The assignment given was to design and model a character under the theme of ‘cute’. Seemed easy enough at the start, however the primary software we are to use is ‘Blender’. It’s a new software for to be honest, but I have been told there are similarities between it and ‘Maya’, so I think I should be able to handle it well enough.

The first step of this project is the idea stage, so I gathered some references for inspiration and came up with a few ideas that I think would work.

Idea 1 & 2

References

So my first couple of thoughts of a cute character was a character of a cat or rabbit or even a fox. Let’s talk about the Cat idea first.

Cat – Since I was going to use a new software, I thought that the character should be a simple shape and I remembered some shows that I’ve watched that had some cat characters that looked like something that would be easy to imitate or at least design something that would be simple. I still want a magical aspect, because what cute animal isn’t magical in some way. I like the cat but I don’t think it will be something to take forward.

The fox/rabbit thing – This idea was majoraly influenced by the character Tama from the game ‘World of Final Fantasy’. Tama is a very cute character and the design look so good, I thought I might use it and change some things so it’s not completely copied. Because of the easy shape and cuteness, this idea is in the running for being the character to model.

Idea 3 & 4

References

Nine Tail Fox – When I found the image references I thought that this could totally be an idea for the cute character. The first image was my main reference in which the shape and pose are basically the same. I only changed a few things and I do think that the little fox is cut. However I’ll have to do a side profile of the character to se how things will look for a 3D model due to fur being a bit awkward to deal with.

Fairy – The fairy idea is very cute in my opinion, fairies tend to have that kind of appeal to them I think. The idea was mostly based off the middle character in the bottom left image, but it when coming up with the idea I also looked at the character ‘Vivi’ from the game Final Fantasy IX, who also happens to be my favourite character from the game. I feel like this idea is more of a backup idea, as it looks simple enough to create if I have trouble modelling a different character.

Idea 5 and Reference

Ifrit Spirit – I have seen many Ifrit forms from the Final Fantasy series and I just love most of them. The reference for this form is from ‘World of Final Fantasy’ and I just find it adorable and cute. So I attempt to design my own idea from the reference. I used a lot of similar characteristics in my design but I do think that I was able to create something that looks cute. In it’s own way.