Scientist Model
The protagonists of our capstone game are this scientist. He was still wearing his lab attire when the monster broke out, and wears the mask in preparation for the deployment of a debilitating gas as a facility countermeasure. Character modeling has its own list of challenges that regular environment modeling does not, mainly the need to deform with the transforms of bones.
I struggle with the sculpting workflow. Whenever I can, I choose to use poly-modeling instead. After finding a truly fantastic tutorial on how to poly-model humanoids, I set to work on creating this character. The areas that were the most difficult to model were the face and hands, a sentiment that I share with what seems to be every 3D artist I have ever spoken to.
One trick that I learned in following the tutorial was in the methods used to divert edge flow at the joints to improve deformation. The shoulders, elbows, knees, and finger knuckles benefit from this. The upper body also has an "envelope" that wraps around the middle torso and up over the shoulders, which makes the shoulder itself as well as the armpit (a location notorious for unusual bulging when deformed) more accurate, with sufficient geometry to give accurate deformation.
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Thankfully, the design called for the character to be wearing a gas mask, so the nose and mouth could be ignored. The two parts of this character's head that I still am not 100% happy with are his gaunt cheekbones and frankly unrealistic ears.
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This project doubled as my first deep dive into Substance Painter. I appreciate how extensive the default texture libraries are, and in general the software is incredibly easy to use.