Making Of 'The Brumak - Gears of War'

Introduction

The Brumak is a character in the game Gears of War, which I consider one of the best games I've ever had the opportunity to play. The intention was to reproduce as faithfully as possible the original character with the knowledge I've acquired through some years studying and participating in forums. I also wanted to use the character in an in-game setting.

In this article I will explain part of the process that I've used to create the character. I searched for character all over the internet, but unfortunately I was not able to find many appropriate pictures to assist me in the production. After getting enough to shape the body, I started the development process.

I started with some ZSpheres in ZBrush because I like it better than the 3ds Max for projects like this (Fig.01).

Fig. 01

Fig. 01

Sculpting The Body

Even with some references for his body, I had a hard time recreating the original shape. As I was relying only on perspectives, I had to improvise in many stages of the production.

This step is one of my favorites because with the help of ZBrush I can get good results fast. Most of the time I use the Clay brush to add volume to a model because this brush is very flexible and easy to use.

A good technique to be applied when it comes to sculpturing is to use every step of the subdivisions thoroughly, therefore leaving only the fine details to the highest levels of subdivision of the mesh and greater ones for the lower subdivisions.

After many tests and trials with brushes to make the skin and muscles, this was the result I got (Fig.02). 

Fig. 02

Fig. 02

Weapons & Accessories

Accessories add detail to a character but can also be even more work than the actual character itself. This sculpt was a good example of a character with complex accessories. I had to develop many small parts to build all the equipment. Using 3ds Max, I took the character's mesh to give the base to some parts, such as the vest which is very tight to the character's body (Fig.03).

Fig. 03

Fig. 03

At this stage, I gave special attention to the shape and amount of parts, so that the composition would be nice. There was no need to cut down on polygons, because I was planning to do a retopology later. This allowed me to make use of many details.

Once all the basic modeling for the weapons and accessories was completed, everything was exported to ZBrush where I was able to give fine details to the mesh of each part (Fig.04). If your machine is not equipped with 8GB of RAM and one of the newest processors, I recommend not exceeding the limit of 10 million polygons within ZBrush.

Another tip is on exporting. I recommend using Decimation Master to export high mesh files, as this can smoothly reduce 50% of the polygons and make it easier on the software that will generate the normal maps.

Fig. 04

Fig. 04

Retopology

With all the high modeling complete it was time to get the retopology started. When retopologizing It's good to keep in mind what will be in motion and what not, because if you make only one mesh for objects that should be independent you won't be able to freely move them in the future.

Another good tip is to put the vertices and edges in strategic locations as well as edge loops, so that you can increase the quality of its mesh.

For the retopology of my character, I did some parts full-mesh (Fig.05) and in other took the base mesh. One example can be seen in Fig.06 where I chose not to convert them into editable polys, so I just needed to reduce the 3ds Max defaults.

Fully equipped the total got up to at 29,704 polys and 21,309 verts. A high value, but the right amount for the character.

Fig. 05

Fig. 05

Fig. 06

Fig. 06

Mapping

Now that all mesh files, both high and low were ready it was time to get the maps started. One thing I've learned recently about mapping characters is that you need to avoid leaving a UV cut exposed as it could ruin all your work! Especially when you're in the same situation as mine, where you're developing a character for a game, because the engines usually set where the cuts. Unreal Engine is no different; it makes sure that the UV cut is noticeable to anyone. The trick is hiding cutting at all costs.

Fig.07 shows how I cut the UVs. I don't know if it was the best way possible, but it was enough in this my case. I knew I would hide most of them with the equipment of the character so I wasn't too worried.

Fig. 07

Fig. 07

Extraction of Normal Maps and Texturing

In my opinion texturing can often be a long and painful process, where many get discouraged and tired of their personal projects. Maybe because they are not happy with what they are seeing. I actually like texturing because the texturing is able to completely change the concept of your character by giving him different aspects just by changing colors and tones in certain places.

The creation of the normal maps was done in Xnormal, a piece of software that has helped me a lot! The current version is very fast; I was able to generate files of 8192x8192 in just five minutes.

I had a problem with a map where the Y was reversed in normal - this caused a very bad effect. I swapped it for the right side and the rest went smoothly.

Once the normal and AO maps are to hand it makes easy to create textures. Many choose to use software such as BodyPaint, Photoshop Extended and even the ZBrush. In my case I only used something like that with the body parts of the character, because it was quite tricky to paint directly on 3D on those iron parts and the effect was quite bad.

I started the process with Photoshop, texturing the sculpt with all I had. I began by choosing what colors to use for the textures. I could have done it like I did with the normals, but I ended up leaving that to the next step. While applying the textures I used a bit of Multiply, Screen and Overlay, which are settings that can do many things.

When I reached a certain level of quality I saved everything and tested the 3D model to see if everything would go well. Then I completed all the textures needed: Diffuse, Normal and Specular (Fig.08).

All textures were created in 8192x8192, to yield at 3ds Max 4096x4096 textures and Unreal Engine and on Unreal Engine I've reduced to 2048 or even 1024 to prevent it freezing within the game.

Fig. 08

Fig. 08

Exporting / Importing

All the textures were exported in. The import was simple and I applied them in their corresponding meshes. Fig.09 shows the full inside of the engine.

Fig. 09

Fig. 09

To make his eyes glow I applied a texture to his helmet which would serve opacity (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10

Fig. 10

To succeed with Unreal Engine, it's important to pay attention to materials, lighting and even the post-production process to get the desired effects.

Here's the final render (Fig.11) and a head-shot (Fig.12).

Fig.11

Fig.12

So that's it! Hope you enjoyed this Making Of. If you have any questions, please just contact me.
 

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