a blog about my sona
hello! its me, sushi. i apologize for not uploading on youtube for a while… i havent really made any videos for this channel since…the waiting room…but THAT DOESNT MEAN I HAVENT BEEN WORKING ON ART AND ANIMATIONS!!! anyway ill start going over what exactly im showing yall in the video…
this is my latest 3d model, slooshi, a character that represents my online identity (aka a sona)!!! ive made tons of 3d models before her, but the reason she gets her own video is to show two things i havent really explored too deeply before, 3d animation (specifically the walk cycle) and the face rig…
3d animation was something ive wanted to explore for a while as i do have some (emphasis on some) experience on animation, more specifically the 2d asset based kind (i animate object shows :P) so i just went ahead and did it… surprisingly, the process itself wasnt as hard as i thought, though from the looks of it, the animation is a bit too stiff… its something i want to learn about more as i do want my movement to feel more…alive, but for now, this stiff walk cycle and the unnaturally smooth head turns are all youre going to get :))
the face rig is the one that i am really excited to talk about though, as it does something ive personally never seen a 3d character do before: make the face and its movements look like an actual part of the pixel art texture… 0:31 shows this in action, where the eyes and eyebrows/eyelids moves smoothly behind what looks like a mosaic filter, conforming to the resolution of the texture itself…
i didnt really want to put planes on my head, make swappable textures, or model the actual face mesh on the head to represent the face, so i instead went for the harder (?) route: make the material do all the face rig work for me. i learned a lot about vector math, drivers, custom properties, and just shaders in general, something ive actually been looking into ever since i made that cel shader for my jax model (the same cel shader the video is using right now)….
the way the face textures look and move are actually based on how object shows are animated! (specifically the ones with asset-based animation for body parts, like bfdi/bfdia and inanimate insanity). just like those shows, the eyes and mouth are just images that can be moved anywhere or swapped anytime to convey any sort of emotion! what makes my model work a bit differently though are the eyelids. instead of it being a part of the eye images itself, its an independent part altogether that masks the eye out whenever the eyelid moves over it…
i know im not the first person to ever do this type of face for a 3d model but it makes me feel like my model is unique nonetheless hahah… im really happy with how it looks (just… ignore the lack of mouth. ill add that later) hey btw. if you read everything here, feel free to let me know down in the comments and/or say apple or whatever…id love to see people actually reading my stuff :) )
anyway… thats all i wanted to say pertaining this 3d model! ill be making a ref sheet soon with her, so stay tuned for that heehee…
if you want to see more of my art, go check out my newgrounds https://yoshiyoutube.newgrounds.com or visit my website at https://whytee.xyz.
thank you for listening to my rambles
- sushiwt <3
