Kain - Fatalistic Emperor

Kain, one of two dual protagonists from Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered. It’s just a great honor to have been able to bring him to life! As a huge fan for decades now of this great series, to have been given the opportunity to work on something that I love this much, in general, was such an amazing thing, but then to work on Kain, Raziel, and all of the main players of the game, it was the greatest honor I can imagine. Kain, originally human, is an evolved vampire with demigod-like power, with changes to his physicality born from his 2,000 years of existence. Vampires in the Nosgoth universe go through states of change, emerging with physical changes, new powers, or both. The result for Kain is a near plated, chitin-like armored skin, which has slight metallic properties to reflect the sunlight and protect him from its effects. His forehead has grown a crown of bone, and the sheer will and ambition of his subconscious has fueled these changes. The color of his skin even a slight golden hue to reflect how he sees himself. The look is as a direct representation of the cinematic models of Kain seen in the opening intros to Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 as can be.

I began work creating this model in 2013, and roughly had him done in 2014, though I would alter him a bit over the years to make him more accurate and to update details beyond what was even achieved on the original models. My journey into 3D art is completely intertwined with Kain and this model, as I began initially texture modding the original Defiance back in 2013. I wanted then to make a mod that would more accurately represent the characters as seen in those SR1 and 2 intros by GlyphX. It was a great start in learning how games work, and from there, I would wind up trying to my hand at 3D modeling. The first model I went for was Kain. It was a lot of learning, trial and error, and through that I would start on a journey that has led me through the last decade+ of working in games and film to make characters. All of that started with this model, and now, it’s all come full circle! Quite a surreal and amazing experience!

For the remaster, as with any models I’ve already made (Raziel, Ariel), I would have to modify the base model I made to work better with the games, and to work on the existing game rigs. While we, thankfully, had a very good polygon count budget to work on with the remasters, some reduction had to occur. My original models were made in mind to for cinematics, so for Kain, his base model was over 150,000 polygons. I reduced them to under 40,000 here, which still offers plenty of room for physical detail to be preserved. Plus, very much like in films, I could split the materials into quite a lot of sets. So, where it would be working in UDIMs in film, here every UV tile just has a new material. Kain has just under 15 at 2K each for the textures, so, again, we’re able to keep the fidelity of these models very high. The rigs are specific in their proportions, so for animations to work, the models do have to be modified in areas to fit. Namely on Kain, his whole upper body from his knees to the top of his collar bone, rose up a bit, forearms are longer, and his face is squashed a little from his chin and bottom nose up. It’s not hugely noticeable until I point it out, but these alterations take him a little out of the 1-to-1 aspect that he was to the SR1 and 2 cinematic model. It all still works really well and it’s amazing to be able to bring these to life in such detail on this old engine. The team updated the engine in ways I didn’t even think were possible. In addition to better lighting and adding atmospheric fog, models’ spec and gloss values are much better represented, and they even added a proper metallness shader! I was able to exploit that on many models to add subtle realistic reflection where it was never possible before.

This was realized by using the channel that original game had for environment reflection textures, also called sheen textures. Now, Kain’s greaves, or the Reaver sword feel like metal, and even used subtlety on his leather and even his skin, it brings that much more depth to his materials. I also would add a slight glow to his eyes and then the rest of the vampires’ eyes, using emissive textures. The reason is not that they are just glowing with energy, but it’s to try and replicate the look of a predator, like a large cat’s yellow eyes as light levels dim and they reflect more of the surrounding light. When I first tried it and you see Kain in the opening intro, landing in shadow on top of the Stronghold, those eyes piercing in the early morning, I knew it had to be!

I am so very grateful and fortunate to be able to work on all of these characters and with such an amazing team! I hope that this remaster brings the same joy and elation to fans as it does to me simply to be able to work on it and see what we’ve achieved!