ANIM2001 Thomas Baxter Blog (2017)

After last session I decided to finally design my final character and had a look at some proportion  sketches online to create a well designed female character on my own making sure it's the correct size to fit into Maya.

I have now been able to explore additional options from anime and had a look at examples that have more of a reality body as it needs to be as human as possible. I first thought to have a look at some animated characters from famous films and see how the body and shape was used from them. A great example was the character "Rapunzel" from the animated film "Tangled".

Another great ideas was the 2 character from the Disney film "Frozen" as they have similar proportions to the Rapunzel character.

Going with this style works a bit better than my previous anime idea as it is more adapted to the human body as with anime some shapes can be different such as the eyes, nose and chin as shown below.

Just in case though if i did not want to do a female character I have created some additional drawings of a male body as simple as it may be. This is because I think I can draw the male body better but I wanted to challenge myself to try learn to draw a female figure.
(backup drawing)

For my final design however, looking at detail on the face was a bit something I would want to include at a later date as for now I just wanted to get the body shape correct first so nothing is complicated.

This is the final outline and shape of the character I wish to put into Maya and model up from :

The only part for me to do now is to copy one side of the body and clone it to the other to make it symmetrical.When it does come down to detail, the idea of having a bodysuit came to mind as I was wanting a futuristic style of clothing and having something like a bodysuit from such characters like zero suit samus would work well.

Above is a splash of images that show my ideas of how I want to make a character and how I can be inspired to join all these images together to make my own design to eventually draw out which would then be put into Maya.

More Development and Research

From last weeks session i have come to grips with more ideas for my final designed character. Feedback last week was to develop and research the features of a character and try to keep it simple. Having heard this i decided that my idea of making a robot/cyborg might be a bit too complex as i had included futuristic items such as a blaster gun as shown below.

Making the items for the model would be the last step and i went a bit off course and thought since the robot would have other features to be applied, (advanced details) that it would essentially be easier to create a model that just has futuristic cloths. The main feature i want through my research is to have a body suit that will go from neck to toe on the female design i am going for. More feedback i obtained was to think outside of only basing one concept on an anime styled character and should develop into looking at other ideas such as something from pixar.

Looking into the features of my designs i needed to research and improve on small but main features of the design such as eyes, nose, hair and mouth. Looking through a book which tells me how to draw certain areas of the human body in a manga style.

Initial Idea And References

At the beginning of the module we had a task that was set out for the class to create and design a character for Maya (but firstly drawn on paper). What happened next was beginning to research what character and style of drawings I wanted to draw and straight away I came up with the idea of doing something I love the most which is mainly anime shows and games. To research this I had a look at some anime character sheets online to see and get a general feeling of what I wanted to draw (links to images are in the references below). After doing this I then decided to think how I could make the character in my head a bit more interesting and more unique. It was then the idea of creating a cyborg/robotic female character which made me think of some other research I know from my previous experience with game characters such as Mega Man (video game character) and famous anime shows such as Astro Boy due to it's weapons and robotic styles that may appear for my female design.

For the character sheets it then came to me what sort of expressions and emotions would appear in my design. I decided to keep some things simple and make the robot have human emotions (sort of like part human and part robot). Since this is anime there are a lot of face expressions to be done such as shocked, Happy and shy. Just like normal human faces but way more wacky and crazy. After creating some faces and emotions i decided to make some final pieces and hope that they work out okay towards the build up of the character in Maya.

References

http://orig05.deviantart.net/6292/f/2013/205/a/2/my_oc_character_sheet_by_mokou_tan-d6ex69b.jpg

http://www.smashbros.com/images/og/samus.jpg

http://www.followingthenerd.com/site/wp-content/uploads/astroboy.png

http://www.twinfinite.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mega-man.jpg

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/29184433/images/1388486535176.jpg

http://www.mosta2bal.com/vb/imgcache/3/23016wall.png

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb480/Yumekichi11/6c287c1e.jpg

https://avvesione.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/little_busters-12-kudryavka-cute_face-comedy-panic.jpg

I decided to switch from making a girl character on Maya as it was too hard to find a perfect tutorial for a female character that did Maya in step by step. As I found this really easy to use tutorial for a Male ninja which shows you how to create the body from scratch and this it what it looks like at the minute.

