Project Nova (nsfw)

[Zetheros]

It’s the last Wednesday of the 2024, so here is the second annual progress log for Project Nova, as well as this week’s update. I hope you’re all having a wonderful xmas/holiday, and/or happy new year! If not, well that’s life for ya, innit.

• Male & female highpolys & lowpolys.

• Exploration into animations, basic walk cycle for human basemesh, will likely switch to a different software other than Modo for anims.

• Modular armour & equipment highpolys.

• Better file backup & management, extensive world building, notes organization.

Overall, progress is steady and I remain committed.

For this week’s update I did more work on the human jetpacks, am redesigning the vampire helmet, and am overhauling the infested race to better fit the vision in my mind.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/083/214/298/original/sheng-zhong-g88.gif?1735187718(image larger than 5120KB)

Have a great year!

[Zetheros]

Happy new year! Hope everyone has an amazing 2025. May it be better and worse than 2024 in inscrutable and incalculable ways.

I added more veins as well as trypophobia to the infested race.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

More zsphere work, bringing back that fungal sprout on the back from early concepts. Decided to change the scarlet red veins into fungal hyphae. Changed genitalia from spiked abomination to fungal plug based on massospora cicadina. I plan on revisiting the other races and making them less human.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Proportion work, hyphae, split the ‘visor’ in half to allow for spooky animations, partially inspired by Nidus from Warframe.

Have a great week!

[PixoPaul]

another great update.

[Zetheros]

Spent awhile developing the biomechanical structures that open and close the face plates. They are opened by ‘arms’ that have locking joints and double as mandibles. A strong length of sinew in the back adds support, and is what snaps the plates back together. More polish and a bit of proportion work was done as well.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

I’ve gone through a number of redesigns on the infested race, as what I have in mind is very specific. I think I’ve settled on a design I like now. Yes, I am nixing the concept of animated face plates, but I think the design, while cool & interesting, is a bit too much for a player race. Compiled here is a history of the redesigns, as well as the current bone-helm aesthetic. The jaws have been pushed forward to allow for biting in combat and feasting on the corpses of the slain, the cranium is naturally protected from blows, and feature curved spikes to rip flesh in order to spread infestation faster.

Plans going forward are to detail & polish the male infested, make the female version, and continue with a much needed de-humanization rework of the abyssal race. I think the vampires are in a fairly good spot design-wise for now, but I might change my mind later on that.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Very late update on Project Nova, normally these are posted on Wednesday or Thursday morning, not Friday. Had some IRL stuff to take care of, but it’s all sorted now. Added head spikes to differentiate the back profile, polish, separated polypaint into layers, removed subdivision level 7.

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/084/662/807/original/sheng-zhong-g97.gif?1738881243(image larger than 5120KB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Done for now, retopology underway & female version up next. Removed veins, too much work, especially if I want to create other infested things (which I will) and I can probably get some sort of procedural geometry node wizardry to work instead.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Male infested baked & in UE5. There’s a lot of polish work & actual painting (not polypaint) to do, UV layout work etc. I’ll be doing all of this once the fifth and final race of Project Nova are complete; the Automatons.

Project Nova: Male Infested Turntable

Project Nova: Male Infested Basemesh in UE5

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Did the highpoly + lowpoly, baked & imported updated female infested race to UE5. More concept work done on the automaton race. And there we have it folks; five races, fitting for a quintuple A game.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

progress, innit

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Lots of possible colour variations with this one

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

A lot of the design choices are mostly solid now, been going through and eliminating a lot of subpar or awkward design choices I made early on. I don’t think much will change, all that’s left is polish and finishing up. Stomach and lower back still needs work IMO.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

the sigma grindset continues grinding, what can I say

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Was busy this week, so didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but yea just further refinement and detailing as per usual.

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

Got sick because I went outside to touch grass. Managed to get a bit done but once again, not as much as I’d like.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/086/863/484/original/sheng-zhong-g108.gif?1744260622(image larger than 5120KB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

I feel like a bit of a spammer for posting with seemingly so little progress, but the last 10% of sculpting is always like this, and is important to get right. Male version coming up soonish I think.

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/087/093/781/original/sheng-zhong-g110.gif?1744867247(image larger than 5120KB)

Have a great week!

[Zetheros]

These weeks are just flying by. Played too much Morrowind. Closed the eyelids a bit for better detail during animation & started on retopo. Might smoke some sweet moonsugar later if I’m feeling cute

Have a great week!

[Thorbjorn_Barone]

Hey Looks good, i like the design a lot.

Kind regards
Thorbjorn