Thought I'd post up some clearer renders as some people said they had trouble picking the character out from the background.  My two monitors have some slightly contradictory contrast ratios so getting the light/dark levels right can be a bit tricky.  If I have any other shots I'll probably just update this post with them.

Night Goblin Boss Complete

The nameless Goblin boss is complete. I'll probably come back to him and fix/tweak a few things here and there. I'm also looking for some critique so I can continue to improve him. Next up I'd like to create an environment to display him in. Perhaps after that I can create a new skin for the model to use as standard ranking night goblin units, just to give him someone to boss around.

Night Goblin WIP_20

*Edited post image - added shoes.
I've added lots of 'lovely' Goblin props.  He sure loves to accesorise.
The props need a few tweaks here and there but are mostly done par spec map.

1. Moon trinket necklace.
2. Earings and metal bangles/bracelets
3. Leather/squig skin strap/sash to attach props.
4. Small bones to act as connection points for props.
5. 2x cracked potion pots filled with goo.. fungus beer?
6. Skull trophy with 2x beard scalps.  Dwarfs, boo!
7. Knoted Squig skin coin purse filled with (most probably) disgusting stuff. 
8. A small dead Squig to fill with mushrooms.
9. Leather bag to fill with even more mushrooms.

Night Goblin WIP_19

The robes are pretty much complete although I'm still playing with the opacity map.  Shoes, bracers and items to go.  Mostly bones, potions and unpleasant things!

Night Goblin WIP_18

Low poly hood complete!  Robes next. :)

Night Goblin WIP_16

The shield is now complete, although I still need to create specular/gloss maps for everything.  I'd prefer to do all the spec maps at once so I'll probably leave them as one of my final tasks or at least until the robes are complete.

I may eventually experiment with mirroring the moon insignia and use it atop a battle standard.  I think it might work well.

Also managed to get a bit of work done on the hood this evening.  The low poly texture will include an alpha channel to control opacity so I'll be able to add some detail with frayed edges to the fabric.  Next step is to build a low poly version of the hood so I can proceed to baking.  After baking the highpoly vertex colours I'll tidy the flame graphic and add additional details using photoshop.

Night Goblin WIP_15

Not had much time to work on this guy over the past week but I've managed to complete a few of the smaller props in the evenings.  Really need to separate some of the different materials using Spec/Gloss maps.  One of the daggers should have a bone handle.. not metal ;)

Night Goblin WIP_12

Baked maps and had time for a quick screeny of the low poly with maps applied in marmoset.

Maps on show are Diffuse colour (+AO and Cavity), Normal map and Translucency applied to the ears.  No spec colour, gloss or emissive yet.

There are some visible seams due to splitting the mesh into seperate objects because Marmoset doesn't (I think) support multi-sub objects.  Seams are pretty much invisible in Max.  When the model is finished I may look to get some shots out of Max using Xoliul's Viewport Shader.

I've split the Goblin into three texture sheets, although its really two sheets with an optional third.
Texture sheets are as follows:

• Texture sheet one includes:  Face, eyes, teeth and tongue.  The face is what I want the viewer to really engage and considering I started the project with the intent of creating a shiny portfolio piece it made sense for me to dedicate a large amount of room for the face.

• Texture sheet two includes:  Body, pants and necklace.  Once I've completed the robes, the goblin's body (plus pants and necklace) won't be seen.  The body is quite large so squeezing it amongst pieces that will always be visible seemed wrong to me.  Now I can give other objects more space and save resources by not loading the body texture when not needed.  Its definitely good to have the option especially if I decide to make a group of goblins later on, lots of variety! 

• Texture sheet three includes:  Arms and legs. Unlike the body and unless I decide to make shoes, these parts will always be visible   If the final model didn't include a robe covering the body I'd have a single texture sheet for everything below the neck.

Night Goblin WIP_11

A friend and talented character artist, Jamie-Lee Lloyd, suggested in my last post that my goblin may benefit from some subtle warm tones in fleshy areas.

I'll need to look at this tomorrow with fresh eyes but I definitely think it helps bring an extra layer of realism to the character.  I made sure to add these changes on a fresh polypaint layer so I can tweak it to my hearts content.