Time planning through Xmas Holidays

Before i get back i must do :

• Draw out multiple drawings until i get the best one for my image reference
• Adjust my module to the image reference i have and not the one off youtube other used for plagiarism.
•  Update my blog regularly and add a lot more descriptive writing refering "How" and "Why" i did what i made. Reflect and research on what i have done or want to do.
• Research all of my ideas.
• Finish model off (Hand's, adjusting polygons, making feet look not as flat and finally the head of the model).
• Screenshot all step by step parts to include into blog and show explaining.
• More development drawings.

Anim2001 Modelling and Texturing

Developmental work 
Session 1

Anime shows and games inspired me to look at the possibility of modelling a character with these features: http://www.otakutale.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Rokka-no-Yuusha-Anime-Character-Design-Goldov-Auora.jpg



http://orig15.deviantart.net/a46f/f/2013/349/d/9/character_sheet__keil_by_crys234-d6xz9bh.png



I liked these anime style designs as they have a ninja style to them which appealed to me. On the first design I liked the cloak, giving the character a wizard, mystical type appearance. On the second design I liked the `bad girl ` look with the hood, gloves and the loose belt. I decided to have a closer look at the facial features of anime characters:

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Anime-Eyes



http://www.mangastictuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/how-to-draw-anime-eyes-for-beginners.gif



http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/a/a5/Draw-Anime-Hair-Step-8-Version-2.jpg/aid2464986-728px-Draw-Anime-Hair-Step-8-Version-2.jpg




http://cdn.imgs.steps.dragoart.com/how-to-draw-anime-noses-step-1_1_000000023479_3.jpg



http://drawinghowtodraw.com/stepbystepdrawinglessons/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/04-manga-anime-lips-mouths.png



Session 2 
From here I decided to pursue the idea of a ninja- therefore I then went on to look at ninja design ideas:

http://www.3drt.com/3dm/characters/ninjas/ninjas-3d-characters-lowpoly-pack_08.jpg




http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/naruto/images/b/bc/Bando.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081208022805



http://pre09.deviantart.net/b933/th/pre/i/2011/129/8/9/gendai_jutsu_ninja_final_by_thecoffeekid-d3fxzde.jpg



Session 3 
So from these ideas, I decided to try at having a go at drawing my own:



I tried having a go at some ninja style characters, with different outfits. The first one I did reminded me more of a super hero type top so I tried a different style. The second one was a tunic style top, but although it looked more ninja in style, I thought it looked too feminine, so thought again.



The third design I liked as it was simple, looked more masculine and still had the ninja feel to it. It also reminded me more of a burglar/ bad guy type image. I thought the black gloves would add to this look. Finally I felt it needed something more for the head and looked at the idea of using a mask or hood

Session 4

I looked at various styles of hoods and came up with a few I liked the look of, as shown below:



I thought a balaclava type hood might look best with my sort of character that I wanted to create.

Session 5

So now I had a good idea of the type of character I wanted to model, I had a go at sketching out a final design, which is shown below:





I thought my design had clean simple lines which wouldn`t cause me too much trouble for modelling. I had thought about adding weapons too, but I decided to wait and see how the 3d model turned out first, which will obviously be the most important part of the design.

Session 6

I now had to prepare my reference drawings, one in the T shape and one from a side view.



Session 7

From recent feedback for improvements it was clear that the hooded thug need some work on the head as it needed to include a mouth, ears and nose. In order to do this I had to change the mask to something which will at least show the following 3 elements above. Thinking this through it was then I remembered some earlier drawings such as the mask around the eyes and the different kind of hats made.

