Here above is the turntable animation I created for my project. I made the animation in maya with the turntable settings and then exported this as 160 frames. I then took this into premiere pro and created a video of it with the images in sequence. I think it looks really good and I’m happy with the outcome.
Rendered Images and Wireframes
In this post is the rendered images of the front and back of my model along with some screenshots of the wireframes of the model from Zbrush. I am really happy with how my character turned out for this project. I think she looks really good and really cute and I like the style I chose to create her in and think it works really well. A change I made was that I decided to not give my character the stripes on her shirt as I started to make them and thought it looked too overwhelming with the rest of the design so I left the shirt plain to make it fit in with the overall design better. This was a small design change but I think my overall model looks better like this and fits to my simplistic style I was aiming for more. I think the design overall went really well, zbrush was hard to navigate at first and I had to watch a lot of tutorials and videos to learn how to use it, but I got the hang of it and think I was able to create a model that looks really nice and in my opinion of a good standard especially for a beginner.
I enjoyed creating the model itself, despite all the tech issues I ended up having to figure out, but once it got to trying to colour the model I had a lot of issues. I had a lot of persistent technical issues with this project, partly due to having to use remote access and a bad Internet connection disconnecting me from my work, making me lose a lot of progress. There was a lot of issues with crashing, not being able to save and not being able to easily transfer between Maya and Zbrush. If I had to do this project again I think I would hope to do it in the university labs and not remotely. I have a MacBook Pro and this caused issues itself having to connect to a window’s pc as the keyboard is different and there was some commands I couldn’t do and things that did not work on the software. I also do not own a mouse so I had to do the project with the trackpad on my MacBook, which was difficult as again there were things I could not do as I don’t have a scroll wheel and don’t have a real right click button. This meant, especially in Maya, I couldn’t navigate around my model easily (if at all sometimes) and had to work carefully to make sure that I could carry on working.
Overall, I think this project worked out well and I was able to make a good model and a good turntable animation for being a beginner. I learnt a lot about zbrush and maya and was able to figure out how to create what I envisioned effectively. The part I enjoyed the most though was the 4 posts before I started modelling about creating the character and the research, as I thought this was really fun to do and creating a character was a really cool activity.
Description of Accessories and Poses
The accessory that my character has is part of her outfit, this accessory being her belt. The belt ties together her outfit and gives a flattering shape to her dress. She wears this belt to further express her style and personality. I designed this belt to have a heart motif as the buckle to tie in with her personality being friendly etc. and as I think it looks really cute with the pink dress. Below is a breakdown of all of my references for the outfit I created for my character and a look at what my inspiration was. Also I drew some close up, more detailed sketches of the smaller elements of her outfit including the shoes and the belt. I wanted to make sketches of these to show the details like the buckle, the belt holes, how it looks from the back and also on the shoes the laces and a front view of them so I would have more to work off when modelling the shoes in 3D.
Above is some really simple pose sketches I made to show how my character would do things, my favourite of these two is how she sits. I imagine her to swing her legs forwards and backwards when sitting down and think this is a fun quirk of her character. She does this because she wants to be up exploring and adventuring and subconsciously her body just wants to keep moving. The other one I drew was of a different standing position than what was in my original sketches. As I was drawing the hand on hip pose I started to think that it could be the pose she strikes whilst thinking or even when confused by something. I think this could be a fun little pose and it could also include tapping of the foot to make it have more motion and character to it. Additionally the pose I have drawn my character in for all of my sketches could be her standard pose, when she is just stood doing nothing. It is a very relaxed pose and shows off her outfit well I think.
References:
[1] Dollskill. 2020. Hologram Heart Overall Dress. [online] Available at: https://www.dollskill.com/hologram-heart-overall-dress.html [Accessed 18 November 2020].
[2] Schuh. 2020. Womens Pink Dr Martens 1460 8 Eye Boots | Schuh. [online] Schuh.co.uk. Available at: https://www.schuh.co.uk/womens/dr-martens-1460-8-eye-pink-boots/1447683520/ [Accessed 18 November 2020].
[3] Brandy Melville. 2020. Black Faux Leather Silver Heart Belt. [online] Available at: https://www.brandymelville.co.uk/black-faux-leather-silver-heart-belt.html [Accessed 18 November 2020].
