3D Reflective Journal #2 - Beginning Character Modelling

 

3D Reflective Journal #2 (+ Feedback)

I did a lot of timelapse watching and tutorial watching and then begun making the (dreaded) face model for our character. Started with the eye outline, and then moved on to the lips and some connecting geometry. I go more in detail about this further down in this blog, but here are some images:

Also went looking for interesting textures/surfaces outside as part of a class activity, here are some of my favourite surfaces I found (interesting grunge, surface imperfections and patterns):

Group Status:

I took on the team lead role for our group and organised the relevant tasks like this (these will likely change slightly in the future depending on what is needed/how fast individuals progress, but this is a solid starting point I feel):

The assigned Production Bible:

• The character design is made unique by the chosen hair shape, the cropped jacket which doesn't hug the body/go all the way down the torso and the interesting armour plating on the shoulder. The vehicle has a unique shape (due to the gazelle inspiration) and looks simultaneously industrial and toylike in aesthetic.
• The design language and colour choice in particular brings to mind Sci-Fi projects, specifically more recent Star Wars films/series (such as The Mandolorian and Andor).
• Overall I feel that the styles match fairly well between the character and the vehicle. The colour palettes match perfectly and you get a sense of the vehicle's armour plating from the layered plating on the left shoulder of the character (echoed detail).
• In terms of changes to the designs and details provided within the production bible, I do not feel like moving to a 3D medium calls for anything drastic to be changed. In particular, the vehicle looks very approachable, with clearly identifiable shapes, not too much curvature or complex welds and a consistent level of detail / LOD. Essentially every detail should be doable from a modelling standpoint. With the character, it will be a fairly standard human basemesh, with as discussed before aspects such as the hair, clothing and armour plate providing some unique additions (but they should not be unapproachably difficult). Of course, as 1/2 of our team is brand new to 3D, we will be fine to reconsider down the line if small compromises need to be made, but ideally nothing too major will need to be changed. It is worth noting details such as the pockets on the jeans are doable at a texturing stage, and thus don't necessarily need to be modelled in. 

I like the aesthetic we have been provided, and feel it will be interesting to explore, and try to create that same cohesion between the vehicle/character ourselves within a 3D context. While I do really like the cohesion and colour palette, I'm not super certain the level of detail will match up 1:1 in the final turntable between character/vehicle due to the initial slight difference in the 2D reference, on top of the main fact that different people of different skill levels are working on each aspect. I still have faith we'll be able to create something that looks good though - may just take some extra refinement/adjustment.

Next, all team members will work either directly on the dedicated parts of the model they have been provided, or on upskilling/improving their ability to use Maya so that they are able to approach working on the different aspects that they need to.

Feedback

I got 3D model feedback from Sylvain and another workshop TA regarding the lips of my model, for which I was really struggling with lining up the vertices between both orthographic views simultaneously. I had to restart multiple times and it ended up taking over and hour for such a small detail which was a little demoralising but we got there in the end. 

The advice from Sylvain was to stop fixating so much on the orthographic for a second and consider the real world context - what shape should the lips be. Basically, he made me realise it was fine to use my own intuition as long as it was close enough to the reference/tutorial (vertex count was important, but the final 3D shape was more important than getting everything lined up pixel perfect). The other TA advised to give plenty of depth - the face is "longer" than we often think in side profile. This feedback was very helpful in clarifying that modelling piece and breaking out of that rut/difficult patch.