Dev Log #23 | Character Benchmark

The last Devlog was all about hair and it has been quite some time since I wrote that one. It was time to do one again and it just so happened, that I did this new test just a short while ago.

What I tried to do and what I'll continue trying to do is to figure out where exactly my skills are at when it comes to character creation. After making Noreia I haven't worked on another character and that has been some time ago, what did I learn in the meantime?

To answer that, I gave myself 4 questions that would address most of the concers I had in my head for future characters. They are as follows:

• How is the hair going to look like for my future characters?
• How are the eyes gonna look like?
• How is the skin texture looking?
• How will the outfit look like?

Answering these was my goal and the first question was gone fairly quickly. The hair you can see in the picture is actually one of those I had already shown you in the last DevLog. I decided that there was no use spending my time redoing it if I already had it sitting right there. So I simply copy/pasted it onto the character. So that leaves 3 questions to be answered.

How are the eyes gonna look like?

I'll be honest with you, as I generally like to be. The eyes are really, really important. And I think I haven't been doing a very good job with them. As they are such a small part in the creation process of a character I usually give them too little time and thought and the result is not as good as it should be. That is going to change in the future. Above you can already see an example of how they are going to look from here on out.

I am actually going back to a technique for the eyes that I used in Tale of Eden, but was too bad at 3D to properly do it. It's actually a pretty standard way of making 3D eyes in the industry and is one that is based more on the actual anatomy of a real eye and not just a painted on texture. The most prominent use of this would probably be in pixar movies, where all eyes are made that way.

And to make things easier for me, I decided to buy an Addon for 20€ that basically gives me the eye premade and I just have to adjust everything to my liking. Personally I am happy with the result.

How is the skin texture looking?

This one wasn't as straightforward as the eyes. Skin painting is, in my opinion, a process that isn't so much dependent on tools as it is on skill. Of course the tools are important as well, but it is not like I changed any of them in the meantime and my workflow stayed pretty much the same. So did I improve or not?

On the left you can see the skin texture I made for Lily. On the right you can see the one I made for this random test character. I asked a few friends of mine what they thought. Two of them liked the one on the right more, one of them preferred the left image. I personally like the right one more. The nose is too dark, but that is easily fixable. I think it looks more realistic, has more variation and I actually took a lot less time to do it. It is also higher resolution because I tried using UDIM's for the first time.

UDIM's are basically smaller textures that are patched together into one large one. Using several 4K textures is actually much more efficient than using one big 8k or 16k texture.

My thoughts are that I did improve. There is still room to grow and things to tweek and fix as always, but I do think the skin looks more natural and pleasing to the eye.

How will the outfits look?

Well... I haven't been able to make those yet. I had planned to, but didn't get to it in time. So the answer is: I am not sure. What I can show you is an older set of clothes I made a few months back. Not really representing my present skills and not really what I had in mind, but it is at least something.

The results:

I did everything as good as I can. With the techniques I like the most and in a way I know I am able to replicate. The final image isn't a fluke or something I can't do again. It is where I am ending up when I am combining everything I've learned so far. The character you see above is what I am currently able to do.

And I don't know about you, but I am very happy with the result. I think the character still looks very clearly like one of mine but is also more refined and less "chunky", while still being pretty simple.

While there is still room for growth, I can also clearly see how far I've come as a 3Dartist. I want to thank you all for your support, allowing me to spend way too much time on MIST thus opening the door for me to keep growing and learning. During the past months I often doubted whether or not I was still improving, or caught in a standstill. I had to do this test to prove to myself that everything was fine and I think I was able to do so. 

And that's it for this Devlog. I hope you enjoyed reading it and you'll hear from me again next Monday with the newest Update post. Until then, have a nice week and stay safe!