FORGED IN BATTLE
Ideation
This project was the biggest and most ambitious of all my undertakings, utilizing a great many skills that I have learned over the last three years.
The project’s brief was as simple as it was open: to make something that would enable me to get into the gaming industry.
With such an open-ended brief with endless possibilities I needed to start brainstorming potential ideas for what I wanted to make.
It was clear to me that this was the time to showcase what I could achieve. Working completely on my own, I started brainstorming what I could make. I had initially decided that whatever I did I needed to achieve something that was both different and more difficult than anything I had made previously. After all, what would be the point in redoing something I had already done?
The first idea that I came up with was for me to create a series of particularly complex things to model and then show, with animation, how I was able to create them. I eventually concluded that I would make a ‘human’ who is not too realistic. With the rise of Meta humans, the ability to make an overly realistic human might not be a skill that an employer would be looking for.
I eventually decided that what I would construct was a fight scene. It was decided that the fight scene would be between a barbarian and a monster both of which I would design, model, texture and animate all by myself and then render the animations in Unreal Engine 5. The rationale behind this decision was that I had never made a ‘human’ before, nor had I animated one and a barbarian would allow for an interesting collection of animations. The monster would be very generic in concept to the point that it would allow for its design to be very open.
Deciding what the barbarian’s weapon would be created a few options. First a sword was considered, however, this weapon, while fitting the characteristics of a barbarian, is used very frequently in fiction, and was therefore considered too commonplace. A claymore was also considered to be an option but this was decided against in favour of an axe as it fits the barbarian’s character as well as being a weapon that is not used too often in fiction.
The title of the project was decided to be ‘Forged in Battle’. This name was chosen due to its connection with the idea of a barbarian forging its own weapon and the battle part coming from the fighting aspect of the animation.
Design
Once the idea was set, I immediately delved into gathering reference imagery that I was to use for the barbarian. I had decided to take an AI image generation for the ideas that I was going to use. After gathering the necessary AI imagery I needed, I then looked at some games to refer to their human characters. The games I looked at were Overwatch 2, Genshin Impact and Clash of Clans.
Reference images
The reference images used for the barbarian consist of shoes, shorts, and the weapon. These images were curated by using Bing’s ai image generator.
I began drawing the design of the barbarian in the art program, Krita. I based the proportions from the barbarian off the Genshin Impact character Wriothesley. This was to enable experimentation with different proportions and to get a baseline build that also has muscles. Then became the task of drawing clothing on the sketch. These clothes would be made of leather, metal, and fur.
First came the shorts, then the shoes and the wrist bands each of these having fur that is also featured on the other reference images. The shoes of this sketch look like socks and the sleeves look like they are made of fabric rather than leather with the colouring and the stripes. Up next was the chest straps and the fur cape, followed by hair and the beard.
After the first design of the barbarian was made, the second one started with the Overwatch 2 hero Mauga being used for the proportions. From there different versions of the shorts, sleeves and shoes were designed. The rest of the design started to evolve with the addition of a shoulder pad and asymmetrical chest straps.
I then had the idea of using the proportions of the Clash of Clans hero Barbarian King: this character is an actual barbarian after all. After making the outline it was considered to be too far on the unrealistic side to fit what I had in mind. Not only that but the posture was also leaning forward, making it impractical to be used for a natural looking pose.
This leads into the final proportion outline which is a combination of the first two of Wriothesley and Mauga with it being a slimmer version of Mauga’s proportions and with Wriothesley’s shoulders.
The shorts found on this sketch are a combination of the shorts from the first two sketches, with the belts on the first one and the metal disks from the second. The chest straps and shoulder pad got additional detail and evolved to become more asymmetrical. This time around, more time was spent designing the sleeves and the shoes, as they were designed detached from the rest of the barbarian.
Designs of the axe went through fewer variations as a version that worked was found faster than the one for the barbarian. The lone spike featured on the side of the barbarian’s axe is a remnant of the design that has many spikes included.
Before the design started for the monster, several reference images of monsters from various fictional universes were gathered. These universes include Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Metroid, and Super Mario.
Ideation for the monster’s design had an entirely different process. For this process I drew up multiple versions of the various body components of the monster such as the body shape, head, back, tail, arms and feet. These would be used to be stitched together into various different monsters before coming to the final design.
Body shapes including heads, feet, back details, hands, claws, and tails were taken from various of these monsters.
This was the first monster design I came up with when combining the different body parts into a complete monster. As well as being very flat, the body parts of this variation have little synergy with one another.
