#koloss

So, a BIG part of why I’ve been largely absent is just work.  I’ve been working seven days a week and have been too exhausted to really do a whole lot.  But another part is that I have a whole bunch of major projects in the works at once.  One of which being a little test game of HISS. 

The plan is to create a single level with basic side scrolling action platformer mechanics since stealth action is such a goddamn nightmare to figure out.  One thing I DID realize early on is it would be a lot easier to get things going if I used a character model and imported animations from Mixamo instead of trying to draw everything at once.

So, after getting in touch with a truly amazing 3D artist, that’s what I did.  And now that the model is finished, I’d like to show you guys the full process of how it all went down, beginning, middle and end.

As y’all are fully aware, here’s my “muscle villain” for HISS, the bandit leader, Koloss:

Well, once we had enough of a back and forth and I explained what kind of game I wanted to make and the style I was going for, he explained that anime styles weren’t his strong suit.  I said that it didn’t necessarily need to be something akin to My Hero One’s Justice 2, as I originally stated.  Ultimately, I wanted something with a more ‘animation vibe’ and with really expressive faces.  Something a bit cartoony and comic book-y, if you will.  And when it came to video games, the visual style that we both agreed best suited that approach was something like Overwatch, or SMITE and Paladins.  To me, that was a perfect reference point, and if that was a style that could be replicated, I was all on board with it!

Once all the reference images were provided and a general rundown of the character model and bones was agreed upon, here was what originally came about at the start of the sculpting process:

I was excited because already, I could see that ‘Overwatch’ style in the proportions, the general look of the model, it was a brilliant start.  There were just a few notes to make Koloss more accurate to the images.  Namely, to lose the frills, the tale, to make his snout much shorter, his belly thicker and pudgier, and to give him a bit more ‘curves’ in the thighs and hips.

So, those notes were taken into consideration, and after they were applied, the clothing was applied as well, and this was what take two looked like:

I was already excited after the first sculpt.  But seeing the adjustments made, my excitement levels were through the roof.  Everything looked ship shape after a few additional tweaks here and there.  And with the model shaping up well, it was time to start mapping out textures:

It was legitimately looking like Koloss was starting to take shape in 3D form.  I’d never seen that before; any 2D reference of a character of mine translated to 3D like this.  But this gentleman does some truly amazing work, definitely worth every single penny (quite a few, but it’s important to pay artists what they’re worth, and this fella’s work is incredible, to say the least).

And once everything was coming together with no real additional notes beyond a few proportion fixes, it was time to start applying the bump and spec maps, and when I saw these?  I was enamored beyond belief because hooooooly crap, this looks absolutely amazing…

And finally, the end result after the fine details were added, and the incredibly detailed rigging was finally complete?

Turning this:

Into this…

Soooo naturally, after such a long process, Koloss definitely earned himself a full on binge to show off the belly bone and the unbuckled belt object for when he REALLY overdoes it.  XD

But seriously, words cannot express how blown away I am by the final result.  His work is truly incredible, and it’s been such a fun experience seeing it evolve with each update until it perfectly resembled this big, scaly brute.

Now, the hard part is learning Maya to actually work on rendering sprites while I still have this trial, since it’s not nearly as user friendly as Max was in that regard, but I’m very committed to figuring this thing out since, according to everyone I know who uses both, Maya is way better for animation purposes.