Hello, brave soldiers of Ashird!
Rui here—though some know me as Arunorudo Rui instead! I'm a passionate 3D character artist, an anime enthusiast, a video game fan (especially when it comes to JRPGs), and a yakitori lover. The thing I like most about my job, specifically, is getting to bring characters alive in fantastic fictional worlds. It doesn't matter if it's a game, animation, or something else entirely; as long as it entertains people, it makes me happy! Aside from my work on video games, some of you may know me as a "Vtuber Papa"—since I occasionally do things in the Vtuber community; I swear, despite the old-sounding title, I'm still young!
Along my journey, I met the team at Kumiho Soft. In fact, I'm beyond happy that I can contribute to War of Ashird as its 3D character designer! As the name implies, my job is to make 3Ds models that closely match 2D art as best I can; working with teams like this (especially 2D artists who do such fantastic illustrations) can be really rewarding. Today, one of those rewards is getting to share my latest work and present an update! I hope you enjoy it!
Anyway, as you already know from previous months, we have a tradition of revealing 3D character models. This update is special, though, since I get to share the process of actually making one with you while introducing it!
Let's meet our new husbando, Jaques. He looks pretty cool, right? Glory to our new artist, Komu-san!
Wait… You're probably asking "Komu-san? Who is Komu-san?"
Well, as we announced last month, we hired several new artists after Toma-san's departure from the project. Komu-san (@CU_105) is one of them, so please give her a warm welcome! Here are a few words from her to you:
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My name is Koyukom, and I'm going to be an illustrator for War of Ashird. I'll do my best to bring the world to life and make its characters charming—especially since I'm excited to work on the project!
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Let's see her latest sketch! However, please note that it's a work in progress!
Gorgeous, right? As always, please let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Now without further ado, I'll explain more of the 3D modelling process!
As I said before, my job is to bring 2D art to life—so we always start with a reference sheet. Essentially, that's just a character design that shows the modeller what details they need to include at different angles. After all, it helps a lot to have a deep understanding of how a character looks and poses!
After taking some time to model our "clay" using the reference sheet, we arrive at something like the mesh image above. Scary, right? Well, don't worry: we'll add some makeup and color to him so he looks just as handsome as the finished product~!
Once we're done making the mesh model, we can set a base color on it—giving it a proper silhouette. We can also adjust or enhance the mesh as needed, like if certain parts look a bit off during this step. The key to making a good character is starting from a good silhouette, after all! If it looks off, it needs to be fixed; if it looks great, it means you've done a fantastic job and can move on to the next step.
That's right: texturing! It's an interesting process, but we have to do some UV unwrapping first. UV is the flat representation of your 3D mesh's parts' surfaces. Above, on the right, you can see the UV for Jaques' long boot (which is on his left side).
Once we've finished the UV, we can finally texture the model. In this step, we paint it with all sorts of details. I really like this part a lot, since it feels like we give the character some soul and personality; it's really refreshing, as far as I'm concerned!
Viola! This is the result of all that "makeup" we applied before! So, he looks pretty handsome, right? Almost like he's ready to be a proper husbando—maybe even a sugar daddy~
Of course, before we're done and can view the model in-engine, we have to make sure it's good for the game's animator.
First, I make a dummy humanoid rig, set all the mesh and "bone" together, and view the result. Since it seems like this one is good to go, we can port it into Unity; this allows us to see how he'll be rendered in-game.
Wow! Look at how cool and amazing he is! The long, arduous process was totally worth it—and its final result is a complete Jaques in Unity. The final bits are done through our internal rendering process, and shaders are implemented by our talented programmers.
n this final image, the model has three kinds of texture maps:
"Diffuse Map" is the initial color.
"Shade Map" are, as the name implies, used to give the model some shading.
"Normal Map" is used for the 3D model's various details.
So, that's all I have to say about my work on War of Ashird! What do you think? Pretty cool, right~? If I'm honest, I think my job is really fun and rewarding. It feels like you create something special and endow it with life—which is awesome, unique, and sometimes really hard to describe. I can't wait to see the characters in action, and your guys' reactions to them!
Of course, there are still a lot of things I want to share… but I think I'll save them for next time~ Hopefully I've inspired someone to make games or become a character artist someday!
Thank you for your attention and feedback. Now, I'll turn over the rest of our update to Miore-san!
- Rui
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Hello again, dear backers. It hasn't been long since I provided some news about Toma-san. Unfortunately, I have more bad news to share with you today: two weeks ago, we were shocked to learn that our background artist on War of Ashird was violating copyright.
What does that mean, specifically? Well… Here is some work done by that artist:
Please note the castle in the distance.
Now, if you'd please turn your attention to the image below…
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g1qJQOriginal Creator: Ji Young Joo
Don't you think they look the same?
At first we couldn't believe it—but the fact is, we were victims of a scam. After contacting the background artist in question, she admitted everything and apologized. Unfortunately, this was not the only BG made by stealing existing material from others. As we believe in integrity and feel this is unacceptable, we had no choice but to fire her for what she did and ask for our money back.
To this day, we have not received that refund.
Despite that, we immediately contacted a studio to take over all of her responsibilities. Therefore, in this update, I would like to welcome Gvio Art to our team—and sincerely thank them for their assistance in this trying time.
We don't know how much this issue will harm our project or its progress, as the person responsible worked with us from the beginning and made many images we now need to replace. Overall, our team is very optimistic; together with Gvio, we will do our best to keep any delays to a minimum!
To conclude the update, I'd like to answer a few of your questions:
Q&A
Q: Will there be multiple difficulties in War of Ashird?
A: Actually, there is difficulty selection later in the game—where players can choose between HARD and CASUAL routes that will impact its ending. Hard will give you more difficult, enjoyable battles and less focus on the game's story; casual will instead focus on the characters and plot, providing normal battles for your enjoyment.
Q: Can you enhance or upgrade your gear?
A: Yes! Each equippable item will have three tiers of upgrades, as you can see in the image below:
Level 0 is for standard equipment available at shops; in order to get level 1, level 2 or level 3 gear, you need to either craft something or upgrade gear you already have.
Q: Will the demo be from the beginning to a certain moment in the story, or will it take place at a random point?
A: The former.
Q: Will there be more DLCs that weren't mentioned in the Kickstarter campaign?
A: Our team has discussed it in the past, but we don't want to reveal things too early. Our apologies, but please look forward to hard confirmation on whether there will be in the future.
Thank you for your time, brave soldiers of Ashird! I hope you all stay safe and have a wonderful summer. For more news and updates—and to interact with other fans—please join our community and follow us on social media!
- Miore
Kumiho Soft Twitter (EN):
https://twitter.com/KumihoSoftENGWar of Ashird Official Website:
https://www.kumihosoft.com/Igrasil Studio Official Discord Server:
https://discord.com/invite/igrasilstudio