"Downtime" Release

Ada enjoys some R & R before the next assignment

Hey all :)

Hope you've been doing well since my last post!

Today I have for you a render I'm extremely excited to share, as I'm really happy with how this one turned out. It's a relatively simple render in a similar style to the previous Claire render, with the emphasis placed on the subject, which I find produces a very striking result when done well. Hopefully you all will enjoy this one as much as I do!

Speaking of, this render marks my first time experimenting with a scene involving water, not counting the floating Tyrant in the background culture tank in Descent into the NEST. I'm really proud of the result, as you'll notice Ada is both accurately reflected and refracted in the water. If you've by chance seen other 3D works involving water, it's something most artists tend to fake in my experience. There are multiple ways to tell, but by far the biggest giveaway is the refraction effect on the part of the model that's underwater — it will either be non-existent or wildly inaccurate. So I knew as soon as I decided to go in this direction with the render, I wanted to make a water material that was physically accurate and had realistic refraction and volume.

Aside from putting extra effort into the water, I decided to try something creative and a little different with the wetness effect here. Instead of simply editing the skin material to make Ada's entire body appear wet, I used a custom painted influence map to define the wet effect, limiting it to her upper torso. The idea being that Ada dipped herself down into the water up to her chest, keeping her hair and makeup and jewelry dry, then stood up for a stretch, taking in the view as she enjoys the sensation of the air playing on her wet skin. I like how it makes the render stand out a bit from what you normally see, where artists just make the entire model's skin wet, and it kinda conveys a bit of flavor/story through context. I also like how limiting the specular highlights (i.e., the wet effect) to Ada's torso draws attention to her detailed front, with the perky bust, defined abs, and tattoos.

If you're not a fan of the tattoos, though, I also rendered a version without them! Additionally, this render also comes in two post-processing styles, "soft" (pictured here) and "sharp" ("soft" but with some filters/effects omitted or adjusted). Similar to the previous Claire render, I did play around with the stylized look on this but wasn't a fan, so I scrapped it.

As for what's next, I'll be publishing a refreshed MEGA archive link sometime on Friday, Nov. 1st, and then we'll go from there!

And, as always, thank you all for your support <3

P.S.
This render is located in the following folder:

Resident Evil -> Ada Wong -> Outdoor Pool (Downtime)