Project Nova (nsfw)

[Zetheros]

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!

[Zetheros]

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!

[Zetheros]

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

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/096/072/495/original/sheng-zhong-g144.gif?1770281261(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite off-brand turian on the citadel

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

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

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/096/493/576/original/sheng-zhong-g146.gif?1771489401(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

decided to remove the pauldrons and arrow stopper. These will show up later as modular attachments if at all

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/096/707/990/original/sheng-zhong-g147.gif?1772098736(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

wurk wurk

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/096/934/169/original/sheng-zhong-g148.gif?1772705254(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Made the feet smaller, I wasn’t particularly a fan of how chunky they evolved over time.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/097/144/304/original/sheng-zhong-g150.gif?1773308086(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

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.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/097/349/910/original/sheng-zhong-g151.gif?1773910998(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Extracting plates from single sided mesh

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/097/566/788/original/sheng-zhong-g152.gif?1774542760(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

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.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/097/764/750/original/sheng-zhong-g153.gif?1775123975(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

More polish

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/097/967/766/original/sheng-zhong-g154.gif?1775726091(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

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!

[RodolfoSilva]

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!

[Zetheros]

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!

[Zetheros]

Thought I was going to extol the virtues of polishing this week? Nope, it’s retopo time!

Have a great week!

Edit: Here’s a turntable of the highpoly

- YouTube

[Zetheros]

Torso and upper arms done, including internal components. Currently sitting at 53,317 tris.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Was hoping I’d be 100% complete with the retopo, but there’s still a few small bits to complete. Bake coming next week. I haven’t made lowpolys of the swamp abyssals yet, so that might come after, or I’ll start work on the arboreal vampires. Total tris coming in at 83,353.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

super busy since Exanima (muh day jerb) released update 0.9.5. I’m posting this update quite late in the day; Did a very quick bake of iron automatons so that they’re ready for animations, unpainted as usual. Going back to polish the swamp abyssals and get a lowpoly done of that race as well.

Automaton Army

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/099/246/705/original/sheng-zhong-g162.gif?1779369786(image larger than 5 MB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

retopo, innit

Have a great week!