Flashback: Evil Kratos

I was running through my old folders and found a screenshot of Evil Kratos!  A lot dirtier than the original Kratos model I made for God of War, he has messier polygons and smaller dirtier textures.  If anyone made it to the end of the game, you (Kratos) are defending your wife and child in another dimension while you get pummelled by a thousand versions of your evil self.  This model reminds me of days when building models was simpler--which is why it warrants a Flashback post!

Comments

[Richard Matey]

Amazing part of the Game. So now working on higher specs, do you prefer the older "flatter" style or do you enjoy the freedom of bigger maps and shaders? I was also curious on how long it takes from modeling to final texturing? Just a curious soon to be graduate art student.

[Erik San Juan]

Hey Richard, great question! By using powerful maps like normal and specular maps, along with bigger size maps you can get higher detailed results. I guess I am very old-school-- when we would have small maps and just brute-force paint it, relying on your painting skills to communicate your character. It just feels like a dying art now with the advancement of technology.

[Richard Matey]

I definitely see what you are saying. One of my friends went off to work at Mythic and they are still able to produce flat painted characters for their MMO. He came back and did a demo of his process, it was pretty cool to still see some of the similarities. Where he would use Body Paint, I would use Z brush. But I can see how hard it is to reproduce the charm of hand painted characters now.