End of 2nd Marking Period Checkpoint

Intention Definition & Exploration of Ideas

My concept is Legacy, based on the "Looking Inward: The Human Experience" theme. With the reviews we were doing on artist's styles and the effect and influence they left on the world, I started to think about how I wanted my last project at CV to come out. The fact that it was my last year and I was looking at colleges and trying to put together my portfolio, it all kinda came together into the one question of "What do I want people to know me by?" The film idea really bloomed from that. I took that anxiety I had about my future and my "legacy" and tried to make sense of it through a more fantastical setting. I went with the king idea as soon as I chose my concept. I think legacy and royalty go hand-in-hand and it makes for an interesting setting for an animation.

Planning:

The base of my designs all came from this one page in my notebook. I knew I wanted it to be after a king and I knew I wanted a cast of characters. I experimented with character designs that would fit the setting, and more importantly, the theme. I was inspired by King Louis XIV with his extravagant outfits and equally extravagant lifestyle. I built the rest of the cast around that.. Then I made some reference sheets I could use when modelling. I also drafted a screenplay to help visualize how I wanted the film to come out. It'll also help me to know how/what to model in terms of the environment and props. This tutorial by Dikko and this tutorial by YanSculpts taught me how to model my characters! This tutorial taught me how to sculpt a beard.

Initial Ideas

King's Room Layout

Exterior Layout Idea

Combined Ref Sheet for King

Combined Ref Sheet for Peasant

Ref Sheet for Gnome

Outfit Ref Sheet for Reaper

 

Producing:

King Model Topology

King Model Rigged

Expressions Practice

Gnome Model

Gnome Model Rigged

Evaluating:

    This project is as big of an undertaking as I thought it would be. What really surprised me was how long the modelling took. After the sculpting, I assumed I was home-free, but the topology really threw me for a loop. I had a good tutorial to follow that helped me through the process (linked here). Still, it was a lot of work and even more reworking. As a result, I got off-schedule. Then I had to deal with the rigging! The rigify modifier made it so much easier than it would've been, but I still struggled trying to get it to work just right. I had to do a lot of retries to get where I needed to be. Even with the hardships, I still had a lot of fun working on the project. I got to sculpt which was super fun, something I definitely want to do more in the future. Creating the king model, although a headache occasionally, was very rewarding. To my surprise, creating a new model out of the king model was also very easy! It makes me less worried for future models. I'm not entirely satisfied with how the clothing is turning out so far. I think it either looks to flat or too thick. Either way, it's coming out to look kind of unnatural which I want to fix sooner than later. I wrote the screenplay after I finished modelling the King character, but I'm actually glad I did! Since I knew the limitations of the model, I could work around it when writing instead of having to troubleshoot when I started animating. Looking back on it, I learned a lot of new Blender techniques/modeling practices doing just the one model. I got a good idea of what it takes to model/design 3D characters, and it made me excited to make more.

Integrating:

    Since I now have some practice both modelling and creating new models out of old ones, I think creating the next characters will be super easy. I like the strategy I used of disassembling then reassembling the body parts, it really streamlined the process! I want to try something different when making the clothes that would maybe make developing it easier. I don't know what just yet, but the process I've been using where I just slightly tweak the model's mesh isn't working for me. I'm thinking that I'll play around more with sculpting, especially for the Reaper character. Overall, I also want to look at more tutorials before starting something. Doing the clothing made me realize that I do my best work when I reference a professional (or at least someone more experienced). Finally, when I was first starting this project I wanted to create everything by myself, but when something is too complicated for me, I'll use a free-to-use model. I used one for the teeth of the king model and I am so glad I did that instead of trying to do it myself.