Didn’t get as much done as I wanted this week. Had errands to run & got sick but am better. Started detailing the swamp abyssal!
Have a great week!
As this is the last Thursday of the year, here is this week’s update as well as the annual summary of 2025 for Project Nova.
For this week I continued work on the male swamp abyssal.
Project Nova Annual Summary, 3rd year of Development
Jan- Feb:
Changed the infested race to a more bestial infested race code named ‘Blood Infested’. As I am making race variants, I am keeping both designs, changing the original variant to ‘Mycelium Infested’. Work began on the Automaton race, which has become the Bronze Automaton variant with the introduction of the Iron Automatons in late December.
Feb - Jul:
Female & male designs of the Bronze Automatons were created, from concept to UE5.
Jul - Nov:
I struggled quite a lot with leveling my anatomy skills, especially facial anatomy. While I am a character artist, I primarily work on character armour. I’ve never sculpted faces before now, and it showed. I think I’ve achieved an acceptable skill level after this intense but necessary training period.
Nov - Dec:
Wrapped up 2025 with using my newfound powers to improve the face of the female Vampires, as well as introduced the Iron Automaton variant and the Swamp Abyssal Variant, ‘pushed’ the silhouette of the male Ocean Abyssals, and established average heights across all races.
Plans for 2026
Infested:
Improve the Blood Infested race, I’m still not particularly happy with how they look. Add more root-like structures to the Mycelium Infested.
Abyssals:
Add tails and strengthen silhouettes of the Ocean Abyssals. Make the female Swamp Abyssal.
Vampires:
Improve male Cavern Vampire face, anatomy, proportions. Make the Arboreal Vampire variant.
Automatons:
I might scrap the current iron automaton designs in favour of more grounded designs.
Humans:
Might tweak facial proportions a bit more.
Have a great new year, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
I’ve been a bit busy with overseeing renovations and moving to a new place, and was away from my desk for a day, but during that time I sketched out some rough zones of the main playable region of Project Nova. Hopefully the move goes smoothly but there might be less free time for me for the next one or two weeks.
Made the swamp abyssal less bloated and less caricature-like.
Have a great week!
There is roughly 15,750 calories in a grilled swamp abyssal, sans butter.
Have a great week!
Almost ready for the female version
Have a great week!
Female version in an okay spot. I’m thinking I should bump every race up one subdiv level, running out of mesh density in some areas, but I use that as a sign that I may be too detail intensive. Will probably lower the amount of granular detail across the board sometime in the future. Painting will definitely help visually group swaths of geometric detail. I’m also mostly done moving house, still have a few things to take care of but hopefully I get more work done in the coming weeks.
Have a great week!
Been a bit late on these updates, just been a lot of IRL stuff to do. I’m scrapping the old iron automaton design in favour of something more simple, grounded, and less high fantasy. With modular cosmetics, a similar appearance can be obtained later in-game.
Have a great week!
Getting back on track with that funky Morrowind/Mobius/Studio Ghibli/70’s scifi vibe. Lots of inspiration taken from Bioware, Star Wars, 5th Element, Bungie, etc
Have a great week!
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite off-brand turian on the citadel
Have a great week!
Did you know?
99% of game developers quit before they make it big. The sigma grindset stops for no one, we’ll have a true WoW-killer on our hands one day. Wahwahweewah
Have a great week!
decided to remove the pauldrons and arrow stopper. These will show up later as modular attachments if at all
Have a great week!
wurk wurk
Have a great week!
Made the feet smaller, I wasn’t particularly a fan of how chunky they evolved over time.
Have a great week!
my weekly tribute to the 
AI slop machine Puttin’ in dat elbow grease so that uncle Jensen will be proud of me and DLSS5 wont suck 
I’ll protect u from those toxic gaemers Jensen 🫶
Temporarily giving the iron automatons the bronze automaton colour palette in order to distinguish sections of detail and to establish regions for player customizable modular materials. Fused cranial plates.
Have a great week!
Extracting plates from single sided mesh
Have a great week!
Returning to the default iron automaton colour scheme, more polish work. Definitely getting there, this model will be done soonish. I’m still undecided on whether or not to make a female mesh; iron automatons simply don’t have genders unlike the other races.
Have a great week!
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More polish
Have a great week!
Where did the week go? This update is a bit late because I didn’t realize it was Thursday already. More polish, adjusted the front panel hinge so it is not clipping with the belly tubes, and lots of similar minor adjustments. Hopefully next week I’ll be making the lowpoly and baking.
Have a great week!
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Loved reading through this thread! Amazing to see how your iteration process works.
It’s great to see more and more people using ZBC as artwork journal. Great job! 
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No lowpoly yet, but more polish. Replaced the internals with synthetic digestive organs protected by a removable internal panel. Added rivets and hooks. This is a great example of how functionality drives aesthetics. Everything is designed with intention and not because it “just looks cool”, and the art is better served because of it. There are two pages of notes in my developer notes about how these function in-game and lore-wise.
Have a great week!