Animation Student *u*
I originally began with the eyes drawn directly onto the textures used for the face, but this wasn’t working well as the resolution was noticeably bad. I put the eyes in their own space:
This looked much better on the character models:
I made sure that all of the facial features and hair fit to the model, and worked with the facial feature textures on the main body of the character model. I then sent these to the scripters: 
I finished up texturing the customer NPC’s, giving them 2D facial features like eyes, moles, scars, freckles. I fixed all of my FBX files for facial features to match the new positioning of the character model, which needed to be adjusted for rigging. I ensured that all of my textures worked with the various 3D model features that have been made.
The other prop modellers in the team also drew up an additional prop list, as we had room and time to add more. I spent the evening modelling the additional props I volunteered for:
I started by looking at references on sketch fab, for inspo on low poly assets but also looking at the topology itself for an idea of how my topology should look:
Low-Poly Police Car by JD24 on Sketchfab
Low-Poly Cars by Troublesome. on Sketchfab
I carried on with modelling my props:
I brought the assets into UE5, again, to check that they work — I’m happy with how the models turned out. I did quite a bit of research on Sketchfab before I started, and I believe it helped my understanding of the construction in topology, particularly with the trees and the police car.
My list work whilst sorting NPC and additional assets (Bonus Doodles):
I decided to generate a little more concept art for the project, as I’m thinking about what the exterior might look like. I went for spooky isolated vibes.
This was my first attempt at the UV tile for our NPC characters. The texture initially was far too big, it didn’t work on the hands or the face at all. I also dislike the eyes, they’re too ‘anime’ and not the style that was set out at the beginning of visual development.
I made another attempt with the textures, and again they didn’t look correct on the face or the hands. The scar and freckles were OK, but the mouth and mole needed work.
I was happier here with the blush being more blended, and the mouth and mole being much smaller.
This attempt was getting close, the UV position of the blush and facial features on the lightest and darkest skin colours of the character were a little off, and needed fixed, but the eyes were looking much better (two viable options) and I managed to fix the hands. I didn’t like the 3rd set of eyes at all; I’m leaning towards the round middle option.
I will spend tomorrow doing the more niggly/irritating clean up tasks of making sure I have separate FBX’s of each tall character model with features in each skin colour, as well as ensuring as the FBX’s for the modelled facial features and hair properly fix to the character when important (The character had to switch direction and needed to be moved up at one stage, so these need redone). I need to ensure that each necessary component has a clear material that can be instanced in UE5 if necessary.
I will then begin the task of creating a flip book for the eye movement using the pipeline generally adopted for creating sprites in video games.
I chose my clip, which is double the time that was requested for the assignment. I feel that I’ll be able to do it, but I will talk to Alec about it and get his opinion. I thought this was a good clip for both of the characters that I have been working with for the animation cycles so far. I also looked at a few videos and gathered some reference for mouth movements:
I’m wondering where I should go with animation in this, I believe that I might animate in adobe just to challenge myself to use a different software, and I think that it may potentially be easier with the lip syncing options on there. then I will probably do clean up in procreate for final submission.
This was my first pass at my lipsnc animation
This week I UV’d and Textured my current props and character model.
Cardboard Box
Fruit Crate
Fruit
Industrial Bin
Kickstool
Noodle Box
Pizza Box
Short Character (Stand in)
Tall Character
