Aviator Girl - Pulled out of my art vault from 2011. She's a 3D model with a 1000 polygon limitation created for a prospective client using 3DsMax and Photoshop. I was provided a design concept done by another artist for which I re-sketched with liberties and modeled in short order.
In case you're not familiar with low-poly modeling, 1000 polygons is not much to work with, and such character models are typically designed to be viewed from a distant camera angle and hard to look amazing up close - but, I think she looks pretty good up close and personal for a low poly girl.
I posed, lit, and shot her in a vigilante-heroine sort of way. When I saw the original character design concept, I thought the artist had made her look too tom-boyish, and honestly, somewhat ugly. I wanted to infuse an attractive femininity back into the design.
For example, even though the zipper is slightly exaggerated from real-world zippers, it was gigantic in the concept painting. I reduced the size. Her face was ruddy and negative, I wanted pretty and strong.
My version of the character has been my most visited and 'liked' model in my Sketchfab gallery. I think that demonstrates to me the success of this character art. Take a look at the model for yourself below - click on the > play arrow and it will load in that box below where you can zoom and rotate around freely with fun.
I couldn't just model from a concept sketch as it is. The first step is to re-interpret what I see in a model sheet sketch form like this one below. The point of the sketch is not to get every detail nicely placed like an illustration but it is rather a short-hand sketch for me to see the details that I need to know about in the front and profile views. That's why she has only arm and one goggle, and body details of the torso are visible through the clothing to see the bean-like shape of the body from the side. This is all about planning my mesh, what the shapes are going to translate to in a low-poly scenario, and it gives me an idea what method I'll go about to model her and where to set up the lines/polys which will eventually become tris (3 sided-planes verses 4 sided-planes).
Thanks for viewing!
~ fin ~
