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Mathias Waltz
3D Artist & Game Designer
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Low-Poly Headless Horseman Enemy (for the game "ULTRAKILL")

This is a personal project of mine I worked on last year, beginning from summer and ending around september. Designed for the video game "ULTRAKILL", this is a custom enemy that I designed, modeled, textured, rigged, animated and finally, implemented in-game. The only part of the model which I did not make was the skull; In the game, it is a key item that can picked up by the player. Thus, this monster is basically a "mimic", appearing like a normal skull before turning into an enemy.

First, I started off scultping the horse itself in Zbrush. I took some references at first, then gave it my own spin to make it look malnourished/skeletal (to feed into the "undead" look a bit more).

First, I started off scultping the horse itself in Zbrush. I took some references at first, then gave it my own spin to make it look malnourished/skeletal (to feed into the "undead" look a bit more).

Then came the armor and the rider; The armor was first modeled in Maya before imported in Zbrush for further detailing. Since the resolution will be heavily downsized though, I proceeded to not put too many details as they would not have been visible.

Then came the armor and the rider; The armor was first modeled in Maya before imported in Zbrush for further detailing. Since the resolution will be heavily downsized though, I proceeded to not put too many details as they would not have been visible.

Once the horse was fully sculpted, I retopologized it in Maya, before using it as a base for the armor's blockout.

Once the horse was fully sculpted, I retopologized it in Maya, before using it as a base for the armor's blockout.

Once both models were finished, I took them into Substance Painter for texturing. (To save on memory & for optimization's sake, any faces not visible in-game/hidden by the armor were outright deleted.)

Once both models were finished, I took them into Substance Painter for texturing. (To save on memory & for optimization's sake, any faces not visible in-game/hidden by the armor were outright deleted.)

Ditto, for the armor. Since the horse model itself will be transparent in-game, all faces had to remain inside the armor.

Ditto, for the armor. Since the horse model itself will be transparent in-game, all faces had to remain inside the armor.

After the textures and models were done, I got to creating an armature that I would later on animate, all in Blender.

After the textures and models were done, I got to creating an armature that I would later on animate, all in Blender.

Here are all animations done for the enemy, displayed in Unity directly. I mimicked the game's animation style by keeping the timings on the impacts relatively snappy. (The reins are not animated since they'll have rigidbody physics in-game.)

Blender Render of the model striking a pose.

Blender Render of the model striking a pose.

Another pose rendered in Blender, this time with the wireframe visible to showcase the fairly light topology.

Another pose rendered in Blender, this time with the wireframe visible to showcase the fairly light topology.

And finally, the showcase of the enemy in-game, complete with an environment and intro. Both the level design & the horseman's sound design were done by me.

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