For this assignment we have to create a cute character. The idea being organic modelling. For the lessons over the first few weeks of the assignment, we were shown how to use blender to sculpt shapes and create models. I found the sculpting part enjoyable once I got the hang of it. Over the weeks I got more and more familiar with the software, but struggled to get the hang of retopology when a model had been exported into Maya. I practiced this on our other assignment when I did it to my slug character because his body had far too many polygons.
Originally, for my character I was going to do a Gorilla in the style of the game Cup Head. I had a body fully modelled when I decided that it was a bit too simplistic, so I wanted to make a more complex character that required a lot more modelling by hand. I wanted to model some kind of animal but also wanted to model human arms or legs. That’s I remembered the character Darwin from “The Amazing World of Gumball” animated kids show. His character is a cartoonish goldfish with legs. I decided to take great inspiration from Darwin and chose to model a realistic looking fish with realistic human legs.
I got started by modelling a realistic human leg. It turned out better than I had expected as the shape and anatomy of the leg came naturally when sculpting, as I am familiar with muscular anatomy from doing Sports Science for 4 years for GCSE and A Levels. After I finished making the leg, I mirrored and duplicated it so now I had both legs ready to use. After this, before the main fish body, I wanted to complete the lower half of the model so I did this by finishing the shoes and adding shorts with a belt.
After the bottom half, I started the top half by sculpting a nose and eyes, which I saved and then added to the body when finished. The fish body was somewhat challenging to get started and took a lot of trial and error when trying to figure out what shape I wanted it to be, but once I figured out the look, it didn’t take too long to complete.
I also stuck on a moustache I had previously sculpted in blender which I had already used for my other assignment.
Once the sculpting in blender was complete, I took the model over to Maya and began the retopology. I found this to be a frustrating process at times, as the first attempt ended with me exiting without saving on purpose because it messed up far too many times and looked awful.
The second attempt went much better and over a few hours I was able to complete the retopology.
I didn’t have to do retopology for shapes such as the eyes, shoe laces and top of the shoes, as I just replaced the high poly shape with a low poly one in Maya, as they were only either spheres or a torus.
I then tried to unwrap the UVs which went smoothly with the main body and eyelids to start, but the rest looked a bit weird when it was unwrapped. I’ve never been that good at doing UVs.
Here is a screenshot of the UVs that went well:
I originally textured the model in substance painter, but after the retopology, it looked a bit weird with detailed textures, but here is the substance painter version anyway:
After the retopology was finished I exported my model over to Sketchfab and textured it there and published it. I really struggled to figure out how to bake the original details back onto the retopologised model, so I uploaded two versions to Sketchfab, both the retopped and the detailed one. I will only proved the link to the retopologised model, the detailed one is just there published on my account to show what it was meant to look like if I figured out how to bake the details.
Reflection of assignment:
this assignment was a very good way to introduce us to blender through a fun experience. Despite the complications I had along the way there was never a dull moment throughout the process. My main personal goal for this assignment was to create a realistic looking human leg and I am happy with how that part of my model turned out.
I overall enjoyed this assignment even though it is the one I struggled the most with all year. I had a lot of fun figuring out ways to sculpt in blender and look forward to using it again in the future. what I have taken away from this experience is that I really want to better improve my retopology skills, along with my UV skills. I am not a complete disaster at either but I still have a lot to improve and it would really show in my model if I was better at doing so. Despite these issues I really enjoyed the creative freedom of this assignment and the opportunity just to have fun with it and create something that I enjoyed.