[Student Work] Red Cat
Some Ni No Kuni inspired character design and modeling work. They're a shy merchant in their first encounter, but comes to the rescue in the story as a mysterious masked rogue, who would then later be revealed (to the absolute shock of the characters) to actually be that merchant! I deliberately designed it with less detail to make it fit in more alongside Ni No Kuni's other minor characters.
I achieved a cel-shaded look for the Sketchfab textures using light baking and clever use of filters in Substance Painter. (At least, I think it was pretty clever!) The Sketchfab model also has a subtle outline effect to mimic the style of the games, and is posed manually without the use of a rig.
Originally made in December 2022, final touches made in April 2023
Completed masked version on Sketchfab
Completed maskless version on Sketchfab
Moodboard for the character using pinterest. Got a lot of ideas for the mask and outfit from this. Their first encounter is as a shy merchant, but is actually also a mysterious rogue.
Original artworks depicted by Cran Julian and from Genshin Impact.
Concept sketches made by throwing together images from my moodboard
Design thumbnails. I was looking for a nimble but slightly shoddy appearance, so the final design has a small cowl and oversized gloves.
The mask is inspired by creatures found in the world, and I paid close attention to existing Ni No Kuni designs.
3D blockout in Maya
3D sculpt in Zbrush
Wireframe view. The budget constraint was 10k tris, and I ended up with 9700 and 9300 tris for the versions with and without mask. The version with the mask required an alternate configuration of the bangs. Face topology is made with animation in mind.