The Witcher 3 Character Model Making Process

Fox Renderfarm, the best render farm in the CG industry, will bring you sharing about character model making process and ideas. Many people will encounter a lot of problems when they first come into contact with CG character art. For example, there is now a new character model that needs to be designed. Where should I start? What should it be made of? Even if there are very powerful artists to teach the experience, they will still find it impossible to start.

So how should this situation be resolved? We take the role of Vesemir in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as an example. Why choose this role? Because Vesemir's body shape, material, clothing, hair, etc. contain many types. The entire case contains a complete process from reference to a complete production process, which can fully meet all project production.

Reference

Before production, it is necessary to clarify the production goals: such as the model style, the details of the model, and what kind of quality to achieve in the end, these are very important. Taking the character of Vesemir in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as an example, you need to find references before making, such as armor reference, material texture reference, etc., even the style of clothing, sewing method, etc., all the things that need to be model need a detailed reference.

Modeling

The basic structure of the model is very important. Although the character has clothing to cover the body, the structure of the body cannot be ignored. Be sure to ensure the correct body structure. (In the production of other projects, some basic body models can be saved, and some time can be saved here).

The same clothes are worn on different people, and the feeling of dressing is different. The part of the red line is to outline the outline of the desired character and then modify the model.

This is also the most critical step in making a model. If the shape is inaccurate or not correct enough, even if you put on clothes, the model will look fake and the whole will be very uncoordinated.

The picture above is the wrong case! For example, cloth, different materials in different parts, and different thicknesses, the wrinkle direction is different. The model should also consider the volume and structure of those things when making the model.

UVs

Regarding topology and UV, the focus is on low polygons. Especially for the human body, reasonable lines and surfaces conform to the direction of muscles and bones. For example, an accessory with a complicated shape, but it is extremely small, so you should not give too many polygons. Compared with the high polygon, the low polygon will always lose little things, so it is necessary to balance between the two.

Texture

The production of textures is a very important part. It is necessary to correctly analyze the changes in the real world and then restore them with layers, and understand how the texture controls different attribute nodes of the object. Substance Painter is very easy to use in texture production. Then according to different production processes, they correspond to the normal, color, highlight, glossiness, normal, color, metallicity, roughness, and other attributes of the object.

Make the basic texture in Substance Painter, and then added different details according to different props, such as broken and worn out. And distinguish the texture of props: metal, leather, weapons, etc..

The lighting used a set of previously made lights (which can save some time), and the texture can be produced while testing and observing the effect.

If the final rendering effect is more realistic, then the details are very important.