THOR - 3D Character
Short video introducing the character in UE 5.3
A clear close up shot from Thor in the Snow Environment
Full body shot in the Snow
This is the initial sculpt before the retopology. I aimed to capture the silhouette of the character, considering the shape of the hair which I later used as a reference for the hair guides in Xgen
Final character model after doing the retopo and modeling the accesories.
The topology of the base mesh
A close up to the topology of the hand
The Sculpt of the Hammer, once more wanted to respect the shape of the one is holding in the concept, I did not put much detail in the sculpt as I focused to bring up that detail trough the Texturing in Substance Painter
Turn Around of the final pose in Zbrush
I developed my own skin shader in Substance Painter. Note: I paid tribute to some friends who helped me during these months by putting their names in runes along the stripe that goes around his chest.
At this point I started to import the model in Unreal Engine to set up the Materials.
Up next, creating the Hair in Xgen, Used the sculpted mesh to plate the guides and give them shape
This one was truely a nightmare to prevent from crashing due to the amount of strands. I had to divide it into smaller patches of fur and tried to hide the seams between them in the best way possible
When I was finishing the project I decided to add also some body fuzz.
To import the Groom was really easy to do thanks to Maria Zatorska's Xgen to UE5 Script for Maya
Time to bring everything together inside Unreal Engine. At this point, I started to tweak some details to get closer to the final version
Close up of the head, first aproach to the hair shading, I used Metahuman shaders as base for the shading of the hair.
Extreme close up where the peach fuzz of the skin can be seen
Turn around of the model inside UE5
Once I had the character in pose, I began to think about the final composition
For the final setup of the character, I used assets from Quixel Megascans to set up a scenery. Additionally, I made a quick sculpt for the feet to appear in contact with the snow
Snow particles inside UE5 using Niagara particle system. If we add these particles to everything mentioned earlier, we end up with this final result
To wrap up, I want to thank my friends Julen Urrutia, Giulio Marrone Dittli, and Xabi Urrutia for helping me in this journey and for all the feedback I received during the execution of the project
I started this project in November last year encouraged by my friend Xabier Urrutia, who has acted as a supervisor and has been giving me feedback during these months to ensure that the character remains faithful to the original design, THOR by Gop Gap.
I wanted to maintain the stylized shapes of the original design but, at the same time, give it a realistic treatment through shading and texturing.
I decided to use Unreal Engine in this project, as well as in previous ones, because I find it very versatile tool and I can see the results of the project quickly. Both the videos and images have been produced through the Path Tracing system of the graphics engine.
It has been a project that has gone through many ups and downs. It has been a learning process from which I will benefit in the future, and I am very happy with the final result.
Original Concept:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QzvPyx
Xabier Urrutia:
https://www.artstation.com/xabierurrutia