3d art

Step by step:
Add textures and light
to objects Flight of the Raven 2010
Jade Raven was originally designed to be a subject in my
book, 3D Modeling in Silo, which came out in October 2010
Antony Ward is a game developer and animation expert
W
hen designing Jade Raven, the
Rocket Girl, I had to find a
concept that fit in with what had
to be covered in the book. She needed to be
both organic and have hard surface elements,
plus I didn’t want to go down the route of the
cyborg, or mutant hybrid, which has been
done many times before. Instead I wanted
the character to be almost normal in
appearance, but with an added something.
In the end I decided to take inspiration from
the past, rather than the future and give
her everyday clothing and a powerful
rocket pack, all styled with a retro twist.
Once the main model was complete, I
only had a short amount of time to get
her ready for the cover, so I opted to
output a quick Maya render and add in
most of the details in Photoshop during
postproduction. It’s this process, and
the shortcuts I used, which I will share in
this tutorial.
Designing the Raven
Retro Fifties inspiration
138
Because the purpose of this character’s creation is for a
01 tutorial, her initial design has to cover both organic modelling
and hard surface modelling. She also has to be visually appealing so
the reader would actually want to recreate her.
To cover organic
02 modelling we make
sure we first create a full figure,
which can be reused on
numerous future projects. We
then strip her down and dress
her in loose clothing, which will
initially be modelled, and then
have more refined cloth details
sculpted in later.
So the reader also experiences Silo’s hard surface
03 modelling tools, we add a simple rocket pack to her back, a
helmet and also a pistol for her to hold.