Week 11 was half a week of pre- deadline panic and half a week of Christmassy rejoice. I started the week aiming to finish the textures for my characters to start rigging. I put them together in engine and kept testing them against one another, trying to make sure they fit together well.
Whilst I was at this stage, I showed my work to Steve, one of my tutors, who pointed out that my male model appeared rather feminine and that there were certain things I should alter to give him a more masculine appearance. I am so grateful I received this feedback, because honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me. I think I got too caught up in what I was doing to realise just how far I had strayed from my original concepts. As soon as it was pointed out to me, I was kicking myself for having not noticed sooner. I'm a bit ashamed to say that, due to being annoyed at myself and stressed about having to make changes so close to the project deadline, I sent myself into a bit of a tizzy. It turned out that there was no real need to, as I managed to alter the model significantly with enough time spare to put the model into a simple pose. I think I was just scared that I wouldn't and let it stress me out too much.
So! I went on to try and make my model more similar to the original concept. I can't look back at the old model without cringing now. It's not only way too feminine, but it is also quite creepy and just really wrong looking and ugh. BUT. I made a list of the things that needed altering and steadily worked through them. I was able to make changes without stretching the textures drastically. I fattened the neck and made it a bit shorter, to make it look less elegant and swanlike. I also shortened the hair and made it less flamboyant, which I think communicates the image a lot better. The most drastic changes I made were in the face, where I completely altered every aspect to make it more angular and more similar to the original concept. I made his eyes and mouth smaller too, to take away the pouty look he'd been adopting before. I changed the shape of his eyes as well, to make them look less friendly. I also angled the eyebrows and changed the shape of the nose, which had originally been a bit round looking.
I think the look of the character now is miles better than what it was. It looks a lot more like the original concepts, so I think the alterations went really well.
After I thought I had got the changes as close as I could, I went on to creating a biped and applying a simple rig to my character.
I tried to set up the rig to position the character as close as possible to the pose in the concept shown. I also changed the direction that the eyes were pointing to make them similar to the concept which, strangely, dramatically changed it and made the character really look alive. I really like the character now that he's in a pose.
These are some of the final renders for my character. I also put my character into Marmoset to get some beauty renders. I'm really pleased with these and I think I did well to turn this character around. I think he's gone successfully and I'm really proud of what I have learnt throughout this project.
I'm also happy to say that the presentation seemed to go quite well. I think I enjoyed it more presenting to a smaller group of people and felt a lot calmer. From the feedback I received from the presentation, I'm going to focus on the little girl now, so I can put them together and have a solid portfolio piece. The boy is right now, so the little girl just needs some of the same attention and editing to capture the same cuteness that's in the concepts. At the moment she's quite creepy, especially from the side, so that will be my focus in this project now.
After the presentation though, Amanda, Lucy and I immediately started Christmas celebrations and made our own little Christmas dinner! 'Feeling so festive! I hope everyone is having a great holiday!
CHRISTMAS DINNER :D
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