Norse - Introduction to 3D Modeling

Norse
As seen in Photoshop CC (3D)

As my Electroshock Glock's textures were unsuitable for Google Maps (where only one texture map is visible) and baking the textures into one map would require more work in Substance Designer (and would not appear as intended). I aimed to achieve a low poly budget model with a 'painterly' single channel texture.

Sculpting my Base
Mudbox

Aiming to continue to feature my model at Mt. Everest, I looked towards the idea of an imposing statue that could be set within a mountain. Given the snow setting and mountain terrain, I was keen to explore nordic imagery as a base.

Mudbox provided useful and accessible sculpting tools to quickly create a form I could base my low poly model on. As I was looking to include much of my detail as texture, I was quick to complete my sculpted base.

'Retopologizing' my Sculpt
3DS Max

I was able to fully import my sculpt to 3DS Max where I utilised planes to 'trace' over my sculpt. This however, ended up being a loose trace, where I found myself adding stylistic features to the model - taking into account smoothing groups wouldn't be visible within Google Earth.

Norse
Photoshop CC

Texturing within Photoshop CC's 3D Workspace was effective for this application. Despite my laptop's poor GPU performance I was able to successfully 3D paint the model via Photoshop's Projection feature. I aimed to emphasise the form via snow and highlights.



World of Warcraft Assets
Ashleigh Warner

An influence of my painterly texture approach was the art direction on Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Assets are textured with a very handmade approach, geometry is also very basic and textural line and details define a large portion of object's form.



Painterly Assets
M J

M J's work was a huge inspiration for its semi-real stylisation, whilst being very hand made and hand textured in appearance.