Nia - Final Review

 06/05/22 - Week 17

Now that I have finished my projects I will review them over and see where I went wrong, could have improved or what I am pleased with and proud of. 

Nia was the first character I approached with this project, I chose the concept as the design was able to be implemented into 3D with an understanding that I already had, it also has good aesthetic quality and also presented some challenges such as hair cards. I wanted to create a semi-realistic character to compare with the more stylised ones I had chosen and this fit that.

Concept by Jonatan Anjos:

To first assess the overall success of the sculpt, I think I did well in some areas such as the clothing and overall body structure. This is not quite achieved in the facial structure and there's definitely some work that needs doing here to improve the similarities. I did try hard to get the face right but in the end I didn't seem to have been able to capture it exactly how I wanted it. This being the first character of the project that I sculpted, I see problems with it and some of those do lie in the addition of the unnecessary mesh top that I could have just created on the skin.

Moving onto retop and texturing, I think this is probably where the project succeeds the most, I think the retop is clean and deformation wise it isn't too bad. The texturing I think really reflects the character and I tried to mirror more classic stylised texturing. It perhaps doesn't have the exact same style as the original concept but I think the style works with the character well. I did still struggle with texturing concepts like adding the implication of dirt into the textures and getting some of the roughness completely thought out but this is something that I am actively learning and understanding more as I go along.

I also attempted hair cards with this character which is not something I've experimented with before. They are definitely not the best or most complete but I think they do elevate the character model as a whole and work with the more semi-realism aspect that I was aiming for, since sculpted hair would be a bit more on the stylized side. I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to learn more Maya during this process but it was very interesting and eye opening to learn the basics of hair cards and the process of both creating and placing them. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement here but I think the result is good for my first attempt at them. I am also pleased with the way the hair turned out in engine with the emissive placed on it, though I do wish that I was able to replicate the many different colours in the hair as seen in the concept. 

As for rigging and animation this project probably went the smoothest, purely for the reason that the character is the simplest. Whilst animating I also was able to spend a bit longer on it as I was quite quick in the rigging process. The animation, though a bit armature really brings the character to life so I am pleased with how it turned out. I think I would like to explore animating a bit further as it's something I ended up enjoying quite a bit.

Presentation on this character was a bit fiddly but I eventually got the lighting to somewhat reflect what I was seeing in the concept. I am most happy with the assets in this project as I was able to make some time to create the crows, which I decided to have instead of the cape as I didn't have enough time to create both. I think the assets in this scene really helped to add context and make the project look much more finished.

This is probably the project that I have the least to comment on, I think most things I did look reasonable for the time given and the only way I could have really improved on it was to go back and resculpt the whole thing and recreate parts that I am unhappy with currently and the new things I've learnt. I think I planned my time well and did give myself the best amount of time I could have for this character, sometimes perhaps too much, only perhaps some more in detail planning and notes could have helped me to realize problems before encountering them or creating irreversible mistakes.

Overall, I think I did well on this project, though it's quite simplistic and I don't have too much to comment about I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot especially for my other 2 characters. To do better I needed to revisit areas if I had the time, add more details and a higher level of quality and give more foresight in the form of planning. I am proud of my first attempt at hair cards and I'm excited to improve on these and learn further hopefully soon.

This concludes my first FMP character project.