Character Model

For this week we were continuing with our character assignment, after I had some feedback on my blackout and my head typology I began on the main model for the project. The feedback went over the loops of the face which was easy to fix and would intern lead to a more complex and easier to animate face, this was the main goal of the task to learn how to make an easy to animate model. the other thing was the hands the main problem was I did not draw how they looked spread out so, to help work this out I followed up on some advice from the tutor and looked at Wreak it Ralphs character model for a reference. This led me to make my hands squarer and more clamps like in the process [this came about after I had stepped on a metal clamp off a pair of trousers]. After I made these changes, I went ahead and did some of the armor my character while keeping the poly count in mind and ensuring that everything flows nicely.

character development

for the inspiration of my character, I really wanted to pull from Samuri jack and the futuristic, old amine and Samuri themes and I really wanted to make my interpretation of those themes within my characters. I felt that where my skill level is I should try and take advantage of that like the way the founders of Pixar did with toy story and using the plastic visuals to tell its story. So, I thought why do not I make a robot Samuri, so I drew up some design while doing some in other shows he has done. I deliberated between two designs but went with the Samuri one due to having a stronger idea of how to do this. I also tied in the main villain of the show Aqu and tried to make this character more of a big unit in his army like something jack would have to cut down millions of in a fight. for bits of inspiration I took from include Doctor whose cyber men, Kratos god of war, mech anime like Gurlagan and power rangers to get the idea of a cartoony robot as well I did take a lot from Samuri Jack and Hotel Transylvania mainly to understand how Genendy does 3D due to majority of his work being 2D this really helped.

for the prop made some design and along with that i drew up some turn arounds so that I could keep some similarity between the prop and the model to keep a link between them so, it makes sense for the character. I wanted to do something like a hat or a weapon I chose the weapon which I toyed with, an arm blade or just a sword but, after looking at my character I chose a sword and followed that route.

For this week we were continuing with our character assignment, after I had some feedback on my blackout and my head typology I began on the main model for the project. The feedback went over the loops of the face which was easy to fix and would intern lead to a more complex and easier to animate face, this was the main goal of the task to learn how to make an easy to animate model. the other thing was the hands the main problem was I did not draw how they looked spread out so, to help work this out I followed up on some advice from the tutor and looked at Wreak it Ralphs character model for a reference. This led me to make my hands squarer and more clamps like in the process [this came about after I had stepped on a metal clamp off a pair of trousers]. After I made these changes I went ahead and did some of the armor my character while keeping the poly count in mind and ensuring that everything flows nicely.

Developments

Here is the block of my character, this is a vital part of the design process due to the way you may translate a 2D drawing to a 3D model. It really gave me an idea of what needs changing, like the chin being a bit bigger and the shoulder should be sharper, and I think pointing them up would look a lot better overall.

when it came to the torso I wanted to give it some of Gennady energy, so I found an article taking about a comic he did for the character Luke cage and for this part of the model I wanted to draw upon those purport ions by having a large neck area and very big chest muscles. I also wanted to add some very skinny arms to really steel the size of this character and add more mechanical elements in the process.

After following the tutorials for the head and chest I appended them into the main file where the legs were loosely connected to them so i could get an idea of the characters Shallotte. I also took a little look at different perspectives of different methods of topologizing a face where a realistic face has a more set in stone layout and a cartoony one allows more freedom. Though they both follow the same face layout it really comes down to how and where you place them.

i was advised to put a subdivision modifier to smooth it out which led to some of the shape edges, this contradicted my characters more villous vibe. To fix this I simply added some extra loops close to the edge making them a bit sharper.

Then I started on the waist armor and the beginnings of the helmet, here is where I started to add more detail like metal rims around the bottom of the armor pieces. I do intend to add more it just theses details were easier to add at the time of making the base shape.

i did stop and assess the model to see if there were any triangles or ngongs within the model before going any further with the project. i do see some which could become a problem closer to the uv stage, but this is with a subdivision layer on, so I do not know for sure.

i have run into a bit of a problem with the mirror layer for the helmet, where the overlapping is too close at the front and at the back it just does not connect. This is down to the spacing, but I am not 100% sure what has happened.

I managed to find a way of doing the helmet in a way, I simply used the cub with a subdivision to create the right shape for the head so it would fit better. I also added a tail, I made this choice after looking at my model in the 3D space and overall, it felt a bit unbalanced so, the tail was a way to counter act this problem.

