I miss Stud.io, I miss it a lot. Ever since I switched to Linux, the only piece of software I had any real longing for was Bricklink's proprietary LEGO modelling and rendering program. While true, I could always use Wine to run it, I took this as an opportunity to evolve.
Why shackle myself to creating art in the image of a toy I didn't own the rights to when I could instead invent my own? That's when I had the idea to create...
The idea was that, like LEGO, it would be a toy that had a base model which could be modularly adapted into any character I want. Unlike LEGO however, it didn't need to be part of a larger building system, so I was free to change the proportions to my liking and add ball joints.
A big boon to making all the body parts modular was that I didn't have to worry so much about topology. My last Spider-Man model had horrible stretching around the shoulders and especially the area where the legs met the hips. It was the reason I had to abandon that style.
Otherwise, I was completely winging it proportion wise, I didn't even know how to snap to grid yet! UV mapping that was a nightmare.
My go-to test for texturing is always to make a Spider-Man, but something about it looked off. I ended up redrawing the whole thing!
I thought it looked a lot better, so I moved on to test out adding accessories, which brought me to my other fave: Batman! I also added claw hands for gripping
Unfortunately, it was here that I started to get the feeling this wasn't gonna work. Criticism from my close friends told me it was trying too hard to be LEGO, and I started to agree. I had to rethink the whole thing, and that meant starting from scratch.
First of all, I needed to learn how to model to a grid. No more jank proportions, my Poppets were gonna look clean! Second, I needed to stop thinking of it as a LEGO rip off and more like an adaptation of my own artstyle. Back in 2022, I was working on a now cancelled Ren'py project which featured some not so subtle OCs
I always liked the artstyle but never found a good reason to revisit it... until now! The lack of outline and solid colors made it ideal for a 3D model, but first, I had to model it!
At long last, I was getting somewhere! I tried to inject as many "poppetisms" into the model as I could (sharp knee and elbow joints, squared off shoulders) so that it kept visual parity with my past work. It was at this stage I started taking inspiration elsewhere, notably Minecraft. Whoever at Mojang thought to give every player skin an outer layer to draw on should be given an award. I decided to wholesale steal the idea to give my models added depth, but I also wanted to add a new twist!
That purple body is actually the outer drawing layer which hides inside it the proper body, but the intersecting rectangles on each body part are a special way to add even more depth to the model without needing to model new parts. They can cover anything from ears, noses, Batman's wrist blades, Spider-Man's armpit webbing, and even ambient sparkles.
Spider-Man may be my go-to, but the added depth made me consider a more dimensional character design to test out my kit, which is why I ultimately settled on Ironman. Due to my switch from Photoshop to Krita, I lost all my legacy brushed and had to hand design them from scratch. I'm shocked at how close I got to replicating the brush I used 4 years ago! The results speak for themselves!
At last, I finally made a model I was proud of! I've even had one person tell me they thought it was a drawing at first! Another told me it looked like a Nintendo DS 3D model, which was so flattering! I love that specific style of 3D, it's like the PS1 aesthetic but for the generation I grew up in!
This is only the beginning! There will be many more models to come! Stay tuned!
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