I decided to research more about 3D sculpting artists who work in the game industry. This will help me to push my final digital 3D work, as I will learn more about high polygon model detailing, painting and texturing, and rendering in different programmes.
Dan Roarty (https://www.danroarty.com/) is an award-winning 3D artist and creative lead at Unity 3D. He has worked for clients and companies such as Microsoft, Activision, Lucas Film, Deadmau5 and has assisted on Square Enix projects, such as the 3D design of lead characters for 'Lara Croft: Rise of The Tomb Raider' (2016). Roarty uses a variety of digital programmes to sculpt, paint and render the designs digitally: Mudbox, Z Brush, Maya and Unity. His style is mainly photo realism, and much of his work is composed of digital portraits of real-life people, actors and also characters from films and games. Roarty uses both bust and full-body character mesh formats, depending on the type of work being created, both of which require extensive knowledge of human anatomy and proportions. I like Roarty's Maya and Mudbox models as I can see the smallest details that make up the human body and face, as well as how the models can be exported from one programme to another to add real-time effects. I saw this most notably in the Lara Croft model for Square Enix, where effects such as scratches, blood and mud stains are added as the player progresses through the game, when certain events are triggered. I found this research useful as it gave me a greater impression of the programmes I can use for one single model. For example, I will try out importing my digital models into Maya and Unity for rendering, and also to add effects, such as the fire for the Soucouyant.
I also looked at my art books for the Uncharted Franchise and 'The Last of Us', games by Naughty Dog. Naughty Dog is my favourite game development company as I really enjoy the refined design of the characters and environments, as well as the character interactions with each other, and most importantly, the narratives that drive the designs of these characters and environments. From these art books, I took photos of the pages that feature detailed character sculpts and renders from these games. Seeing how the character sculpt was constructed and then deconstructed on the page gave me a better idea of the process, and how long it will take me to carry out these steps in the time I have to make the characters. I was most drawn to the concept designs for the 'Infected' in 'The Last of Us' as these zombie-type creatures were covered in rashed skin, flaws, scaling and deformities, as well as their prominent postures, which reminded me of my own design ideas. The creatures designed for Uncharted 1 and 2 notably draw from cultures such as tibetan culture (the Guardian designs), featuring vibrant details from the culture, such as accessories, animal inspirations and the clothing and colour palette.
Evaluation
Overall, researching the character art from Dan Roarty and Naughty Dog gave me a stronger impression of the processes used in the game industry. I learnt that different programmes can be used for one character to sculpt and render, such as Maya, Mudbox and Unity. I also feel encouraged to experiment more with texturing and painting details similar to Roarty and Naughty Dog's work, as this will help to create a more convincing portrayal of the folklore characters according to how I interpret them.
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