Before I went ahead and marked the seams, I decided to give the model a once over with its typology and found it had some problems on the inside, especially the helmet. I fixed it to the best of my ability. I did my best for the rest while trying to keep as much of the typology flowing correctly, I am going to double check before applying the subdivisions.

i then marked the seams, these are where blender would cut the model. Then I would create a plan and apply a UV projection which would help in the unwrapping process which, interns create a 2D version of the model with the UVs. After that it was on to the UV map, I decided to layer similar shaped islands which would contain the same texture as the chest and helmet, I am a bit unsure that this would work so I made two save files in case anything goes wrong. After that I applied for my subdivision and gave it a multiresolution layer so I could have a good typology base and a high subdivision mask which, i can sculpt in detail. This works like a mask in photoshop or after effect enabling you to edit and change tiny details without changing the other parts of the mode.

Then I uploaded it to substance along with the normal and Ambiant maps from blender so I could edit and add some extra texture to make them more interesting. like adding rust and corrosion, I also wanted to use some leather to differentiate some of the limbs and make the armor more interesting overall. for the colours I wanted something similar to the main film of Samuri jack Aqu with blacks, greens, and reds I couldn’t fully uses his exacted colour due to the idea of the villain being like a shadow on the wall so I compromised and went for more dark shades of metal and gave some textures more reddish hues. though later while fixing some of the typology something happened with the UV map and things stated to break and overlap so, i had to go back and few steps and completely redo the UVs and bake maps which, is why the textures are different from the previous picture.

For the prop I wanted to give him a sword but, I did not want to give him a normal samurai sword and instead looked at his proportions and God of war and made a design which blend the blades to create something which matches the character. It is simple in the way it looked, but I was trying to keep in mind that if the mesh were any bigger, the file would grow and push the number of polygons in the final model. I made the right choice with this. It just does not look that impressive though. I tried to make up for it with a multi rez normal map where I made some indent and gave it some emission to help practice this technique and then for the textures with some cavity rust to show some battle wear and tear. I think this improved the whole presentation and brought it closer to matching the character as a whole.

After that I appended the textures and mesh into the main file to adjust the size of the swords and to duplicate them so that he can have two to bring in some of the research. Then it was time to create the armature so I could pose as the character and practice some bare bone rigging. The idea was to make one side of the of the armature so then I could name them left and right. This is so when I symmetrize the character so I could have an even armature which should result in any movement i make with the armature.

I clemently went for a more battle ready pose and I tried to make it look like he’s lunging towards something which I think works, though the problem lies with some of the armor i think with the way it was t posed which lead it some limbs to deformed a little in some places. I just overshot some of the rotation which could lead to the limbs deforming in this way. id only realized this when it was uploaded to sketch fab. I may try to re do this beforehand but, overall, I am proud of how it turned out. I eventually made those changes but ended up going for a more neutral pose. I think the problem comes down to how some of the extra elements sit on the model event. Though they do have good typology it was more there position that was holding it back.

reflection

I had a lot of fun throughout each step of making my character and the whole course process. I do have to say that i did have some trouble with some of the uv it started with a small problem with the loops of the chest and the way it was fixed created a problem where the UVs started to overlap each other, this may have resulted in some textures being stretched in places and I did try and fix it to the best of my ability. I do think in future I should be more careful with when it comes to changing things and trying to identify problems before certain stages. I do not really like how some of the textures turned out, they just looked a bit too plastic which lowers the quality of the model and hurts it overall. This problem developed in the redo of the UVs and how they were placed on the map lowered the resolution of the map. The other thing I am not pleased with is the softness of the model i think it lost its fear factor due to the intent for this character being more villous and wanted to portray these themes through triangular shaped edges. I did manage to use some loops to fix this with the subdivisions. I do think it works for the overall finish of the model and helped clean it up in the end. I do like how the inspiration of Genendy’s style works with the model, especially with the how the face and proportions of the model turn out. This worked due to listening to some advice from Genendy where he talks about exaggeration which is one of the animations principles just taken in a design point of view instead of a more animation point of view. I also like how it looks more skeleton look to it which helps the more intimidating feel to the character and makes him look more like the villain of the week. i also like the way the helmet bares a similarity to the main villain of Samuri jack which helps create that connection and helps the theme of the character plus the helmet horn things turn out better than i was expecting that would. in the end I had a lot of fun with this character and the process of building the typology was interesting though I am still a bit shake when it comes to understanding though I am pleased with how it turned out in the end.