Excitement as the Character project is unleashed

 Week 18

This week we were finally officially given the brief for our medieval character project, to say I was excited is an understatement. I couldn't wait to get stuck in this project. Firstly before evening going into the research and creating ideas, I went through the style guide which I was already familiar with since it's been a Consistent major aspect through the medieval village project. I then looked at the main specifications and requirements put in place for my 3D model, which are a max of 4000 tris for my character and an extra 500 for any props needed. For my texture budget I have a max of 1 1024x1024 for my main body of character and 1 512x512 for additional props and details. For the rigging of the character it is to be rigged with a bi-ped and between 28-60 bones.

The character model is to have a balance I think between realistic and stylized, realistic on the general shape and proportions of the anatomy side and stylized since the textures are going to be hand-painted and not photographs. If I'm honest I kind of wanted it to be completely stylized since I feel that it would have fitted more with the rest of the assets and style guide, however I do understand that basic anatomy fundamentals are important before any stylizing comes into it.

Once I'd updated my self on the brief and the style guide I then began slowly to collect a bunch of images and references to start creating a mood-board to help generate some ideas. I guess even from the beginning I wanted to continue with the same basics and style I had previously completed my village witch house and trees in, such as the round plumpness, slight hints of purples, ect. So by already having a general direction in my mind it did help refine and  make it easier to find suitable reference. I also used myself as a basis for my project and due to my body type I felt that it already fitted in with the direction I wanted to go in. After creating my mood-board and taking pictures of my self I then began using Photoshop to create a photo-bash kit, as an easier quicker and more efficient way of generating ideas.

Once I had about 17 rough designs I began to try and narrow down my reference so that I could make it little clear what direction I wanted to go in and where my designs specifically were referenced to in my mood-boards. I then picked a couple design i felt stood out quickly tried a few minimal differences on them.