[4] Aliexpress. 2020. Kawaii Striped Womens T Shirt. [online] Available at: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32948998480.html [Accessed 18 November 2020].
[5] Dollskill. 2020. Dolls Kill X Care Bears Embroidered Overall Pinafore Dress. [online] Available at: <https://www.dollskill.com/dolls-kill-x-care-bears-corduroy-embroidered-overall-pinafore-dress-pink.html> [Accessed 18 November 2020].
Description of Colour Design
When I was creating the design for my character, colour is something I carefully considered as I wanted my design to look really coordinated and that the colours went really well together. I took my artwork of my character and changed the colours of it to see how different combinations would look together. I knew that I wanted some elements of the design to match others to make the colours look more cohesive so I decided on the shoes and hair being similar in colour and the shirt stripes and belt being the same. I think this helps with cohesion of the design and also makes the main dress in the design stand out. Below are three of the colour schemes I tried out. I wanted to try varying colour schemes to make sure I was picking what I liked best. The pink and yellow design was my first attempt at colouring the design and even though I liked this I thought it was far too strong all together for what I wanted and I tried some other combinations. The blue and purple design I created just to try some colours I hadn’t before on the sketch but I did not like this one at all as the dress and shirt looked too similar and too neon together as well as the purple looking too dark. The middle artwork is the one I tried last and really loved. The colours are bright pastel shades and I think there is a really nice cohesion between the colours yet they stand out and look really good together in my opinion.
Above is the further sketches I made of the front and side view of my character for my own reference. I took this as an opportunity to solidify my choice of colour scheme. The hair will of course be one solid shade of orange, but for the sketches I wanted to add some shading to the designs so used darkened versions of the colours I chose to make the artwork look more interesting. The colours I used for the design can be seen at the lower left of the sketches as I needed a palette to reference. I really like the contrast between the blue shirt and the pink dress, I think that contrasting colours can be really important in a design and to help it stand out and allow people to remember the character. I also really like how the pink ties in with the orange hair and boots as it is a similar tone so it ties the palette together and makes it look cohesive literally from head to toe.
Visual style or tradition within Creative Industries
I took a lot of inspiration for my character and her personality from shows like Little Witch Academia (A human joins a witch school because she loves witchcraft) and Star Vs The Forces of Evil (A show where a princess from a different world comes to live in the human world to learn more about it because she thinks it’s really cool). I knew I wanted my character to have a backstory like this because I think its really fun and interesting and can always lead to some quirky interactions due to the unfamiliarity of the world they are now placed in. I also took inspiration from Tinker Bell, the 2008 movie, as in this movie the character really likes to discover things and explore and is fascinated by the creations from the human world. I really wanted a character that you could imagine lots of scenarios and situations she could get into and one who would have fun bright colours and outfits so she would be memorable and fun to look at. From these shows I also pulled some inspiration for the looks of my character as they have nice clean art styles which similarly match my own personal art style.
I also looked at many examples of 3D models and art to see what was most appealing to me and what I thought fit best with what I wanted to create so I could get some ideas on how to translate my ideas into a 3D space from a 2D illustration. I found these 3 images above that influenced my design and how I wanted to create my character in Zbrush. The first 2 are pieces I found on Artstation by 2 independent creators that I really loved the styles of. I really liked how simple the colours were and how soft and smooth the models themselves are. I took inspiration from the simplistic styles of these models when considering my character design and how I wanted her to look. I also was inspired by the 2020 game Animal Crossing New Horizons. The characters in this game have faces which are really similar to the sketches I was drawing which and I think I was unintentionally inspired by the cute circular hands and the triangle noses in the game. The eyes and mouth are also painted on and not part of the character’s 3D sculpt which is something I think looks really cute and makes the designs look super childlike and is something I am inspired by as I think it fits with my character really well.
Image References:
[1] Little Witch Academia Wiki. 2020. Little Witch Academia (Anime). [online] Available at: https://little-witch-academia.fandom.com/wiki/Little_Witch_Academia_(anime) [Accessed 13 November 2020].
[2] IMDb. 2020. Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil (TV Series 2015–2019) – Imdb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2758770/ [Accessed 13 November 2020].
[3] En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Tinker Bell (Film). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Bell_(film) [Accessed 13 November 2020].
[4] Oral, B., 2020. Maya, Zbrush. [online] Artstation. Available at: https://berkay.artstation.com/projects/G40m4 [Accessed 15 November 2020].
