2019 MAY

RE-SCULPTING THE MINIATURES

When I started building the game, I gave myself between 3 and 5 days per model. That means: 3 to 5 days from the first design to the finished printed model. That way there was something concrete to discuss about. This way, about 80 miniatures and coins and other things were created in the first year.

This led to the fact that the miniatures were very "basic". Now I start to re-model the ones that have received the least "love". New ideas, new approach, not "painting the corpse" but start from scratch.

This is a lot of fun, because through the months my ZBrush skills have improved a bit.

In the meantime I have started to take into account the "cutting" during the modelling process. This is an impulse I absolutely have to control, because otherwise you can't give your creativity 100% free reign. On the other hand, if you don't think about it at all, you will end up with a miniature that looks super innovative but can't be printed. That means you are forced to perform a balancing act. You need experience and a lot of attention and self-reflection if you want to achieve results at the same speed.

But I already feel a lot safer with it.

HOW TO MAKE THE MINIATURES MORE "SAVE TO PRINT"

You can minimize such difficulties by modelling the figure in ZBrush in original size (set scene scale) and blocking the figure from geometrical objects to see if the stick, the "gun" or the "hair strand" is thick enough to print. Often I use small cylinders whose thickness I know, to be sure. I place these in the scene near problem areas and adjust the thickness of accessories etc. to the thickness of the cylinders.

The pictures show the new version of the "Gabriel" (working title) character. The special thing about this model is that I tried to model legs that also work as wings. At the same time this creates a kind of wall around the miniature. For comparison, I put the old model next to it, for which I spent only one day.

Game Testing and my real Job

Because I had a lot of work to do in my real job this month, I didn't create a lot of new stuff, but tested what was created in the last months.

Sometimes it is very helpful not to have so much time to work on the game because your mind is not prone to so much "tunnel vision". If I have to create a film for a client, my mind has to work on other problems for several weeks and then I can return to the game with fresh eyes and see what great or stupid things I created.

It also earns me new money to invest into the game, of course. And also i realized that once I worked for a while in my real job, I also come up with really good solutions faster for the game!

This month I have also created the basic looks for other miniatures and I gathered a lot of pictures of different art styles and of miniatures and statues that I like.

I have learned not to do anything without references and that really helps to get results quickly.