Les Retrouvailles

This year, I decided to continue my 3D work. It was given as an option, but I decided to persevere. Employability and all those shenanigans... This semester we were focusing on character work, so we modelled, rigged and animated a character. People were following a standard template, but after having had a bad experience with this certain model last year, I couldn't bring myself to face it. So I decided to challenge myself and make my own; Dave.

He started out as a doodle in my sketchbook as our tutor talked through something I probably should have been listening to...

Which then led onto a turnaround:

Which then led onto the final model:

And then rigged:

(And then later textured but I don't have that file with me...)

I'm aware that if you have been following my blog, you'll perhaps recognise this man with the wonderful nose. To be honest, I just chose to model him because of the nose. When it came round to animating him, I didn't really have any idea what to do as I didn't know what kind of person he was. So I just got stuck in and started playing about and his personality just sort of appeared through the tangled web of the graph editor. So I animated him and enjoyed it. 

I'll upload the 3 wee tests I did tomorrow - the converter on my laptop has given up tonight...

So, yes. That was all well and good. I handed in and headed home feeling content. But then I got the itch to work again. With no desire to touch my grad film for a while, I naturally came back to this (and drawing cartoons of myself of course) and felt I wasn't ready to let him go yet.

I've managed to land the chance to get a tour round the awesome MacKinnon and Saunders studio (think Tim Burton, Fantastic Mr Fox and Postman Pat) so felt like it would be beneficial to have some character sheets for Dave. Make it look like I actually did it officially instead of off the cuff. With a minor style development which seems to have snuck up on me from nowhere (not that I'm complaining) I sat in the sun and doodled some expressions for the first sheet of the Model Pack:

I'm really pleased with these, though I should probably go in and tidy them up. Like I've said before, I don't really feel character stuff is my forté, so when things turn out how I want them, it seems like a success. So. Plans:

1. Finish the model pack

2. Finish inbetweening the incomplete 3D scenes

Then Bonus:

1. Do some more 3D tests

2. Design a new character for him to interact with

3. Do some 2D tests.

I actually really want to do some 2D tests. Hoping to acquire Flash in the near future (alongside a new compooper, finally) so as I'm feeling comfortable drawing him, he could be a good place to start.

We'll see.

À la semaine prochaine! 

Meet Dave

I've been sitting tinkering away at some 3D stuff over the past wee while. Feeling pretty deflated with my films at the moment, so it's been a well received break whilst still being productive.

Using 3D to unwind... Who could have predicted?

I've spent the class modelling and rigging this chap with a fantastic nose and now he's finally able to animate. We started with a wee walk cycle and now we're onto tackling a past 11 second club sound-clip. I'm working with Birte for this and she's doing the other character, so you can only see mine at the moment. It's just in the rough key section at the moment, with a blank gap in the middle in order to play off Birte's animation but I think it's looking rather nice for a first attempt. Take a look:

I can already spot some things I need to change - subtle movements and more natural poses etc, but yes. Thoughts are always welcome. I just wish I'd rigged and skinned it better. Immature impatience.

I got bored one night so modelled a wee fruit stall for the animation:

I do rather enjoy modelling.

How my principles have changed...