I tried keeping all of the materials as different as possible from each other, especially because I had more objects with the same base material (ex. more types of leather, fabrics). The way that I build them was similar to how I made the textures for the first term characters, I built them as brand new at the start and then added wear and damage to them, as well as smaller details. I wanted to have a good read on the materials from all the distances so I really tried to break everything down to primary, secondary and tertiary details and focus on only one thing at the time. Also, I switched around a lot while working on them so I wouldn't get stuck working on a single part while the others didn't have any detail.
Because I changed everything a lot of times, I made a screenshot at the end of each working day to see the progress, but there were more intermediary stages even within one day which I forgot to record.
This was the progress after the first day, at this point I was really unhappy with how everything was looking overall. I didn't like the colour palette or the material properties, things weren't working out so I decided to stop for the day and try again the following day.
Second day, I decided to split the vest into two different materials, the normal leather and a very rough leather/suede material. I felt like having the vest completely made out of leather wasn't looking as good as expected and splitting it like this made it much more interesting, and added more variation. Also, changed the material of the top completely and I actually liked this look much more, having this type of alphas made it look more different and interesting (I was planning to add tears in the top from the beginning but the previous material wasn't looking convincing with generic tears on it). Even though I did some more work on the other materials as well and changed the colours quite I bit, I still wasn't pleased with how the character was looking overall.
Third-fourth days, added the glasses and scarf. I made the glasses bright yellow because I thought that it would really bring the attention to the head since everything else is quite dark and muted. After getting feedback, and trying out more colour options (of which I don't have any screenshots, unfortunately) I tried having the scarf and the top a warmer tone, and have everything else cold, so they would pop out more (which is something the main characters of DMC5 have going on, so I tried adapting it to my character).
Also, I changed the cloth on his belt back to a plain dark colour, because I felt like it needed to match in a way the rough leather material on the vest, and because the previous pattern didn't seem fitting for this type of character. For the same reason, I removed the pattern on his socks and tried compensating the variation that brought in another way, so I used some dirt stains instead of the stripe pattern.
Going back to my leather jacket reference, I experimented a bit with having some embroidery patterns going on. I liked the variation it brought, but I still felt like that pattern wasn't really fitting for this character.
The fifth day, changed things a bit more, I felt like my character was missing more saturated colours so I tried experimenting with that, using the main colours from the pattern I added on the back which changed things quite a bit. Relating this to the backstory of the character, I wanted to make this kind of religious paintings pattern on the back of the leather jackets the "trademark" of the demon hunting biker gang, so I had to find a painting which would somehow fit the role of my character. I ended up using "The fall of the rebel angels" by Luca Giordano, which depicts Archangel Michael defeating the fallen angels and sending them to Hell, which I thought could be fitting with my character, suggesting the role of the protector and fighter against the evil. Adding the painting gave me an idea for the embroidery on the vest too, so I changed it to a snake, which is a symbol of evil and temptation in the Bible, which would further match the backstory. Also, the snake was a more fitting pattern visually, (the first attempt was looking too feminine) but I just added it as pattern applied on top of the vest instead of an embroidery (again, because I felt it was too feminine).
Also, I changed the material on the pants, at first I made them as denim, but I felt like that whole lower body area had too many rough materials, so I decided to change it to something which would reflect light a bit, so I changed it to waxed denim. I think that this change made quite a big difference and worked much better in the overall look of the character.
I worked on the metals a bit more and spend some time on other parts which needed a bit more love (like the accessories).
This was the result, after spending the entire week on the textures. At this point, I was still not happy with the colour palette and I still had to add some important bits, like the full sleeve tattoo on his arm, a scar, eye texture and none of the materials were finished, they needed more visible wear and dirt. Originally, I had planned to spend only one week on the textures, but it seems like it was not possible, but considering that this is a very important step, it's better to extend my schedule than settle for less.
No comments:
Post a Comment