Red Crystal Staff

Key Responsibilities:
Design From Concept, Low/High Poly Modeling, Design of Substance Painter Substances, Texture Creation, Lighting, Rendering, UV Mapping, Baking, Editing Final Render

Mono Locco, 2022

This was one of my last pieces for Mono Locco. I was presented with a concept piece for a green staff, I was told I could make some adjustments, but the aura or feel must remain the same while being easily re-texturable into different colours. I created the first model, the original design that ended up being red. The team at Mono Locco were great to work with as we went back and forth on this design settling on the piece you see before you.

The model was started in Maya as usual with the UV's being completed before the High resolution due to all of the duplicated pieces. This piece was quick, it only took me around an hour and a half. I then exploded the mesh before moving it to Marmoset Toolbag 3 for baking, bar the AO map that would be completed later on. Upon adjusting the cage around the crystals, the bakes were clean and crisp and ready to be placed into Substance. I went through a few different ideas for how the texture would work exactly. I baked in much of the detail in the High Resolution mesh, so texturing was more about enhancing what was there through the use of blurred height adjustments and bevels as opposed to adding new details. As usual, the model was exported in 4k and then rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 3. A lot of time was spent on the relatively simple lighting, but with an object this reflective, the time was spent really pushing some of the edges with light. The pool of Off-Brand Magi-Kool-Aid Bowl was created after the fact for the purpose of creating a more interesting scene and was not made for Mono Locco. Total project time was 16 hours plus 4 for the Magi-Kool-Aid.