Chronos Hunter
The Time-Traveling Smuggler
This is Chronos Hunter, a time-traveling smuggler. He travels back in time using his Time Portal Gun to hunt extinct animals and stores the collected specimens in The Time Vault. He is also an inventor, which explains his "mad scientist" appearance.
The name Chronos references Chronos, the personification of time in Greek mythology, while Hunter is a fitting surname for the character.
Responsible for all aspect of the character.
Render Breakdown
Character Breakdown
The character was sculpted in ZBrush. A high poly version and a low poly version of the character were created. The character was then retopologized in Maya.
Look Development
For this character, I wanted the textures to be stylized and resemble those of a stop-motion film. I was inspired by the look and surface detail of the stop-motion puppets in The Boxtrolls. I especially liked how the characters' faces feature rich color variation and bold strokes.
Reference
When texturing Chronos in Substance 3D Painter, I used generators, thickness maps, curvature maps to procedurally create a hand-painted look. On top of that, I manually painted additional details and bold brushstrokes to further enhance the stylized appearance.
Posing the Character
To pose Chronos, I created a basic rig for the character. The most challenging part was rigging the cape and painting the skin weights so that it deformed properly during posing. I created blend shapes for the facial expressions as well as for parts of the cape. I also used set driven keys to control blinking, finger curls, spine movement, and hair movement.
Character Design
I sketched several versions of the character. In the end, I combined Designs #1 and #4 because together they capture both aspects of his personality: the scientist and the smuggler.
There's more to the world of Chronos Hunter. Explore the time machine he stole, his secret hideout, and his time portal gun.
