This is a 3D character I made for the game Crowllection, that I both made concept art for, modeled, and textured.
The story behind the character is that he is a crow who hurt his wing, which is why I tried to make him appealing through the eyes, shape, and bandage on his arm. The game is also stylized, so I simplified what a crow looks like to also add to the appeal.
The approach I had to creating this character was first after gathering references, creating a character orthographic sheet. Next, I modeled the character, and then manually retopologized the final model so that the character rigger would have an easier time rigging the model.
A render of the final crow character model.
A turntable of the crow model, wireframe and textures.
A screenshot of what my reference/inspiration board looked like for this project. I gathered both 2D art references of crow characters that I found appealing, as well as real-life crow images that I enjoyed and found very dynamic and full of personality.
Things I took note of that made crows appealing as a character were big expressive eyes, graphic shape language and silhouettes, and a contrast between small legs and big wings.
A crow character orthographic that I made at the start of the project, after gathering and analyzing my references. Once I began modeling, I further simplified more elements that were originally given detail through shading in the drawing itself.
Finally, here are some screenshots of the crow model in-game, rendered through Unreal Engine.