Thesis: Crunch Time

Today marks the middle of week 9 for RIT's 10 week winter quarter. For me, and many of my classmates, this is time of panic. Our thesis project will be due in 2 weeks on the Friday of finals week. Over the quarter I have been far from efficient in updating my blog. There has been a massive amount of work done on the female character, taking her from an incomplete, round headed model to the more finalized, rigged, and spunky character she currently is. Contrary to the dates of the images I have uploaded, she did not take as long as it may seem. The character has been ready for a number of weeks, but my focus on her shifted to proper rigging instead of rendering her out.

With all of that said, let us look to the future: what work is left and what will be delivered? For the final I intend to have

• Turntables of the two characters posed
• High Quality renders of each character (an updated version of the renders on my blog)
• Short animation of the female character performing a number of motions with dynamic hair and clothing (rendered and playblast for presentation purposes)

With these available at my presentation, I will be able to sufficiently sell my work, not only as a design challenge, but a technical study of techniques used for the advanced dynamics of a production character. I am well on my way to completing these tasks, but it will still prove to be a rough few weeks. With my goals set, the remaining work can be easily broken down.

   Male Character - 

• Any remaining clean up and refinement of texturing, materials, and fine details.
• Render higher quality single image
• Render high quality of posed turntable

   Female Character (a majority of the remaining work) - 

• Any remaining clean up and refinement of texturing, materials, and fine details.
• Re-render high quality solo image
• Render high quality of posed turntable
• Re-targeting found animations onto the skeleton of the female character
• Refine cloth movement based on the desired appearance of the materials.
• Render the dynamic animations.

In terms of my thesis's direction, I am happy with the path that it took. My original plan was to focus on a single character, his quality, usability, and refinement. The project has deviated somewhat from the original plan, taking on a second character in exchange for some of the more specific skeletal tools like blend shapes and an even more in depth rigging and control system. However, the core of the project remains the same, a usable, refined character study of stylized design and advanced dynamics. With 2 characters the project sells itself far better. This refined form of project produced work that can be more easily seen and appreciated while accomplishing all the rigging needs I currently require. Hopefully I am able to deliver on everything that I have planned.