Character Postmortem

Character Postmortem

The brief is to create a stylised medieval character that has been designed with a purpose and to fit  with the style guide provided. The character is to be created based on personal appearance and then hand painted with simplified details, within set specifications of 4000 tris and 1 1024x1024 diffuse map for the main model with an alpha channel if needed and 1 512x512 diffuse texture map for props. The model is to be rigged with a bi-ped and between 28-60 bones.

For this project I first began by re reading the style guide to ensure my design fitted within the guide, Once I'd updated myself 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 myself 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 decide to complete an extended research board on the extra details and possible props to give my character a more slightly obvious purpose and story. I looked into a belts to help break down the garments, I looked more closely at the head scarf I have decide to have my character wearing, also a basket with wool and possible baby garments hanging out of it is a possible and main idea I think that I might explore more.

One of the main aspects I decide to create my female character around is that she is a pregnant woman, so one of the discussions I had with my 3D tutor was about how to help that come across on paper and as a 3D model. Which is one of the reasons I added the belt.

Once I had some general extra details and props laid out I then looked at tonal values and colour. For the colour pallet I decide to reuse the same one I had created for my village building project and the tree project and I used the same colour scheme throughout all projects so help keep it all look consistent and to fit together. I then created 8 colour different colour scheme to my final chosen design. I feel that in general all of the colours schemes work however some are a little to contrasting.

I also decided that I wanted to double check my colour distribution on my final design to ensure that I was happy with where each colour was as I was happy with my chosen pallet but not on the distribution. So I complete a page in photo shop where I fiddled around with my colours and ended up deciding that my original colour layout was much better so I stuck with that.

To model my character I started off by using the box modelling method begging with the torso and gradually modelling down wards. I then deleted half the mesh and added a symmetry modifier, modelling the left side of my character and have it mirrored to the right. Once I had my mesh I then collapsed the symmetry modifier and sealed the seams up before then going back and   editing the mesh to make it more realistic and not so identical on both sides. I decided to focus some of my tris around the bump, face, head scarf and bottom ruffles of the dress as that was a more curved shape that's highly noticeable. I also decided to get rid of some of the unnecessary tris/faces that wouldnt be seen such as underneath the head scarf, and the bump as the apron already creates the shape of the bump. 

When my model was completed and I was happy with it I then changed some of the smoothing groups so that the model looked smoother and not blocky. As I was going to have two different texture maps to make it easier for texturing stage. I decided to have my main model as one set of Ids and my props and extras as another set. 

ID 1 : Props and extras

ID 2 : Main model 

When it came to unwrapping my model I decided to create all of my own seams even though the seams generically created were actually not that bad or untidy. After I had my seams planned out I then went on to mainly using the pelt map method which I find easier, faster and much more efficient for more models I personally have created. On average the majority of my unwrap automatically came out fairly neat and tidy so I have to do Very little editing to them in order to have no minimal smears, obvious seams and a consistent quality throughout the model. When it came to unwrapping the hands is where I feel it got slightly messy and took a bit more time as I wanted then to be readable as hands but still be relaxed enough to have a consistent quality, I decided to have the underside of my hand/forearm as a separate piece and the rest as one to help keep the form and to be relaxed well.

I chose in general to have all the seams well hidden or at least the best I could get then to be, by having my seams as normal clothes would have then to make it a little more believable. As my model had an apron which I decided to have separate from it's belt, I was able to hide most of the large seams of the dress under the apron. Once I was happy with my unwrap I moved on to the texturing.

For the rig I still feel like I haven't quiet grasped it still. To rig my character I started off by adding a bi-ped then continuing to re-size the left half of the bi-ped to fit my model. I then copied and pasted the bones onto the opposite side since I had modeled my character with the mirror mode mainly anyways.  I then added a skin modifier and then began to play around with the weights of the verts that make the mesh move with the bi-ped, using a pre made rig to test out the movement of my character mesh.

Generally I feel that this project went pretty well but I still feel it could have been better. I already feel that I have improved on a lot of things, such as my time management which for this project and even though it is still not completely good. I still feel my skills and knowledge has improved a lot on Photoshop and creating my own textures.  I’m really happy with my unwrap and uvs.

 I feel that I spent are fair amount of time on them trying to get them easily readable and tidy, as well as making sure there would be no major smearing when my textures were applied, by using the checker board to make sure they were all uniform. I was pretty comfortable concepting my own designs and working from them, especially since I was able to have direct reference all the time as it was based on myself.

Four ways that I think I could improve my work would be to practice my Photoshop/texturing skills a lot more as I’m still not very skilled and feel my end model still lacks some on the texture side. I would have definitely provided myself with more time to really get to grips with the rigging side of things and to ensure my rig is done a lot more efficiently and smoother, it is one of the thing I need to work on. 

One of my setbacks for this project was that as I already had an idea of my direction I wanted to go in for my character since I wanted to continue with the theme I had completed for previous projects that were part of the village project. I feel that it did restrict me to a certain extent when it came to the concepting phase, so it something I would a void next time or to at least be a lot more open with ideas.