Viking Characters | 3D Animation Coursework

These works were part of my Second Year Game Art module for Vega School Durban’s Game Design and Development degree, during which students were individually required to design a Viking-inspired character and their associated weapon and helmet props. Additionally, our characters needed to be modelled in 3D, rigged for animation, and animated; whilst maintaining a strict maximum polygon count of 6,000 ‘quad’ (4-sided) shapes in the entirety of our models. This encouraged us to ensure that our character designs conveyed personality and expressiveness, even with a limited number of shapes to construct the models. My character, Jorleif the Viking, is a ‘strong-and-silent’ type; with his trusty hand-axe and extravagant horned-helmet, he stands at the ready for any upcoming battles, steadfast and stoic in his demeanor.

Later in the project’s duration, each student needed to design and model two additional Viking-inspired helmets to fit a character that was provided, this time sculpting 3D models of the props in modelling software such as Blender or ZBrush. I created one helmet influenced by true historical Viksø helmets, and another inspired by contemporary depictions of Nordic warriors.