The next variation looks too much like what a real animal might look like, specifically a bipedal crocodile. The real animal concept was scrapped because it did not fit the idea of creating an original look for a monster.
The final design for the monster takes body components from several different monster-like characters. The monster has Ridley’s head and tail shape, Bowser’s back spikes, the Diemetradon’s body shape, the Sand worm’s arms, the Mountain Drake’s tail and the Dragon’s foot.
Once the final design had been made, the monster needed to be sketched in a drawing software. The tail was drawn using a collection of progressively shrinking and strategically spaced circles that would be used as a guide for the tail’s outline. Details were made to make the monster appear three dimensional. This was done by duplicating, readjusting, and recolouring some of its spikes and by drawing in a second leg with both legs then being visible.
Another part of the monster that needed to be determined was how it would attack; this was also figured out by drawing various options. Four out of six of the attack options were used for the monster’s attacking options.
I also used the drawing method to storyboard how the fight itself was going to be portrayed. The first storyboard wasn’t chosen to be used as it had a few problems: these being that it would not make sense for both the barbarian and the monster to be standing next to each other before they begin battle. Another problem is that the monster can’t overpower the barbarian when grabbing the axe with its claws despite the size difference. The last problem is the ending. I.e if the monster was decapitated this could be considered too violent and gory for an ending.
This second storyboard is when the timeline starts to evolve into what becomes the final battle. With a few order changes this one is very close to the final timeline, although the axe swing on the monster needed to be changed to facilitate a more elaborate final axe swing.
This is the final planned storyboard, with the animation featuring a small adjustment of the sequence.
Finally, the location of where the fight was going to take place was drawn up and determined after considering various options. The forest was ultimately chosen because it fitted in with the idea of being an atmospheric, intimidating, and scary location for such an event.
Modelling
When all the planning was completed in terms of designing the barbarian, the monster, deciding where the fight was going to take place and how the battle was going to progress it was then time to start with the modelling process.
Modelling the barbarian was up first. The mesh that would eventually turn into the barbarian started as a single vert; this vert was extruded to create the outline of the barbarian following the silhouette of the sketch. The fill tool then turned the outline into a flat version of the barbarian without the head, feet, or hands as these needed to be made in another way.
The extrude tool made the barbarian turn 3D but with right angled edges. After bevelling out the edges to make the model appear more human shaped, one problem arose: the form of the mesh was not looking like it could resemble a human at all. Changes were therefore needed to fix this, namely adjustments as to how far forwards the arms and shoulders were made, the back needed to be given an indent and the head leaned further forwards. The barbarian’s pecks were made using sculpting once the rest of it was constructed.
The next body part to be worked on was the hand. For this a basic shape of a hand with fingers and a thumb was constructed and then, using the modifiers of Subdivision Surface and Remesh, it was transformed into a realistically proportioned hand. This hand was then duplicated, mirrored and placed on either end of the respective arms, and attached to the main body mesh.
With most of the body modelled, work began on making the clothing the barbarian would wear into battle. First up was the shorts, these started by taking a cross-section of the barbarian’s pelvis and separated it from the rest of the mesh to be used as the base for the shorts. The new mesh for the shorts needed to be widened and to have meshes to represent the fur. The fur mesh was made using a cylinder mesh before applying the Subdivision Surface, Displace, Remesh and Decimate modifiers. These would give the mesh its bumpy form. The shorts also saw the addition of five leather belts strapped around them as well the addition of the metal disks.
Shoes were the next article of clothing to be modelled. This one started by using the silhouette of the shoe sketch just like the main body. After the 2D plane was extruded into 3D, the edges bevelled, and the mesh formed into the shape of a shoe, a cross-section was added to the bottom of the shoe to create the sole. All of the leather straps, fur and metal were attached to the shoe to give detail.
The sleeves were the next ones to be made. They were started by creating a cylinder and adjusting its proportion to line up with the arm of the barbarian. Once the fur was duplicated, this resulted in scale and was then placed on either end of the sleeves such that the detail of the sleeve started to take shape. The first detail to add was the metal rings, then the leather straps followed lastly by the ball.
Next up were the chest straps. These were made by extruding a single piece of mesh until it surrounded the entire torso and aligned with the sketch. The mesh was then given the Solidify and Subdivision Surface modifiers before being duplicated and mirrored to make the other. One strap had a split that required additional extrusions in order to be created. While the metal disk was duplicated from the shorts, the fur cape and the shoulder pads needed additional work before being finalised. Both used techniques used by other parts of the barbarian.
