Sam Duffy - Digital Creatures

QUT - N9701427 - KNB217

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https://skfb.ly/6zsIs

(A link to the sketchfab just in case the embedded version doesn’t work)

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Final Reflection for Assignment 2

After completing this model of Peleando Pollo, there are a lot of things that I need to reflect on. First of all this experience of researching, designing and creating my human character has been not only an eye-opening experience, but it has been an empowering experience. This has made me want to more modelling and produce more successful and more aesthetic looking model.

This project has helped understand typology and how to create better typology, especially with the face of the model around the mouth and eyes. Another factor of the typology that this project has helped me with was how to get rid of polygons with more than four sides. It has been something I have struggled with in past projects but in this project, I did some extra research to see how to get cleaner typology as a human character is something that clean typology is essential.

Another factor of this assessment that I found interesting was learning how to use blend shapes. It's a fun way to create different expressions and poses that I didn’t know existed.

Finally, this project has made me want to continue modelling into the future and also keep working on this model to start animating the character.

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The final turnaround of Peleando Pollo. This turnaround shows the cowboy from the four sides of the model and how the textures look.

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This is the final version of Peleando Pollo. It shows all the different components of the model coming together to create a final product that can be taken further to be animated.

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The next step was to texture the model, this was done through substance painter and used the programs powerful tools. The first thing to do was to paint the base colours of the model, other details then were added like the leather texture on the boots and belt, the cloth texture on the shirt and poncho and a bit of skin texture. these textures all added up to create a model that looks very good. 

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Before I textured the model, I had to layout the UVs. The body was unwrapped by putting the seams where the seams on clothing are. it was chosen to split the model up into three different UVs. The first is of the body and hat, the second is the head and the third is the poncho. This was chosen as the body needed less detail than the head and the poncho (as most of the body is covered by the poncho so it doesn't need to be as detailed, and the head needs to be the most detailed).

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This is a video that shows how the blend shapes apply to the face. It cycles through all the different expressions created.

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After modelling Peleado Pollo, I made copies of his head and used the sculpting tool to create several different facial expressions. These expressions are (From top left to right) surprised, suspicious, angry, confused, resting face, sad, Happy, and despair.

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A poncho was modelled from a cube that was stretched and shaped to form a static poncho. The eyes were also cut out and actual spheres were used for the eyes as well as faces on the head being extruded to create the hair and beard of the cowboy. 

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The face was finished by extruding the eyes, mouth and jaw out from each other. The forehead was extruded up and a sphere was used to get the shape of the back of the head. The ears were then shaped from the cap of a sphere and then connected to the head. the top of the head was cut off so that the hat could be put on without any overlapping polygons,

The hat was created from a cylinder that was shaped to fit the head, then the brim was extruded.

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The next stage of modelling is to model the head. I have started to do this by using the caps of a calendar for the eyes and mouth so that I get good typology with proper edge loops around the eyes and mouth. From there I added more loops and arranged the vertices to shape it into the eyes and lips. I then used a cube to shape the nose and connected the vertices for the eyes, nose and mouth. The next step is to define the rest of the jaw and forehead by connecting the vertices and extruding more faces.

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Next step was to add the feet and create a collar for the shirt. The boots were modelled from a cube and were added to the legs. The collar was extruded from the body of the model. Although the drawings didn’t have a collar, I thought it was a good addition to the character to make him more believable.

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After attaching the legs to the body, I worked on and completed the hands. They were modelled from a cube and were attached to the body in a similar way that the rest of the limbs were attached.

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The shape of the leg was created the same way as the body and arms. The next step is connecting the legs to the body. (Also in the background you can see the updated version of the reference drawings. They allowed the arms to be modelled easier).

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The arms were modelled and joined to the upper torso. The arms were created by the same way the body was, which was by using a cylinder as the base then moving the vertices to shape the arms.

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The first bit of progress was made by using a cylender to get the base shape of the body. The next step is to create the neck and start on the arms. However, There might have to be a couple adjustments made to the working drawings to allow the arms to be modelled easier. An adjustment to the drawings by making them into arrow poses instead of T poses will let me get the shape of the arms easier.

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The final reference drawings were created to help give a better picture of how to model Peleando Pollo. These are the images that will be used in Maya to model the character.