KNB217 Assessment 2

Soojung Lee, n9667598

[knba2]

12. Facial expression

Soojung Lee, n9667598

I moved on to animating the facial expression. I used the image I draw in the last time as the reference to animating the character face, which is the image in Figure 1.

^ Figure 1: Facial expression

^ Normal

^ Smile

^ Bored

^ Annoyed

^ Surprised

^ Depressed

^ Contempt

^ Fear

They are all eight different facial expressions, which are normal, smile, bored, annoyed, surprised, depressed, contempt and fear. I also moved the handles and save the keys as I did to took animation for body movement. To recording, the animation was not a hard process, but to create the expression was not easy. It was hard to create close facial expression as the image, and even I did create the face, I have to think myself that is it delivers the expression I tried to deliver because if it does not, I have to redo and change the position of the handles to create more effective expression.

LInk: https://youtu.be/4pw8dyiTwn8

[knba2]

11. Playblast

Soojung Lee, n9667598

I started to animate the model to take the video for playblast. Playblast is the video to show the working of my character’s skeleton, rigging and skin weight are all fine and good, therefore, I have to move most of the joints and animate the character with those movements.

^ Figure 1: Ready to animate

When I doing the animation, I have to save the keys as I move the joint in any direction, so they can save that position to make it as one animation. If I did not have, the animation will not work. That red lines on the right corner in Figure 1 is showing that I saved the key and I can continue to animate the character.

^ Figure 2: Finished animate

I did move the legs, arms, head and all other joints on my character to animate. As you can see from the bottom, there are lots of red lies in a different position, it shows where I save the keys.

^ Figure 3: Take playblast

As I finished with saving keys, I play the video to see is there any joint moving different than what I expected. If there is some weird movement, I have to go back to that joint to fix the movement. Figure 3 is showing the process of taking playblast. I thought when I take the playblast, the grid and all the joints and controllers are going to hidden or invisible, but it was not. Therefore, I hide all the elements that I do not want to show in playblast.

^ Figure 4: Scale up the tail handle

In the first place, I did not get the tail handles, which means I cannot control the tail if I do not have the handle. I do need the handle to show that skin weight on the tail is also working well like the other part does in the playblast. Therefore, I go back to the step before building the joints. I tried to rebuild the joint, but still, it did not work. I got some help from a tutor to fix the problem. He told me to try to build the new skeleton and build it again to check is it working or not. This was because 3D is sometimes I have to go back to the first step to solve the problem, and it possible to press something wrong keys during building the skeleton, therefore, this is one of the way to solve the problem even I have to everything again.

I tried to rebuild the skeleton as he told me and build the joint again. I checked the tail and I finally got the handles, but they were way too small to see over the mesh. Therefore, I need to scale them up to control the tail, but I did not know how to scale up the handles. I asked to tutor for help to scale up the handle, and I succeed to scale them up over the tail mesh as you can see in Figure 4. Now I am allowed to control the tail, I also put it into playblast scene.

Link: https://youtu.be/wxFcfVD_oB0

[knba2]

10. Render images

Soojung Lee, n9667598

I can now move on to the Arnold part, which I need to export the texture and apply to the Maya and lights. I was not sure about how to apply the exported texture to the Maya, so I research again to help me out with applying the texture to the Maya.

^ Figure 1: Texture on Maya

I followed the YouTube tutorial on the Blackboard to apply the exported texture from Substance Painter.

^ Figure 2: Set the lights

I started to set the environment to take the render images. I set various light around the character.

When I was finished with set the lights, I decided to take the hero pose first, which is one of the requirements of the assessment. I decided to work it with the anime girl pose, therefore, I did some research to gather the idea for anime girl poses.

^ Figure 3

^ Figure 4

^ Figure 5

^ Figure 6

By doing those researches, it allowed me to built the idea and pose for the character. I personally like and thought it will suitable for my character with the pose in Figure 5 and 6. As I decided on the hero pose for my character, I started to move the handles and joints to build the pose like the researched images.

^ Figure 7: Hero pose ready to render

Render image

^ Front

^ Side

^ Back

^ Perspective

^ Hero Pose

Reference list

- Avi Schiffmann. (2017). Maya 2017 How to render and save an image. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJjHH8iLbJY

- Frank Pereira. (2018). Exporting from Substance Painter to Maya 2018 Arnold Part 1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_NrD1pEMg

- SURENDRA KUMAR VARMA. (2018). How to export texture from substance painter to maya (arnold) | Tutorial. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQokgLp73I

[knba2]

9. Texture

Soojung Lee, n9667598

As I was finished with rigging, I thought I now can move on to texture. 

^ Figure 1: Character design

Before started to texture the character, I brought the character design sheet I drawn last time. I will be going to paint similar to this design.

^ Figure 2: Export and import to Substance Painter

Firstly, I export the model with UV unwrapped and import into Substance Painter.

^ Figure 3: Paint

I painted as my character design, however, as you can see one different thing with Figure 1. I changed the color of the pants because when I painted the character as a character design sheet, it did not look good. I think this was because I used too many brown, therefore, I decided to change it to navy color pants, which look much better.

Final textured model

Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/6KHAn

[knba2]

8. Facial Rigging

Soojung Lee, n9667598

As I am finished with built the joint and skin weight, this is time to give the face rig on the character. I followed the steps he showed in the tutorial class and used the YouTube video link from Blackboard.

^ Figure 1: Set the basic elements on the face

I first built the basic element that I need to set up before start. The thing I set up is telling where is the face, everything on the head, both eyes geometries and tongue.

^ Figure 2: Eyes

When I was finished, I started to follow the steps on the side. Figure 2 is showing where I set the eyelids, forehead, and eyelashes. I followed the YouTube video they provided and also, I clicked on the question mark on the side to help myself.

^ Figure 3: Mouth

I was working on the month, but somehow, I realized that the marker on the month was not painting right. It has to go half of the mouth, but it did not. Therefore, I thought I better start again to figure that out.

^ Figure 4: Redo

I started everything again, and now the markers on the mouth are painting as I expected.

^ Figure 5: Redo the cheek and jaw part

I moved on the cheek, nose and jaw parts, and you can see in Figure 5, I was finished with placing the markers.

^ Figure 6: Problem

As I was finished with placing the markers, I moved on the build the rigging, but somehow they were not working right. Figure 6 is showing how it looks when I move the handle. I moved the mouth handle, but other parts follow as I move the handle. It happened with other handles as well. I have to rework and figure out to fix this problem by starting from beginning again.

Through, tutor’s help, I realized that I have a problem with the model, which mean I have to fix everything and do everything again. The problem I was having was I lost my reference in the skeleton file, and also, I separate the model on the rigging step, which makes the problem. Therefore, I moved back to the mesh and started fixing the model.

^ Figure 7: Fixing model

I came back to the beginning and separate the model before use this as reference.

^ Figure 8: Add detail on the eyes and mouth

I also had trouble with rigging the eyelids and the mouth, so I added some more detail on the eyes and added extra edge loops on the mouth.

Final Model

Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/6KH8V

^ Figure 9: Place the points

I brought the new scene and use the model as the reference to built the riggings. As I made mistake last time, I tried not to fix the model in this scene, so I can keep that diamond shape on the meshes, which can be seen in the outliner and it represents this is the reference meshes.

Before I use this as a reference mesh, I named all the meshes to help myself because when I do the facial rigging I have to select the mesh and if it does not have the related name, it will hard to recognize am I selected the right mesh.

Figure 9 is showing the final looking of the points on the faces, which are forehead, eye, nose, lips and all other parts of the face that move when it changes the emotion.

^ Figure 10: Play with the handles

When I was done with placing the points on the face, I built the facial ring. When I built the facial ring, I used the step by step building system rather than built at once. The reason I have chosen to use step by step system was to check and fix the skin weight as I built the facial rigging. This is not the perfect system, so it makes some problem, but if I use step by step system, it allows me to change and fix the shape of the character by fixing the skin weight. In my case, I fixed the skin weight of the mouth when it opens the mouth and the shape of the smile.

Figure 10 is showing the final look and working of the facial rigging. I can now possible to control the eyes blink, eyeballs, forehead, and mouth. In the first place, I was having trouble with blinking eyes. The problem I was having was I keep getting that black color on the eyes when I close the eyes, but this was fixed very easily by clicking ‘unlock the normal. button, so I get that base mesh color when I close the character’s eyes.

^ Figure 11: Started to ring the body

As I finished the facial rigging, I have to rebuild the body rigging because as I changed the reference mesh, it lost the previous skin weight, therefore, I can use the previous skeleton, but I have to redo the skin weight.

^ Figure 12: Skin weight

Before started to doing skin weight, I cannot recognize the problem with the built pose, therefore, I have to change the character pose to find out the skin weight problems. As you can see in Figure 12, I have the problem with the arm part, leg and some around the body.

^ Figure 13: Testing

I selected each part of the joints to see the skin weight and repaint it to fix the skin weight. Figure 13 is showing the mesh after fixed the skin weight. As I fixed the skin weight, it became more smooth and nice.

^ Figure 14: Wrist

^ Figure 15: Leg

^ Figure 16: Neck and face

^ Figure 17: Fingers

I did all the skin weight of the character, and Figure 14 to 17 are showing the final character look after skin weight. I was checking is every joint working fine and any problem with the skin weight.

I finally finished to built all the skeleton and rigging on the character, and I think this is now ready to animate. I had a various problem during this process. I had trouble with building the skeleton, skin weight, and the hardest and complicated trouble with facial rigging. I was having big trouble with facial rigging as you can see in the post. However, I was able to realize the problem and what I have done wrong with the tutor’s assist. After I was done with the facial rigging, the other thing was simple because I already practice the building skeleton and skin weight before facial rigging, so it did not take long process time to finish it. This was a seriously hard process to me, however, I was pretty happy when my character’s facial rigging finally works.

Reference list

-  AdvancedSkeleton. (2018). Demonstration38: General overview of AdvancedSkeleton. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTB9Yh_sWKc

[knba2]

7. Practice skeleton and Sculpting and repeat everything again

Soojung Lee, n9667598

As I was finished with retopology and UV unwrap, this is now time to build the skeleton to the character mesh so I can animate. However, this is just to practice myself because I have to do the sculpting in the Mudbox to add extra details, which means I have to do everything again after sculpting.

^ Figure 1: Ready to build the skeleton

^ Figure 2: Import the base skeleton

They have already made the skeleton, so I just need to import and change the position as my model. As you can see in Figure 2, there is already created human skeleton imported to the screen.

^ Figure 3: Add tail skeleton

I move the skeleton to the right place of my model, however, this skeleton is just normal human character, but my character has animal ears and tail, which means I have to create an extra skeleton to move them around. Figure 3 is showing the skeleton I added to the tail.

I kind of got the idea of building a skeleton, so  I moved on to Mudbox to sculpt.

^ Figure 4: Import mesh to Mudbox

I export the Maya file to fbx file and import to the Mudbox, and ready to sculpt to any detail I want to add to the mesh.

^ Figure 5: Add detail to the hair

I added some detail on the hair to change its visual, and this is the reason we use the Mudbox to sculpt.

^ Figure 6: Smooth the tail

I also tried to add some detail, such as fur, on the tail, but that is not I want on this tail because I want it to be around and soft looking tail. Therefore, I decided to smooth the tail rather than adding fur.

^ Figure 7: Smooth and add some detail on the face

According to the tutor’s comments, I also decided to add detail on the face. The detail I added on the face is to smooth the nose, which was sharp, gave some shape to the cheek.

^ Figure 8: Moved on to Maya again

When I was done with working on Mudbox, I moved back to Maya again because as I did the sculpting on the Mudbox, I have to repeat all the steps I have done before, which are repotology, UV unwrapping and put on the skeleton.

^ Figure 9: Start retopology again

^ Figure 10: Continue

^ Figure 11: Finished retopology

The first thing I did is to redo the retopology. This was not my first retopology and I did lots of practice, so this was not hard as the first try.

^ Figure 12: Checking

As I finished with retopology, I have to check is all the rings are working fine for the facial rigging. I do have headline, eyes, around the nose and mouth. 

^ Figure 13: UV unwrapping

^ Figure 14: Cleaning

The next thing I have to do is to UV unwrapping. I combined all the mesh and started to UV unwrap. I cut and saw the mesh manually and Figure 13 is showing the automatic layout of the UV, but I have to replace and change the size of them for texture. Therefore, Figure 14 is showing after cleaning up the UV.

^ Figure 15: Built eyelids and added more loops on the eyebrows area

I received the feedback from the tutor, and as he suggested, I add more loops on the eyebrows area and created the eyelids by doing retopology again.

 ^ Figure 16: Build a skeleton

As I practised before, I built the skeleton better compare to the first skeleton. I built much easier with positioning the joints in the places. Also, I had a problem with building ear joint, but I built the ear joint faster than the first practice. Figure 15 is showing the final looking of the skeleton with the handles.

^ Figure 17: Problem with skinning

^ Figure 18: More problem with skinning

After building the skeleton, I have to give the weight to the skin, so the mesh will stick to the joint and move as I move the joint. However, as you can see in Figure 17 and 18, they have not to weight the skin perfectly, therefore, I have to manually fix those problems.

^ Figure 19: Fixing skin weight on the knees

^ Figure 20: Fixing elbows

^ Figure 21: Fixing ankles

Figure 19 to 21 are showing the one of the parts that I fixed the skin weight. I manually paint the skin weight again to make it work, so they are not banding like Figure 17 and 18, and do not have extruding faces, such as face of tail in Figure 18. I also fixed the neck, head, eats and everything there have the problem. I solve and found out the problems by banding each joints to find out the problem to fix. This was difficult process because I have to look at each joints and I have to think how to fix them to look right.

All those processes I have done, none of them was easy or simple. They were all difficult and complicated to figure out the problem, therefore, I did lots of undo and redo, and started from the beginning to solve the problem. Everything I have done was very stressful.

Reference list

-  AdvancedSkeleton. (2015). Demonstration22: Rigging Lucy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfY4GzG9q68

- Andrew z. (2018). Bone Driven Deformation & Blendshape Implementation Pt.1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpqmAPxdz4Y

- Trendt Boe. (2017). CG Toolkit - Character Stream, Setting up Proxy with Joints. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKJ06pjVoI0&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=368&t=0s

- Trendt Doe. (2017). CG Toolkit - Character Stream, Transferring Rig from Proxy to Production. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToN1ir3LHAE&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=367&t=0s

- Trendt Doe. (2017). CG Toolkit - Character Stream, Setting up Controls & IK. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBvy2JEIodA&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=366&t=0s

[knba2]

6. Retopology and UV unwrapping

Soojung Lee, n9667598

^ Figure 1: Finished

From the tutor’s comment, I better deleted the ribbon because it will make my job difficult and harder. I do not want to make my life difficult, but I hide the ribbon rather than delete because I want to keep this for the future my own exercise and practice.

As I finished with modelling and mirror the mesh to create perfect finished model, I have to work out the face loops to apply the face rig in the future, so, this is now the time to do the retopology on the face.

^ Figure 2: Tried retopology

I tried to do the retopology to the face using quad draw tool, but somehow, it was not working. I grab the faces to check is it working or not, but it was not working.

The problem in this was I follow the faces on the base mesh rather than create my own faces to creates the rings around the eyes, mouth and etc. Therefore, I started everything again.

^ Figure 3: Retry

To started again, I deleted what I have done and redo everything I have because starting from new is the best way to start rather than undo and fixing. I slowly review the YouTube tutorial video and follow all the steps.

I started drawing the ring around the eyes and mouth as a tutorial video.

^ Figure 4: Continue

I extruded the edges of the rings in Figure 5 and slowly cover the head mesh. As you can compare with Figure 2, this is now more looking right.

^ Figure 5: Final

After all these stressful processes, I finally figured out. As you can see in Figure 7, I can now select the rings around the eyes and mouth where I need to add the rig and animate for facial expressions, but I still cannot select the faces around the head. Actually, I realised I forgot to create the ring for the headline, which means I have to do it again.

^ Figure 6: Fix the eyes

Before redoing the retopology again, I realised that eyes are not looking right, so I fixed the position of the eyes to move inside and as I change the position of the eyes, I also moved the eye wholes position as well. Now I can redo the retopology again with updated face mesh.

^ Figure 7: New retopology

I was having a bit of trouble when I was doing retopology again because this was only the second time to do after the first one. The problem I was having was a similar problem I have in the first try. I can grab the rings, but I keep selecting the all around the head.  I did lots of deleting, undo and redo again and again to figure out the shape and problems. Figure 7 is the result of all the practice. This is much better retopology compare to previous meshes because I have more rings around the eyes and I can select the headline, which was not possible in the previous retopology.

I was checking my retopology in Figure 7 with the tutors, it also had the problem that I need to fix, but this was the best retopology I have done by myself, so I have no idea how and what to fix because if I do it again, I was pretty sure it will not look very different with the previous one. Therefore, I asked for help and I had a consultation with one of the tutors to help me to understand how to do the retopology and what I need to do to get a better result. As always, before we started work, we went to the Pinterest site to find the reference images so I can understand easily.

^ Figure 8

^ Figure 9

^ Figure 10

^ Figure 11

^ Figure 12

^ Figure 13

^ Figure 14

^ Figure 15

They are all the researches we have done. We were focused on anime character head rather than real human face as my model is designed in anime character style. By looking at those various reference images, it helped me to understand what and how I need to retopology, but I still have a problem with building retopology myself. Therefore, he showed me how to do and what I need to be careful about.

^ Figure 16: Rework

This is the retopology I have done with his instructions and helps. He showed and told me that the faces need to be in similar size as much as possible except the eyes, mouth, nose and anywhere there need the detail. I did not know that the size of each face has to be in a similar size that's why all my previous retopology were not looking clean and nice as Figure 16. He also told me that I have to build the eyes, nose, mouth and headline first so I can have the rings for the face rigging. He also showed me how to figure out the five angels and various things I did not know, therefore, I was able to reach to the improved result compared to all the previous retopology.

^ Figure 17: Final

This is the final looks of the mesh. I also told me to use soften edges if I want to soften looking model. I learnt various knowledge from him. He helped me and taught me the way to solve my problem and improve.

This was a seriously hard process. I did lots of mistakes and have various problems I could not solve. This was a really challenging process that I do not want to do it ever again, but I also want to try this again after this assessment finish.

I moved on to the UV unwrapping after finished with retopology.

^ Figure 18: Combine mesh

Before starting UV unwrapping, my meshes are separated, so I have to combine them to keep them as one mesh. When I combined them, I also have to move the pivot because sometime it goes to somewhere different rather than the centre of the grid and character. Now, I am ready to UV unwrap the character.

^ Figure 19: Start UV unwrapping

^ Figure 20: Unfold

It became like Figure 20 when I unfold the UV unwrap without doing any cut and saw process. This UV unwrap is not right, so I have to do the cut and saw process for texture and everything.

^ Figure 21: Cut and saw manually

This is the After I cut and saw the mesh. The white lines show where and how I cut.

^ Figure 22: Unfold and layout

When I was finished with cut ans saw process, I have to unfold the UV and layout automatically. However, as you can see in Figure 22, they layout randomly, which makes hard me to texture them.

^ Figure 23: Clean up

Therefore, I moved on to layout them manually, and during this process, I also change its’ size to get similar size of the faces showing in left handside in Figure 23, so I will not have low and high resolution texture for each parts.

The UV unwrapping was not hard as I am used to UV unwrap, however, the retopology was the hardest process in this part. I have not done the retopology before and I was not fully understand the knowledge of how to build retopology. It was possible to improve until this level by getting help from tutor and the researches I have done.

Reference list

-  FlippedNormals. (2018). Retopology for Beginners in Maya. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpDWta5O3n8&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=4&t=0s

- Matthew Yourshaw. (2016). Maya Tutorial - Quad Draw Tool. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=takFYSXDxzg&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=5&t=7s

- My Oh Maya. (2017). Maya 2017 Update 3: Quad Draw / Make Live Workflow. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edegRylKdzI&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=3&t=17s

- Next tot Education. (2018). Head Retopology in Maya Using Quad Draw Tool - Part 01. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBJv_qLYmCo&list=LLmWZeSDkd1_mwsEKZ0Xs2Dw&index=2&t=170s

- RaveeCG Tutorials. (2016). EASY ZBRUSH - UV / UNWRAP - USING UV MASTER PLUGIN. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQht6S7aWDg&feature=youtu.be

[knba2]

5. Facial expression

Soojung Lee, n9667598

I need to do a rough sketch for facial expression. this needs to be done so I can use this as a guideline to creating a facial expression of my character.

After start to drawing out, I decided to do the research first to find out some reference images that give me a helpful idea to draw the facial expressions.

^ Figure 1: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/512003051385053139

^ Figure 2: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/364369426097289535

^ Figure 3: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/609041549586665149

^ Figure 4: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/312859505362914076

^ Figure 5: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/366199013424322687/

^ Figure 6: Pinterest, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/593841900845711190

Those images are all collected from Pinterest, which is a good website to collect the reference images. Through this research, it allowed me to get some ideas in drawing a facial expression.

^ Figure 7: Seven facial expressions

There are seven facial expressions of the character. This was created by referring to the researches I have done, which are the images showing in Figure 1 to 6. They are normal, smile, bored, angry, surprised, depressed, contempt and fear.

[knba2]

4. Character information

Soojung Lee, n9667598

Name: Repi

Age: 23

Gender: F

Likes: Sweat, sleep, fruits, eating

Dislike: Hot, Summer, dirty

Personality: Keywords - Bright, cute, fluffy, simple

[knba2]

3. Start Modelling

Soojung Lee, n9667598

I opened up the Maya to start modelling my character as I finished drawing 2D turnaround. I have not done any human character modelling before so this will be a very challenging and complicate step I ever had. I am also worried about putting rigs on the character and take seven universal facial expressions because everything is new to me. As everything is new, I have to research a lot to find the tutorial videos on YouTube to learn to model and rigging a human character and create seven facial expressions so I can follow along.

However, as I am on the modelling step, I will focus on modelling and worry about the other steps after I finished the modelling.

^ Figure 1: Placed the turnaround images in the place

As always, I placed each turnaround images in the right position, so I can follow the turnaround and modelling my designed character.

^ Figure 2: Create a cube and extrude

I watched the YouTube video and follow along. The first step as always, I have to do is to create a basic mesh to start. In the first place, before watching the video, I thought I need to model the face and head first, but I need to start with the body. Therefore, I started with the cube mesh, and change its size to fit the reference image.

^ Figure 3: Add edge loops

After I arrange the size and place of the cube, I added the edge loops to the cube to change as the shape of the reference images. I select the vertexes to create the body shape in all different viewpoints. The reason to check the mesh in all different perspective is to check the mesh looking alright because when I move vertex, face or edges, sometimes I accidentally move the different part, which makes ugly looking.

^ Figure 4: Select faces and extrude

When I thought I did enough control to the body, I moved on to the legs. I selected the faces of where the legs need to be, and extrude the faces.

^ Figure 5: Select faces and extrude again

After I extrude the faces, it was not extruded with flat faces. so I select the faces again and used the move tool to make it flat faces as showing in Figure 5.

^ Figure 6: Repeat the step again

I repeat the same step to the arms. I selected the face, extruded the faces and move bit of its shape to fit into the reference images.

^ Figure 7: Add edge loops on the legs and change the shape

As I finished to create the arms and legs, but they have not had the detail and flow like the reference images. Therefore, I started to add the edge loops to the legs and move the vertex of the legs to create that flow and shape of the legs on the reference images.

^ Figure 8: Add edge loops on the flat sides of the legs

I added the extra edge loops on the legs. This was to change the mesh from the boxy shape to a more rounded shape, which is more natural. After I added the extra edge loops, I move them to create the rounded shape legs.

^ Figure 9: Add edge loops on the knees parts

I also added the edge loops on the knees part as well. This is to model the knees and for the animation character.

^ Figure 10: Delete the edge loops

After I added the edge loops, I deleted the edge loops behind the knees because this is the part that needs to be folded. I used the target weld tool to connect the vertex and deleted the other useless edges.

^ Figure 11: Add more edge loops on the body

As I added the extra edge loops on the flat sides of the legs, I also added the edge loops as legs to change the arms from boxy to a rounded shape, and I repeat the steps I have done to the legs.

^ Figure 12: Add edge loops on the arms

After the change, the shape of the arms,  add more extra edge loops on the arms to change the size and shape of the arms.

^ Figure 13: Arrange the shape of the arms

I was moved on to modelling the fingers, but I realised that the end of the arms are not in the right position, so I moved up the faces to the wrist.

^ Figure 14: Add more edge loops to the flat side of the arms

As I added the edge loops, I grab the vertex to change the volume of the mesh as reference images.

^ Figure 15: Extrude the face to create the finger

Now I moved on to the most difficult modelling part in the body. Firstly, I grab and extrude the face to create a finger. After extruding the face, I add one more edge loops middle of the finger and control the shape of the finger as much as I can so it will look more closely to the finger looking.

^ Figure 16: Finished to create finger

This is the overall look after modelling the finger.

^ Figure 17: Add edge loops on the elbows

As I did in Figure 9 and 10, I add the extra edge loops on the elbows.

^ Figure 18: Delete the useless edge loops

After I added the edge loops, I connected the vertex and deleted the useless edge loops, where will be the arms folding.

^ Figure 19: Multi-cut to create neck

I basically finished with modelling the arms, body and legs, now I started to model the final part of the body modelling, which is the neck. I was thinking to extrude the faces, but in the tutorial video from YouTube, she was added the multi-cut, so I added the multi-cut as a tutorial video.

^ Figure 20: Delete the faces

After I added the multi-cut, I arrange the position of its’ vertex to create a more rounded shape, then I deleted the faces.

^ Figure 21: Extrude the edges

From deleted the faces, I grab the edges and extrude the edges. Now, this is started to looking like the neck.

^ Figure 22: Add edge loops in the middle

However, I did not want to finish the modelling neck because that neck showing in Figure 21 is too stiff, therefore, I add extra edge loops middle of the neck to shape it more smooth.

^ Figure 23: Modelling the head

I finished with modelling the body, then this is time to modelling the head of the character, which is the most complicated and hardest modelling to me because I have not modelled the character head before. Therefore, I slowly follow the tutorial video. As the tutorial video did, I created new cube mesh, and smooth and position the head mesh as showing in Figure 23.

^ Figure 24: Scaling the size of the head

As I created the head mesh, I scaled up and down the head mesh to fit the reference images.

^ Figure 25: Create the shape of the head

I grab the vertex to shape the head mesh more detail and added the extra edge loops when I needed.

^ Figure 26: Checking

When I was finished working on the side view of the character, I have to move to other perspective views to find out and fix the mesh as reference images. I moved on to the front view and shape the head mesh again, and also when I was done with that as well, I moved to perspective view to checking all around the head.

^ Figure 27: Create eyes wholes

When I thought I was finished with modelling the head mesh, I moved on to modelling the eyes. First thing I have done was to research the tutorial video that I can look and reference the way to create the eyeballs and eyes wholes.

I found the tutorial video to follow and I started to modelling. The way I modelling the eyes wholes was to see the mesh from the side view and move the vertex to where the eyeballs need to be placed in. During the process, I add extra edge loops to create a more smooth shape. After I moved the vertex with a side view image, I moved to the front view to see is it also look similar in different viewpoints. As I thought, it was formed different shape when I look it with front view. Therefore, I started to move the vertex around with the front view image. I was not only looking at the front view. I changed my perspective as move the vertex, so I can check the mesh all different ways and helps me to position the vertex much better. After I was satisfied with the position and size of the eyes wholes, I deleted the faces so I can place the eyeballs.

^ Figure 28: Arrange the edge loops

During Figure 27 process, edge loops were a mess, so I moved them to clean the edge loops, and also add some extra edge loops between.

^ Figure 29: Add edge loops around the eyes wholes

As I was cleaning up the edge loops, I realised there is an example picture on the tutorial side. I found the slide and look it up to the image on the left side in Figure 29. By looking at this image, I remember that the face mesh needs to have those loops around each part to create facial expressions, which I have to do after modelling the character.

Therefore, as I was cleaning the edge loops, I also arrange the placement of the edge loops to create those connected things as the image showing on the left side of Figure 29.

^ Figure 30: Modelling the mouth

After I change the edge loops around the eyes, I moved on to modelling the mouth. I thought I just need to draw the mouth when I am texturing the character, but I actually need to model the mouth, therefore, I watched the tutorial video to see how they model the moth. I added the edge loops on the place where it needs to then extrude the faces inside of the mesh and I arrange the size of the extruded faces. I also added more extra edge loops to represent that w shape mouth as the reference image.

^ Figure 31: Arrange the edge loops

When I was finished and satisfied with mouth modelling, I also give it a ring faces around the mouth as I did in Figure 29 and follow the image from the tutorial slide.

^ Figure 32: Add extra edge loops

During Figure 31 process, I also add more edge loops around the mouth part to fill up the spaces.

^ Figure 33: Fix eyes wholes and place the eyeballs

I tried to place the eyeball to the place, but I had the problem. The problem I had was the size of the eyes wholes, therefore, I started to fix the position of the vertex to change the shape of the eye holes. I also extrude the edges bit inside to the eye holes so I can cover the place where eyeballs cannot cover. This also makes more smooth looking of eyes.

When I finished with placing the eyeballs, I cut the mesh into half, and I will mirror the mesh after to make the complete mesh.

^ Figure 34: Create a tail

As I finished with previous steps, I moved on to modelling the tail. I created a cube mesh and extrude its face to make the tail. I also changed the size and angle of the face as extruding the face. This was to model the tail as the reference image.

^ Figure 35: Give it volume

I also cut the tail in half so I can mirror the tail as well when I mirror the body mesh. I added extra edge loops on the flat sides of the tail and moved them out to make it more rounding shape, which was boxy tail before.

^ Figure 36: Modelling the ribbon

Again, I brought the cube mesh and started modelling the ribbon. I basically extrude the side face of the cube mesh. and changed its’ size and angle to fit in with the ribbon on the reference image.

^ Figure 37: Position the ribbon

When I was finished with creating the basic shape of the ribbon and wing, I placed it in the right position and started to add more detail.

^ Figure 38: Extrude

I changed the angle and size of the wing. I added the edge loop on the bottom and extrude the face to create that ribbon tail. I moved the vertex to change a bit of its shape.

^ Figure 39: Add edge loops

I came back to the wing part and added edge loops to the top of the wing. This is where need to have the whole.

^ Figure 40: Cute the faces

Therefore, I cut the faces and it became like Figure 40. Now, I have an empty wing.

^ Figure 41: Extrude the edges and connect the vertex I cannot leave this as empty inside, so I extrude the edges to fill the gaps. After I extruded the edges, I merge the vertex to make them as single mesh.

^ Figure 42: Position the ribbon with body mesh

During modelling the ribbon, I hidden the body mesh because it was made me confused when I was modelling the ribbon mesh. As I finished with modelling the ribbon mesh, I bring back the body mesh so I can place the ribbon in the right place. I changed its’ position and angle to put them in the closest place with the reference image.

^ Figure 43: Angle the line with body mesh

As you can see in Figure 43, the tail stays straight, which does not look right. Therefore, I add extra edge loops where I want to angle the tail, then change the angle of the tail, so it will drop down naturally with the body mesh.

^ Figure 44: Look of ribbon

After controlling the tail, I was looking at whole mesh, but the ribbon wing was not looking enough to me, so I started to give a few changes to the wing. I added more edge loops to the wing to give it more smooth and volume shape by pulling our the edges and vertex.

I was pretty much satisfaction with current modelling, except the eyes and face part because even how much I made a change, it does not look right to me, also I am not sure it will working well to take seven facial expressions, so I will go to ask the feedback to the tutor and give it change.

However, As I finished with modelling most of the body mesh, I am left with the ears, inside of mouth and hair modelling.

^ Figure 45: Modelling ear

I used the multi-cut tool to cut the faces and created special edge loops to modelling the ear. After multi-cut the faces, I grab the faces and extruded them. I have to watch carefully in all different perspective views to position the ear vertex in the place that looks right.

^ Figure 46: Modelling inside the mouth

As I have to take seven facial expressions, I thought I have to model the inside of the mouth as well if the character opens the mouth. Therefore, I started to model the inside of the mouth with the YouTube tutorial video.

^ Figure 47: Extrude the edges

Firstly, I deleted the face inside the mouth and extruded the edges. I also did change the size and angle of the edges as extruding them so I can shape them like the actual inside of the mouth.

^ Figure 48: Close the gab

When I reached the end, I used to append to polygon tool to connect them together. After I connected them, I selected some edges on the side and move their position. This was to make them wider and round look.

^ Figure 49: Tongue

I added the tongue inside the mouth. This was easy processing. I just added a circle mesh, placed it inside the mouth and change its subdivision axis and height.

^ Figure 50: Creating hair

The last step I was left with was modelling the hair. I have not modelled the hair before as this was my first human modelling. I did some of the researches to found tutorial video, but I realised they used a bit of complicated process, which I thought I do not need to model with that complication steps, I decided to model the hair with base mesh.

I brought the cube mesh and started to shape it as hair by extruding the faces and change the angle and vertex. I tried to position and model it similar to the reference image as much as possible.

^ Figure 51: Extrude the faces

I extruded the faces more to cover the back head as well. I grab the vertex and faces to change the angle and position of the mesh, so it covers all head shape.

^ Figure 52: Extrude the edges and finish

When I was almost end of modelling the hair, I decided to extrude the edges rather than faces because I thought this way will be an easier way to control the mesh to cover the head.

I will keep this as a half until I receive the feedback from the tutor. This is because, through the tutor’s feedback and comment, I can fix the model and improve the model.

I said this before, this was my first time to modelling the human form character, so it was not easy compared to objects or creature modelling. However, I can solve out all the problems by doing various researches to found out the information. This was a much more complicated and difficult modelling, but it was also challenging and interesting experience to do. I still have the problem with the creating eyelids, eyeballs, faces and all other things, but it was a nice very interesting and challenging exercise.

Reference List

-  ARTV_Tutorials. (2016). Maya: Simple Character Part 01 - Modeling. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzmg0grXHyE

-  Bob Mcafee. (2016). Eva Green Head modeling in Maya 2016 14 Eyes, Teeth and Tongue. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVr5YQLtaZ4

-  Daniel Kreuter. (2017). 3D Anime Hair Modelling Tutorial - Blender (Commented Version). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwUmjbhzm1M

-  GGP_Animation. (2019). Autodesk Maya | Curve Warp Deformer for Toon Style Hair. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1E3VtkkjCM

-  HTD PRODUCT. (2017). How to Modeling Human Eye in Maya 2017. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5t7siKaelY

 -  Nexttut Education. (2017). 16 Modeling mouth inside Maya. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bARCYnFjQ1k

-  Poribo. (2016). Kumiko Timelapse - Part 1 - Modeling The Head & Hair. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hQmaCLEC4

[knba2]

3. Character turnaround

Soojung Lee, n9667598

As I finished to sketching out the ideas and finalised the final design of my character, this is now time to move on to digital and draw the turnaround pose of the character.

^ Figure 1

The image in Figure 1 is showing the colour palette and front view of the character. This will be the guideline when I texturing the character. The small thumbnail on the side of the coloured character is to show the clothes under the ribbon. 

Now I will move on to draw other view points as well, which are side and back view of the character.

^ Figure 2

^ Figure 3

^ Figure 4

^ Figure 5

Figure 2 to 5 are showing the turnaround, t-pose, of the character. However, I had bit of problem when I was drawing side and back view because of the tail. I was not sure how to position the tail, so I moved on to research during the drawing process.

^ Figure 6

^ Figure 7

^ Figure 8

^ Figure 9

The character that came up to me was Nick from Zootopia. Nick also have long and fluffy tail, so I thought he will be the good reference images for me to drawing the tail of my character. I gather some images to see how they positioned his tail and try to follow similar look with him, and Figure 4 and 5 are the result of the researches.

As I was finished with drawing the turnaround poses of my designed character, I have to bring it to Maya, so I can modelling the character.

I will draw the seven universal facial expression after when I finished the modelling the character.

[knba2]

2. Character Design

Soojung Lee, n9667598

After I have done various researches on character drawing styles, I now started to design my own character to modelling for the second assessment.

Firstly, I want to work on with anthropomorphism style because I personally think this is the easiest and interesting style to work on. I decided to anthropomorphism with red panda, therefore, I started to research about the red panda, so I can refer to my character. 

I did not come up with red panda in the first place. The first animal I choose was the cat and dog, but I know they are too common. I want to work on something different from a common animal, therefore, I came up with red panda, which is cute and adorable animal.

^ Figure 1

^ Figure 2

^ Figure 3

^ Figure 4

^ Figure 5

^ Figure 6

^ Figure 7

Through those researches, I gather various points of the red panda. They have white triangle ears with some hair under the ear part, cute round tail, white circle colour top of the eyes which looks like eyebrows, cute colour and small and rounded body shape.

According to those points of the red panda, I got from the researches, I now started to sketch out my anthropomorphism style character of a red panda.

^ Figure 8

^ Figure 9

Figure 8 and 9 are showing the sketches I have done. As red panda has rounding and cute style, I decided to design with round and small type of character, which influenced by Figure 2 in the previous post called ‘1. Character design - Research’.

This character has red panda’s cute ears and tail. I decided to emphasise the tail because I think the tail is also one of the charming points of the red panda as the ears. In the first place, I was about to have normal eyebrows, but as I mentioned above, the red panda has white rounded colour on these eyes that looks like the eyebrows. Therefore, I decided to gave the same looking eyebrows to this character as well to emphasise the characteristic.

This character will have similar colour patterns and colour palette with red panda so it will have more red panda looking and feeling. Moreover, this character wears black gloves and stocking on the arms and legs because when you looking at Figure 1 to 8, all the red panda have black patterns on their arms and legs, so this design was done to represent this point.

As now I finished with sketching out ideas and character design, this is time to move to digital and draw the character turnaround for 3D modelling.

[knba2]

1. Character design - Research

Soojung Lee, n9667598

This second assessment is to design human character. The steps I have to go through design the character in 2D, draw in 2D turnaround poses, 3D modelling, texturing, rigging and animate seven universal facial expressions of the character.

As the first step for second assessment is design the character, I have to do some research to find out some resources and references that I can use and gather the idea for my own character design and style.

Figure 1: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/411657222182935995/

Figure 2: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/424534702372993896/

Figure 3: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/337770040795137118/

Figure 4: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/422634746270747275/

Figure 5: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/403564816602827460/

Figure 6: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/454933999856740622/

Figure 7: Retrieved from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/733031276822101916/

I found some reference images from Pinterest. This research was done to found out the drawing style. I already have my own drawing style and drawing skills, but this is not suitable for 3D modelling. Therefore, I have done the research to found and got some idea on character drawing styles.

The thing I have found out through this research was the emphasise the point of the character, such as a strong man, they design and draw the character with muscle and big arms.

I personally like Figure 1 to 3 and 4. I will try to think and build the personality of the character so I can emphasise the character with its’ own characteristic elements.