Making of 'Ayasha'

Software Used:

3ds Max, Mudbox, VRay & Photoshop

Before starting to design any character you must know the characteristics of that character. What is the character’s age? What background are they coming from? What is their objective? So before I started to design my character I defined some of these characteristics and because my style is cartoony I decided I wanted my character to be totally childlike. So I wrote down "childlike, lovely, brave and oppressed" in my notes. I think this step is a very important part of creating a character, because it affects the whole characterization. This is my basic concept of the character (Fig.01).

Fig.01

I used 3ds Max, Mudbox, VRay and Photoshop to create this character in 3D. After importing the character design to 3D space I started everything from a simple sphere. I set the segments of the sphere to a couple of numbers (12) and after adjusting the primary parameters I converted the sphere to editable poly and started the modeling (Fig.02 – 03).

Fig.02

Fig.03

I used a cylinder to model the body, hands and feet. After some primary parameter adjustments to the object, I converted that to editable poly as well (Fig.04 – 06).

Fig.04

Fig.05 Fig.06 Here is the first render of the finished model of Ayasha (Fig.07). Fig.07 In the texturing stage I spent a lot of time finding my desired textures on the internet and in all the cases I mostly reached my desired results with a combination of several textures. For example, I used image one (1) for Ayasha’s dress and in Photoshop I made the some small changes in the Saturation parameter (2). Image number three (3) was a blood stain I compounded to image number two and I also used image number four (4) as a bump map for that. It was with such combinations that I designed all of my textures (Fig.08 – 10). Fig.08 Fig.09 Fig.10 I used a biped posture for the character (Fig.11). Fig.11  To model the terrain I used Spline (Shapes) and Terrain (Compound Objects) to create rocky ground. I also used a box to make the stones (Fig.12). Fig.12 After that I imported the low-poly terrain model into Mudbox and worked on the details a little, then imported it back to 3ds Max. After importing the high-poly model I applied the Optimize modifier from the list to reduce lots of non-essential faces. I wanted to cover the terrain with grass so I really didn’t need that many faces. The final composition can be seen in Fig.13. Fig.13 I used two VrayLights with cold and warm colors to light the scene, the warm light with Multiplier set to 12 and the cold light with Multiplier set to 3. I used VrayLights to keep the hard shadows away because hard shadows were not suitable for my style (Fig.14). Fig.14 Here you can see the render settings (Fig.15 – 16). Fig.15 Fig.16 I then added grass to the terrain and made some Hair and Fur adjustments (Fig.17). Fig.17 Here’s the image I used for the background (Fig.18). Fig.18 It had cold colors and I wanted a warmer background so I used Photoshop and Levels to change the colors. I also added a warm gradient color under the clouds near the horizon and made some additional color changes, such as on the eagle (Fig.19). Fig.19 Now I did the final rendering. I used Light Room and Photoshop for final touches; I changed the brightness, contrast and colors in some parts of the image. Here is the final image (Fig.20). Fig.20