This week in class we focused on rigging our models so that we could then upload it to sketchfab. In class, we used Mike’s example model of an alien and then added armatures to it. This is what mine looked like:
After this, we then used the pose mode in blender to pose this model! After posing it, we uploaded it to sketch fab to make sure we knew how to use it. This is what the final model looked like:
In blender, I used the armatures for my model. When adding them, after I tried to parent them, they wouldn’t connect to my model so I couldn’t pose them; I read up online and watched a lot of different videos which said that I needed to select all the faces of it in edit mode and then merge by distance, which seemed to do the trick!
After this, I went to pose and the clothes were moving weirdly with it. I kept trying a bunch of different things and everything just seemed to be messing up. The arms would move weirdly and show through the jacket and the buttons and pockets would move weirdly.
After this I decided to try fix my model; I went into edit move and deleted the buttons. This time, I decided to just extrude parts of my model to make it look like pockets and buttons instead of duplicating them.
This was working fine now and was moving with my model! As I went to pose my model, more stuff just kept happening so I decided to fully pose it in the way I would want to. After this, I noticed parts of the shirt sticking out, the arm looking weird as well as the jacket. I decided to first separate and edit the jacket because it was looking CRAZY.
I also turned on face orientation so I could make sure I didn’t leave anything out. It was here I found faces and edges which looked duplicated so I went through and deleted them. I remade the collar and the indent at the bottom where his tie is. I also connected the vertices.
After this, I joined the two parts together again however there were still tiny gaps that I went in and fixed. I also spotted a few triangles that I went in and fixed!
After this, I extruded the tie but the model looked weird when it was posed so I had to delete the collar and tie again. I decided to just extend the collar I made and extend his neck and scale it so that it looked okay.
I used a video for the tie because the way I was doing it before had triangles and didn’t seem to be working very well. This is what the finished model looked like:
I double checked to make sure my uv maps weren’t overlapping (one of them was) so I added a seam to fix it and then brought it back into substance!
After bringing it into substance, I realised that the teeth were messing up so I went back into blender, unwrapped them and then finished my character in substance. I found a reference pose for something similar that I wanted him to do. After this I exported him into blender and this is what he looked like posed roughly:
After this, I really wanted to add a ground to my character just to make it look like he’s in a scene!
The first thing that came to my head was to use grass and make it like a messy grass plane after seeing a couple of references. I made the platform using a plane, cut it out in different ways with the knife tool and then extruded it and bevelled the edges. I watched a bunch of videos, one in particular said to use paths; I tried it and brought it into substance and it wasn’t texturing right
In the back of my mind it was between the grass or like a desert type area; all I could think about was mesa biomes from Minecraft. I wanted it to be a similar colour:
So I kept the platform the same and instead, decided to make rocks. I found a great YouTube tutorial which showed how to make stylized rocks!
Looking at it after, I wanted to make sure that every bit was a polygon just incase so I went through with the knife tool and sorted it all out. I then added it to my platform, seamed it, uv wrapped it and then brought it into substance! In substance, I decided to hand paint different colours on the ground to make it look more like a mesa biome. I also wanted to add footprints so that the detective was looking at something and decided to hand paint it! Finally, I added a dirt mask and this is what it looks like in blender!
Finally, I added the magnifying glass in and moved his hand around it. After this, I realised that the multires wasn’t showing up as well as I thought it would so I re-done it and brought it through substance! This is what the final thing looks like:
After this I added all my textures into a file and uploaded it to sketchfab.
This is the sketchfab link!
200 Word Reflection:
I have learned a lot technically and mentally through this module.
When I first saw what we were required to do, I didn’t think I would even be able to think of a character, never mind making the character itself. I was excited for this assignment and it was super fun coming up with his concept! I spent a lot of hours tweaking/ modelling him. I was super stressed – everything kept messing up towards the end, so I’m proud of myself for getting him finished to the quality he’s at. I feel more confident in my ability to model now. I felt I struggled with UV mapping but through making this character, I feel better about it – I surprised myself at how much more confident I am with it. Even using substance, I’m at ease and I no longer need to watch videos to work out where everything is.
I feel like my skills have improved a lot, especially with independence – if there was ever a problem, I could find a solution. It’s overwhelming how much I’ve learnt within this module, having never done any 3D modelling – I can’t wait to learn more in the future!