BA3a - Week 3 Summary - Task 2

BA3a - Week 3 Summary - Task 2

This week we were given our next task which is to create a 'Survival Weaponry'. The context we were given is the following. 

'An epidemic has broken out in Chicago leaving a section of the city cordoned off, under quarantine, and those stuck on the inside fighting for their lives. With limited supplies and an increase in crime, you are left to forge your own weaponry from everyday items to protect yourself.' 

Asset Production: Create a survival weapon. A maximum of 20k Triangles with a maximum texture resolution of 2048x2048. 

Since our task as 3D Artists are to produce a 3d model based upon a given concept I will not spend time to create my own concept for this weapon but instead find a concept online and produce it as it was a task received in the industry where a concept would be provided. 

After much digging online for the right concept I found this awesome concept artist by the name 'Anton Kazakov' On his Art Station he had many great concepts of survival themed weapons and these are the ones that stuck with me the most.

Concept created by Anton Kazakov 'Art Station'

Concept created by Anton Kazakov 'Art Station'

The issue I had with deciding was that I really loved the handle on the sword (2nd image, right) but the top wasn't really doing it for me. On the other hand I liked the top of the top left weapon a ton but not that it was a two handed weapon. Therefor I mixed the concepts quickly in Photoshop to create the combination that I wanted. 

Modified Sword, original concept created by Anton Kazakov

Now with the perfect concept found it was time to start the creation. My process on this weapon will be to first create a rather clean high poly version to later add the damage in the texturing stages. This is because it is a lot easier to add damage through modifying the normal map instead of spending time baking them in. The cloth wraps will be sculpted using zbrush.

I started off by creating the 'pole' in the middle since that's the part holding it all together. I then created the framework around the handle.

I then created the straps and tape that were around the handle to later bring into zbrush and sculpt. 

Here is a render showing how the high poly looks like before I imported it to Zbrush and started sculpting all the cloth straps and tape.

The sculpting was a rather straight forward process where I used a mix of various sculpting brushes such as weave, dam_standard and more to create the look of cloth and tape. I also added in weld seams to increase the feeling of it being build out of scraps.

With the high poly sculpted and ready next week I will focus on getting the low poly and bake done, might also start the texturing if time allows for it but I want to spend time on the Pirate Cove as well. Here are some final render shots of the finished High poly model.