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Ying Niu
Art Creation
Bringing Realistic Characters to Life
My thesis artifact features two realistic characters — a giant Nordic warrior and a witch — with animation and FX ( special effects ). The project showcases masteries including realistic characters , character animation , and dynamic FX .
The goal of this artifact was to explore what kind of realism I could reach in 3D character art and to experience the character creation pipeline to help me better understand the role of a 3D character artist .
I chose this project because I have always loved realistic art styles and because realistic characters are widely seen in recent games . Rigging the character and animating it can make characters lively and allow multiple poses to be rendered . Adding dynamic FX can make characters look more interesting and look better when presented in Unreal Engine .
This artifact began in May 2022 and finished in May 2023 . It was beneficial to me because I learned a lot about interpreting 2D concepts into 3D art , as well as basic software skills , and I now have clearer insights into the role of a 3D character artist .
This project could be very useful in the video game industry because in most cases , a 3D character artist ’ s job is to produce likeness and models that can easily and seamlessly be taken to the next steps of development .
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