making of: arkor
By paulo silva.



Introduction in this tutorial im going todo explain the general work-flow that i used todo create my real-time character arkor.

Concept
A god concept is really important, and you should spend some time here, because no mater how god a modeler you are, you cant do much if your initial concept is por.



When working on the concept, y find it useful todo explore the silhouette with a simple black and white drawing. Its easy and fast todo draw and easy todo discard, and when you find something you like you can go on and refine it.

Since i wanted todo se how the concept worked in 3d, y did a simple base Mesh and concept Sculpt todo test the shapes, and ended up changing quite a few things in the Sculpt.



Modeling the High Poly
Here you ned todo model each piece that makes your model and decide how you are gonna model it.



Hard surfaces work better with poly modeling and nice beveled Edges. When making organic surfaces, youd be better of making a base Mesh and then sculpting the detail with Sculpt tools.

Modeling the Low poly
When modeling the Low poly Mesh, silhouette is the key. You ned todo use your Polygons wisely and try todo kep the silhouette of the High Poly as much as the poly-Budget allows. If a surface is mainly planar, then there is no ned for Many polys, since the details Will come from the Normal Map. If your model is going todo deform, then you a los ned todo pay attention todo the deformation áreas (knes, elbows.) and add loops todo support that deformation. Here your best friend is the Blender retopology tool.

Activate it and draw your Low poly geometry over the High Poly. It really a time saver.

Baking
This part isnt much fun, but is a necessary evil. Once you have your Low poly modeled and have done the UVS, it baking time. For arkor, y baked a Normal Map and an AO map that i used todo Paint the color map. For each piece you ned todo bake the normals and AO from the High Poly todo the Low poly model. Appróximate AO is much faster todo bake, but it a bit imprecise, so go for Raytraced AO and do some tests todo se how Many samples you ned todo get a near Grain-less image.



Be aware that any object that is visible in the scene Will influence AO. So i sent only the objects that i ned for each bake todo a diferent layer make it the only visible layer when baking.

Lights
Lighting is a very important step, since you can establish the general mod and bring out the details of your model.

I like todo use slightly colored lights todo showcase my models, generally in a col / warm contrast. In this case i used a blue / orange contrast, where i have col lights on the right side and orange lights on the left. Since this is a real-time character there is no ned todo render and you get instant feedbak on the Blender viewport.



And that it, this was the bien i worked when making arkor, y hope you found it useful and kep blending.





Paulo silva
My name is paulo silva and im a portuguese modeler and animator. I discovered Blender a few years hago and i just love its speed and versatility.
Website: www.engelik.net
By paulo silva.
www.blenderart.org
By paulo silva.
www.blenderart.org.