The barbarian needed a head to call his own. With the reference image helping with the proportions of the front and back, the challenge became creating the form of a head. Sculpting was used for this process after using the Remesh modifier as well as the process of making the mouth, nose, and eyeholes. The eyeballs themselves are separate spherical meshes.
Making hair for the barbarian took multiple attempts. The first attempt consisted of using the same method that was being used to make the fur meshes. The first one looks like an unnatural addition that was placed on top like a wig, rather than hair growing from inside the head. The second attempt involved using many duplicated meshes that would collectively look like hair, this one also failed as it looked like there were many clams glued to his head.
The third and final attempt used multiple meshes like before but this time they weren’t exact duplicates of each other but were adjusted each time to look like hair strands and then given the Subdivision Surface modifier. These hair strands were placed all over the head, duplicated and mirrored to make the final hair. With the fourth hair version completed, I had the idea of combining some of the failed hair attempts with the new one to see if they would work together, adding the second hair trial into it prevented some head visibility from leaking though the hair and this was therefore a further improvement.
A change that needed to happen to the barbarian model was remodelling his shoulders in order for him to be in a T-pose. This T-pose would allow for me to better rigg him for animation.
With the barbarian modelled, work began on the axe. The axe was made to follow the silhouette of the sketch with the handle as well as its other components. The most challenging part about making the axe model was making the blades as they transition into sharp edges.
Creating the monster started in a completely different direction than the barbarian. It still started with a single vert that was extruded, however this time the extruded vertices lead from neck to tail before using the Skin modifier. This modifier created a skinned surface surrounding the vertices from which I was able to readjust the sizes and the parts of the mesh.
The monster’s legs were a challenge to make. Firstly, they started out as a cylinder before being changed to be feet at the bottom. The feet needed to be extruded and then smoothed out to make a foot. At the top of the leg, it needed to be attached to the main body, then sculpted to make the two parts flow together. Because the legs were a part of the same mesh, it wasn’t as easy as simply duplicating the legs and making the other one. Instead, the same method of detachment, duplicated then reattachment was used to make a second leg, however this leg needed some of the main body mesh to be deleted to make room for the leg.
It was then decided later that the foot should be split into three big toes rather than one big one. For this the foot needed to be separated and duplicated to make smaller toes that were then connected back to the main leg. This was undertaken to make it possible to give the monster claws on its feet.
Arms of the monster were the next thing to model. I started out by using two cylinders to make both the upper arm, and the forearm. After joining and bridging the gap between them, bevels were used to get the curvature of the elbow correct. Bevels were also used for the ends of the arm. This one arm was then duplicated and placed where it needed to be. In some cases the upper arm was also needed to be made longer to ensure realism.
The spikes were made by taking a cone, adjusting where each of the ends will be, using bevels to get the curvature of it, and scaling any part that was out of proportion. This spike was then duplicated and then distributed all over the monster's body where they needed to be, with each spike having their own adjustment made to them.
Teeth were made in a similar way to the arms with them being made from cylinders that needed to be bevelled but were made to appear sharp this time. Once again, duplication was used along with adjusting each one to give the monster realistic teeth.
Texturing
Once the three main models were made, it was time to begin UV unwrapping them. This was done by having each mesh individually unwrapped using Smart UV Project. Each one was placed on the UV grid and sized according to how many vertices each mesh had approximately. This was completed for all three models.
Once exported, the models were each brought into Substance Painter for texturing in the same order as modelling. This meant the barbarian was the first up, using some of the materials that were already present in the software to make best use of it. Some materials needed to be found online and then downloaded before being used, for example fur and hair materials. This same fur material was used for the monster as well.
One of the most interesting parts about modelling the monster was having the scales’ materials for the arms turn with the elbows, this was done by two different layers fading in as the other one fades out. The arms also have some of the fur on them and fade out as this made the arms look less out of place. The gradient present on the monster was made by having both the black and white fade into each other then smudging them together.
Animation
Before any animation was possible, the barbarian and the monster needed to be rigged. The barbarian was rigged by using the present human armature found in Blender which was then modified to be made practical. Using inverse kinematics, I made sure that every part of the mesh was fully able to start animating. With the whole animation, the barbarian is continuously moving as either the bones rotating or the whole armature moving.
Part of this can be found at times such as when the barbarian is bracing himself before getting hit, this subtlety is also demonstrated when he got up after getting hit and while sliding.
When animating the barbarian wielding the axe whilst he holds, swings and throws it, the animation needed to be made frame by frame to ensure that the hands stay on the axe at all times as it moves.
The animation of the barbarian’s first backflip into a slide is based on the Genshin Impact heavy getting hit animation that most characters use.
