# Independent Game Art Studio Practice (1J6Z1015_2324_9F)
### Games Art BA(HONS)
### Oliwia Kordalska

## Project Concept
### Responding to the thematic:
**Diorama**
A diorama is described as typically three-dimensional, often miniature, model that aims to tell a certain story by capturing a moment in time as a still image. These miniature worlds can depict historical events, natural landscapes, or imaginative scenarios by strategically arranging props and characters on base stands or display cases. Dioramas can be as detailed as recreating a whole city into a smaller scale model - often seen in museums and information points, or as mimimalistic as an individual figurine potraying a character in action.


**Fantasy**
In response to the proposed fantasy theme, I looked at different humanoid species throughout different media and decided to base my design on some sort of mythological God. At first I looked into greek mythology, thinking about how I could redesign Medusa or Zeus and capture the essence of their character in one still figurine. However I quickly became very fascinated by celestial gods based on stars which lead me into looking at zodiac signs; I liked the idea of creating a fantastical creature which could represent the zodiac sign using its charcateristics and incomporating various items which it's associated with.

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In particular, I am most interested to design the Taurus as a female goddess, as it is my zodiac sign and I feel a strong connection towards it. In my research I found that the birthstone of Taurus is emerald, it's planet is Venus which makes it a very feminine and caring sign. It's pretty stubborn but that also makes it a strong personality sign.


### Style
For my project I chose to create a High Poly 3D Character Diorama which will aim to portray a small scale scene cut out featuring a Goddess based on the Taurus zodiac in a forest surrounded by flora. I am heavily inspired by anime figurines which usually are made out at least one posed characater, a circular or square base, and a prop. In my design I will aim to incorporate symbolism that reflects the Taurus such as creating an environment that reflects earth and nature, as well as incorporate bull features into the main character's design.

### Character Description and Lore
In a world where the constellations govern life through essence of magic, celestial guardians exists to protect the peace and balance of the universe as we know it. Among these divine beings is Taurelia, a majestic guardian of nature inspired by the zodiac Goddess Taurus. Taurelia is a symbol of incredible strength, resilience, and an unbreakable connection to the earth.

Taurelia resides in sacred Garden of Stars, a place nestled amidst towering trees and vibrant flora, where the very energy of the earth resonates. Her job is to guide and protect that what is rooted in dirt and feeds on earth's fruits until it becomes dirt itself.

In game, her character would serve as mentor for the player helping them understand the hidden forces that govern the universe and teaching them about the zodiac's significance in their quest. She also serves as a protector of a holy grail, an artefact hidden among the extensive garden, which will require the player to seek her guidance and prove their worthiness in order to find it.

**Physical Apperance:**
* Her form is feminine and delicate, with a hint of grace in every movement.
* Her skin is an earthy tone, similar to terracotta, which symbolizes her connection to the earth element.
* She possesses long and thick, flowing hair, in a colour of a deep mahogany that runs down to her waist.
* Taurelia's eyes are manifestations of stars themselves, glowing with a soft beam of light.
* Two horns grow out of her forehead, resembling those of a bull.
* She wears flowing metarials which highlight her feminiety.
* Her body is decorated with gold jewerly which highlights her status.
* Taurelia is barefoot as she constantly wants to stay in tocuh with her element
* She has two faces, one of a human and one of a bull which sits on top of her human forehead.

## Concept Art
### Mood Boards
To start my project, I gathered many reference images to help me imagine the direction in which I'd like to take my character design. When looking at dress inspiration, I tried to collect designss that represented nature and carried themselves in a regal maner as I want my character to be the Queen and Goddess of the Taurus Sign. I think that placing my character in green materials and jewelry would fit in well with what her character represents.


### Itterating and Designing
Using silhouettes, I sketched out few designs for my character, focusing mostly of the idea I decided upon but also circling back to my previous ideas as I wanted to make sure Taurelia was the character I deffinitely wanted to proceed with.


Once I was happy with my decision, I chose the silhouette that represented my vision best and continued to expand on the design in greater detail such as itterating on her features and outfits.


