The Pipeline of Character Design: Shrine Maiden

Kat here to discuss about our pipeline for character design. I will be showing off our protagonist character, Sueko the Shrine Priestess. Sueko was designed by one of our 2D Artists Kaylee.

Character designs by Kaylee

This model used concept art as the base for our design. In ZBrush I started with a human base that Dylan had provided for me and I went in and added all the specific details for our character.

Base body sculpt done by Dylan

As I tweaked and revised the model I went in and added all the details of our character. This is when I was figuring out how to lower the poly count in Maya so the model does not break the game engine.

Lower poly-count sculpt

I used four different brushes in ZBrush to create the specific details in the face and in creating the curves of the body that looked the most appropriate from looking at the 2D sketches.

Face studies done by Kaylee

After looking at the face studies and the hair studies that Kaylee had provided for us, we decided on the perfect hair style for Sueko. These images were helpful when modeling her facial features.

The inverted dam Standard and the different clay tools are what got me through the modeling process. When dealing with the facial features I used the Dan Standard tool a lot to get all the dips in the face. When making the hair and the eyes they are added in another layer separate from the body mesh.

Look for another post from our team soon about Sueko's next steps - in motion capture.

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Author: Katrina Bennick