Report

Xanthe Sincl air
CHARACTER
ARTIST

About
I am a 3D char acter ar tist specialising in
both stylised and r ealistic char acter s
for r eal-tim e gam e envir onm ents. I also
have exper ience with 2D ar t and r igging.
I enjoy digital sculpting, textur ing and
gam es. I?m always willing and eager
lear n new techniques and softwar e to
fur ther develop m y k nowledge and
sk ills.

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ...PAGE 4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ...PAGE 5
EXPERIMENTATION ...PAGE 6
COMPETITION ...PAGE 8
SEEKER ...PAGE 10
JUNK WARZ ...PAGE 12
COLLABORATION ...PAGE 20
EAST ...PAGE 16
MEASURINGMY WORK ...PAGE 22
CONCLUSION ...PAGE 23

INTRODUCTION
In m y final pr oject, m y m ain goal is to im pr ove m y char acter m odelling and design
sk ills, as well as exper im ent with differ ent styles. M y chosen r ole is as a char acter
ar tists for gam es, I want to be flexible in ter m s of style so that m y sk ills ar e tr ansfer able
between low poly m obile gam es and m or e r ealistic AAA gam es. M y plan is to cr eate a
var iety of solid char acter pieces for m y por tfolio, including design, m odelling,
textur ing and pr esentation at a gam e-r eady r esolution.
In addition to m y chosen r ole of Char acter Ar tist, I want m y secondar y r ole to be as a
char acter designer , so I intend to wor k on som e char acter s of m y own design. I think
design sk ills ar e im por tant as a char acter ar tist because som etim es even when given a
concept to wor k fr om , you m ay have to fill in the blank s in case you ar e not given a
back view of the char acter as well as having to m ak e design changes to a concept if it
doesn?t tr anslate well into 3D. I also want to wor k on r igging, because it will help with
the posing of the char acter s.
The pr esentation of m y final pieces will include tur ntables, sever al posed beauty shots
and technical br eak downs of the topology and textur es. Each char acter will have a 3D
viewer using either M ar m oset Toolbag or Sk etchfab, m ak ing them inter active so that
the viewer can m ove the m odel ar ound and see it r ender ed in r eal-tim e.
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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
M y FM P is br ok en into 3 m ain com ponents. Com peti ti on , Col l abor ati on and Per son al
wor k .
-
The com petition pr oject is for Sear ch For A Star pr esented by Gr ads in Gam es,
which has m ultiple categor ies for students to enter. For the Char acter Ar tist
categor y I?m planning to design and m odel a char acter accor ding to their br ief. I
star ted this pr oject over Chr istm as as the deadline is in Januar y.
- For collabor ation I?m going to be wor k ing on a gam e pr oject for m y classm ate
Victor , in which I?ll be designing and m odelling a few char acter s.
- In addition to this I want to wor k on a couple of char acter s that fit m y per sonal style
either using m y own concept ar t or pr eexisting concepts. This will be an
oppor tunity to fill in gaps in m y por tfolio, such as cr eatur es and har d edge
m odelling.
Som e of the aspects of m y wor k I want to im pr ove, based on feedback fr om industr y
contacts and cour se leader s, ar e over all polish of textur ing and pr esentation, har d edge
m odelling and in-engine m ater ial setup.
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6

