Shen - Realistic Pandaren Project - Part 2

skinner3453
Mar 10, 2024
2 min read

Soooo, these last few weeks have been hectic but the progress with Shen has been consistent, this phase of the development has really been about iteration, and I was work through the clothing and armour design research and sketches to work out what’s good and what’s not.

I did the same with weapons as well

Whilst my sketches aren't great quality wise i find this the easiest way to approach most creative problems, this is something that is super new to me and sketching is something I have really only taken up over the last year or so, these usually graduate into something more detailed that I can use as reference for 3D work like below:

I had fully intended to push weapons through this final design process as well but time is of the essence and I really need to get Shen finished so I can start concepting the environment, but there is a lot of work between that and now.

Alongside the artistic merits of the clothing and armour I have to workout the technical constraints as I’m still not sure if cloth sim is going to be suitable in Unreal Engine from a performance / LOD point of view, especially given the fur sim. There is also the animation consideration as well, all of these character assets have to move nicely in both a cinematic and gameplay situation which is much easier said than done.

I also have the option that should I want more dynamic cloth I could switch out the normal map on the clothing to included different crease patterns in sync with the movement, similar to the uncharted 3 approach from Naughty Dog.

With all of this in mind I just decided it was easiest to approach the clothing and armour in a traditional way and sculpt, re-topo and texture the clothing, armour and weapons.

Armour and Clothing: Sculpting