3d art

Creating a
savage warrior
Warrior 2010
How to create a warrior from a distant land with realistically exaggerated forms and
brutal weapons, inspired by the style of Frank Frazetta
John Hayes is a videogame character artist
Part one:
Modelling,
UV layout,
sculpting
Often the best looking characters
comprise not only good modelling, but
also sound textures and rendering.
Indeed, the final step can be the most critical,
though it depends upon a strong base model.
We will start with the concept and reference
image collage to help create the personality,
anatomy and costume detail. Concept art is
often only used for the inspirational direction of
the character, but it’s helpful to have lots of
photo references. A good place to find additional
The base shape
Creating the basic torso
free stock reference images is www.deviantart.
com. Be sure to get a few anatomy photos as
they’ll help make the character more convincing.
The process I will be using is called ‘box
modelling’, which allows for the overall form of
the character to be rapidly created and then
refined by several additional passes. Each
subsequent pass will develop the overall volume
and add detail where it is needed. At the same
time, I will add polygons and edge loops for an
even quad polygon distribution (except for the
face and hands, which will consist of a greater
amount of polygons).
I will be using modo for much of the tutorial
since I find its integrated modelling, sculpting
and UV layout tools essential in speeding up the
process. Finally I will use ZBrush to create the
high-resolution detail model that will be used as
a source for rendered textures. Part two of this
guide will focus on creating textures and posing
the model in Maya and modo and will finish with
lighting and rendering in modo.
80 ●
a
01 The base shape
The character should face
along the positive Z with the
head in the positive Y
direction. Start with a basic
cube wider at the top than
the bottom. It should be
three polygon rows wide
and three rows high. The
middle row should be
central to the X axis. This
will form the basic torso A.
A The side profile should
suggest the waist and the
side vertical cube rows are
thinner in the middle
B Angle the top and bottom of
the cube to form the
shoulder/trapezius and the
crotch/buttock
b
02 Tackle the torso
Adjust the side poly of the top row; where the arm comes out should be roughly square. The
leg polygons at the bottom should also be roughly square with a smaller gap for the crotch.
The arm and leg base polygons should be angled outward between 20-45 degrees B.