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