Character and Environment

This project was my main project for 2nd yeah, where the brief was simple: Make a 3D environment and a 3D character, based in a fictional location of a metropolitan ludotopia. This project was my first exploration into 3D sculpting, and kickstarted my love for the 3D sculpting program Zbrush. I learned a lot of fundamental industry processes during this project, Including retopologising, baking mesh maps, and trim sheets.

My project's setting was a city built on a south facing hill, bathed in sunlight. The citizens of this city worshipped the sun, and once a year, they would sacrifice one person in a pyre dedicated to the Sun Idol.
My character's story was that she was a freedom fighter, rebelling against the sun god and worked under the moonlight to free the sacrifices before they could be set aflame.
My design for this character was based on traceurs and climbers, people who take part in free- running or scaling city buildings. This fit because oftentimes the people who practice these hobbies are doing it on private property, or taking part in dangerous stunts.

One of my big inspirations was the game Mirrors edge in which the player must use the games environment to move around. Mirrors edge also has a very bright and sun exposed visuals, however I wanted my city to be warmer and with more plant life. More on the solar-punk side of things than clean and industrial .
These are some variations on my design. The Navy blue themed one is based on the fact that my character's 'team' has strong nighttime and moon theming, as a thematic foil to the sun god worshippers. However I decided that this made less sense than the tanned version considering the fact that she still lives in a very warm and sunny location, no matter her political views, this does not make her immune to sunburns

These are the initial sketches I made based on the climber theme.

My Zbrush sculpt really opened my eyes to the joys of working with Zbrush. As a software, it was very intuitive and comfortable to use, which I value highly. I have a background in physical sculpting with polymer clay and ceramics, which may have made the transition to digital 3D feel more natural.
The sculpt itself pushed me to learn the different textures as it had a wide variety of features, with part of the design being hard surface, lots of skin showing which meant good anatomical studies were vital, a mixture of baggy and tight clothing meant I had to learn different ways of sculpting fabric, as well as the hairstyle having a mix of stylised long hair and stylised short hair.
Finally, an example of the concepts I made for the environment asset, a townhouse building. On the image, you can see my notes considering what features to add to match the theme and lore well.