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Viva Model (Edited)

6 years ago558 words

I've made another model for the game that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, ∞ Embracing Eternity ∞. This is Viva, an angel.



I made a lot of changes from the original concept art, and now she looks more like a fairy than an angel, probably, so I might continue to change it later.

I felt that using basic feathery angel wings was a bit bland, though, so I wanted to try something different, something more original and meaningful. Something where if someone dressed up as her one day, it'd be obvious who they were trying to be! So now her 'wings' are a lotus, which has a lot of spiritual significance in things like Buddhism. I like being able to give things dual meanings like this, using one concept that resembles a similar one to serve as both with more layers... (Also, angel wings were really hard to make, I found! An example of inability inspiring innovation.)

She's also supposed to look racially ambiguous. Why would angels be white? Her hair is teal - which is my favourite colour - but I feel like it's maybe a bit anime-esque, which, while not necessarily a bad thing, isn't really what I wanted to go for. So that may or may not change, we'll see!



Her suit - which is supposed to make her look like a businesswoman - has a shader effect that makes it iridescent, such that it shows rainbows colours when viewed at different angles. It's not quite perfect yet, though; the colours are fairly harsh and don't show for front-angled faces. I'd rather have something which shows pastel rainbow hues when viewed from any angle - something more like the concept art - but where those colours still shift around as the camera does. I'll probably have to delve into the madness that is shader programming to get something like that working as I want it to. Also, that green orb thing in the middle of the lotus on her back isn't finished yet, so that'll look different eventually too.



Personality-wise, I'm still trying to find a voice for her. I keep imagining conversations between her and Fey, how each of them will sound and the dynamics there, but there are several possibilities and I've yet to narrow it down. As someone who's not from Earth, her attitude is likely to be quite alien; she doesn't see death or pain as tragic like we do, and she's harsh, sadistic, and masochistic in ways that we'd consider inappropriate but which she finds fascinating and fulfilling. Her runes might be ATJ, or RxJ, depending on which possible personality emerges as I write her. She serves as a guide to Fey and the others through the afterlife realm, which she claims to know all about and to be native to.



I'm not going to make all the player character models back-to-back. Next, I'm going to use these two to make the opening scenes that I've had in mind, to see how all that plays out!



EDIT: After playing around a bit with shaders, I've got an effect which is much more in line with what I want!