For our second assignment for class, we are to model a cute character based around what we personally think is cute. For mine, I chose to design a cute gecko character.

Character Design:

This is the character I ended up designing on my iPad. I gave him a little cloak as I thought it made him look even cuter. I chose a gecko because I think lizards in general are pretty cute. I picked colours specifically from a leopard gecko to make sure the colours were accurate.

Refs:

These are the reference images I collected and used for both my digital design and the block out model I made as well.

Block out models:

The first image was my attempt at blocking out my model. I think it looks ok, I tried to add the little toes that geckos have as I hadn’t managed to draw them on the design as I couldn’t get them to look like. I also didn’t add the cloak in the block out as I struggled to model it properly without it looking wrong. Nonetheless, I think my block out model is a fairly good start to modelling my gecko.

The second image is some alterations I made after getting feedback from lecturers in class. I made the toes and fingers bigger so that they fit the model better and they’ll be a lot easier to work with once parts of the model are combined. I also altered the arms so they’re in T pose so that I can still move the arms with ease once they’re combined to the body. I altered the eyes by making eye sockets so that the eyes sit better in the head. I also combined the snout and head and smoothed them out. I think they look nicer this way. I altered the head shape as well so that it was more accurate to the drawing I made.

Final model:

The above images are of my final, finished model with and without his cape. I had smoothed out the cape after taking the second screenshot as it looked more like fabric and sat on the gecko’s arms better. After blocking out the model in Blender, I brought the model into Maya to make his cape. I ended up replacing the eyes with smoothed out cubes as I thought they had a better shape than the spheres. I made the cape out of a plane that I then extruded to make it look like a thicker fabric. I made the rope on the cape from curve lines and sweep meshes and I made the knot out of a smoothed cube as well.

I think my final model turned out pretty well and is quite the improvement in appearance compared to my initial block out I made in Blender. I think it looks pretty similar to the drawing I initially drew up as well and I’m proud that I managed to replicate it well.