Up until now I'd been using reptiles as reference for the green/brown skin tones.  With the introduction of warmer tones I looked at tree frogs and geckos with particularly opaque skin.  I also looked at human face and body references.

Night Goblin WIP_08

Spending pretty much every minute of my spare time on this lil' dude.  Here you'll see some polypainting and continued outfit work.   I'm aiming to get a low poly version of him without his robes, hood and accessories complete before I continue with the rest of his outfit.  Everything in the first two images is ready to be baked down, except the pants which need some low mesh work.  I'm happy with the polypaint but I'm bound to touch it up and add extra detail in Photoshop.

I'll also be creating at least two other weapons (two daggers) and a shield. Ideally I'd like a range of weapons including spears and bows.  I've also got various head sculpts planned so I could make a small group of these guys. Alternate shield designs would also be nice but I'll have to see how it goes.. there's just so much to be done!

First and foremost, creating this warlord character is my priority. Variations after (hopefully.) ;)

...Now what would really be awesome is a giant squig for him to ride!.. ...I'm getting carried away again..

Night Goblin WIP_06

From this point on I'll be labeling post titles to match image titles, just to avoid confusion.

Adding lots of details such as trinkets and small trophies.  Small animal bones work well as decorations and points to attach other objects to.  I'm leaving some of the larger props that'll attach to his satchel strap for last.  I'm thinking potions, mushrooms, trophies and weapons.

You can catch a glimpse of his sexy squig pants, the height of goblin fashion I'm sure.

Night Goblin WIP_02

Before I and move on to sculpting the robes.etc,  I've decided to retopologise my existing subtools.  My current progress shown in the image (3dsMax screengrab, sorry for poor quality!)

Next I aim to unwrap the new meshes and project the existing high poly subtools on to them in Zbrush.

I usually skip projecting in Zbrush, favoring baking my maps in Xnormal using separate low and high poly obj's.  This has become the workflow I am most accustomed to so hopefully I'll learn a thing or two by doing things differently.  Exporting and playing with displacement maps may be a bonus too :)

Sticking to a low polycount (under 1k tris) has been the focus of a lot of my recent freelance work so it'll be nice change to aim high with this character.  For this project the final polycount isn't a major concern but I'm aiming for a solid portfolio piece, influenced by high end, current gen games.   Characters from 'The Witcher 2' have been a big influence, ranging at an average of about 14 - 25k tris.  35k for some of the more complex main character outfits.  I'll probably post my research in a later post.

Night Goblin WIP_01

This is a character project I started not long before christmas. I'm currently working on it during my spare time, mostly nights and the occasional lunch break.

The mesh was roughed out using 3dsmax before being converted to dynamesh in Zbrush. When I was happy with the major and minor forms I disabled dynamesh and subdivided the sculpt. I continued to further reinforce the minor forms and added detail passes as I subdivided higher.  The highest subdivision level contains several high detail passes created using custom alphas. These details as well as warts and scars were created on layers so I could edit the intensity. 

The character is a Night Goblin from the sinister world of Warhammer fantasy.

 When sculpting the Goblin I wanted to achieve slightly twisted but believable humanoid anatomy. Goblins and Orks in Warhammer are technically walking fungi so I wanted some areas of the body to seem distorted, elongated and not quite familiar.

 I also wanted the design to be quite muscular compared to average scrawny Warhammer goblins. This decision was influenced by two things. The first being a bit of lore-

  "Night Goblins have an exceptional knowledge of various types of fungus. As a result they have unique units which are fielded in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game. They are the most cowardly of all types of goblins but when under the influence of certain fungus they can be affected, resulting in increased physical and psychological attributes." I want my Goblin to be doped up on fungus beer :)

 The second influence was this fantastic painting by Adrian Smith. The only Goblin (although possibly a snotling) not wearing robes seems pretty muscular and visually it works well, very awesome!

RTS Repair Tower - Freelance

The Repair tower 'heals' units within a close proximity. The arm on the top of the tower can rotate horizontally and vertically to target a chosen unit.  A particle effect will emit from the center of the tower's dish to display the healing process.

RTS Defence Turret - Freelance

RTS Hover Drone and Medium Artillery - Freelance

RTS Heavy and Medium Tank - Freelance