## Modeling Pipeline
#### Anatomical Research
Before moving on to modelling I gathered many anatomical references which I would later use throughout working on my character as guides.

#### ZBrush
I began modelling my character using ZBrush as was the easiest software to create complex character designs. I used many brushes such as ClayBuildup, Polish, and DamStandard when detailing my work and I was able to create very organic shapes. This is my process I used to develop my character:


**The Final Design:**

Modelling Taurelia was my second ever attempt at modelling a humanoid character. While I faced many challenges such as the program constantly crashing and losing some of my progress every so often, I was able to finish my character and gotten the result I was looking for. I had used ZBrush's premade body parts to place as hands and feet because I felt that creating them myself would have taken too much of my time which I couldn't afford. I still planned to retopologise the model by hand so using correct hand anatomy as refences would have been beneficial to speed up my workflow.

#### Maya
I uploaded my finished model into Maya ready for retopology. To do this I locked my base model and used the Quad Draw tool which allowed me to place the new polygons by hand. This way I had more control over the direction of the mesh and made sure I had no triangles which could create problems later one. I followed many reference pictures when creating my topology to make sure it was correct and optimised:


I only retopologised one half of my model to save time on this process; it also assured that my topology would end up even on both sides as I only had to mirror my work to create the full body again. While I wanted to work with a high poly model, I chose to retopologise my work for two main reasons: creating correct mesh that follows anatomical human muscle groups which would be ready for rigging, and to put less stress on my computer while I continue my work.

While retopologising I also added extra components like jewelry and a front hair piece as it was easier to control modelling these items in Maya over ZBrush.


I rigged my character using the Quick Rig feature in Maya because I only needed to pose the model into one still pose, therefore I didn not spend time creating complex skeleton and deformer set ups as I did not plan to animate this. Despite the feature creating the rig for me, it had failed to map finger skeleton for my character, which I had to end up doing by hand. I used HumanIK to map the missing joints onto the model and spent a long time painting skin weights so that movement of the character would look natural with no artefacts.

When rigging I followed these guide videos:
* **[Quick Rigging and Skinning a Character for Beginners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c538zkwxgTQ)**
* **[Upgrading a Quick-Rig with fingers (using HumanIK)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkeTifkDHiQ)**


#### Zbrush
After I posed my characterinto the desired pose, I imported her into ZBrush one more time so I could complete my diorama by modelling trees and bushes for my environment.


#### Blender
I chose to try cell shading my work as it is a texturing technique I never tried before and thought it would suit this particular work to make it more lighthearted and welcoming.
When shading I followed this guide video:
**[Simple Toon Shader in Blender [Eevee]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs4QUGKm6XU)**

As the video instructed me, I have used blender's shader tab to create new materials for each of my items in the scene. To create a toon look I added displacement and solidify modifiers as well as played around with the nodes to create the texture I was looking for. I did my final renders using Eevee.

**The Final Diorama Renders:**


## Reference List
* “Taurus in Astrology.” Www.astrograph.com, www.astrograph.com/learning-astrology/taurus.php. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
* The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2018). zodiac | Symbols, Dates, & Facts. In: Encyclopedia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/zodiac.Upgrading
* a Quick-Rig with fingers (using HumanIK). (2020). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkeTifkDHiQ.Wikipedia Contributors (2018).
* Greek mythology. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology.www.facebook.com. (n.d.).
* Mythology around the world [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/Mythologyaroundtheworld/?paipv=0&eav=Afa59KYsQ6zoTIKXv1Wu6OdG_gFW6rVJw3YVGi8M0oue-QvuUvDTvdBcEWnZte0vhZA&_rdr [Accessed 12 Jan. 2024].www.youtube.com. (n.d.).
* Simple Toon Shader in Blender [Eevee]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs4QUGKm6XU [Accessed 20 Mar. 2023].
* polycount. (2019). Head Topology question? [online] Available at: https://polycount.com/discussion/212635/head-topology-question [Accessed 12 Jan. 2024].