DISCO BALL
Reference images
This is “Wrecking Ball”. He is a hero in the game “Overwatch”, and he is my favourite character in the game. I decided to design, model, and animate a custom skin for the hero. To create the skin, I used reference materials taken from the game. This includes the way the weapons unfolded when slowed down, how the legs extended from the ball, how the hatch flips open, and how the top pops up.
Source: In-game "Overwatch" screenshot by me
Source: In-game "Overwatch" screenshot by me
These are screenshots of “Hammond” (the pilot of Wrecking Ball) taken from the game in order to help with the modelling process, as well as get the right proportions with the mech he is piloting.
Source: In-game "Overwatch" screenshot by me
Plan
I had some thoughts on what the disco ball pattern would be, but in the end, I decided to go with hexagons. This would allow for the top to continue the hexagon patterns, whereas if circles had been chosen, the top would turn into an oval shape.
Progress
The design for Hammond’s fur went through a few designs before I decided on the final one. One of the fur pattern's designs that weren´t chosen had a disco ball pattern, but instead it ended up looking too much like a football with colourful patterns. Another design I decided against was due to it looking more like paint splodges than something cohesive. The final design was made to resemble stage lights while using all the colours used in the mech.
3D model
During the texturing process for the skin, I had originally planned for it to be what is known as a “mythic” skin. These are skins that are customisable, including the colour palette. This would have been fitting for a disco ball as the purpose of a disco ball is to display various colours. The problem that arose while attempting this design was that it needed to involve fewer colours to enable changing them a possibility. Not only did this take away from the vibrancy of the colours used, but it also made it look too much like a clown vehicle rather than a disco ball, especially with white being one of the colours.
The balloons tied to the guns were decided as they fit the party theme of the skin, while the stars featured in multiple places around the skin were used because they aligned with the disco theme.
