Finishing the project

The model has been imported to UDK, and lighting added. I had intended to rig and animate the character model but time didn't allow for it at the end of the project. My attempts at rigging the Batman model resulted in his wrists tying into knots. I could not find any clear error in the geometry, so he remains static within the batcave diorama environment.

Also i had intended to look at using a material to create a cell shaded effect to better mimic the look of the comic book that i was trying to achieve. I looked at this tutorial, but once again time didn't allow for this to be implemented.
https://forums.epicgames.com/threads/863316-Edge-Detection-or-quot-Borderlands-quot-style-shader-in-UDK

At the end of this project, I'm glad to have finished it, and to have finished it at all is a greater success than i would have predicted in the weeks that have passed. I found the environment creation aspect of this project difficult, it is not what i enjoy modelling and what i have found most difficult is occupying the space with additional objects.
All in all, i have tried to create a moody atmosphere like i found when reading the Dark knight returns. Below is the rendered matinee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80L-HvMqhKg

Exporting to UDK

The models will be exported to UDK to have the cinematic made within the game engine. The main body of the cave is a simple egg shell, with objects placed within to occupy the space.

The cave is never clearly shown in the comic, though some of his trophies (giant joker card and 1947 lincoln penny) later feature in the sequel 'Dark Knight strikes again'. i imagined much of his equipment would have been destroyed, and anything containing potentially dangerous information removed. This created a deliberately sparse space, where the focal points of the diorama are the tank and the shrine to the deceased Robin, Jason Todd.

The batman

The base mesh already made... The conversion was simple. I wanted to capture the look of the original comic book as closely as possible, giving the textures a sort of water colour effect.

In addition to the character model, and the reason for choosing to make it Batman, i have produced several assets from the comic book. The main focal point in environment, aside from batman will be the batmobile. As previously mentioned it more closely resembles a bat tank.

building the dark knight

The art style of Frank Miller is quite naive by general comic book standards, with the strength of his writing the main focus of his books. However it is also highly stylised, and this is what i want to capture. The appearance of Batman alters throughout the comic, each foe he faces wares him down and by the end of the book he is hunched over and pained with the mounting injuries he incurs facing the likes of the 'Mutant gang' leader who is half Batman's age and has twice strength and speed in battle.

http://pixel-dan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/DarkKnightReturnsThumb.jpg

The above image is of the action figure which i will be basing my version of the character on.

In the diorama will also be the batcave and it's contents, including the Batmobile, which more closely resembles a bat- tank.

Images scanned from comic book graphic novel- Dark knight returns (Miller, 1986)

A change of direction

After my Alpha stage presentation o the character, it was made clear to me that the diorama/environment element of my model was as important as the character model itself. It is with this in mind I have chosen to repurpose the model to be a Batman, from the comic book series ‘Dark knight returns’.

In this comic series Bruce Wayne has been in retirement from the cape crusader role for ten years, and now in his early 50’s he is forced back into the fray after a new gang threaten al of Gotham city, as well as the return of old foes Two face and The Joker.

The body of Batman, similarly to Ax man is vastly bulky with a combination of the body builder’s regime the character maintains and middle aged spread. The main reason I have chosen to shift direction is for the purpose of creating a batcave lair for the character to engage with in the required cinematic. 

Above images scanned from comic book graphic novel- The Dark knight returns (Miller, 1986)

Planning the project

Approaching the third week of the project, the first milestone was the presentation of the project. After the initial research period, i wanted to create a blockout of the 3d asset. I find that creating a character is easier with a turnaround for reference. I created one for Ax man, especially as he has such exaggerated proportions.

From this i created a 3d blockout of the character to represent what the rendered character would look like.
I am still not certain as to which artistic direction to produce the textures in. Stylistically i want create a sort of pastel pallet like the art design of Valve's Team fortress 2. Although i have considered generating a realistic look to the characters skin texture, in which i wouldn't just use a simple solid SSS material, as skin isn't a uniform substance, it requires various layers. A proper skin SSS shader has a subdermal, dermal and diffuse SSS texture channels, as well as weighting control for front, mid and back scatter.

Here's my initial blockout;

The topology is not representative of the final model. But proportionally, it will not change greatly.

The project requires a great deal of planning, as upcoming milestones alongside the writing of my dissertation leaves me with little time to concentrate on one element of the project over another. I have generated a Gantt chart with the main elements of the project and when i aim to have them finished by.

To summarize;

„Week 1- research/development

„Week2- concept/character & diorama blockout

„Week 3-presentation/ initial planning

„Week4- modelling character

„Week5- texturing character/ high poly modelling

„Week6- as above/ texturing diorama/FX

„Week7- rigging/contingency planning

„Week8-Alpha stage presentation/initial cinematic

„Week9- additional lighting/ composition

„Week10-contingency planning

„Week11-Final presentation/ cinematic video

„Week12 /onward- improving work based on feedback

 

Refining a concept

I chose to work on one of my own concepts, and develop the character in order to create a diorama to place the model into. The concept i chose to develop was Ax man, in my mind a super hero with an enormous build.

The notes i made were;

• „CHARACTER CONCEPT BASED ON MULTI PLAYER/ SUPER HERO GAMES
• „SIMILAR GAMES- CITY OF HEROES, ANARCHY REIGNS, GOTHAM CITY IMPOSTERS,  TEAM FORTRESS
• „STYLISED DESIGN –TOON/COMIC BOOK STYLE
• „EXAGERATED FEATURES  

After the initial concept i created a mood board, looking at related concepts of characters for inspiration of the colour pallet for the Ax man character.

 

I looked at characters such as Marvel's Juggernaut and DC's Bane primarily for inspiration of the colours and visual effect of the model. 

image references;

http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Bane_%28Batman:_Arkham_Asylum%29

http://blacksadd.deviantart.com/art/Bane-327377994

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/storm-vs-bane-h2h-645829/
http://raph.com/3dartists/artgallery/imagePage?iid=6620
http://www.fightersgeneration.com/nx5/char/juggernaut-sm-render.png
http://www.actionfigurepics.com/2010/06/marvel-select-juggernaut-production-pics
http://sankart.deviantart.com/art/Venom-Turnaround-347362096
http://cghub.com/images/view/169159/
http://www.maroonersrock.com/2011/02/anarchy-reigns-character-bio-jack/
http://www.maroonersrock.com/2011/02/anarchy-reigns-character-bio-big-bull/
http://charactermodel.tumblr.com/page/377

Creating a character

For advanced 3d i struggled to find a concept that met the brief of following a concept. After viewing numerous concepts i failed to find anything that grabbed or inspired me. I stepped away from the computer and sketched a few characters, although i had settled on a sci fi theme over fantasy. I draw cyborgs, zombies, mutants, and a hybrid character that comprised of various elements.