I made this skeleton knight starting from a concept from Dark Souls 3 (2016) using modern modeling techniques and using as reference both the game Elden Ring (2022), both real-life anatomy and medieval costumes and weaponry.
I used concept art from the book Dark Souls III Design Works as a starting point, and collected more references from games and real life as the project went on to ensure high-end texturing without forgetting the original vision of the character.
I started in Zbrush, sculpting each bone individually using anatomy books as reference.
The skull has been then sculpted to fit more with the art direction of the game, and after the retopology and baking I further changed the proportions of body parts such as the thickness of the leg bones to give a more powerful structure. Bones of the spines and hands have been merged together in the retopology to reduce the amount of polygons, but the separation in the high-polygon model allowed to create Ambient Occlusion and ID maps for the texturing, giving the illusion of bones still being individual parts.
After retopologising the skeleton in Maya I split the workflow in four parts: soft clothes, hard clothes, weapons and skeleton. After retopologising the skeleton, I created the soft clothes in Marvelous Designer, allowing me to easily create folds, and UVs on top of the skeleton. I then brought them to Maya and created simple meshes for the hard clothes (such as belts and the helmet) and used them to add more layers of soft clothes as per the concept. I also created simple meshes in Maya for the weapons, which I then moved to Zbrush for refinement. I used techniques such as IMM meshes to create the belts and the straps on the knife. Finally, by using Polypaint I created ID maps to facilitate texturing in Substance Painter.
Due to the skeleton having so many parts, I decided to use 2 UDIM maps, prioritising parts such as the skull having bigger UVs for more detailed textures.
Clothes, Belts and Metal objects were also split into 3 materials.
Baking was done in Marmoset Toolbag 5 as it allows for more control than Substance Painter on separating objects into baking groups.
Rather than only following the concept as is, I chose to use more references from real life. For instance, while in the concept the skeleton is white, real old skeletons are more yellowish. This is something that future From Software games such as Elden Ring (2022) also went in the direction of. During this phase I also inserted some environmental storytelling, such as the damage on the shield as it would be damaged by adventurers fighting him with a sword, and chipped off bone parts where he was hurt.
I used fibershop to create haircards, which I then use to create the straps of the helmets, and to break the flat silhouette of the clothes. To break the silhouette of the chainmail, which was made with a Substance Designer material, I also added more metal rings to break the pattern. I also deformed the sword and shield to appear more damaged. Finally, the scarf uses a triple mesh, using displaced normals and dithered textures to give the illusion of fur.
I used Bifrost to create the flames on the hands and in the body, while the Eyes are Mesh Lights. I then created a Rig in Maya to pose the character as if they were preparing to fight the spectator in a dungeon, and used Arnold to render it. The lighting is done with a skydome, allow the light from the eyes and the flames to shine in the dark. Using AOVs I then accentuated such details in Photoshop, and added a simple fog texture for more atmospheric context.
I used concept art from the book Dark Souls III Design Works as a starting point, and collected more references from games and real life as the project went on to ensure high-end texturing without forgetting the original vision of the character.
I started in Zbrush, sculpting each bone individually using anatomy books as reference.
The skull has been then sculpted to fit more with the art direction of the game, and after the retopology and baking I further changed the proportions of body parts such as the thickness of the leg bones to give a more powerful structure. Bones of the spines and hands have been merged together in the retopology to reduce the amount of polygons, but the separation in the high-polygon model allowed to create Ambient Occlusion and ID maps for the texturing, giving the illusion of bones still being individual parts.
After retopologising the skeleton in Maya I split the workflow in four parts: soft clothes, hard clothes, weapons and skeleton. After retopologising the skeleton, I created the soft clothes in Marvelous Designer, allowing me to easily create folds, and UVs on top of the skeleton. I then brought them to Maya and created simple meshes for the hard clothes (such as belts and the helmet) and used them to add more layers of soft clothes as per the concept. I also created simple meshes in Maya for the weapons, which I then moved to Zbrush for refinement. I used techniques such as IMM meshes to create the belts and the straps on the knife. Finally, by using Polypaint I created ID maps to facilitate texturing in Substance Painter.
Due to the skeleton having so many parts, I decided to use 2 UDIM maps, prioritising parts such as the skull having bigger UVs for more detailed textures.
Clothes, Belts and Metal objects were also split into 3 materials.
Baking was done in Marmoset Toolbag 5 as it allows for more control than Substance Painter on separating objects into baking groups.
Rather than only following the concept as is, I chose to use more references from real life. For instance, while in the concept the skeleton is white, real old skeletons are more yellowish. This is something that future From Software games such as Elden Ring (2022) also went in the direction of. During this phase I also inserted some environmental storytelling, such as the damage on the shield as it would be damaged by adventurers fighting him with a sword, and chipped off bone parts where he was hurt.
I used fibershop to create haircards, which I then use to create the straps of the helmets, and to break the flat silhouette of the clothes. To break the silhouette of the chainmail, which was made with a Substance Designer material, I also added more metal rings to break the pattern. I also deformed the sword and shield to appear more damaged. Finally, the scarf uses a triple mesh, using displaced normals and dithered textures to give the illusion of fur.
I used Bifrost to create the flames on the hands and in the body, while the Eyes are Mesh Lights. I then created a Rig in Maya to pose the character as if they were preparing to fight the spectator in a dungeon, and used Arnold to render it. The lighting is done with a skydome, allow the light from the eyes and the flames to shine in the dark. Using AOVs I then accentuated such details in Photoshop, and added a simple fog texture for more atmospheric context.
Made in Autodesk Maya, Photoshop, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag 5, Fibershop, Marvelous Designer.
Original Concept from the book Dark Souls 3 Design Works
Skeleton Sculpt in Zbrush
Wireframe front
Wireframe back
Three views