This semester I had to do a 30 second animated project focusing on escape with several other collegues. We first settled on an idea concerning ghosts escaping from a ghost hunter. My ghost is inspired by fantasy creatures and sea butterflies as well as the pokemon Flutter Mane, a paradox Pokemon from prehistory, with a slight inspiration from the Ultra Beast Blacephalon.
Here are the initial concepts and designs for my ghost, along with inspirations for the character.
I also worked on an early storyboard for the 3d animation that was later revised and expanded upon.
I then worked on creating the model of my character and applying knowledge I learned over this year to his creation. the character was 100% hard modelled in Blender and textured using Photoshop, and then given a ghostly emission effect from following a tutorial on Youtube.
The model went through several iterations and many troubles trying to get the eye sockets properly created for the eyes. I found I can use a cube and subdivide it, cut half of it away, mirror it, and then delete faces to create eye sockets and then used Loop Tools to change the shape of the hole. Then, I extruded out sockets for the eyes, and then subdivided the sphere again.
I then applied an armature to the model and did several tests before animating each of the scenes we were given.
By using Blend Shapes, I also created facial expressions for my character. By creating copies of the basis head and modifying them, I was able to create different poses for the eyes and give my character emotions. Shown down here I created a very good demonstration of what my character is like.
I also did previs work on the project, creating several previs models of rooms to use in the project along with a model of a picture, which I made original art for, using a tutorial of making a picture in Blender.
And now, here are the animations that I made for the project: