Gladiator Pit Stop 3D Game Production Blog Task #3

Gladiator Design Choices

When designing my gladiator, I focused on creating a historically accurate gladiator instead of a fantasy one. I believe that when going for historical subjects like gladiators, historical accuracy should be taken over all other considerations first, and only that it is after the research stage that creative liberties be taken. For my gladiator I decided to go for a career gladiator, rather than a slave forced to fight. This would allow me to equip my gladiator with proper gear, at the very least.

A gladiator usually wasn't armored like a legionnaire and most classes only had a few pieces of protection. Most notably, most gladiator classes had a unique helmet do identify themselves. Armor was usually only on one side of the body for each piece, and there usually was no proper torso protection. Having too much armor wouldn't make for a very exciting fight.

My model has definitely turned out very different from what I originally had in mind. This being my first 3D character ever, I was honestly overwhelmed and decided to make amends to my initial design in order to make my life easier. One of the biggest changes was the removal of the alphas on the edges of the loincloth. I also had to simplify the right arm quite a bit since I didn't plan it out properly. 

I made some other changes that were just stylistic as well. For example, I modelled the sheath , but later realised that gladiators never wore them. I made some different color decisions as well.

I would say my biggest challenge was the unwrapping part, as everything else came relatively straightforward to me, even the skinning and animating. I have since learned a lot regarding unwrapping however, and am confident that in my next project I can do a better job. 

When transitioning from 2D to 3D, I didn't really have any problems as I had made sure beforehand to draw and gather reference of all the elements from different angles, and watched multiple tutorials on the modelling process. Specifically, a video about modelling Total War Rome helmets helped me a lot.