everything gets done. However, some of the things that I'm disappointed about was that I wasn't able to get some of the detail on the final model. I think this may have been down to resolution as it was hard to get the gold trim looking good and the same for the red markings, these would have been really nice extra details to the model. The character itself went through a few small alterations throughout my design process, really just using my iterations, just to have next to me as I drew up the final design which is a design I'm really happy with and is probably one of my favourite pieces in this project as a whole. The design went through changes as I was making it, like removing the filters on the gas mask on the final model as I felt like it looked wrong when I was designing it and ultimately, I decided to leave it and the ornamentation on the end of the dreadlocks. I was really hoping to get that working, but with the problems I was already having with the hair, I thought it would just be another problem.

Maya was not my favourite software to use as I find it to be more temperamental than something like z brush, so this is why I decided to focus more on my character, though I still did learn some things from Maya. Mainly using the extrude tool and how you can create some intersecting shapes with it. I did also have a go at rigging my model myself and animating it that way, but it took too long and was never going to be as good as something like Mixamo, but rigging is something I defintely want to try again as I would like to have full control over my model.

Photoshop itself was a learning experience for me this time as well, as I wanted my drawings to look different and have some style to them. I felt like a lot of my pieces from last year felt flat with no life. The biggest help was getting some different brushes specifically the Kyle's ink brush. I used it for almost everything and it gave me blends that still had some imperfections to them giving more of a sense of texture to the armour. There are still things I need to get my head around, like the paint bucket tool that leaves a white gap between the colour and the line art, so I did spend a good bit of time cleaning up colour or things like that, but it was all part of actually getting to learn the process of getting designs made. The symmetry tool was invaluable for getting quick characters done. I could get a basic front on view of a character done in no time which really helped.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the project as a whole turned out and I'm happy with what I managed to produce. There are things that I wish I could have added, but with time restraints and having to manage the other projects, this defintely made things harder, but on the whole, I'm satisfied with the model I was able to produce and definitely want to specialise in using zbrush going forward.