Character Design & Modelling @mi5014amytaylorsteward - Tumblr Blog

Self Feedback, Evaluation & Conclusion

In conclusion, I feel as though I completed the task I set out to do. I gave my characters a narrative. & designed them opposite each other, as well as the environment, to create a sense of disruption between the homeowner’s peace. I researched into the characters & environment I wanted to represent & developed the ideas into coherent designs. By taking part in workshops & looking at online tutorials I learned about techniques that allowed me to execute my design work in the models I created & to use that knowledge for further use.

I think my understanding of the project was well understood. I developed my characters & gave them information about them like their political stance. If I were to do this again I would spend more time researching into other things such as country of origin, where exactly does it take place, how does it fit in with what I am trying to represent, etc.

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Environment Stills

Scout Turntable

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Bear Turntable

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Final Designs

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Production: Character Modelling

After making the T-poses for my characters, I imported them into Maya to start modelling them. I used steps from the character modelling tutorial to help model from cube to a basic shape of the character. From there, tools such as edge loops, extrudes, target weld, etc. all played a part in the modelling process. I modelled my boy scout character with their clothes attached to his body so that I didn't need to model a cube into clothes & then combine it to the body. I used the tutorial for stylised hair (via CV curves, lattice deformers & curve warp) to attach strands of hair to the scout’s head & then modelled a hat to sit on top.I then modelled the sash & badges & then indivually applied UV textures to each badge. To do this I made sure that the UV was facing the right way via the checker map & adjusted it accordingly, then I applied the texture. I coloured the character in the same colour palette as my designs to follow through on my plans.

As for the bear, I modelled the bear from 1 cube by extruding & adding edge loops. I did, however, use spheres for the eyes & combined it to the mesh. I modelled the shape of the bear (particularly the bottom part) after penguins, pillows & the magic carpet from Aladdin. As they all seem to curve around the bottom area I followed it as a guide to make the bear. I textured it with fur that was filtered to look like a cinnamon bear’s coat.

Overall I liked how both turned out & would like to see where I would’ve taken it next had I played around with the character models more.

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Badges

Scout Badges & (Antisocial) Awards

As the scout represents greed & consumption of society he also reflects the antisocial behaviour of society. I created these badges to represent all the bad deeds he has done.

Badges

*From Left to Right*

Greed

Smoking

No Manners

Arson

Mischievous

Gluttony

Ego

Nose Picking

Sloth

Rudeness

Shouting

Vomiting

Stealing

Swearing

Littering

Pranking

Vandalism

Character Development: Political Views

Each character has a specific kind of view that contrasts with each other. In this case, my characters are a cinnamon bear (a subcategory of black bear) & a boy scout which a depicting the story of the lodger & homeowner.

The scout represents greed & how society can be antisocial. His badges reflect all the bad deeds he has achieved & his sash is littered with them, showing how bad he has become. If he were to listen to a genre of music I would put him in the category of rap & particularly grime music. Artists that come to mind with this category are Stormzy, Skepta, Drake, etc.

As for the bear, I imagine that classical is more his genre. Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D Major’ is a one that fits perfectly to the bear as it has is has a happy tone on hearing it’s composition. I also imagine the bear listening to acoustic music like folk/ indie as it has that natural effect & fits in with the bear’s origin. Examples I can think of is the slow folk songs from Of Monsters & Men, the classic works of Beethoven & Pachelbel.

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Provided to YouTube by Amuseio AB SHUTDOWN · LGC · Trigga · Lucas C SHUTDOWN ℗ LGC Released on: 2019-08-01 Artist: LGC Featured Artist: Lucas C Writer: Lucas...

Scout (Political) Stance & Views

Designs: Environment

T-Poses

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Environment Moodboard: Bedroom

To help me design what is going in my environment I created a mood board to show what I wanted to have in it/ ideas. I wanted to reflect the opposite of the lodger so I thought about taxidermy & deer-mounted heads on the wall. I also wanted to include items such as a rugby ball to show how sporty & aggressive the homeowner is compared to my bear.

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Research: Bears

To help me refine my idea of the bear, I looked into the types of bears that may suit the character. I looked at 3 different species/categories of bear that I thought were good behaviour & design wise. Bears are often considered not that ferocious & will avoid humans unless forced to be. They do defend their own space however, & if you come near their space they will go into defense mode. This does not mean that they are territorial, quite the opposite in fact. Black bears are good climbers & are less aggressive while grizzly bears are not. Bears are curious & not always aware of their surroundings.

The reason why I chose the cinnamon bear is because it is a subcategory of the American black bear which means they good at climbing & swimming. They age to a maximum of 30 years old which makes me think about how old I want my bear to be & how tall it would be.

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Research: Environment

Source: [Youtube] Nick O, (2016), Toy Story (1995) - Opening Scene 1080p

From my feedback of my original idea, I decided that the environment would be better if I changed the location as a camp/woodland environment to the camper’s bedroom as it would be a place where the homeowner is comfortable & the lodger, the bear, is not. As the camper is a child, I thought about researching into what a child’s bedroom might look like with interests such as scouts/camping. I knew I wanted to include a tent/fort made out of blankets/bed sheets as the centre point of the bedroom as it ties well with the interests of the child. I also like the idea that the child is pretending & creating a scenario of being at a camp & the bear has stumbled upon the scene.

To help support this idea I looked at Andy’s bedroom in Toy Story & how Andy pretends & creates scenarios. Andy’s room at the beginning of Toy Story is heavily dominated by the cowboy theme as Woody is his favourite toy to play with. This is reflected in the similar cowboy hat Andy wears while playing with Woody. I like the idea that the character dresses up to get into the imaginary pretence that they are in a camp which could be the reason why the character is in a scout uniform. I would like to have items in my character’s room to represent the theme & feel like they belonged in that space. Another thing I thought about is the colours, patterns & textures & what would be present in a young child’s room. As my original idea was leaning towards a boy scout I wanted to look into what boys would have in their room. Blues & green hues are an obvious choice of colours but I wanted to look at oranges, browns, yellows too. Various items that the character would be interested in would be in the scene to make it seem “lived in” such as scout gear. The environment I want to make should make the lodger seem out of place so items such as taxidermy-vibe items should be present in the home, suggesting the homeowner is more predator than prey rather than the lodger - the bear. Textures should vary to keep the room less boring. I will look into UV mapping or using hypershade in Maya to texture the environment.

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