Fusion, Maya, Substance 3D Painter

Akali’s Kama

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Following my newfound experience in creating 3D assets, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and create something from scratch with no guidance.

I find that the best inspiration is that which happens naturally. While playing a game (‘League of Legends’) with a friend, I saw what I wanted to recreate. A stylized kama, painted in vibrant blues and purples. Immediately, I got to work.

Next, I took the model into Maya for retopology. While working, I noticed that I improved my skills significantly compared to before. Although the model is quite complicated and curvy, I think I did a great job of keeping the polys low.

I do wish I was able to pack the UVs better. I found it especially difficult with the long flat side of the blade, which I wanted to remain as one UV for texturing purposes. I was able to stack the left and right UVs for both sides of the kama, meaning that each UV was approximately twice as big as it would’ve been.

A cutout of the in-game kama,
taken from modelviewer.lol

I started in Fusion 360, outlining the basic shapes of the kama and adding details as I went. It was a fun process, and as I went, I grew more confident in my skills.

Overall, I’m really happy with how the high poly came out. I think the curves of the blade and edges of the top and back shells give the kama a great silhouette, adding to it’s distinct appearance and recognizability.

Satisfied with my UVs, I brought the low and high poly into Substance 3D painter, and baked the maps.

I chose to try out a different workflow while texturing this one. Adobe had just released the ‘stylization’ filter for Substance painter, and I wanted to try it out. It works rather nice, but I wasn’t satisfied. After tweaking the settings, I decided to just hand paint some highlights and shadows to get the look I wanted.

The final iteration of the model is shown below.
Note: since the UVs are mirrored to save space, both sides look the same

Fire Hydrant Asset