Zoox - The Adventure Zone
This project is based on the character Zoox from a favorite podcast of mine, The Adventure Zone: Ethersea. I came across designs by Cait May https://www.caitmayart.com/ based on the lead characters from the show, and wanted to create a game-ready version of this guy.
Initial poly modeling and UV unwrapping done in Maya. High-detail sculptural details were done in Zbrush, then baked onto the low poly version in Substance Painter 2021. Animation from Mixamo. Lit and rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 4.
Initial reference moodboard with the concept artist's (@Cait.may on instagram) drawings at left. I did some initial sketches to get the proportions I wanted for the design, and compiled references from various online sources for the corals and weathering
Treading water animation from Mixamo. Seaweed, sand, rock and starfish assets from Quixel.
Turnaround in Substance Painter's renderer showing all sides of the textured model
Sculptural details created on a high-poly version in Zbrush
Rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 4. Animation from Mixamo.