The barbarian’s final axe swing was based on Ike’s special move (Aether) as he throws his weapon before grabbing it and spinning before slamming back down with it.
The monster was animated with its momentum and the momentum of its extremities in mind. This can be seen when it spins as it needed to wind up by being on one foot then becoming unbalanced for a bit after.
The monster, unlike the barbarian, needed to be animated to be able to walk and run, meaning I had to figure out how to go about doing this. The walking was done by alternating having one leg bend at a time, then animating the grounded one to be at the same position when it first lands to when it leaves the ground.
The running animation has the two feet moving in ovel motion with consistent stride lengths. The monster needed to be bobbing as it was running because otherwise it would look very weightless and like it was swimming.
One detail that was added to the animation was having the monster fidget with its arms just before being struck down by the barbarian. This detail made the monster appear more realistic and life like.
Unreal Implementation
The Final step for the project was to import the models, animations and textures into Unreal.
Importing the models with the animations into unreal revealed a problem with them as they were out of sync with one another. This resulted in axe swings not connecting with the monster or passing completely though it before getting hit. These needed to be fixed by going back into Blender and adjusting the timings of when the various events happen.
Something else that was revealed when importing into Unreal was that the monster’s run was too slow making it look like it was swimming not running. This change also went along side making the monster’s head swing in a more proportionate and realistic way.
One animation that couldn’t be fixed in this same way was how much the final axe swing was away from the monster. This couldn’t be fixed as easily because it would require a frame-by-frame reanimation of the final swing either when the barbarian is swinging down or still spinning while airborne. This problem was fixed in a different way, by parenting both the barbarian and the axe to a cube placed under the ground that would rotate at the right time and speed so that the swing hit the monster exactly where it was needed.
While fixing the animations and making sure that they look right at every frame, the textures of the barbarian and monster were slowly added and placed within them.
Next up was making the environment where the fight would take place. Since it was decided that a forest was the place where the fight would be situated, many different plants and other decorations were downloaded via Quixel Bridge.
The ground was textured using another Quixel bridge download. The ground was also made using a landscape brush to create subtle height variations in the terrain, thereby making the ground look more natural. The area was flattened in the specific area of where the fight was taking place, this was to prevent any of the animations from floating above or clipping into the ground.
To scatter the decorations everywhere, the paint tool was used in the foliage edit mode with all but the tree selected. For the right brush options only one click was necessary to get everything placed to achieve a good-looking environment. Some of the decorations were removed where the fight was happening in order to prevent the barbarian from sliding into a bush or clipping through a log.
The trees needed to be a different brush setting as they are less dense within the forest. Something else with the trees was that the tree meshes needed to be made taller so that the top of them didn’t come in to the frame unless the camara was looking up.
Final animations
Fog was used in the scene to make the place look creepier and to obscure the ends of the forest.
The establishing shots in two of the videos were inspired by me trying to get the camera to animate along with the animations. I saw how the camera was viewing the landscape before having the animations in frame and considered replicating that for the render. This also meant that the animations would start at the exact same time that the barbarian enters the frame for one. For the other a separate static model of the monster was placed in the scene before being hidden when the animation starts.
Feedback​
After making the four videos, I showed the renders to a contact I have who works in the game industry. He told me that while my environment looks good, the models were lacking in detail, one part of the animation needed more frames and the lighting needed additional work.
After considering his feedback, I increased the polygon count on multiple parts of the barbarian including the various fur parts, metal disks, straps around the shoes including the metal parts on it and the straps around the sleeves including the metal balls. In the cases of the metal on the shoes and the straps around the sleeves I added detail by giving them more depth.
The animation of the monster was updated as a result of this feedback by changing the sliding animation to a walking animation as this was the method used to add frames.
The lighting was changed in Unreal, the time of day was changed from broad daylight to twilight, the colour of the fog was changed and the sky sphere was made to look completely different. Not only were the clouds now visible but they were seen to be moving across the sky. The sky sphere was also made only a little bit bigger than the forest; this was done because it allowed for more of the sky to be visible from the camera angles of the animations.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the freedom and amount of discovery was enjoyable to design, make and develop. This project had the most amount of effort put into it out of all the projects I have undertaken. Whilst I frequently discovered aspects on which improvements could be made, at no point during this project did I stumble across something that looked particularly bad or something I could not improve and make into a satisfactory finished article.
The amount of skills development in this project was plentiful, from the first time making a ‘human’, to more detailed animations to the combining it all together in Unreal and making the final renders.
The project was enjoyable, provided a bountiful amount of skills development, and I was excited with the way it turned out.