Thursday, December 13, 2012

Thesis: An Overdue Update

Hello readers!
This post is long overdue. When last quarter ended I was completely unable to find the time to blog. After that, the idea of actually blogging became increasingly difficult because of the compounding backlog of things I needed to blog about, but here we go.

The End of Part 1:
Last quarter ended a number of weeks ago, right before Thanksgiving break. I managed to create a render of my character before that point. His pose is only temporary, as well as his rig.


The image come out fairly well, but he definitely still needs work, textures on the shoes, smaller details like buttons, skin texture to add some life to his face, etc. The thesis midway presentation went decently, but I was called out on a lack of direction for the project, which was a valid argument. This project has always been larger than the 20 week class allotted for. The character is only part of a much larger project and because of that I have always been uncertain which direction I would be going in the time allowed;  more rigging, more characters, or more environments for him to populate. I was also attempting to learn and use a number of advanced techniques and was uncertain of how long they would take.

Thesis Part 2:
For all the reasons I previously stated, I have changed up my timeline for the second half of this project. Originally, my plan was to focus on more advanced rigging and some animation for the end of the term. Making some adjustments, cutting back on the idea of a completely polished rig and facial blend shapes, I have taken the first 3 weeks to create a second character, a female character. She was a character slated for after the 10 weeks, but she should fit in more appropriately now. Her presence helps in a number of ways: a second character is a more easily measure deliverable, she compliments the first character as a set, and helps focus on my preferred aspect of 3D - the design and modeling.

The female character is proportionately similar to the male and stylized the same. Her personality can best be described as "spunky" and i hope to capture that. I have reworked the facial topology to work better with the expressions I hope to achieve from these character. Her model is almost finished, and I hope to have a render up by this weekend. If I am unable to get her the quality I am hoping for, she will push into week 4 and I have the Winter break for making up lost time.