Pillars of Eternity Fan Art: The Watcher of Caed Nua
Decided to take a break from the hard surface and go back to character modeling trying to update my skills on some amazing softwares such as marvelous designer and Substance Designer.
After finishing 'Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire' I've decided to make a fan art depicting the fabled Watcher of Caed Nua, the player hero in Obsidian's incredible CRPG series 'Pillars of Eternity'. While we get hyped for 'Avowed', I decided to make and try to guess what a Pillars of Eternity 3 could look like.
It is also my first time I used rendered the model inside of Unreal 5, where I created shaders for special materials such as the emissive of the sword.
Decided to make a simple making broadly depicting this project's steps to completion. First, as always, got reference, from Avowed's reveal trailer, Pillars of Etternity and this allegedly model from Obsidian's upcoming RPG Avowed.
Got several reference images for every prop and gear needed. Also got a decription of the in-game items to remake them.
As I wanted to use Unreal and have it use the U4 Mannequin, I decided to start by using their model as a starting point, specially for posing and proportions.
Although it doesn't show much in the final form. I made undergarments to train my MD skills and also visualize how extra layers of clothing added to the final form.
After a base zbrush sculpt I made the basic shapes of the armor and items displayed.
Remade the hood in MD and sculpted the details and high poly of all other items.
Regarding the sword, I used historical references on Estoc-style swords, and decided to make some design changes to conform to historical techniques of fencing with such a weapon.
After finishing the high poly, I used ZBrush's polypainting and polygroup to create what would become the ID Map.
Some low poly screenshots. Used Maya's transfer attribute to create the cloth low poly, fantastic tool.
To create the maille, I created some simple rings where I uploaded to designer. The same with the hood and the leather-y rim.
While texturing, always check in-engine.
The hair cards were made in Blender, and later baked in marmoset. Still a lot to learn
Some materials, such as the necklace, had fresnel and other special shaders applied to them.
After modeling and texturing. I made a rig using Advanced Skeleton 5. I made a IK Retarget between it and U5 manny's rig to use their own animations.
Final posing, lightning and rendering in U5.