Texturing a 3D Character - Donna Smith - Bog

This project was carried out to make a comprehensive guide for artists who are seeking to learn the pipeline of creating a 3D character textured in hand-painted style from an initial concept to a fully finished optimized character suitable for games. The aim of this thesis is to present all the necessary information to get an artist started on this path as well as offer theoretical background to this topic, and describe trends that are driving the scene of handpainted texturing style. The project consisted of a character concepting phase, followed by creating a high-poly model of the character in Zbrush. The model was later retopologized in Topogun to get a low-poly version that is used further in the process and that is suitable for games. Then the model went through technical preparation for the texturing stage. Lastly the character was textured in 3D-coat, a result analysis was done and conclusions were drawn. The outcome of this project is a comprehensive document with valuable information and a game-ready 3D character based the original concept of Sylvanas Windrunner from the World of Warcraft game. The outcome includes a high-poly and a low-poly version and a texture map.