LSU VR Football - Quarterback AJ Aycock #16 (2020)

This was an interesting project…

that our group tackled last year, you can read about it here - https://www.brproud.com/news/local-news/hi-def-valley-lsu-grad-students-make-tiger-stadium-a-vr-training-tool/ It's still ongoing, but Covid has put a bit of a pause on it for now.

Pictured left to right: Roderick Wilkins, Blairre Perriatt, Dean Rhodies, Marc Aubanel, Milad Khanlou, Jeremy Alcanzare, Kelley Burger

Our group was given an afternoon…

with one of the quarterbacks - we actually weren't sure who would show up until he walked through the door. When AJ got there, we took tons of reference photos and had a mocap session with him throwing a football in the Kinesiology department.

Gloves used as reference for the VR set

Gloves used as reference for the VR set

It was a unique experience and really cool getting to see all of the gear up close. But also seeing first hand how insanely fast he could throw. I created a game res version of him for the project, but I wanted to use this as an opportunity to learn a little more about likeness modeling, using Xgen, TexturingXYZ, and modeling some semi-complex hard surface objects. I did learn quite a bit during this process, and when I look at the renders and the models now I would 100% redo everything differently given the time, but that's how it goes right?

A very early attempt at photogrammetry

A very early attempt at photogrammetry

My process was to attempt using photogrammetry for creating some of the models but honestly it didn't really work out because I didn't take the photos correctly, and I didn't take enough.
But he was sculpted in ZBrush (2019/2020), Retopped and Unwrapped in Maya and ZBrush. I used TexturingXYZ for his irises (but I created my own color map) and his skin micro details. I painted his textures in ZBrush using Polypaint/Spotlight, and finished them in Substance Painter.

Kinesiology’s Mocap setup at LSU

Kinesiology’s Mocap setup at LSU

I made his clothes in Marvelous Designer but ultimately sculpted in most of the details. I rendered the turnaround using Keyshot with the Bridge from ZBrush. And I rendered the close up (there are probably more coming soon) in Maya with Arnold, and his beard/hair/shirt and face fuzz were created with Xgen. Any logos were either recreated in Illustrator or edited with Photoshop.

VR version of the glove

Highres version of the helmet