I love 256 and here is my attempt at it for this year. Last year I could not do it due to so much commission work.
Her name is Rossi. I struggled to get her head to look right and ended up with something nice I think. Her design has existed since 2021 but never did anything with it. She works at some kind of office place.
Her design from 2021
I actually made a video about my process with this. I never do this so this is an extremely rare occurrence. Let me know what y'all think.
youtube
I really enjoy doing this challenge. I feel I get a lot better every year. Look forward to next one.
I think I'll do a little bit more of art and then resume game development
Just learned about the 256Fes trend, where a model with <=256 polygons and a 256x256 texture. I decided to optimize an existing model I had and pose it a bit. This model plus the pickaxe is 252 tris. Along with the 2 pre-rendered planes in the first pic, it hits 256 on the nose.
This is a redesign of dwarves that I did a little while ago. Partly inspired by the dwarves in the Mana series, partly inspired by Monster Garden on youtube and his incredibly unique dwarf design. What these guys lack in beard they make up for in being short.