Fantasy Tree Dude
My primary goal for this project was to tackle the character animation pipeline. To meet a strict deadline, I designed a Lord of the Rings-inspired character named "Tree Dude" keeping the topology simple so I could focus entirely on learning rigging, weight painting, and hand-keyed animation.
To present the final animation in Unreal Engine, I utilized a base environment from Fab, tweaking it slightly to fit the mood. However, all the VFX were created entirely by hand to emphasize the heavy, stomping weight of his movement.
Environment downloaded here: https://fab.com/s/fc6cfcc1cf56
Hand key-framed walk cycle / animation. No motion capture used.
Pushed forms and organic details in ZBrush. Exported a subdivided mesh to create the final 34k triangle, animation-ready low-poly.
Baked the high-poly ZBrush sculpt details down onto the 34k mesh and completed the final texture passes in Substance 3D Painter.
Used a Mixamo skeleton as a base, then added custom bones for his branches. Hand-painted the weights for smooth, natural deformations.
Set up a Maya Human IK control rig and hand-keyed the animation. Recorded video reference of myself to nail that heavy, stomping walk cycle.
Designed "Tree Dude" with a simple 5k triangle blockout to focus strictly on learning the animation pipeline. Iterated concepts with Google Gemini.