Maya: Cartoon Character Body Rigging Part 1 and 2 (Feet, Legs and Spine)

Before moving on to my Narrative characters' rigging I am going to use the Cartoon Character like a sort of guinea pig to see how it works on him. So far I had a few problems with him but at least I will know how to correct them if I face the same ones with Tracy and The Mother.

Narrative: Tracy's Skinning Progress V1 (Head and Body)

This is what I've got from Tracy up till now. The file has been incredibly slow whenever I smooth her some reason but I am hoping to fix this issue before the file corrupts :S

Yep, she looks terrified :D

Narrative: Mother Skinning Progress V1

So this is the Skinning of the Mother I've got up till now. There are a few tweaks that need to be done (including the shoes) but overall I think she's looking ok. I had problems with making her arm look less ragdoll-like, basically because of the geometry in the folds. I am also in the progress of skinning Tracy but she seems a bit easier to handle.

Maya: Cartoon Character Skinning Part 5 and 6 (Shoes and Head)

Skinning is so much more straightforward to me and I get the chance to skin my narrative characters alongside with this guy. I am in the process of skinning both the Mother and the kid at the moment and will update my progress soon.

Maya: Cartoon Character Skinning Part 3 and 4: Shirt/Hands and Trousers

It took me a good while to understand skinning. I was about to give up on the tutorial when I decided to keep doing it until I get the hang of it and it worked. I first thought it was complicated math but I know it's more simple than that. I am so relieved I finally understood it :)

Maya: Animating an Action-Part 2 (Inbetweens)

Narrative: Character UV Mapping

I hope the uvs works well and are not as stretched. I left out the hair, the scarves and the shoes as they will be plain block colours (it should be easier since their design is a bit complicated). Dom can now texture them easier.

Narrative: Models ready for UV Mapping!

It's been a while but I think i am now ready to Uv map, skin and rig! :)

Mother Modelling Progress (Head)

So I did a few changes to the face with Alan's help and tried to follow the hair design as much as possible. I think I should do more changes to the hair to make it look more 70's in a way.

Narrative: Mother Modelling Progress (Body)

It took me a while to make the fold on her shirt work sensibly but I think it is believable now. I added some buttons for detail (detail always makes things more believable) and I still need to work on the trousers. But progress is progress.

Narrative: Mother Modelling Progress (Head )

So this is what the mum looks like up till now. I wouldn't say she looks exactly like the image but atleast she looks mature enough for a 30 year old mother.

Maya: Animating an Action-Part 1 (Blocking Key Frames)

Narrative: Tracy's Modelling Progress

So this is what I've got up till now and she's nearly finished. All that's left is the hands and some tweaking on the hair Dom suggested to make it more stylised. The mother will be quite similar to her so it would be sensible to use Tracy's head and tweak it to make it look more mature. After all mothers and daughters look alike.

Narrative: Tracy's Modelling- Head Complete!

And her cute little face is done! The hair was a bit of a struggle but she's here now and that's what counts :D

Narrative: Modelling Tracy (Eyes,Mouth and Eyebrows)

So here is Tracy so far. Her face is pretty round (most like a porcelain doll) and I kept her eyes big to make her a cute 10 year old girl. For now she look like an alien but I guess she will be much better with hair. I've got two versions of her one with eyelashes and one without. Which works best? :P

Narrative: Tracy's Modelling- Blocking

And so it begins!. She looks cute already :D

Maya: Cartoon Character Skinning Part 1 and 2- Creating Joints and Binding

He's coming to life now! I am actually excited to start modelling the characters for our Narrative :)

Maya: Cartoon Character UV Mapping Part 5 and 6: Hair and Misc (UV Mapping Completed!)

And my little guy is ready for skinning! :D

Postmodernism: Essay Notes and Links (after taking in Phil's Advice)

These are a few useful links and notes I found that should be great to consider in the essay. I will eventually gather more :)

Postmodern Essay Notes

Maya: Cartoon Character UV Mapping Part 3 and 4: Shoes and Head

Ironically, the head was the trickiest to model but the easiest to UV Map  :O

Narrative: House Modelling Process

In this Narrative Project I was given the task to model the house and the Characters of our Trailer/Animation. The house is an easy one to do but the real task is the characters. I hope I can do my best on this as I am not the most confident person in maya but my character modelling tutorials are doing well so I don't see why not.

So here is my first creative work on this project.

Maya: Cartoon Character UV Mapping Part 1 and 2: Legs, Shirt and Arms

A special thanks to Jon Stewart for his online help with my geometry which made my UV mapping hard to do. One thing you need to know about UVs is: they will show even the tiniest flaws in your geometry so you better have a decent model to start with. Hope this will be a good lesson to me so I pay more attention in modelling. :)

Evaluation of Unit 2: Character Design

It's been 10 weeks of Year 2 already and we are done with our first project. Time went so fast, yet everyone produced a huge amount of work and did really well at their crits. I am glad Justin mentioned that we are the strongest group so far with a great number of talented people.
To be very honest, this project was the one I was looking forward to since Year 1. I have always been interested in character design and having a professional to show us the hidden grammar behind characters was something I certainly anticipated. I wanted to make the most of these 10 weeks as you never know when we will get an opportunity like this ever again.  I learnt so much during those 10 weeks but there is so much more ahead of me. And I believe I did make the most of it as I could see it from the feedback I got in my presentation.
So all in all I cannot wait to put the knowledge I grasped into my own characters, and of course turn them into 3D.

Note: Need to improve in presentation skills. Be more excited about my work.

Character Design: The Character Bible of Ada Sar Tsang

Character Design Bible

Character Design: Additional Character Concept- Dumpling

I know ..I know..I named her after a Chinese Dish again but it's funny. :P

Character Design: Ada creating a Sandstorm Concept

I cam imagine the whole style changing when Ada fights or performs he magic powers in the desert. It could be turning into a Chinese Painting on handmade paper. Oh and her green eyes would light up showing the power of the Jade Sun.