Classic GTA 4 Protagonists Get Modern 3D Makeover By Artist

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4 years ago

GTA 4 Updates: Thanks to a devoted 3D designer, who took characters from four of the series’ best-known games and carried their trademark looks into the ninth generation, Older Grand Theft Auto titles’ stars have received big graphical improvements.

With rumors of Grand Theft Auto VI running rampant, it was on players’ minds to talk of returning characters and settings using new hardware.

Claude of Grand Theft Auto III, Niko Bellic of GTA IV, Tommy Vercetti of Vice City, and CJ of San Andreas all-star in Grand Theft Auto entries that were released in the early 2000s during a seven-year period, which are commonly recognized as some of the best sandbox games ever made.

Since Rockstar does not create new entries in the series as it used to, primarily due to the more expensive development needed for large-scale open-world games with the kind of graphical detail demanded by current gamers, these four remain among the series’ most recognizable playable characters.

Players have spent the long period between Grand Theft Auto V and VI since their heyday, coming up with different ways to pay tribute to the most famous GTA entries of yesteryear.

GTA 4 Modern 3D Makeover

To that end, considering the graphical inferiority of the older titles of 3D Grand Theft Auto relative to GTA V, 3D artist Hossein Diba took Claude, Niko, Tommy, and CJ and gave them a gloriously detailed and extremely realistic redesign, which he posted for everyone to see on his ArtStation site.

As a surprise, Diba also made the famous loading screen and box art model of GTA: San Andreas in the same 3D format.

The ArtStation site of Diba also includes pictures of the renders from multiple viewpoints and backgrounds, giving a more complete view of how much effort and detail went into each one, from eyelashes to skin texture, courtesy of ZBrush, Marmoset Toolbag, and the creative eye of Diba’s own.

As other artists have done so for games such as Among Us, Diba is definitely not the first 3D artist to offer less graphically detailed characters an update, but his work on these extremely realistic human characters has certainly won Grand Theft Auto fans’ admiration.

Although for the moment Grand Theft Auto VI is still more a fantasy than a hopeful reality, artists such as Diba offer a glimpse of what players might visually expect if Rockstar Games were to return to its golden years.

More importantly, with the correct resources and expertise, he offers fans of the series a glimpse at what amateur artists, hobbyists, and independent creators are capable of.