Nicholas Tung
Character & Environment Artist
Ela Kitaru
Concept for my original character
This piece features my original character Ela Kitaru. This was a project I've been waiting to make for a long time. She was designed a few years ago and her key features are her cyberpunk style hair cut and athletic/slim build. Her core colors are purple, dark grey and orange which also is the overall theme of this website too.
I want this project to feature her relaxing on a hill with a nice skybox in the background. The piece was heavily inspired by Ghibli films.
Sculpt, Model, Texture
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tanktop version, more details of tattoo
Started with the head and body sculpt. Similar to Caitlyn, she is semi stylized. This was a challenge to sculpt since I had to match my drawings which were 2D and rather flat. I made sure to capture her distinct facial features and body shape. As usual, the sculpt was very fun.
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As for clothing, I used both Marvelous and Maya. Zbrush to sculpt some of the details. Her hardsurface stuff such as the belt, car key and shoes were done in Maya. Her initial design did not feature any leg straps but once she was in 3D form, I feel like I need more storytelling and details to compliment the character. Her shoes were based on my NMDs but I modified them to look more futuristic.
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Her skins textures were done in Substance Painter. They were hand painted with multiple layers. The tattoos were UV projected and overall I am very pleased with the results.
Posing and Xgen Groom
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For posing, I used a basic Mixamo rig. I spent a long time cleaning the model up after posing with the rig. I want this pose to be more dynamic and advance compared to Caitlyn. The pose also fits her aesthetic. Once her pose was set, I started her Xgen groom. This approach was more challenging since her hair was blocky and spikey. To achieve this look, I looked at characters from Overwatch cinematics. Tube grooming was the solution. Her hair was broken up to four separate collections, fringe, mohawk, fade, and the ponytail.
Environment and Composting
Now to ground Ela, I painted a plain of grass using some of Maya's inhouse features. I only used two grass blade textures from megascan. For the background I used a stylized HDRI. Compositing is similar to Caitlyn. With the help of render layers, I used zDepth to achieve the depth of field effect. This makes the piece more dynamic and brings forward the focus of the piece.
