At this stage, we were ready to start properly modelling our character. This stage in our production is what really helped bring our final animation to life. Modelling all the characters and props was not only required but really motivated us to produce simple yet interesting personalities for each character. Along with this, the props were fun to create.
Main 3D model:
When going about modelling my character, I thought of many ways on how to start and what shape to start with, and although I was going to use a sphere, I decided to test myself out and start with a cube, applying a subdivision modifier. Not only would this lower the poly count but also test my modelling and sculpting skills as I needed to create an exact eggplant shape.
Once I created the basic shape of my model, I used the lecturer’s previous tutorial on how to model a face with eyes, a mouth etc from our 3D Digital Literacy module and created which I see as a decent face. I added some basic eyeballs, which I later changed, and eyebrows. Along with these, I selected certain faces on the head, with the help of Miller, extruded them creating the hair, where I sculpted the hair as leaves and created a bun on top to match my concept art.
At first the hands were giving me trouble as when I modelled them, they weren’t turning out as I hoped and would just look messy. In the end, I found out how to make them in a cartoonish style and later turned out exactly how I wanted them to. I used simple cylinders for the arms and then connected everything together.
I then added gums, teeth and a tongue. I used squares for the gums and sized them down to the shape of gums. I then intruded the area I needed for the teeth and extruded the faces to make teeth. I also used a square for the tongue, sized it to however long the tongue would be, sized the top down creating an almost triangular shape at the start, and applied a subdivision modifier to create a tongue shape.
By now I was quite happy with the result, but I think I would have tried to go a bit further with detail. Although the character is just a plain eggplant, I would’ve liked to be a tad bit more creative. Otherwise, I think it turned out great.
Once I finished the modelling part, there was no time to lose as I started working on shape keys and rigging. I wanted to keep it organized, so I did different sections of shape keys, starting with the eyebrows, then the eyes and finally the mouth. Using the polygons to move the face around was a lot of fun and was probably my favorite part making the process much quicker. I went for simple but expressive emotions, the basics but what we needed for our animation.
Some examples of these shape keys were:
When it was time to do the armature, it was also very easy and quick, as I had done it previously so |I remembered the steps from before. Since the shape of my character was very simple, it didn’t require a very detailed armature, so I just did a spine straight down, and then the two arms and hands.
The next few steps went by quickly, as all I had left to do was the UV mapping and textures. Unwrapping was straightforward and adding textures wasn’t too tricky as I knew exactly what I was going to use colour wise.
When texturing, I kept the colours as natural as possible as we wanted to have quite a realistic theme for our animation.
I also used a pen to create an eyeliner and lipstick effect in substance painter to give my character a more feminine appearance as I wanted to stick to my original design. I had done this before with my previous character in a different project, so I was quite used to the pen mode.
Props:
When it came to modelling my props and assets, I was quite excited to try creating objects I’ve never made before. From modelling my character, I picked up some good tricks to make the process go quicker.
I created an armchair, a spinning chair, waiting room sofas, pillows and then all my bottles. Although they were simple, I came across some obstacles but soon resolved them. When modelling these, especially the furniture, I found that the subdivision modifier helped create the shape I needed, especially the cushions on the sofa, arm chair and then the spinney chair seat.
I went for a classic look for each of the props, but when it came to adding a cartoonish effect to it, I focused that effect on the labels of the bottles.
Overall, I used many ways to model them, but one of my favorite ways was when it came to the pillows. I needed a realistic effect for them, so I learnt how to use the physics, cloth effect which I found very interesting, giving me the exact appearance I was looking for.
Using the textures I was able to create material finish to the sofas and armchair, sofa and pillows, and shiny finishes on the bottles and leg of the chair. At first, I came across some problems when adding the textures, especially on the pillows as when I went to add them the colors just didn’t match as they should have. I soon fixed that problem and all was well. I also found a very handy way to add on the labels. Using the UV videos from the 3D literacy module and a very useful blender video I was able to attach the labels with no problem.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8B6At95HU&list=LL&index=1
For the first animation draft, I used my Previs as a reference to keep consistency. As this was only a draft, we weren’t too worried about having everything complete as we still had plenty of time. This was mainly a way to show our progress. By doing this, I got to work a bit more on lighting and fixing up the camera. In the end I did mess up when the camera shows the egg timer, but when we presented it to our lecturer’s they were able to give me tips on how to fix it. It was also a good exercise to work more on animating arms of a rigged character.
Useful feedback from presentation:
After this presentation, we got straight into properly animating our sequences. At first, I needed a bit of guidance on how to append all the props needed but soon enough I had all my props that I needed into my scene. Some of the prop’s textures appended with the objects, but some I had to add the textures again manually. To me that wasn’t a problem as I really enjoy toggling with the shader editor.
Animating my sequence came with its obstacles but overall, I didn’t run into many problems. At times I forgot how to attach the cameras to each other or move the hand in a natural way but other than that it wasn’t too bad.
While animating, I looked back to the class exercises, and they really helped me out. The intro to 3D animation and all the rigging videos were the most useful as I was having some trouble with the arms at first.
When it came to facial expressions, the shape keys that Miller had already made were very easy to apply, instead of having to do them myself. I wanted the bacon employee to smile and look cheerful at the end after setting the egg timer, but I think some expression at the start of my sequence would have been good aswell.
Final sequence: