Fantastic Creature design

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Failing Horribly at modeling

Despite managing to get an extension on my submission deadline and dedicating a whole concentrated 2 days to this task. I did not manage to finish my character model... I spent the first day making a model only to find out on the second day that the model was broken in various ways and did not work in mud box:

First attempt at making Karen in Maya

I tried to fix it for at least and hour and rushed to the media lab but no technicians were there and my spirit just really took a hit. I tried to work through it but I was really panicking at this point. I decided to just try remaking the model again using a different process and somehow managed to get it into mudbox. I also rushed and auto UV’d the model which I’m guessing only further broke the model. I rushed through making the model because I figured that I could add in most of the details in mudbox. Boy was I wrong. 

Murphy’s Law was in full swing at this point and I was having a full on panic attack. Oh boi. On the second Karen Model that I made, NONE of the mudbox sculpting tools were working. In fact they were all causing these crazy spikes to shoot out of this model. I’m struggling to maintain professionalism in writting this because honestly I pretty much broke down at this point haha. I know it’s not good to give up until the final hour but taking into account time for rendereing I realized that there was just no way for me to get this done on time. RIP my grades. Haha.

[fantasticcreaturedesignproj-blog]

CAST LINE UP SHEET WITH CLASS GROUP

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I did a character sheet for Karen and I overall I was pretty pleased with the way she looked. I feel like this character would have benefited from being given a more cartoon-y type look and bigger eyes and feet. I really like her colour palette though and could definitely see her running around in a lush forest somewhere with her kin or being some kind of pet living in a greenhouse. I definitely feel as though this creature serves more of a domesticated role than any sort of predatory one. They more have the temperament of a cat but they love rain and sunshine because of their plant attributes. I think Karen would be sort of flightless like a chicken (as they are capable of short bursts of flight) and lay eggs like them as well. I imagine that these creatures would live in a world where magic exists as well.

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Second attempt  at making my maquette. 

Honestly, I’m not impressed with the way this turned out. I know that I could have done a lot better, especially with regards to the legs. I don’t know if I like the overall design all that much and going forward I’ll definitely be considering editing the design a bit.

But I’ve fallen behind in other areas so much that I decided this project was going have to be the kind that was simply finished and not perfect. Not feeling too great about the outcome of this project overall at the moment.

[fantasticcreaturedesignproj-blog]

First attempt at making my character maquette

I started out by sketching out the intended scale and frame of the creature 

Then I created the wire frame based on this drawing 

And started adding foil and polymer 

Was going alright so far but then....

It got way too top heavy an I had to completely pull it apart 

RIP Dino-chicken boi

[fantasticcreaturedesignproj-blog]

I started out the design process by examining the forms found in chickens, cats and the peacock plant. I was also toying with the idea of possibly integrating a bat for the wings but quickly abandoned that idea.

Overall I really liked the idea of a sort of rain forest dwelling creature that was for the most part friendly and domesticated. Though I’d wanted them to be treated more like cats than chickens as I don’t think they’d make very good food! 

I found that the sleek form of the Abyssinian cat made it easier to break down the forms found in a cat but I really liked the way that the fur of rag doll cats fell on their body. I planned to combine the two somehow.

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I decide for the fantastic creature design project I would call back onto a design I made from the sketchbook project in unit ba1b part 1. 

I didn’t really put much thought into the logistics of the creature or really look at any anatomical references initially because I was just feeling out the idea but I thought it would be fun to expand on the creature a bit more.