Research into changing the mask into some sort of hat was what I thought would be best as I can keep most of the top half of the original mask. One type of hat I thought of was a beanie which I had a look at a character from the game "Overwatch" who was called Reaper.



https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8329981/Reyesblackwatch.png

Another game that I researched into was "Bulletstorm" as the main villain in the game where's a some what of a Beret hat. This also reminded me of the first "Left 4 dead" game with the character called Bill wearing something similar.



https://loveconceptart.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/bill.png

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/bulletstorm/images/0/0a/Scotch_cigar.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110405180952

This was my final reference drawing image for my character after reworking on the model and looking into the research found.

Another key thing I had to change about my model was to UV map my character. This came into needing to open up the UV Editor and unfolding my characters visual design so it looks appropriate and stitch everything back together nicely.

Here is an example of me unfolding the T-shirt on the Thug character:



I also decided to add more additional extra's and design to the character as he looked a bit empty on design. So I solved this by adding and unfolding a Jacket in the UV editor. The outcome I found looked pretty good and adds that extra shadiness to the character and his identity.



The rest of the body was easy to texture. The main points were to find a texture I wanted to use, go into Photoshop to rezise correctly (512x512) and then add a lambert material to the different pieces of clothing and skin to put the textures in from a file format.

Going back to the feedback where the nose, ears and mouth were needed to at least be attempted and added on it was then that I started off firstly with the one I found trickiest which was the nose. I started a new scene in Maya and got to work with only starting off with a 1x1 panel shape.

Working my way around bit of the start it was then I extruded and extruded following a reference image until I finally got a good start. So far so good.



A bit later on after trying to get the ridge of the nose done I noticed that I was paying too much attention on trying to get all the polygons into a square shape which it should be. But I realised that I needed to push in the ridge of the nose more at the top as it looked too big for human nose. This come down to toning up the nose too so that every vertex point is pushed a little different and also adding more edge lines around the nose.



The final outcome went really went and I was happy to add the nose along to my character or at least ready until I finish the other 2 designs (Mouth and Ears).



As shown above you can also see the mouth and ears undergoing a process of being made. The mouth was the easiest to make as I could make Multiple edge loops around the mouth to make into a little curve or bulge like a mouth should look as well as also having the rims of the top and bottom lines. Later on I hope to add more UV texture to make things such as a stubble beard.

Next the ear took longer than expected as I needed to put as much detail as possible. First I found a side and front reference images to follow. Then this leaded to me creating a panel shape again and following the outside of the ear as shown below as a rough copy.




At first I was finding it quite tricky to get the right shape of the inside of the ear in the later process. And as shown below it was a good attempt but it need more fining and making the vertex's be in a better spot to make it looked more toned and natural.





Bit by bit it was starting to look more like an ear instead of a random shape with a hole in it. The final outcome I thought looked pretty good and hope that it was well attempted.



Upon fixing the shape of the head more and more as well as all the features such as the ear and nose (Which I had to redo as I was not happy with the first attempts on the ear) it was then that my character looked a lot cleaner and a little different too from previous versions like when it still had the mask lines around it's eyes.

360 mental ray character turn around

Additional way to watch on my YouTube channel : https://youtu.be/8srfFHG4GwI

All the rendered frames can be seen from the dropbox link below

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gwuy256ylc9wfx9/Every%20Rendered%20Frame%20Oh%20Thug%20ANIM2001%20Thomas%20Baxter.zip?dl=0

The way I rendered out my 360 degree film was to firstly find out how exactly I can have it so that a camera could rotate in a perfect 360 degree around my character model. I learnt this by attaching the camera to a circular path which the camera could follow by attaching it as it goes around in a motion path. After doing this I did some trial and error rendering with mental ray as sometimes the character was too dark and had to brighten him up with some lights. 

After this it was then just down to batch rendering the final piece. I decided to have 1000 frames to make it nice and slow as well as smooth to watch. Once fully rendered with all the 1000 images (One for each frame) it was then that I used adobe after effects to piece all the images together to make a short video hence finishing my character's video in a full 360 turn. This is what the layout looked like when setting up the 360 turn in Maya : 

Four Render Images from each side

Rendering these images was very easy. As the first step I made a quick preview check to see if it was okay by hitting the "Open Render View".

