Assassin’s Backpack
This is a game-ready asset I modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter. The prop was inspired by NikonOne’s concept art (on the right), and jumping off the concept I developed the narrative that an assassin is tasked to retrieve he boss’ stolen sword.
I collected references for the swords and the backpack to use while modeling and took the time learn about katana “anatomy” to make sure the model was accurate.
I have a book of Japanese family crests and chose the one in the picture to use on the swords and backpack.
This project was an assignment for class and I was required to add detail to my model in Zbrush. This was my second time ever sculpting in the program. I did not enjoy it 🙃.
The Zbrush sculpting took me a couple days and I had a difficult time getting the brushes to work correctly. I think the main problem was that I was trying to sculpt something way above my skill level as a beginner.
After sculpting in Zbrush, we were expected to texture everything in Substance Painter, and for the life of me I could not get the sculpt to bake on to the low-poly model. I just could not get it to work, and I had to turn in the model without the sculpting details. So, that was days worth of work that I didn’t get to show.
If I were to go back to this project I wouldn’t do any sculpting, I would just model the backpack, and I would make good on a critique I received in class: The narrative is an assassin retrieving his boss’ stolen sword and was instructed to cut off the thief’s hands as punishment. I was told the blood on the pocket isn’t enough to communicate that narrative and I should add fingers poking out of the pocket to to let the audience know there are hands in there. I think adding that would definitely improve the visual storytelling.
As of right now I don’t plan on going back to this project. But I am teaching myself sculpting in Blender, this time I’m starting small and going at my own pace.