EXPERIMENTATION
For som e of m y sm aller pr ojects I
wanted to focus on im pr oving m y
fundam ental sculpting and textur ing
sk ills to help solidify m y wor k flow for
other pr ojects. To show m or e var iety in
m y sculpts I decided to wor k on two bust
char acter s, an asian m ale and an old
fem ale. I chose to do busts instead of full
body char acter s so that I could just focus
on the face.
I also wanted to pr actice sculpting older faces
with wr ink les, so I chose to do a study of
Fr ances Conr oy?s char acter fr om Am er ican
H or r or Stor y. W hen sculpting the wr ink les I
had to think about how the sk in would m ove
and fold. This pr oject helped m e im pr ove m y
anatom y because I had to identify fat pock ets
and softer ar eas on the face to ar e m ost lik ely to
sag and be affected by gr avity over tim e.
Although I have done r ealistic sk in textur ing in
the past, I found that focusing on just the face
helped m e to solidify m y wor k flow, which is
m ostly based on a video by M agdalena Dadela.
The fir st was to focus on pr acticing
m ale faces as well as look ing at
differ ent ethnicities, so I chose to do a
lik eness of Tony Thor nbur g. In this
pr oject I also tr ied a differ ent m ethod
of gener ating hair using ZBr ush?s
Fibr em esh, which I found difficult to
wor k with com par ed to M aya?s XGen.
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COMPETITION
Pandora
?10 year s after the air
on Ear th becam e too
polluted to br eathe and
the last sur viving hum ans
r etr eated into
under gr ound bunker s, a
gr oup of scientists
ventur e into the desolate
wasteland. Pandor a,
tr ained as a biologist and
later as a doctor , has
found a way to r ever se
the effects of air
poisoning using plants as
a pur ifier . She scavenges
the wasteland, gather ing
any newly spr outing
vegetation to pr otect
them fr om the har sh
envir onm ent.?
8

I decided to enter a com petition pr esented by Gr ads in Gam es
because I thought it would be a good way to get m y ar t out ther e and
to inter act and get feedback fr om industr y. The deadline is in Januar y
which leaves m e with just over a m onth to com plete a char acter of
m y own design.
H ead Sculpt
I chose to design a char acter based on one of the br ief pr om pts; ?a
cyber punk scientist in a post apocalyptic wor ld?. I found the design
pr ocess quite challenging as I only had a few days to com plete it, but
I?m quite happy with the design I chose consider ing the tim e
r estr aints.
H aving seen the other entr ies I r ealised that I was pr obably a bit
over ly am bitious with m y char acter , as m ost people had done m or e
stylised, sim plistic char acter s. H owever this paid off because I m ade
it into the finals, pr obably because I attem pted m or e advanced
techniques than the other contestants.
Clothing m ade with M ar velous
Designer
In Apr il I attended the event held in Sheffield and had the
oppor tunity to inter view with lead ar tists fr om Sum o Digital and
nDr eam s as well as networ k with m any other gam e developm ent
com panies. I cam e second in the com petition, which I?m pr oud of
consider ing I didn?t expect to m ak e it into the finals. Over all I lear nt a
lot thr ough this exper ience and gained som e m uch needed inter view
exper ience and helpful feedback fr om industr y pr ofessionals. Sum o
Digital also invited m e back for a follow up job inter view.
Subsur face Scatter ing on face
textur e
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After doing the com petition piece which
was ver y detailed and r ealistic, I decided
to tr y som ething a lot m or e sim ple. I
chose som e concept ar t by Dani Diez
because I thought it was ver y differ ent to
m ost char acter designs I had seen, in the
shapes, body types and colour palette. I
feel that this will stand out and show
ver satility in m y por tfolio. H aving done
som e shor ter pr ojects in the por tfolio unit
with som e success, I decided to give
m yself about two week s to finish this
char acter.
I lear nt som e new techniques I hadn?t
tr ied befor e dur ing this pr oject, such as
painting alpha/ opacity in Substance
Painter for the spell as well as painting
stylised em issive m aps for the glowing
par ts.
SEEKER 10

