Roles: Modeling Textures

I modeled a character in 3D as an exercise to get better at blender. The goal was to try my hand at simple rigging and posing. I also aimed for optimized polycount and texture space. I learned a lot, 3D character modeling is fun!

The original 2D concept is by Heikala. I had to interpret missing details and resolve inconsistancies that make a great drawing but a weird 3D model. I tried to be as close as possible to the original 2D drawing. it can be improved but I'd say it's reasonably accurate.

The original design caught my attention with its unique silhouette. The peculiar, inverted diving suit was so intriguing, I had a good time clearing up what it meant. I felt hoses on the back were a fitting addition to improve the side-silhouette. It would stay close to the shape vocabulary.

To better understand the needed topology for animations, I wanted to stay in a mid-poly budget. I modeled the body & face first, and the suit on top of it.

I had lots of fun trying poses. The suit design limits movements (specifically shoulders!!), it was a good example of how to work around pose constraints.

The hair was tricky to do. Using smooth shading, it's possible to keep the geometry very simple. I slowly came to a nice hair structure by moving each vertex until it felt right. The process was long but paid off.

I can't draw conclusions on the face topology because I didn't rig it. Maybe next time.

Texturing was done in Photoshop. After unwrapping the UVs, first I painted the lines I want in the texture, and checked how they're rendered on the model. Some lines can appear jagged because of the low-poly model, so I need to decide now if I'm ok with this, or if I adjust the model a little to prevent this.

Painting always reveals things that didn't work out in the model, but weren't obvious to me before. So I come back a few times on the geometry while I paint. It's cumbersome because I have to change the UV. I cut, paste, scale and rotate parts & rework already painted areas because the texel density has changed.

I'm pleased I took the time to model a character like this. The base design is fun, I learned a few things on topology, rigging & skinning. I love mid-poly aesthetics, PS2 era is my jam.

Next step is to animate. Problem: I think I hate blender animation tools.