Project Kamron - Pokemon with Next-Gen Graphics

Pokemon has generally been a fantastic 2D series from the get-go. The games have always been 2D, the main games have always been on handhelds, and other promotional illustrations have always held a 2D watercolor style, or otherwise. But recently, the series is making forays into 3D, and pretty soon these Pokemon can be better realized than ever before.

Similar to how Lucario was given a more well realized 3D treatment with Smash Bros, I've wondered what some of these Pokemon could look like with UE4 physically based shading, LPV, APEX cloth, particles, and whatnot. I also wanted to learn and experiment with using these new techniques to improve and push the visual quality of games with a more cartoon style.

My first character will be based off of a Karmeleon, donning a bandanna and ripped pants held up by tie-down straps. The character will be modeled in Maya 2014, and the clothing will be made dynamic with the APEX clothing plugin tool. Because Karmeleon has a flame-lit tail, I will be animating the flame directly onto a sprite sheet in Photoshop. All this will be imported into UE4 for the shaders to be built.

Goals:

• Preproduction sketches for proportion and final design
• Apex cloth for ripped pants, holding straps, and realistic deformations, if possible
• A low-poly model rig prepped for animation
• Fully realized shaders, including a subsurface skin/claw/clothing, dirt textures, and if possible, Z-brush. Would like to attempt deeply refractive eyes.
• Animated fire VFX with particles in UE4
• Screenshots in UE4

NOTE: PROJECT IS ON HOLD

I need to purchase a retopology software in order to continue using this project. I'm thinking 3D Coat, which is what I was originally trained on.