For this assignment, we had to design a cute character and then sculpt it using Blender.
Excited, I immediately began designing animals that I personally liked. I really like birds and paired them with odd stereotypes, like a punk or a dapper old man. As you can see, the dapper Flamingo was my favourite and I did actually begin to model the flamingo, but decided last minute to change since the Flamingo was giving me way too much trouble. I decided to model the Narwhal instead. Looking back, I definitely shouldn’t have changed so soon to the deadline, since I ended up staying awake for a night trying to get all the work done.
Maybe subconsciously, my Narwhal model ended up looking a bit like an Oni from Toukiden: Kiwami; the Drumble. I liked that, but I decided to add the flippers to rectify this issue. I also really like animals in bow ties
This was the final design I went with.
I unfortunately ran into problems with the Mac I was using as it kept freezing and crashing when I used Blender for too long. I’m not sure if Blender was the issue, but I couldn’t work at all and the model had to be without fins. Getting frustrated, I thought it best to move to Maya and clean it up there, but the model was all bumpy and I couldn’t fix it. Worse, the Mac still crashed so I had to move over to my Laptop to actually finish the Retopology.
Thankfully though, that was my only issue. I finished the Retopology, UV unwrapped and then textured it all quite quickly. I’m not completely happy with what I had done, especially since I spent a long time on it, but I’m still proud. I don’t quite understand Retopology but I found it therapeutic and very time consuming. I also wished I could have created a necklace for the bowtie instead of just painting it on during texturing, but I still find an issue with using the extrude tool with the curve tool to create that type of effect. I think it would have really helped make the model look more professional. I also wanted to create ridges on the horn bit, however, I decided not to go with this as over detailing can make it less cute.
This year has been fun in terms of modelling. It’s been challenging as well, but rewarding when the project goes well. Yet, it can be incredibly infuriating when technology works against you. I have learned a lot during this year, including how to reign in my frustration to work more efficiently. I have definitely improved this year in terms of 3D modelling as I have become more ambitious. If Blender worked better for me, I probably would have enjoyed it more than Maya. However, the designing is my favourite aspect of these projects and I look forward to that part the most.
Link to Sketchfab = Tori (@MonochromeMog) – Sketchfab
Link to OneDrive = https://ulster-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/gray-t3_ulster_ac_uk/Egeu5_zHF15BocBDqlQoSDkBOthIDrzaF_T5ODs6LMH0Pg?e=juryjl