Re-topology

 Re-topology of a Zbrush character using Maya:

Download the Maya file here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iyu_Nj3WvnWJfFxp9vhpDzZ_eLdUlQyu

Low Poly key:

Zbrush Workshop

"Mannerist Catholic Skater"

Link to the mesh: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tNG93IsMuQUxBFh4hS3revImoXZrSJKs

 This task involved pairing up with a classmate to learn how to use Zbrush and use it to model a couple of characters belonging to the same universe or that would somehow work together.

Approaching the task my partner and I encountered all sort of problems right off the bat. We could have rushed the model but instead, we decided to spend one day on researching and concepting the couple, playing with silhouettes that would work both alone and together. we played with the notion of thin and small and hourglass shaped bodies that would clip onto each other. We initially referenced out the concept to Harley Quinn and the Joker from the Batman series and Rakan and Xayah from League of Legends.


Problem was that the next day as we are about to model our concept art files were corrupted so we could have recreated them or started with what we had established the day earlier.

Since the guidelines were fairly clear and we were short on time we regrettably started the work without it.
I began my model from basic shapes and slowly built it up into more detailed forms, with the exception fo the face, as I used a real set of photographs as reference to make my first character.

(this is the first character)

Copying a realistic face when still learning how to use basic tools on zbrush was much harder than I expected and in fact, slowed me down a lot. Meanwhile, my partner Louis continued making his "Insane bishop" and added elements from assassins creed and zed from league of legends.Two super popular games featuring reenactment clothing. On the same day he finished his model I lost the USB stick containing mine; therefore I had no choice but to start over and this time entering zbrush with a slightly clearer idea on how to use it. I tried not to overcomplicate myself and focus on easy to read shapes and looking at the pictures above I can tell the final mesh could use a bit more detail, but I did what I could in the time I had. Anyway, you may notice the word catholic wasn't part of my design task, but since we had lost the concept art, I tried to add certain elements to my character that would link my character to my partner's somehow. The costume itself is based on artistic skater's that perform in the Olympics and the uniform used in strictly Catholic schools for girls only.
the girl also has a white cross on her chest that wraps around her waistline, as a belt. so its a design element with a real function, this is a pattern that I wish had the time to incorporate on the back of the cloves and maybe even shoulders.

Since I kept the skater's body very fit and curvy I tried to avoid all sort of sexualisation. This meant that even tho the dress is short and closes with a mini skirt the girl is wearing black tights that were "extracted" off of her legs so that they would conserve all the detail; and there are no low neck cuts on the shirt  or opened jackets for that matter like in the original modeling which you can see below:
(On the brightside, all the clothes are on a different layer and the main mesh is anatomically as accurate as I could get it to be for the time I had and therefore always be ahead on future works).

Life Drawing Week 1-4

Animating a specific walk cycle

Animating the walking cycle in a rig like the one I used in this exercise isn't really hard just time-consuming and as this task taught me, crashes can and will occur.

Also loading the animation in different computers I encountered problems such as keyframes off-setting and would not fix in place even after enabling "snap", some frames would snap to the correct frame and some wouldn't. Therefore, making this animation I had to make and remake my walking cycles, I speak of plural because I used this as an opportunity to experiment with the different expressions. Bellow, I also posted the walking cycle with the rigging showing, this way we can see the hip movements, from side to side, and its multiple vertical and horizontal rotations.

This walking cycle runs on 24 frames, some walking cycles, like a drunk walking cycle could and preferably should run on 48+ frames as we want to have space to randomise some of the steps for effect and realism.