Brief C: Character Design
I have chosen Wee Eck McGlone as the character I will design and model.
The brief states a few of his characteristics and personality traits that I will work with when designing him.
To make him look old I intend to give him a slight hunch and a bit of a stomach and make the rest of him quite skeletal.
As for his patriotic nature i've had ideas such as:
kilt / scottish cap - Tam o' Shanter / ginger moustache / shorts / high socks / jumper / sporting the scottish flag on his clothes.
As for styling of Wee Eck I aspire to the simplistic Lloyds TSB characters. This is a couple of reasons, the first being I lack the confidence to create a complex/realistic character, secondly I think it is more achievable in the time given and has a nice look, also the breif mentions a claymation feel which I think a character with pipe arms and legs can replicate.
This is my first character sheet and at the moment is just the bare shape outline.
I have drawn the T-poses and lined up the proportions of the character.
This is the first attempt of a head/face and to me looks like my idea of a grumpy scottish zoo keeper.
These aren't my best drawings but i'm keeping it simple so I can achieve a nice result.
This is the first clothes concept I drew, bearing in mind he is a zoo keeper, I'm not too sure about the hat as it looks very stereotypical also the shoes are a bit chunky so I've created a comparison.
Here Wee eck has colour! I went for the colours of the scottish flag and gave him red hair.
I thought these colours were bold and bright, perfect for a character as it is more eyecatching than darker/dull colours.
Here is my first attempt of modelling the body, I have used two tutorials in order to achieve this, the first was a .PDF from level one animation and the second was a Youtube video concerning polyginal hand modelling:
I have been test rigging the character but for now I intend to model his head and clothes, there are a few ways I could make clothes yet in order to print a 3D model I will have to make them part of the existing mesh (extrude cuffs e.t.c)
This is the stage I'm currently at regarding the characters' head. What I have found throughout modelling this character is that what is drawn 2D both front and side can have areas that don't work so well in three dimensions, here I have to make asthetic descions to make work in 3D therefore not being a true reflection of the concept.
Here is the real time video tutorial I followed for the head:
http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Facial-Modelling-in-Maya-Tutorial-Part-1-of-8/60517
Issues I had modelling concerened merging the hands with the end of the arm and the head with the neck, each time unfortunatley I've had to insert extra edge loops. As character modelling is fairly new to me i've encountered some difficulties but resolved most issues through trial and error and saving my work incrementally.
Texturing - The model is complete.
I didn't manage to acheive clothes or a hat for the final model. I managed to model shoes, otherwise I have cheated clothes in the texturing, this was down to lack of time and knowledge.
After I had modelled the character I imported it into Mudbox however did not use the tweaked model, only the original in the end as it was a sculpting test.
The picture above shows the model divided into parts for texturing. I have used extract on the selected faces to isolate them.
As for UV layout there seems to be a problem with my model where elements will not unwrap correctly, as for the reason I am unsure. I had to compensate with basic textures, I managed to unwrap the front and back of the torso and paint on a simple pair of dungarees.
Here is the finished model with basic textures applied.
In this screenshot I've used the Biped RapidRig script and is useful for simple rigging.
This shows a Rig I have created, although not entirely finished it was more of an experiment. I learnt how to use IK handles and how to make a control for the foot so it can lift and bend at the knee.
I have also looked into Binding the skin to the skeletion and begun to paint weights.
Here are links to video tutorials I have watched to gain better understanding of weight painting.
This is the final model put in a basic pose with his dung sweeping broom, I posed this using rapid rig and by painting basic weights, I will have to look further into painting weights as geometry tends to fold a little unaturally and needs more work to correct.
Also for the textured file, the seperate peices of geometry that had been extracted, when recombined and merged the textures become transparent in areas and the rig refuses to work when re-binded.
This project has taught me a lot and I have had a glimpse into character modelling workflow. There are areas uncovered in this unit that I will definatley be researching further in my own time, such as: Texturing, rigging and weight painting.
Printing the Model
The final step for this project was to print the model using the colleges 3D prototyping facilities.
I followed the necessary procedures and had the model printed in the original T-pose.
Overall I am pleased with how the model printed. The model stands on its own, or should I say stood, as during transportation his left foot snapped off, this is due to the thin areas on the model. I may fix this and glue the model to some sort of base.
