The Gladiator Project

I'd like to start the blog by saying that I learnt from previous mistakes and got this project started and underway straight after we were given it, allowing myself plenty of time to get everything done and dusted!

But that wouldn't really be true. I did manage to get the project started the week we were given it, I collected research and reference, started the design doc and got most of the basic figure modelled! It was going great. Then for some reason that I can't remember I didn't really touch the project for 2 weeks. I seem to recall it being down to needing to do lots of 2D stuff, but that sounds awfully like an excuse to me. *sad face*


A few of my concepts.



So with a week left to go till the deadline, it became all about 3D.

I enjoyed concepting the gladiator, using reference from films like 'Gladiator' or the internet in general. Doing a female gladiator made it instantly more interesting and difficult as there wasn't anywhere near as much reference around and I kinda had to fit male designs to her. Once I had decided on the clothes/armour I wanted to her have modelling them wasn't too difficult. I managed to get her modelled comfortably within the tri budget.


Unwrapping was a bit hit and miss. I struggled with the pelt mapping quite a bit, I found it often unwrapped awkwardly and badly proportioned but it was help full with areas such as the head. To parts of the mesh that wouldn't quite work with pelt mapping I used the cylindrical tool which worked well.



Texture sheet.



I used the site http://www.3d.sk/ for getting good orthographical reference images and found these also worked well for creating textures. The way I had laid of the UV sheet did make things a little awkward but the process didn't take as long as I was expecting it to after experiencing the Transit van. I got the basic textures on first and then added some details that I felt were fitting for a gladiator, such as; scars, bandages and blood splatters. I'm pleased with most of the texture but think the face could be much better, I think the problem was due to the pelt unwrap making the face small compared to the rest of the head. I also think I could of added more details to my gladiator to make her more interesting.




So the final part of the gladiator, rigging. Rigging is horrible and I spent several days failing at it! I did at a few points have something that might have been acceptable and I could of just stuck with it but I wanted to do it better. I gave up using the psyhique modifier we were shown and tried the skin modifier instead.
It was a much more pleasing experience, I found the interface much easier to navigate and the use of colour to see the weight on certain verts really helpful. Using the skin modifier allowed me to finally rig my character to a standard I was happier with.