At the start of this assignment, I was quite unfamiliar with the concept of modeling a character, let alone sculpting it, and was quite unsure what to think of it. When we were told that we would be designing, sculpting and posing our character I got very excited and was very enthusiastic to start at it. Little did I know that it would come with not just successes, but lots of problems too. Personally I encountered a few issues that could have thrown me over completely, but the more I faced them, the better I got at solving them quickly and efficiently.
When I began modeling my character, I started to get much more familiar with the different methods involved when it came to creating such a simple yet detailed character. Between the tentacles and the clothes I found myself struggling at times, but after I found some good reference videos and with the help of my peers, I quickly discovered useful shortcuts and different methods that would help me along the way. As I worked through the different parts of the model, I found myself getting more comfortable and faster at going through different processes, whether that was UV unwrapping the head and then the body, or even continuously marking seams, I found myself getting better and better at each stage. In general, the topology hasn’t been a big problem for me, although there were a few touch ups needed here and there, i found that i drifted smoothly through each part. One of the biggest problems I encountered, making me think my project wasn’t going to be finished was my mistake when baking the texture. I hadn’t selected the right option and had to fix a few things, but before I discovered that I was unsure about which modifiers needed to be on etc.
As soon as I overcame that problem, I reached the more vibrant side of the project, which was sculpting and substance, I found myself really enjoying this part as I got to choose how to really make my character come to life. I started to really understand how marking seams work and was quite proud of myself when I finally realized the method to it. Alongside that, UV unwrapping has become one of my favorite parts of blender, which I never thought I would admit. I find I am getting good at knowing how to get each part unwrapped without a problem.
Once I got my model back into blender from substance, I got to posing it and overall, I didn’t come across many issues. At first I was a bit thrown off by how temperamental the armature can be if you don’t rotate the joints the right way, but in my opinion, my attempt at posing my character is one of my best so far.
Overall, the biggest lesson I’ve learned from this assignment is to take my time, I noticed there were parts where I could have taken more time on if I had. Furthermore I’ve learned that it’s a trust the process type of work, and that you will never see results immediately. Although there are parts I would change, I am very pleased with how this assignment turned out, and am excited for what is next to come. I have found that this task has taught me a much wider field of blender I wasn’t so sure of before, and am very excited to continue with more character modelling.