Reflection

Starting Blender was really nerve-racking and also challenging. I found myself making many mistakes and often repeating them, but I have improved over time. In the first week, I struggled to make a simple table, and now I’ve successfully created a human model with good topology.

I learned about the importance of time management. Keeping up to date with my work was what kept me from becoming overwhelmed when I lacked motivation. Communication was my biggest aid and lesson I learned from this course, not just from the lecturers but also my peers. The biggest improvements to my models came from listening to those around me and asking for advice. Without that feedback, my model would be bald and have a flat face.

I am very proud of my model’s development, though it can still be refined more, especially the object and the overall detailing. I feel I was faithful to my design and was able to use all the skills shown in class. Surprisingly, my favorite part of this assignment was maintaining good topology. I found the process of keeping good topology for the head and body fun and rewarding. Sculpting, on the other hand, was harder as I couldn’t seem to get the detail I wanted and ended up messing up a section I had already finished.

Week Eleven~

I forgot to take screenshort of the pose work we did in class but overall the experience was pleasant and I had no mayor complications, we also made a sketchfab account. and continued working on our models which is when I recieved most feedback regarding models very flat face.

Sculpting~

During the week, I finally addressed the issue of my model’s flat face by sculpting and editing it. However, I’m still not completely satisfied with the brow section, as it appears too big and exaggerated, which doesn’t align well with her character type and my originally design idea. Additionally, I tried my hand at sculpting and focused on adding clothing wrinkles while maintaining the cartoonish style. In terms of sculpting, my main focus was on adding texture to the horns, bone corset, and fur, which I believe I achieved successfully, especially with the bones.

I also attempted to add texture to the hair through sculpting, but it ended up distorting the form and I wasn’t happy with how it was looking, as a result, I limited the sculpting on the hair to just the ears. With these adjustments, the model is very close to its final form. I made a few additional changes later on, such as adding eyebrows but overall the main body is done.

Furthermore, I started working with Substance and managed to get it to work at home. I also made the decision to reduce the size of the head. Although it could have worked within the style of Genndy Tartavosky, I felt it was taking away focus from other features like the shoes, ears, and horns, which were meant to be the main focus. Lastly, I resolved the issue with the arms, transforming them from a rectangular shape to a circular one.

Substance painter and object~

I was very close to handing in this version as my final model but decided to make some changes later on after realising I had an extra day. As I struggled a lot with the main model, I accidentally neglected the accompanying object. I also spent a long time attempting to create textures in Substance Painter and transfer them to Blender. However, due to my unfamiliarity with Substance Painter and working with texture nodes in Blender, I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to get it to work instead of focusing on the object which just resulted in me spending even less time on the object. Although I still struggle with Substance Painter, mostly because I’m not very good at it and have had limited practice outside of class, I have to say that I added a greater level of detail to this texture than any other I’ve worked on up to date. Despite not knowing what I was doing and still being unsure if I did it right, I used paint layers to add freckles and blush, used bone textures for the horns and ribcage corset, and increased the contrast. I changed the size of the pattern on the dress, and my favorite addition was using a visor texture on the eyes and editing the metallic and roughness levels to create a glassy, cartoonish feel. I also attempted to add a gradient, but I wasn’t very successful. I wanted to create lines in the iris, but even following tutorials, I couldn’t get it to work well. However, I did create a darker rim on the iris to add more depth and contrast, similar to Mavis’s eyes in Hotel Transylvania. Throughout the whole process, I referenced Mavis as inspiration and used close-up images of her face or specific sections, like the dress or hair, as a guide.

As for the object, honestly, I was struggling with motivation at this point, and I was worried about the quality of my main model, so I neglected it quite a bit. I tried sculpting and making it an interesting shape, but being in a rush really affected the overall end result. Even though I found out I had an extra day as I got the deadline date wrong, it wasn’t enough time to make it as good as I had hoped.

Posing was surprisingly fun and simple. I almost ruined the mesh, but luckily I was able to quickly go back and fix the issue. I am aware of some issues with the joints becoming distorted, mainly the right elbow. I tried to fix this, but due to her proportions and the angle, it’s not an easy fix. I knew I wanted to go with this pose, so I accepted that the elbow would be a little distorted. Overall, I think this pose is nice for a calm character just visiting a hotel. But knowing the possibilities and freedom with posing makes me wish I had a character that would be seen in a more dynamic and fun pose, such as a superhero or an alien.

Feedback and mistakes~

Though there were many more moments where I messed up, needed help, or asked for advice, it wasn’t until the last few weeks that I began interacting with the 3D literacy channel. This is one of my greatest regrets. I felt intimidated by how good some of my peers were and held back from messaging because of that. However, when I had no other option and was struggling with the hair, I finally stepped out of my comfort zone and asked for advice. This marked a turning point for me, as I was finally able to improve my work and fix mistakes throughout the week instead of having to wait until class. Had I been active in the chat from the start, I have a feeling that my overall concept would have been stronger, and I would have felt more confident from the beginning. I also encountered a continuous issue, which I included a screenshot of. Stupidly, I somehow had the issue of my texture node switching from raw to sRGB at least three separate times, each of which took an embarrassing amount of time to realize and fix. I think this is mostly because I don’t fully understand or remember what those modes do or which mode is assigned to which texture. Additionally, I didn’t know what actions would cause the modes to switch back to sRGB, so a change that I believed to be meaningless ended up messing everything up without me realizing it.

Final model~

https://skfb.ly/oOZEr

I made significant improvements to the object, and I believe the small changes I implemented made a huge difference, even though the starting point was very bad. I also corrected a couple of n-gons that I accidentally left in the final version. Adding eyebrows to the main model was another change I made because I felt her face looked too bare. I was initially worried that adding eyebrows would ruin the mesh and all the work I did in Substance Painter, but fortunately, it worked out well, and it also helped disguise the issue with the thick brow bone. Overall, I am happy with the final result. I struggled with Blender from the beginning and even more so with Substance Painter. While I acknowledge that there is much room for improvement and that the object could use more work and detail, I believe it accurately reflects my concept design, and I was able to improve and utilize a wide variety of tools to create the model. My biggest disappointment is definitely the object. I feel that although the final version is much better than what I initially planned to submit, it doesn’t seem as personal or well-executed as the concept art. In the future, I think I should rely more on my peers and the Discord server, as they were definitely the greatest source of improvement for me, excluding direct feedback from the lecturers.

Week Ten

In Class~

During week 10, we focused on adding details to a model by using multi-res and sculpting. I also had a chance to practice using Substance Painter, although I, once again, forgot to save the texture for the model. I still feel as though I lack a lot of skill regarding Substance Painter, and the textures I create are very messy and amateurish. However, I did find that sculpting helped make the models more detailed. In a similar vein to the sculpting process, the results appear quite messy. Although I feel that my work has much to be desired, I do see how the use of these tools could further elevate my final model if I manage to utilize them properly.

Homework~

Looking back, Honestly my model looks a bit uncanny. Initially, my main goal was to establish the overall body shape and design. At the time, I felt proud of my model because I managed to maintain good topology. However I can now clearly see the flaws that were pointed out to me during feedback. The eyes are positioned too far apart and appear flat, as the dont curve around the head. The side profile of the face is also flat, lacking depth, and the eyes and lips both lack proper curves. Additionally, the color choices I made resulted in the lips blending too much into the skin, almost making them disappear. The arms also have an oval, almost rectangular appearance, which is just anatomically incorrect.

Despite these issues, I am relatively satisfied with the overall body and leg designs. The ears, in particular, turned out quite nice.