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3DTotal: I assume this was the pipeline which many of the characters that can be seen on your website followed. Can you tell us a little about some of them and the impetus behind their creation?
Tim:Yes, that’s typically the work flow I follow. Well the most recently fully completed character is a tribute to Quake 3’s Sarge. I really love the idea of the grizzled war veteran and Sarge seemed the pinnacle of those traits... combined with my affection for Quake 3 it seemed a logical step to re-imagine him.
Wanting to make the design my own, I set about concept sculpting the rough proportions and ideas for some of the primary shapes that would define him. In particular on this piece I wanted to push myself and work in a lot of details (something I often do in my personal work) as I had previously created a different character with a lot of detail, but failed to compliment all the texture. I thought that Sarge would be a good way to tackle that challenge and hopefully create something fun in the process.
After the initial rough sculpt, I took the mesh back into Max and started the construction of all the sub-d meshes that would constitute his armour. At the same time I also took the organic mesh into Zbrush and started to detail the flesh and refine the areas that would be exposed on the final piece.
The sub-d work was quite painstaking so I was very glad I had organic sculpting to break things up otherwise I might have lost my motivation. In the end, I took the whole thing into Zbrush and added the |
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final touches to it before I was ready to call it done. I had to export it into a lot of .obj’s, but I batch processed them and reduced their polycounts down to manageable levels in order to get them into Max. After that, the low poly mesh and texturing were the obvious steps.
I’m quite happy with the final results but I certainly think I could have benefited from experimenting with the silhouette more. It’s not particularly distinct, however I did achieve a balance between the modelled details and the texture. I guess the next character I work on I will need to ensure the silhouette is strong too! |
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3DTotal: Which characters have impressed you the most in games?
Tim: I have been very impressed with the quality of the character art coming out of Ubisoft Montreal. Nearly every major franchise they have released has had high quality characters with generally complimentary lighting too.
I enjoy dark and grungy styles of games, with my preferences leaning towards most things horror related. The twisted forms of Silent Hill, fantastic monster designs of Doom and the overly detailed meat heads of Gears of War all appeal and fit with my personal aesthetics. I was also very impressed with the quality of the characters in Heavenly Sword. Not only were they well crafted and artistically pleasing, but I felt the acting applied to them set them apart for me, with really strong performances and personality beyond the visuals.
3DTotal: If you had the opportunity to design your ideal game, and all the characters, what would it be about and what would they look like?
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Tim: If I could design my ideal game it would involve Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino... or both! I loved what they did with Planet Terror and Death Proof and would jump at the chance to create a game with a similar style and overall tone. Fun, dark and a little bit over the top. I grew up on a diet of horror films and so anything that involves a backwater town under invasion of swamp dwelling mutants, or a serial killer stalking his prey, would get me excited. I’d also love to make a game that looked like a Frazetta painting - but not necessarily a B movie style monster game! |
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3DTotal: If you had the power to bring back the dead who would be the first person you would resurrect?
Tim: I would resurrect Howard Phillips Lovecraft! I really love how he crafted his own mythology and made his monsters and aliens the persistent characters in his stories. His worlds are terrifying and make the struggles of man seem insignificant next to these immense forces that exist. Humanity could be crushed at a moment’s notice and he masterfully taps into that primeval fear, the same fear I imagine our early ancestors would have felt when they stared at volcanoes erupting, wondering what deity they had angered. |
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