Production
I started blocking out my character by making a cylinder into a long worm-like head, body and tail. I forgot to take a screenshot of the finished block-out but I didn’t have any issues extruding the legs and ears, and I found my reference easy to follow. I also made a PureRef file at this stage to keep all my references together.
I ran into my first issue when I started modelling the spikes that run down the back. I didn’t realise when I was zoomed into the back that all the loop cuts I was adding where making the back legs and paws very crowded. At first I tried just using the smooth tool to space out the vertices more but it only helped very slightly. This was easily fixed just by making less spikes and spacing them out a little more. I still kept the maximum number I could without distorting the legs so it doesn’t look too different from my reference. Fortunately I didn’t have any other issues with modelling other than running out of time to add more detail before having to move onto sculpting. This meant I didn’t get to add claws to the paws or spines to the webbed ears.
When I first started sculpting I found with every tool that my cursor was misaligned and each stroke would take effect to the right of my cursor. This mystified me for some time until I added and removed a subdivision surface modifier and it must have reset something because it suddenly went back to normal. At this stage I was getting worried about completing my character before the deadline so I kept sculpting minimal. The only details I added where the ribs, shoulder musculature and I slightly accentuated the eyebrows to make the face look more expressive. Even though I didn’t spend as long as I would have liked to on sculpting I think what I got done adds a lot in making my character look more like a typical sighthound.
As I was sick during the week of the retopology class, I only had a very basic understanding of the process or purpose of retopologising. I started following along a with a YouTube tutorial which I think used much the same process as Henry’s tutorial video. It didn’t take long for me to feel stuck. It was when I needed to open the ‘Bsurfaces add surface’ menu that I found the dropdown unresponsive. This wasn’t helped my restarting blender and I couldn’t find any answers online. This meant I eventually couldn’t afford to spend anymore time on this problem as it was now the Christmas break and I couldn’t contact staff for help. So I had to move on without retopologising to leave me enough time for texturing and making a scene in Unreal Engine.
When it came to unwrapping I realised I wasn’t sure where to start so I had to go back to Mike’s tutorials in 3D Digital Literacy to refresh. As with previous assignments unwrapping felt like guessing until trial and error brought me to a functional result. I couldn’t get my checker texture to sit perfectly but I figured as my character is dark murky colours it shouldn’t cause too much noticeable distortion to my textures.
I found Substance much easier to work with than before as I now have a display drawing tablet which makes painting onto textures much more straightforward. For the skin I used a concrete material and for the fur I used a wood material as the lines within the wood grain worked well as hair strands. I used a few different layers to add shadows and highlights. Fortunately I had no issues during this process and was ready to import back into blender with enough time left for rigging and making my scene.