11
Concept ar t By Dani Diez

H aving m ade sever al stand alone
char acter s, I decided that I wanted to
wor k on a lar ger , m or e involved pr oject. I
want to explor e non-hum an char acter s in
this pr oject because I don?t have any in
m y por tfolio. I decided to cr eate a gr oup
of char acter s that would exist in the sam e
wor ld and com plim ent each other. I have
done a lot of r esear ch into
post-apocalyptic/ wasteland them es for
m y com petition entr y, but I feel lik e it?s
som ething I haven?t fully explor ed in m y
own wor k and want to push it fur ther. For
this pr oject I intend to design and
pr oduce a m odel of a hum an, a cr eatur e,
and a r obot. H owever I will focus on the
hum an and cr eatur e at fir st, and if I find I
have tim e leftover befor e the deadline, I
will tr y to do the r obot as well.
I cam e up with a theor etical gam e-wor ld
in which the char acter s would exist.M y
m ain influences for this wor ld is M ad
M ax, Tank Gir l, Bor der lands and the
Fallout Ser ies.
W or l d Bu i l d i n g
In this pr oject I want to think m or e
about the envir onm ent and how it
would affect the design of the
char acter s. This is quite daunting
because ther e ar e a lot of aspects that I
didn?t think about initially, but after
doing som e r esear ch on wor ld building
I found a list of questions that help
solidify the state of the envir onm ent.
This helped m e to think about things
lik e r eligion, m or als, housing, etc.
(Refer to Developm ent in blog)
"The wor ld is post apocalyptic,
hum ans have left cities abandoned
due to nuclear war and live
nom adic lifestyles, for aging and
scavenging to sur vive. The
wasteland in inhabited by
nom adic tr ibes and gangs, m ostly
scavenger s hunting and selling
found objects. Tr ade is ver y
com m on, although no one r eally
tr usts each other . Ther e ar e also
anim als, som e danger ous and
som e dom esticated. M any people
choose to r ide cer tain anim als due
to other for m s of tr anspor t
(m otor bikes) being scar ce. Som e
of the anim als have been m utated
by the r adiation. "
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As char acter design is the foundation
of a successful char acter m odel, I?ve
given m yself a fair am ount of tim e to
wor k on the designs.
For the hum an char acter , I?m designing
a young fem ale who has to be r esour ceful
in or der to sur vive a har sh envir onm ent
DESIGN WORK
13 8

14 Creature Sculpts

At this stage I decided that this pr oject wasn?t going in the dir ection I wanted and fr om
the feedback I got fr om industr y saying that it wasn?t going to enhance m y por tfolio. I
decided to instead spend the r est of m y tim e wor k ing on som ething that would add
m or e to m y por tfolio.
15

For the tim e I had r em aining on m y FM P,
I wanted to wor k on a char acter that
would allow m e to pr actice clothing and
hair , which I feel ar e ar eas that I str uggle
with. I chose to use a concept by Paige
Car penter of a Per sian r ogue pr ince. I
lik ed this design because it has a lot of
detailing on the clothing and patter ns
which I think would be inter esting to
textur e,
Stylistically, I wanted to achieve
som ething sim ilar to the char acter
m odels in Assassin?s Cr eed; Or igins. The
faces wer e pr im ar ily sculpted by Eugene
Fok in, whose wor k is a big inspir ation.
EAST
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Concept ar t By Paige Car pener

Another goal for this pr oject was to cr eate a r ealistic hair shader in M ar m oset toolbag,
using anisotr opic highlights. I star ted off by using M aya?s XGen to gener ate str ips of
polygons that I could then place an alpha textur e on to cr eate the illusion of hair. To cr eate
the alpha m aps I tr ied a new technique using Substance Painter ?s pr ocedur al fur
gener ator and m odifying it to cr eate an opacity m ap. This wor k ed out m uch better than
pr evious hair wor k flows I have tr ied, lik e handpainting in photoshop or bak ing out str ands
onto planes using Zbr ush?s Fibr em esh. Although I?m happy with this wor k flow, I still want
to wor k on the placem ent of the hair car ds because ther e ar e still som e gaps visible.
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14

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COLLABORATION
Textu r i n g for Sam Fr an ci s
I wor k ed on som e textur es for Sam ?s anim ation
pr oject. H e gave m e a couple of objects that he
m odelled and a detailed explanation of how he
wanted them textur ed.
In the end I textur ed a char acter , a couple of r opes
and a ster eo. I used Substance Painter to cr eate the
textur es. I found that with textur ing the ster eo in
par ticular I had to be awar e of the r eadability of the
differ ent m ater ials, for exam ple the m esh cover ing
on the speak er s r equir ed a lot of adjusting to m ak e it
look 3D using only opacity and gloss m aps. I also had
to add little details using nor m al m aps, such as the
seam ar ound the cassette dr awer , buttons and a lot of
wear so that it look ed lik e it had been dr agged
ar ound the deser t.
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Models by Sam

