3D Character Model & Bio
I finished off my character model by texturing it in Substance Painter, just like I did with my weapon and table models. Overall, this is the model I am the most proud of, as I put in the most effort into detailing and finding the right materials to use in the right spots. The robotic look and shiny textures really sell the futuristic appearance and work well with the background photospheres in the render images. I also came up with a short bio for this character, which is featured below.
3D Character Walk, Run, and Jump
Using this newly finished model, I was now able to finally move on to actual animation. I created 3 different animations by hand–walking, running, and jumping. It involved the use of extensive keyframing and positioning each pose exactly how I wanted it, and unfortunately the rig would do weird things that messed up the animation. However, with time and patience, I was able to fix everything up into working order.
3D Lip Sync Animation
The final thing I did with my character was making a lip sync animation. Similar to last year’s lip sync, I created a bunch of different reference poses and used keyframes to morph from one pose to the next. With this technique, creating the animation was pretty easy and not as laborious as one might expect. I also added eye blinking to add more life to my character. This specific lip sync is of my character giving a weather report, because I thought it was funny and I found a mocap that suited this particular scenario.
3D Narrative Animation
This project was the epitome of the narrative unit in Animation, combining everything I learned about Maya into one singular production. It was also the animation I spent the longest time working on, as many working parts needed to fit together in order for the animation to be complete. Unfortunately, a lot of our team’s original ideas needed to be scrapped as we ran out of time to implement everything we wanted to, and many of the scenes were rendered with playblast instead of Arnold. Nonetheless, I think its the effort that counts for this project, and I definitely put in the most here in comparison to anything else I had produced at Freestyle.
Reflections
Looking back, I find it hard to believe that I have been working with a character I had been building since the start of the semester, eventually ending with a short Narrative Animation. I put a lot of work into the design of my character, and I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish given such a tight time frame. While I definitely feel the Narrative Animation could have been improved, I still feel like I learned a lot about animating in Maya and the overall concept was still there. I hope to delve further into 3D modeling and animating with my Zenith project.