For this assignment, we were tasked with creating a cute character model with less than 40,000 polygons. Throughout this assignment, I learn how to sculpt in Blender, reacquainted myself with Maya, and search up many different videos and websites to help myself understand what I’m doing during the whole process.
The first step was designing a cute character in 2D that would become the basis for the 3D sculpt. I sketched out a couple of ideas that I thought would be simple, and after discussing it with one of the lecturers, I decided on a chibi styled design inspired by Youtuber and Minecraft streamer Ranboo.
Fan interpretations of his design vary wildly, but generally they include a split of black and white paired with green and red, and from there I personally wanted to create a design with a very identifiable silhouette that uses large rounded shapes and is, of course, very cute looking. I had also included details that reference Ranboo’s character in a Minecraft roleplay, with the book that he uses to combat his unreliable memory and stylised legs that are inspired from the Enderman mob in Minecraft, which is the black and green half of Ranboo’s character.
With my design finalised, I worked on doing a 2D turnaround that would help me visualise how the whole body would look at different angles. It was good to hear other peoples’ opinions on the design, as I was able to see how it was perceived outside of the context of Ranboo.
With no real prior experience with Blender, I had very little information to go off other than lecturer videos in the beginning. It took me a while to acclimate to Blender, especially after already getting used to Maya, so my first attempt at sculpting was a slow and unsure process. I figured out how to import an image as a plane and used it as reference while creating some basic shapes for the torso.
I was sticking with cubes, and editing their general shape and size to fit with the reference, but by that point I realised that I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to sculpt those separate meshes together. I decided to search for Blender tutorials on YouTube, and came across one made by ‘Grant Abbitt’ that helped me to better understand the steps to sculpting a character ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKY2FIy60nc ). With this new information, I felt that starting a new file would be the best choice, even if just to put into practice what was shown in the video.
This second attempt was eventually scrapped as well, but on top of the tutorials, I was also learning about different shortcut keys for Blender, which I would go on to use for the final attempt at the sculpt. For this final attempt, I took a different reference image I had drawn and started working on the head with symmetry for the X axis turned on. I also made a base for the torso and sculpted it, which then led me to figuring out how to convey the admittedly odd, but unique design of the legs.
This was a particularly interesting challenge, mainly because I wasn’t quite sure how to convey the weight of the body being held up by the almost horse-shaped-like legs. And while the legs weren’t a part of the final model, I was still happy with how they turned out.
Along with using the symmetry tool, I also needed to find out a way to flip certain meshes so that I could have symmetrical ears and horns. That’s when I learned about the shortcut key Ctrl+M, which would mirror flip a mesh on a specified axis, and was exactly what I needed for my sculpt. I used cylinders for the horns and ears, and along with some edits, all I needed to do was sculpt one side and mirror flip a copy of them for the other side. I would also finish with the head sculpt, which included making an open mouth shape with fangs and emphasising the cheeks rising up to the eyes.
It was around this time that we had one-on-one sessions with our lecturers, and during the conversation, I was advised to only work on the head, as I wasn’t aware that I had started with a complex design that may not be able to be finished within the allotted timeframe. I took this advice and finished up the sculpt with the hair, which was difficult to get to just the right shape.
With the sculpt in Blender finished, it was time to import it into Maya to start the retopology process. At first, I didn’t find it to be too difficult of a task, and was finding it to be a pleasant and methodical process to go through.
As time stretched out however, I came to realise how long and tedious of a process it could be, which did worry me as I was getting close to the deadline for the assignment.
One of the last elements that I still needed to add was the floating crown, which was more fun to make than I had expected. I had reacquainted myself with the Maya workflow of modelling, and with some bevels and gems added to a simple cylinder, the crown was a very simple accessory to complete.
I find myself forgetting about UV mapping often, and how crucial of a step it is for creating a completed model. I was reminded of this the hard way, as I struggled with how to take my one mesh retopology and divide into separate UV maps. When I asked for some help in the Discord server, I was given valuable information to solve my issue.
So what I did was manually select the faces of whatever part of the mesh I wanted to work on, and go to the UV section and create a planar that was correlated with the axis it was facing towards. It was a very slow process, but I got the results I needed to effectively texture my model. Also, by this point I had also added eyelashes to the eyes as an extra visual detail.
With all the UVs sorted out, I was able to move on to Substance Painter to create the textures for the model. It mostly involved the use of the Polygon Fill tool to get flat colours down, and then switching to the brush to add smaller details such as the patchwork of black and white crossing over and overlapping the other side and the painted eyes matching the green and red colour scheme.
After refining a few more details, I went to export the textures as PNGs and upload the final model to Sketchfab. When choosing the lighting, I was drawn to one that had a split warm tone and cool tone light, which I felt matched with the duality of my model very well.
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Reflection
This assignment has been difficult at times, testing my knowledge and abilities to problem solve. I was also mainly tested by my lack of time management, which led me to struggle much more than necessary. As I go into my second year of Uni, that is a factor that I want to consciously make an improvement on. UV mapping in particular was a consistent problem for me, but with some research and advice, I was able to sort it out.
Even with this, I did still enjoy a lot of the process. Seeing my 2D design slowly come to life in 3D was amazing. Once I got into the swing of sculpting in Blender, it was quite pleasant to do. And while retopology was a very tedious phase overall, I’ve now gained experience from that
and can take what I’ve learned from it with me into future projects and assignments.
With this and my previous assignment, I was faced with the daunting task of learning how to create 3D models from scratch, which I had no prior experience with. With that in mind, despite all the problems and struggles I faced, I am very proud of the progress I’ve made and how the
final models turned out.