Research
From the start of this project i knew i wanted to do some kind of aquatic animal and I’ve always been found of octopus, so i went with that. I started by looking through others work on octopus characters. The main sources of inspirations came from Squid-ward, Hank from finding dory and Octodad.
Development
When i started my development on my character i had it in my mind that i wanted to try and not make my character too similar to the previously mentioned characters, but i ended up going to far and overcomplicating my character. The character i had made had far too many polygons and was looking more scary than cute as you can see below:
The main thing that caused the polygon count too far exceed the 40,000 limit was the suction cups. I had made a custom brush in blender for them but the problem was that without having a very high polygon count they came out blocky. While annoying this allowed me to start again and try for a more cute design. I was and still am quite happy with the previous octopus, hopefully i get a chance to use it for something else.
Outcome
For the final design i wanted to try and give the character some personality and make him a pirate/sailor. I did this by giving him a peg leg, rain coat and of course a pirates hats. The final design definitely came out more like the previous influences but i tried to style him differently which is one of the reasons he’s s a pirate. The final design can be seen below:
By having him more upright than the first model he looks more humanoid in a way and much less like a creature of the deep, which really aids in the portrayal as a cute character.
Reflection
This assignment was freeing and enjoyable due to the ability to basically be able to do as you please other than the polygon count and hair rule. This was a great balance between this and the other assignment seeing as the other assignment hade set rules on what you count make. I felt that both assignments worked in tandem at times seeing as I could use my learnings from either class to work on this project.
Working on this project I briefly got to work with cloth materials in blender for my characters coat, which was a first, I wouldn’t say I exactly got the hang of it but it good for a base to build off when I inevitably go more in depth into the 3D world. It was also the first time I worked with custom brushes in blender which turned out to be quite easy.
One thing I’m not a fan of is 3D Substance painter, I found myself still quite confused as to what and how everything works and when I got something done in that workspace it didn’t feel like it was from my own knowledge but trial and error. I did however get there in the end, I would say that I’m pretty content with my final project but not ecstatic about it. I think that my next project will better for it.