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Then, he pulled the file apart and built a rough guide to build on in 3ds max, and started the low-poly modeling process:

At this point, we have a pretty good low-poly model base:

Which looks quite solid when sub-divided:

..but there's a lot of work to do yet! Hands:

..and Feet:

 

...and a LOT of detail:

More work on the feet:

And at this point, the model looks really close to being done:

 

But even still, there's work to be done! ZBrush is an effective way to get high levels of detail quickly, so that was the next tool in Evan's arsenal. By pushing and pulling and sculpting polygons using ZBrush, Evan presented us with this:

 

The mesh in the next image was made from one of the ZBrush models at a lower sub-d level which was optimized in 3dsmax by collapsing edge loops and vertex welding to create the final low poly model, which could then be UV mapped for the normal mapping process.

Before creating any textures, you need to make sure the texture co-ordinates, or UVs, are applied correctly. You can do this with a simple checkerboard map - if none of the checkerboards are distorted, you can export the UVs and start making a texture!

Looks good, and here are those UVs, exported and flattened:

Using the flattened UVs as a guide, Evan painted this simple map. Because we were pressed for time he created only a quick map to texture our Ninja in the most basic fashion (I know he's itching to create a proper map soon!):

 

And in order to get all of that delicious ZBrush detail onto our low-poly model, he created a Normal Map:

 

...which led to this model:

Looks pretty darn good, hey? But it's STILL not finished, because we need to be able to animate this guy. To do this, Evan set up a Biped rig to match the mesh:

But it's not enough to just adjust the basic Biped to fit the mesh; if we try to move him now, he'll be messy at all his joints! Just watch:

What a mess! To fix it, Evan weighted the envelopes around each joint so that the mesh properly deforms:

 

Ahhh, that's much better:

 

Finally, Evan did some custom rigging to the face, especially the eyebrows:

And now we have the final character!

 

...which was then posed, rendered, and manipulated in Photoshop by Gayle to create the following advertisement for GameDeveloper Magazine:

And that's how it's done! Of course, there are many many steps and hours in between these few screenshots, with a lot of know-how on the part of our instructors, before a character such as this can be called completed.

But you know, if you take the 3D Game Artist program, you'll learn to model characters (and environments and vehicles and animals and more) in low-poly and then build details using ZBrush, just like you see here. If you take the 3D Advanced: Character Animation program, you'll learn to rig, pose and even animate your characters.

Want to learn about all the little in-betweens and how-tos that we didn't have space to show you? Sign up below!

 

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