For my Zenith, I wanted to create a better more advanced model of my original narrative 3D model. I wasn’t really all that satisfied with how my Narrative model turned out, I didn’t like that I couldn’t control the hands and how it looked overall. So I decided to add an advanced rig and toon shader in order to get it at least a bit closer to what I wanted it to be.
So with the new model being made, that means a new base model. Some of the most notable things that apply here is that the new model doesn’t really use extrusion. What I did was I made separate body parts and then I combined them and then merged surfaces. I also created separate clothes hair and mask. It managed to turn out a lot cleaner then when I first made the model as you can see.
I think the stressful part of this is for something later down the line it has to be completely mirrored. In ZBrush it’s hard to control what surfaces and new points are made, so it’s hard to make sure that it’s completely symmetrical. The good thing is that they have a tool that mirrors the whole model. The problem is that it messes the topology, especially around the chest area.
I think that this is probably the best looking/easy part. Using Arnold’s Toon Shader, I added all of the colors and I used things like color ramps to change they shadows and different ways the light interacts with the model. Also played around with other sliders and such just things like: what color is the shadow, how extreme should the extremes be, how rough is the surface.
Reflection
For the Zenith Project I had a lot of ideas, kinda ever since I started Freestyle. I knew that if I wanted to do something big, I would have had to start early. Things changed as I got demotivated for certain things and the defining final piece was when Mr. Cho, the animation teacher, was encouraging people to try out 3D projects rather than the 2D option everybody was doing. So I switched over to a more advanced 3D Model.
It had started out with just “Use toon shader”, but I decided to add on advanced rigging as a way to make it look more impressive. I had wanted to try this out since seeing the “Vintage Spiderman” costume in Marvel’s Spiderman in which I have been playing recently. I had mainly used a tutorial from Animator Artist Life on youtube for the Advanced Skeleton, there were also a lot of miscellaneous videos that I used for toon shader and other issues.
I really feel like learning how to actually rig is my most valuable asset right now, as most people don’t really know and don’t want to learn (Honestly, I can’t blame them). This could be my ticket up.
During the project I didn’t really collaborate with anyone and no one really gave me substantial feedback. I think this really powered my ability for Self Learning since I had a lot to teach myself. It did kinda come at the cost of not really growing that collaboration all that well, but I did do the best I can. Overall, I think I did really well in almost all aspects. I’m actually really proud of myself and to see everything come together the way that it did really inspires hope in the way that I can get better. However, something that I think I could really focus on, and maybe revisit is cleaning the topology of my model. It really messed up the deformation and made a ton of bits look really fibery when bending parts of the model. I want to go back and fix that, but I’m already cutting it pretty close.
Overall, 3D modeling does get a bad rap. Mostly because it had oversaturated the market, but also it’s kind of hard to get into. Kids aren’t really opening up Blender at age 5 and having their mom put their .OBJ on the refrigerator. So it really doesn’t have that same feel that drawing and to an extent 2D animating does, but don’t let that stop you. I actually had a lot of fun (except for painting the weights) and remember all of the amazing examples of 3D Animation. Things can be Stylized and are being stylized; If you like how that looks, then be a part of it! You can have your heart set on something and that’s ok, but don’t be afraid of changing that vision to fit into something else. Sometimes it opens a door to something that you’ll be more proud of because you tried something new and it worked out. If it didn’t, then remember that it was your first try. The bottom line is try something new, because there are thousands of people out there who don’t.