After this the menu that came up allowed me to test render the current scene with mental ray.

A good way to see all of the character more clearer was to add a simple background to the model. This would show all features that would appear quite dark or hard to see.

Professional Practice Exhibition

Professional Practice Exhibition Blog

 

17/01/2017



Today we started preparing the equipment needed to use for the interim exhibition and also to sort out who is having what space and how much of it. We found that for the people who need to use a power outlet need to be nearer the sides of the room as the outlets are located either side of the room. For my music project it would need some sort of device that could play mp3 files and that meant that I needed power. There was a choice between using an Ipad or a Mac to use.

Originally I wanted an Ipad as it would be smaller, neater and make more space for other props to go such as a foam head I bought to rest some headphones on which I would also need. I found out later that it had to become a mac to use because the Ipad's had to be drilled into the wall which would ruin it.

All of us had the task of making a short description of our chosen piece of work that we worked on. This was something to add along with the exhibition to explain to people what the work is and why it is what it is. This was all done and ready for next Monday when we would set up the exhibition.

 

23/01/2017





 

It came down to the day of setting up for the exhibition. The first task I did was mounting my description to some black mounting card which was a pretty straight forward. All that was needed was to use some special spray glue, stick it on the black card and then cut around it. The outcome of it looked very nice and neat.

 

 

After this the people who were using macs (including myself) had to wait a few hours for new macs to be brought up to use. So in the meantime I helped others out. Some people started painting over these big box podiums to make them all the colour white where as me and my friend Sebastian started to rub off marks on the wall in the exhibition room. We also used pliers to get out old bits of wire.

After cleaning the wall to look nice I then helped out Sebastian to hang up his work. I would hold up the frames and help balance out the frame whilst he measured and located where his rendered out picture would go. This was the outcome

Next with the help of the technicians we could then start to wire the boxes that have now been dried and have a nice white colour. This was for the Macs that had arrived later on and was a bit tricky to get into the small white boxes to push the wires through a small hole.

 

 

After doing this and running through the Mac first time set up it was then that I could go ahead and put my music onto the Mac and have it on a constant loop. At first I was trying to find a pretty visualizer to go along with the music but I was not much of a Mac person and much prefer PC's. With help of some online advice it then was easy and looked very promising.

All that was left to do now was to add the little extra's in such as sticking down the foam head and plugging in the headphones to the Mac. Also the description card was arranged and positioned onto the white box.

The final outcome of the exhibition looked very nice and neat with plenty of space between each students work.

 

24/01/2017

 

The day after setting up the exhibition I went to see how things were going and if people were taking a look at the work. I managed to see 2 or 3 people having a look around and a great amount later on of around 18 people due to waiting to go to what I presume would be their lecture.

 

I bought my housemates who I am living with at the minute to help support the exhibition and perhaps leave a little feedback on some work. I took into consideration some of the feedback already shown in the feedback box hanging up on one of the sides of the exhibition room. The feedback shown for me will massively help for when I come to set up my Final exhibition.

 

I also noticed some improvements I could make myself on that day to the work already put up. I thought it would be a cool idea if I printed out a quick music note double quaver and attach it tp the front of my white box being used. This would give the look of my work a bit more interest and character but also show what the project subject is.

 

 

 

30/01/2017

It was now time to take down the exhibition and collect all our stuff together. I felt it was a brilliant experience and worked well taking place at the University. One thing I noticed as I was taking down my work was that the double quaver print I stuck up got a little damaged probably due to things like it being leaned on or maybe some parts of the white tack came loose. Overall I was proud of my work and can't wait to hear what we will be doing in the Final exhibition. It was also good to do this to make sure I have the main project finished and done before final hand in so I could get feedback and have time to do more to my report and other things.