Project Description

For our game project - Hangtime, a first-person grappling hook racing game - I am in charge of designing a character.  My only direction given was that he is a hawk who dresses very extravagantly, and it kind of a show-off.  ​
They mentioned Cirque du Soleil costumes as an idea, but I also thought of how there's a lot of birds with flashy color schemes.  I also thought of the Bird of Paradise - both the bird and the flower.

Reference Images

I first gathered references of hawks, then looked for outfit and color references.  I had some more, including various palettes I found, but sadly they have been lost to time (a.k.a. I didn't save them).  

Rough Sketches

Here are the sketches of the bird that I developed - the first three I really only used references of the hawk head, then I used outfit references for the various looks (inspired by circus acts and glam rock), and the last one I tried various color palettes on the design we picked.

Character Concept

The turnaround for my hawk man, which I will use for modeling.  It's not quite as polished as my normal work, but it will do the job.

Base Mesh

Basemesh, sculpted in Maya!  I didn't have to worry about rigging his eyes or mouth for this game, so his head is all one piece.

High Poly Sculpt

Sculpted on the details in Zbrush!  I went a little ham with the musculature, but uhh.... something.

Texturing in Substance

I have the basic colors slapped out - I plan to add a little more variety in textures, as well as some more shading so he's not so flat.  COMING SOON!

Final Model

My final textures, plus the idle pose I put him in.  I need to make a gif of his animations at some point!!