Concept Development
- Story: Dreamtime Legend - Maroochydore
- Character: Coolum
Synopsis
In the Dreamtime there lived a young Aboriginal woman Maroochy, who was known amongst her seaside tribe for her beauty. Her heart belonged to Coolum, a young warrior. Elders of the tribe approved of their commitment to one another and they were soon to be married.
One morning, Coolum left to go on his daily hunt with other warriors of the tribe. When he returned, Maroochy was gone. Another member of the tribe alerted Coolum that Maroochy had been abducted by a member of an opposing tribe - Ninderry. He was a fierce warrior from a warlike tribe. Coolum immediately set off in pursuit of Ninderry, to rescue his beloved.
Terror-stricken at the sight of Ninderry’s mighty clan, Coolum was far too frightened to confront him. He instead waited till nightfall, and moved furtively into the camp while Ninderry was sleeping. He found Maroochy and fled back to their tribe’s territory. Ninderry entered a fit of rage when he awoke to find Maroochy was gone. Coolum’s tracks were left leading away from the camp, and Ninderry in his dog-like ferociousness followed them in pursuit of the couple.
Ninderry soon caught sight of them and threw a nulla (club) with a force that knocked Coolum’s head off and into the sea. It became Mudjimba Island, while his lifeless body fell to the ground and became stone, creating Mount Coolum. Birral, a spirit god, had been watching from above. Sickened by Ninderry’s actions, Birral turned him to stone. He became Ninderry Crest.
Weeping, Maroochy fled to the Blackall Ranges. She cried so much that her tears flowed down the mountain range, becoming Maroochy River. She transformed herself into a black swan, journeying up and down the river in search of Coolum’s spirit. To this day, she wanders in search of the warrior who made the ultimate sacrifice for the one he loved.
Character Profile
Physical Appearance: Coolum is a large stone golem, reminiscent of a mountain. Vines enchanted with his soul keep his stone segments together and allow him to move and appear human-like. Due to the large golem's advanced age, many different types of flora cover his entire body. While he is certainly not proportionate to that of a human, he is still a bipedal creature and can move similarly. The power keeping this lifeform together also allow him to manipulate his facial features, so he is able to express various emotions.
Personality: Gone are the days he has to worry about violence and warfare. Coolum is now an immortal mountain tethered to the earth, wandering in search for his beloved. Now one with nature, he is kind to all forms of life. Behind those rough gargantuan boulders lies a soft soul, devoid of all hate. Although he is long retired from his days as a warrior, Coolum maintains a spirit as sturdy as the rocks on his back.
Image References
As soon as the story and character was established I knew I had to create an anthropomorphic mountain for my design. A large humanoid golem would provide the perfect canvas for me to create this character. As a result I researched a bunch of images similar to the one above, so that I could draw inspiration from them.
While I was doing this I wanted to focus on what kind of shape the stones on my golem would make, and what proportion the different body parts would be. The criteria was strictly anthropomorphic, so I knew the design had to remain similar to that of a human. It was also important to think about the face of the golem and how I could incorporate a range of facial expressions using a stone figure.
Character Design
I started my design process by sketching a few different body types, all with different proportions.
I made a more refined sketch of the proportions I initially thought would be most human-like. I also introduced the idea of a central power source, that would act as the heart of my character.
I decided to move away from a slim golem concept as it was moving away from the idea that Coolum is a mountain. I decided upon the polar opposite, with thick stubby legs, a larger body and longer arms.
I expanded upon the previous idea and tried a variation with longer legs, a flatter body and crystals atop him. I imagine the crystal to be one that is native to Mount Coolum.
I adapted the previous design with different proportions and also added a removable head. I thought this was a good idea, given that in the story Coolum's head gets removed and becomes an island.
I created 3 different refined sketches of my 3 favourite golem body types. These can be seen in the images below.
I didn't love any of the results so I combined all of my favourite ideas from my previous drawings into a new sketch. The result can be seen below.
Next I wanted to focus on the facial design. I initially thought to have the head split in 2, with the mouth being the gap.
I soon realised this design would not be ideal for animating facial expressions for assessment 2. I decided to have the mouth behave more like a moving crack or cut-out in the golems face.
I then decided to create some thumbnail sketches on how the vine arms would function, as well as sketches on different variations of golem cores.
For the final core design, I decided upon an amber gemstone. This gemstone is relevant to the golem as it is native to the area and can be found on Mount Coolum.
Final 2D Design Turnaround
Modelling and Sculpting
I started my modelling process by creating some primitive shapes out of cubes which I would then extrude from, smoothing the final result.