[5] Mac, D., 2020. Zbrush Girl Timelapse – Yvonne. [online] Artstation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Oa5xg [Accessed 15 November 2020].
[6] VainSoftGames, 2020. Vainsoftgames | Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch. [online] VSG. Available at: https://vainsoftgames.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons/photos [Accessed 15 November 2020].
Body Style and Personality
For my character design I carefully considered what kind of style I chose and paired this with a design I felt best fitted my skillset on the software we were tasked to use. Below is a line art drawing of my character’s front view and back view. I wanted to have a more simple body design as I think it fits well with the tone of the backstory I created for the character and also helps to make a memorable design as the elements will stand out more. The character I drew has a human style body so it was quite easy to design her, she is thin and short (around 5’4) and she has elf ears. I wanted to make her more human looking as she is an elf and they usually look like us but with different ears. I think this design is something that I will be able to make with my limited skills. Some things I did to the design to accommodate this is was make the hands more of a mitten style, made sure she was wearing shoes and designed the hair in a way that made it easier to piece together. Her overall body style is more childish and with smooth lines and curves which make it visually appealing.
The clothes that I chose for this character’s design really add to the style of the character. I wanted to go with something a bit more childish in appearance as this fit well with the art style I usually draw in and made it easier to come up with the character and draw her. Her clothes also add to her back story and personality as they add visual elements of her interests to her design and also the colours are bright and bubbly like she is. The side view was the hardest to create as it meant I had to really visualise how she would look in a 3D setting. Trying to decide on how her nose and ears would look from the side was a challenge but I went for something simple that is interesting and unique to look at.
Character Description in Narrative Terms
My character design is that of an Elf girl who’s from another world but decides to come and live in the modern human world as she is very adventurous and excitable and just has a general fascination with things that are new to her. The back story I have created for her focuses on these elements and helps to add interests and personality to her which I think is important. It also helps to add a narrative to her character and a storyline for what she might do next. Below is a drawing I created of my character showing off what she looks like along with the background of her cottage in the woods.
My character’s name is Luna. She is 20 years old and she has a very outgoing personality and is really bright and bubbly. She has some magical powers but she isn’t very good at controlling them, she doesn’t have a wand or anything and casts spells from her hands. She really loves adventuring and exploring but is also really clumsy. She decides that she wants to go explore the human world as she is easily bored by the familiarity of her own world and wants something new to discover and she has heard many stories as a child. She decides she is going to go there and explore it for a day to see what it is really like and have a short adventure. She finds the human world even more exciting than she first anticipated and much larger, causing her to end up staying so she can explore longer than a day. In the human world she ends up living in a cottage in the countryside which is not too far from a larger city. She feels at home there and close to nature near the woods, but often takes trips to the big city to explore and venture further into the world and collect things that interest her.
She really likes the clothing and styles in the human world and likes to dress in fun bright colours. Luna always makes sure to wear some kind of boots as she knows she’ll be adventuring. She looks very human and can pass easily as one if her hair is over her ears, but she likes to have it tucked behind them to keep it out of her way. Her favourite colours are blue, like the sky, and pink, like the flowers that grow in the garden at her cottage. She has just moved there recently and is still discovering things she doesn’t know about and trying to make friends and is always fascinated by the things she finds and how things work here. She is really determined and curious and will keep exploring till she thinks she’s discovered everything that she can. As she is unfamiliar with much of the customs and surroundings and she has unpredictable magic, she always gets herself into weird and funny situations. These situations could be used to give her a continuous storyline and a narrative to her future actions.
My Developing Idea
This is the idea I’ve had so far. I made the sketch above whilst just drawing to see what would happen and I ended up really liking the sketch on the left and taking it further. I drew the back and then a colour version to help visualise my developing idea.
I think the back story that I was coming up with when drawing this character is that of an elf girl who leaves her realm to come to the human world because she thinks it looks interesting and fun. I think she seems really fun loving and adventurous and that she would be really excitable. I think a good target audience for this could actually be children because it is a fun fantasy storyline and my art style is also quite childish at times. When drawing her clothing I was thinking about her personality and was thinking she seems really cute and fun loving and that her clothes should express that, so I chose yellow as the main colour and some j-fashion-esque clothing. J-fashion in my experience is all about having fun and being cute so I thought it fit well.
