I decided to take another look at my first skin and remedy a bunch of the issues I saw and add additional stuff I learned over the past months in Substance Painter. I left the main illustration almost the same, just updating various areas like the bottom and tail fins as well as the eye making it a tiny bit smaller to wrap around the bevel more seamlessly. I also went with a new base material and a slightly lighter palette overall making sure everything is validated. There's also a new main pattern with roughness to add contrast. I thought the fan pattern didn't fit well, so I went for a pattern that blends with the fish scales and overall flow. The grip is completely redone, depicting a pond with lilypads and koi. I also reworked all the normal mapping to give a softer feel using blur and sharpness filters to dial it in. That's pretty much it, also thanks to Druida for making me want to revisit the skin and improve it.



Tosai (TOH sye) - The name given to baby koi under one year of age.

I thought a koi would fit perfectly for the Zeus model using the large circle as an eye. I initially had a more abstract concept in mind but progressively refined it to what you're seeing now. I noticed right away with the Zeus model that I needed to be very precise with the placement and sculpting of the scales to not have them warp along the extrusions. This led to the koi looking pretty tiny and baby-like, which got me thinking and doing some research about koi. That brought me to discover the name for the skin.


Thanks for reading