This helped me create good geometry to begin the sculpting process. It was important to maintain a realistic rock shape, while avoiding sharp edges. This was purely a design choice, as a sharp design would've made him look threatening.
Repeating the same process above, I was able to create the rest of the body as seen in the images below.
When modelling the hands, I decided to keep all the segments as separate stone pieces. This was to avoid the geometry stretching after the model is rigged. The head was the only exception to this due to the need for facial animation.
The poly count was too high after sculpting and needed to be reduced. Instead of manually retopologising, I thought it would be much more time efficient to use the auto retopologise tool. The tool doesn't allow much control over the topology, but I deemed it unnecessary as my mesh wasn't supposed to behave like skin. This means the mesh will deform the same regardless of topology.
I also thought of different ways to cut down on geometry. The interior faces of the mesh were going to be removed but I later decided against this. This is because I imagined the golem's pieces to potentially be animated to form or fall apart. Therefore it would need these interior faces.
Next I researched the easiest way to make cables / vines. I found that setting the stones 'live' allowed me to use the 'EP curve' tool to draw lines on the stones. With these lines I should have been able to use the 'sweep mesh' tool to create a pipe-like structure along the lines. I soon found out that this tool was not available in Maya 2020, so I decided to upgrade to the latest version.
Finally I started to sculpt the head and I created indentations for the eyes. I was watching a tutorial on the best approach for sculpting the mouth when I saw that the best approach was to extrude into low poly geometry first.
After scrapping the first attempt I created a low poly one, which I could use 'smooth mesh preview' to see what the high poly geometry would look like.
When I was satisfied with the proportions, I smoothed the mesh and sculpted final adjustments. An added benefit to creating the head this way was that the topology was already clean and ready for facial animation.
To optimise the geometry further, I deleted unnecessary edges and vertices on the vines that would not be deformed when animated. It was important to keep plenty of edge loops along the limbs so that when the model is rigged it can deform smoothly.
UV Mapping
UV unwrapping the model was pretty straightforward, as the geometry wasn't too complex. I tried to place the seams in the least obvious places but I was later able to hide these seams when texturing in Mudbox.
When unwrapping all of the stones on the model, I placed the seams down the middle. This seemed to be most effective and the preview texture wasn't warped.
After completing the unwrapping process, I used the 'layout' tool to organise the UVs so they weren't atop each other.
I placed the vine and gemstone UVs on their own separate maps as I wanted these elements textured separate from the stone.
Texturing
I applied a stone texture as a base and painted a layer of black to darken the eyes of the golem. I also added this same stone texture to the projection tool so that I could adjust areas that I didn't like.
As visible in the image below, there were some subtle seams. I covered these up by using the projection tool mentioned earlier to paint over the top, blending the texture.
The image below shows the result after fixing the visible seam.
After fixing all of the seams and painting a moss texture over the top, I created a texture in Photoshop for the bump map.
I remembered that Unreal Engine had a foliage paint tool, so I wondered if Maya had a similar tool. After some research, I found that Maya had a geometry paint tool. After learning how to use it I applied a couple foliage meshes onto my model.
I used a tree bark texture and applied it to the UV map for the vines.
After applying the texture to the vines in Maya, I adjusted the colour and shade of the material. I decided upon a deep green colour, rather than the traditional bright green from the initial drawings. This was purely an art style choice as this colour was more realistic and matched the colour of vines in the Sunshine Coast region.
Final Adjustments
As a final adjustment I thought it would be a good idea to optimise the grass meshes that are covering the golem. I combined them into one mesh and used the 'reduce' tool to automatically reduce the poly count by 79%.
I also turned down the opacity of the darkened eyes so that the golem appeared less threatening.
Rendering
Lastly I created a thematically accurate ground for the golem to stand on, and setup a 3-point lighting system for the final render.
Final Render
References
Cable / Vine Tutorial by Academic Phoenix Plus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4igTVJOEJw0
Maya Curve Editing Tool Tutorial by Daniel Wood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2tTHO_3jQ8
Stylised Mouth Rig Tutorial by Joey Carlino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nmT123wVe4
Maya Geometry Paint Tutorial by Animation Insanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuwHEUmQJs
Recap Article on 3-Point Lighting by MasterClass staff: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-three-point-lighting-learn-about-the-lighting-technique-and-tips-for-the-best-three-point-lighting-setups#what-is-threepoint-lighting
Moss Texture from AmbientCG: https://ambientcg.com/view?id=Moss004
Rock Texture from AmbientCG: https://ambientcg.com/view?id=Rock014