What is Project Tide and who are the Trung Sisters?

Originally, Project Tide was simply a project based on the Trung Sisters legend as a way of developing my concept design and 3d modeling/texturing skills. What I am striving for now is fleshing out a world that is far more fantasy-based. The example character I have created, Trac, is now only loosely based on the historical figure. Also, where the original project was Vietnam-centric, I hope to branch out and include other regional influences for greater variety. Down the road, I hope to develop this into a framework for a sort of online game.

The Trung Sisters legend is something I felt would make for an interesting project. In 40 AD, occupying Chinese forces in Vietnam were driven out by two powerful sisters leading the Vietnamese. The older sister, Trung Trac, vowed to free her people after her husband was executed by the Chinese. Both sisters were magnificent warriors, and succeeded in driving the Chinese out. Trac was more politically influential while younger Nhi was an even greater combatant and a capable leader in her own right. However, their success was short-lived, and the Chinese eventually defeated them in 43 AD. Rather than surrender, the two sisters, and a number of their followers, committed suicide. They are celebrated to this day, and are an example of the power women once held in Vietnamese society.

"All the male heroes bowed their heads in submission;
Only the two sisters proudly stood up to avenge the country."
- 15th century poem

(I am no scholar, this is just a summary of what I've gathered from various online sources)

 

Character & creature concept designs

"cloud of hair, snow-white shoulders, fragrant breath, skin of ivory ... a smile more joyous than a blossoming flower"
- unknown author

Sketches: round 1	After gathering references of Vietnamese women's fashion, both traditional and modern, I produced these design sketches. Trac will be represented as being more mature and refined, and Nhi more rebellious or "wild." Trac will wield a sword and Nhi some form of unarmed martial arts. I tried to incorporate the classic Ao Dai (traditional Vietnamese dress of women) look when possible (neverminding that fashion may have been very different in that era), while making it clear that these were also powerful women. "The look" of this is not all that different from what you might see in "feudal" period pieces; however, there is an exagerration I am going for in the vein of movies like The Storm Riders (not that it was a great movie, but I liked the visuals). Sort of an epic, idealized, and modern interpretation of the past- so anyone expecting authentic Vietnamese designs will surely be disappointed. I wanted Trac to exude an aura of maturity and subtlety (darker, analogous colors) whereas Nhi is more bold and youthful (cool and fresh).
Sketches: round 2
Trac color tests:
Nhi color tests:

Trac final:	Nhi final:
►	(in progress!)

Lady Trieu character design:

I took a design from the first round of sketches and applied it to another famous heroine, Lady Trieu. She is referred to by some as the Vietnamese equivalent of Joan of Arc, having led a thousand men against the Chinese two centuries after the Trung Sisters. Project Tide will lean more towards a stylized realism rather than an anime aesthetic (mostly for commercial reasons), but it was still helpful for me to explore a character who exists in essentially the same setting.

Sea Dragon:	For the sake of learning new software (ZBrush), I wanted to create something very detailed to demonstrate the use of normal maps. This is the design that I worked from to create this sea dragon model.

Basilisk:	I realize that my impression of what a basilisk really is is quite wrong. It's supposed to be something of a cross between a bird and a lizard or serpent, but I like the dinosaur-like version in my head, and am not inclined to think of an original name for the thing. Perhaps I will add some sort of feather-like adronments though. Here is the basilisk 3d model.

Ninja:	This is actually an old design, but I'd like to think it could fit in with something like this project.

 

Environment concept designs

Environment test 1:	I wish I had been more conscious of getting photo references of Vietnam during the one time I was there several years ago. Since online worlds are often quite enormous, this was a test of possible land masses and forms. I hope to explore some very odd landscapes in addition to these more mundane ones.

Floodland:	This was not created specifically for the Tide project, but it's very representative of the fanciful world I would like to realize. The original premise was that this region is completely without solid ground save for these enormous hive-like islands and the slivers of land used as roads.

Depthless Stream :	A mountainous land that can only be traversed via valley waterways. I like the idea of very wide streams that are extremely shallow, but quick moving, skimming over smoothed rock.

3d models

Trac 3d model test 1 (medium res):	These are preliminary 3d models of Trac. It would help if I had settled on a real person to pattern the face after, but I'll leave it alone for now and see what kind of work it needs after some texture tests.

Trac 3d model (low poly):	Although a total of 2730 triangles is still much more than the World of Warcraft standard I originally had in mind, I hope the added detail and definition makes the polygon count worthwhile. I split up the model and textures into easily replaced and reconfigurable pieces to reflect the variety possible in an online roleplaying game.

Trac animation rig	The animation rig probably has more joints (79) than should be used in an online game, but my priority was to get it to look good. I am not necessarily looking to advertise my abilities as a character rigger anyway, but a screenshot is available for those interested in seeing how I set things up.

Sea dragon normal map test:

This is a normal map test of my sea dragon creature concept. High resolution head modeled in ZBrush: over a million triangles Low resolution head modeled in Maya: under a thousand triangles Resulting normal map: 256 x 512 As a whole, I'm fairly pleased with how my first ZBrush experience turned out even if I think the whole process is awkward. There are a few spots where the normal map could be improved, but I think I know enough now that I can avoid (or minimize) such mistakes in future tests. No high frequency details at the moment... the sea dragon will probably remain in this state for now as I move on to another model.

Basilisk model:

This is a normal map test of my basilisk concept. High resolution modeled in ZBrush: just under two million triangles Low resolution modeled in Maya: under two thousand triangles Resulting normal map: 1024 x 1024 I feel like I am eternally struggling to overcome the "shrink-wrapped" look that sculpting in ZBrush can give you... the result you see here isn't quite as sharp or detailed as it should be because there was another level of subdivision for this model that I wasn't able to export from ZBrush due to the limitations of my computer (this is the original view of the model in ZBrush). Still, it is gratifying to see the end result, and I hope to have this model properly textured and rigged eventually.

Animation Tests

Cycles:

There are only 4 animated cycles at the moment, but hopefully more to come. Animation was once my focus in school, but I have deviated towards modeling and texturing as it is more of a natural progression from the concept design stage (which is where I ultimately want to be). To view these cycles, please make sure you set your media player to automatically loop the playback to see how these might appear in-game. If you are unable to play the video, please make sure your computer can play MPEG4 .avi files.

idle 1a idle 1b stance 1 run 1 (right click, Save Target/Link)