CHHATRAPATI | FMP : Modular Character

"CHHATRAPATI" - Final Major Project
This is the Final Major Project for my Master's in Games Art and Design. I have developed a game-ready modular Character based on the historical figure, "Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj". Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale) was the founder of the Maratha Empire in 17th-century India, reigning as the first Chhatrapati(King) from 1674 to 1680.
He is renowned for his visionary leadership and innovative military strategies, having pioneered guerrilla warfare, naval expansion, and fort architecture in India. Beyond his role as a "Chhatrapati", Shivaji Maharaj built a governance system rooted in justice, cultural pride, and inclusivity, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire generations. I have always admired him for his ideologies and principles; that's why I chose this project to honour his legacy. This project was a challenging opportunity to improve my technical skills while paying homage to my cultural heritage.

This was my first end-to-end game character project, where I worked on everything from gathering references and concepts to implementing the character in the game engine. Through this project, I aimed to learn about various workflows, methods, and features involved in creating a game-ready character.

Project Highlights:
1. Modularity - I created this game character as a modular asset, meaning all the elements are individual skeletal meshes which are attached to a single skeleton. Additionally, I created a complete body to ensure it stays aligned with the modular workflow.
2. Outfit customisation and custom Shaders - I created four base variations of the outfit in Substance Painter. To enable customisation in Unreal Engine, I limited the colours to three tones and created a black-and-white mask packed in RGB, which is assigned to each colored element. Additionally, I created a custom shader in Unreal Engine to allow for separate adjustments of these colour elements.
3. Skin Shader - I challenged myself to model and texture the whole body for this project. I did the skin texture from scratch without using scanned data or texturing maps. I chose this approach to work on my foundational skills. For the eyes, I have used Metahuman Eyes.
4. Game Hair - For this project, I explored the Alembic Hair Groom pipeline. Although I tested both X-gen and Blender's hair systems, I ultimately decided to create the hairstyle using Blender's geometry node-based Hair system. While this workflow is more performance-intensive compared to traditional hair cards used in games, I wanted to develop this skill set.

My original goal was to create a render of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj sitting on the Royal Throne. However, the project evolved into a fully modular character-building process. This shift allowed me to explore many new skills and features related to game character development.
For my portfolio, I rendered cinematic shots using Unreal Engine's Path Tracing and Lumen.

This project concludes my journey at MA Games Art and Design. It has been a valuable learning experience for me. Keen to hear any feedback!