Revelation of the Seraphim 3d Model (Poser)

[Kaballah]

Hi all,

I am a freelance 3d modeller. I've been spending the past several weeks working on a 3d model of the Sacred 2 Seraphim set outfit "The Revelation of the Seraphim". From the beginning I've hoped to release this as a free model in Poser/OBJ format for any fans of the game and character to enjoy. I've been in touch with Carolyn Hacker since the start and requested permission from Ascaron to allow this - since Ascaron holds the copyright for the design of this costume, I can't distribute it in any form unless Ascaron permits me to. I am finished with the model, and I am still conferring with Carolyn about whether this will be allowed. If you want to help me make this fairly massive amount of work available to all of you, free of charge, then show your enthusiasm here!

Important note: This is NOT a modification of any Sacred/Sacred 2 game files! This is a standalone model, by fans for fans!

UPDATE: Ascaron has granted permission for me to distribute this model. Please note the responsibilities of downloading a copy of this model, these are LEGAL REQUIREMENTS:
- This model may be used for NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY.
- Ascaron retains the copyright to this design. © Ascaron 2009, this Poser model is based on the original Seraphim character design from the game "Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel".
- This model may not be redistributed by any means. If you modify this model or any part of it, you may not redistribute the result.

To download the Poser model (OBJ format also included) and associated support files, click the following link:
http://cid-b233dcaeefa9709c.skydrive...V4%20Poser.zip

Please take a moment and review the readme file included for additional info on usage.

If you have any problems with this download link, I may be able to provide an alternate download location. PM me if you have trouble.

Required for use:
- DAZ3D's Victoria 4 character figure, including the Morphs++ morph set.

NOTE: Ascaron does not provide technical support for this model, or for Poser! If you are having any technical problems, you can PM me here, or ask the general community in one of the various Poser forums e.g. at Renderosity.

First, a little information about Poser for any who don't already know - Poser is a hobbyist-level 3D application aimed at producing human figure 3d images.
http://my.smithmicro.com/dr/poser.html
It is not free - it is not even cheap, unfortunately - but it is very popular, and it's how I make my meager living. There is a similar application that can read most files in Poser format that IS free, called DAZ|Studio:
http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/studio

This isn't intended to be a commercial for these applications, or a detailed discussion of what they do and a bunch of boring nonsense along those lines, I just want to provide some background for any who want to make use of this costume. There are many off-the-shelf human character figures available for these programs; the one that I chose to work with for this project was DAZ 3D's Victoria 4 figure, since she is extremely popular - not a value judgement on the merits of this or any figure, it was just a framework to build on that many other people are also likely to have access to.
http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d_models/overview

OKAY, now that the dull stuff is out of the way! The first thing to do when beginning any project like this, whether 3d modelling or painting or whatever, is to collect a few reference images to work from, in the hope that your finished piece will bear at least some resemblance to the original.

[Kaballah]

First steps were to build some basic structure of the outfit:


The braid was not as complicated as it might look, I figured out a way to basically have my modeler build the braid for me.

[Kaballah]

Then started to cut some more detail into the model to follow the structure of the original a little more accurately:


... and adding the "microjacket":

[Kaballah]

Adding some detail at the collar - basically just arranging groups of bent toruses for each chain link along a path, to make each chain:


And then the little pouches at the hip:

[Kaballah]

On to the boots and leggings:


I have never modeled shoes before so they were quite a challenge. Afterward I compared my model to a lot of commercial shoe models I've paid money for - which I did NOT use as examples - and surprisingly, mine compare pretty well (fewer polygons than most of the commercial ones I own). Still tons and tons by game standards, but this is a high detail high poly model, so ... yeah.


OMG shoes.


More shoes!

[Kaballah]

And then some gloves. This isn't some super masterful edge loop topology but it's not too bad. Edge looped modeling is a pretty important technique to use when you're modeling for animation (which this is!)



And on to the completed version - not too bad I think. The experienced modeler will notice I'm using a lot more bevels than may seem necessary - this is really due to Poser's Reyes-style renderer, for organic-type models like a leather strap, you need more polys than for other types of renderer where you could just turn up # of subdivision levels. This is not a good approach to general-purpose modelling, it's really just a constraint put on you when working with Poser's renderer.

[Kaballah]

And of course the wing:

[Kaballah]

And now that the modeling is done, it's time to bring the model into Poser and start rigging it (making it poseable). This part of the job is very difficult, because it has to be done purely with Poser's integrated tools, which - to be blunt - suck. They suck real bad, in fact! But I am dedicated, and generous, so I press on - FOR YOU!


The famous thong:


A couple more images of the rigging in progress... Notice how the character's knee does not bend the same way as the suit - rigged (conforming) clothing of this type, similar to what's used in the game itself, does not bend naturally the way real cloth does, it's basically like a hard plastic shell. So, to compensate for this problem, I had to design some morphs to bend the suit's knee the same way the character's knee bends - and have the suit automatically dial that morph up as the character's knee is bent. Are you bored yet?


The gloves came out pretty well and pose with the hands rather nicely:


OMG SHOES
Showing the shoes here to demonstrate how well the rig conforms to the foot - this is not easy to do for a high-heeled shoe, because the character's natural "zero" pose is nothing like this. Well -- whatever. How bout those shoes?

[Kaballah]

Oh, right - where would our poor Sera be without a proper face? I painted a stand-alone mask texture that can be blended onto any V4 texture with little effort, and (hopefully, if Ascaron approves!) will distribute it with the rest of the outfit.



... oh, right, if you look at some of the pics above, you may notice that the character's bosom bulges a bit where the bra has a cutout on the underside, much like the game character's does. The game character does this through painting the shadow on the texture, which is fine for game tech but not so fine for high detail models like this - so I actually included a little morph to pull the geometry of the character's bosom out as one would expect. This morph is optional and doesn't have to be used if not required.

[Kaballah]

So, right, I have to add a joint-controlled morph at the knee and shoulder/collarbone:


And finally the rig is all done:

[Kaballah]

And now on to a part I'm not very good at - texturing. I clumsily stuck some paint here and there on the model. The flourishes on the gloves and garters came out pretty nicely, and I think I got the glow effect to come out rather well, but overall I'm just not a very skillful texture artist.




The UV map is pretty decent - again, not done to game standards, where 512x512 is considered normal for an asset and absolutely every scrap of UV space must be used as efficiently as possible, this is a Poser model intended to be textured by inexperienced and clumsy texturers (like me) so the UV map is as simple as possible.

[ScoobyDouche]

Wow!

those are amazing, great job!!
the detail really looks great

i making the thong pic my background
(do you have high res pictures?)

really awesome work!

[Kaballah]

All of these were rendered at much higher resolution, and reduced to fit the forum - what resolution do you want? PM me with some requirements and I'll see what I have that's similar.

Anyway, back to the suit:
Even though the texture is pretty ham fisted, since my UVmap is pretty clean, I am able to do some nice things with procedural bump mapping and transparency mapping to give the cloth a pretty nice sense of texture:


The nice thing about doing this with a procedural material is that it doesn't matter how close you zoom in, the detail will be there.

[Little_Fantasy]

WOW! that looks amazing! a lot of work i it! i hope Ascaron does approve of it!

THe sera has never looked so good! i'm starting to be a great fan of the Sera and you have most certainly paid a good homage here.

keep it up, look forward to seeing more!

let us know when you have it all finished

[Kaballah]

I have some artsy-fartsy renders in the pipeline to show off some sets of purely procedural materials, should be done in around an hour - other than that I am completely finished, and awaiting some reaction from Ascaron as to whether they will allow me to distribute this model.