Lion Fountain

I originally planned to do my lion fountain key piece first, however I needed to spend time researching how best to approach it. I now feel I have a good idea where to start so began with a base model in Maya which I will then take into ZBrush to sculpt in the details and bake a normal map from.

First stage was to create the low poly lion. I used reference images on planes to get the basic shape as accurate as possible. I then took this low poly mesh into ZBrush and began to sculpt the details on. I began by trying to make the edges look like stone using the flattern brush and used the dam standard and clay-buildup brushes on the face and feet. I then used a hair like alpha on the mane.

After adding all the facial details to the lion, I exported the high poly, dropped down the lowest subdivision and exported this as my low poly. This way I could make sure that all the geometry lined up correctly and hopefully would prevent baking issues,

The next stage was to bake the maps. I originally tried to bake the maps using XNormals but found strange artifacts appeared on the back legs. Unsure what was causing the issue I tried using Mayas transfer maps option. This worked well and all the detail was transferred to the low poly mesh. I created a normal and AO map which I then took into Unreal 4 along with the base fountain mesh.

I noticed the AO map was causing ugly seams on the edges of the model and that the normals could be crisper so the next stage will be to improve the textures and maps for this model. With alpha fast approaching and my own personal deadline of having everything modelled and in by week 6 I decided to move on from this area and focus on getting the map ready for alpha. I will return when all models are imported and apply better textures.