Char acter Desi gn for Vi ctor M cCal l u m
Victor ask ed m e to design and m ak e char acter s for his team ?s
gam e pr oject, 'Blu'. This pr oject was a bit out of m y com for t
zone because I haven?t had m uch exper ience wor k ing in the
style that he wanted, which was m or e sim plistic and cutesy. I
enjoyed exper im enting with differ ent ar t styles and tr ied to
send the gr oup a r ange of styles to choose fr om since they
wer en?t clear on what they wanted out of the design. I?m happy
with the designs I cam e up with and m ight tr y m odelling one of
them for a per sonal pr oject in the futur e.
M y task was to design the her o char acter , M addison, and a
enem y char acter , an anthr opom or phic wolf and his m inions,
based on a char acter sum m ar y they gave m e. After sever al
iter ations we went for a blue ball-jointed doll.
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Final Concept

MEASURINGMY WORK
W hen m easur ing m y wor k m y m ain point of r efer ence is m y pr evious wor k . M y m ain
goal is ensur ing that I?m im pr oving m y sk ills and getting better with ever y char acter I
m ak e, r ather than com par ing m yself to industr y pr ofessionals who have been wor k ing in
the industr y for year s to im pr ove their sk ills.
Som etim es I wor r y that I?m stagnating or not im pr oving at a fast enough r ate, but when I
com par e m y cur r ent wor k to wor k that I did 2-3 year s ago I can see huge pr ogr ess. Even if
m y wor k doesn?t show significant im pr ovem ent fr om pr oject to pr oject, I still think m y
k nowledge of the industr y and wor k flows is developing constantly.
I also r elied a lot on feedback fr om peer s, tutor s and industr y contacts. I found that
posting pictur es of m y wor k in pr ogr ess online and getting feedback helped to m otivate
m e and k eep m e on the r ight tr ack .
I found that thr oughout the pr ocess of the year som e of the m ost helpful feedback on m y
por tfolio was fr om inter views with Fr ontier Developm ents, Sum o Digital and nDr eam s. I
discover ed that som e pieces that I wasn?t sur e I wanted to show in m y por tfolio wer e
actually favour ed by the inter viewer s. This showed m e that char acter ar t is always
objective, and even if I don?t feel confident in a piece of wor k it?s still wor th putting it out
ther e to r eceive feedback as it m ay show a sk ill that a par ticular em ployer is look ing for.
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CONCLUSION
Over all I?m pleased with the body of wor k I?ve cr eated
over the cour se of m y FM P, even the pr ojects that didn?t
wor k out the way I hoped they would still pr oved to be
helpful in lear ning what sk ills I needed (and didn?t need)
to develop to have a successful car eer in the gam es
industr y. I m et m y objectives, which wer e pr im ar ily to
cr eate a r ange of differ ent types of char acter s and
solidify m y wor k flow.
Thr ough the wor k I developed and talk ing with industr y
connections I am now confident that m y wor k flow is
industr y standar d and that I have a good gr asp on the
char acter ar t pipeline
FUTURE PLANS
20
The m ain goal I had for m y FM P was to be able to leave
Ravensbour ne with a str ong, em ployable por tfolio. I had
sever al inter views with gam e com panies over the final
few m onths of m y cour se, which r esulted in two offer s
fr om Fr ontier Developm ents and Sum o Digital. I
par ticular ly enjoyed m y inter view at Fr ontier
Developm ents, so I was ver y excited to accept a r ole as a
Gr aduate Ar tist ther e, which I will be star ting in July.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pg.11
[im age] Seek er , Dani Diez (2017) https:/ / www.danidiez.com /
Pg.16
[im age] Assassin?s Cr eed Or igins, Eugene Fok in (2017)
https:/ / www.ar tstation.com / ar twor k / AG32V
[im age] East, Paige Car penter (2016) http:/ / paigecar penter.com /
Pg.18
3D M odels by Sam Fr ancis
https:/ / anar elen.ar tstation.com /
Instagr am : @anar elen
xanthesinc@gm ail.com