Introduction
For the majority of this year in animation class I have been working on developing a 3D model of my character using Autodesk Maya, Z-Brush, Substance Painter, and Adobe After Effects. I started with learning how to create simple models in AutoDesk Maya such as a greek temple environment and a model of a hammer weapon.
Weapon
My inspiration for this hammer came from several video game designs of war hammers I found on the internet. the general shaping of this hammer was originally done in Maya along with basic colors. It was then taken to Z-Brush where I added more detailed textures and imprints. Finally it was transferred to Substance painter where I painted on materials like bronze, leather, jade, and wood. I am pretty happy wit this being one of my first fully developed 3D models.
3D Character Development
For the majority of this year in Animation class I have been developing my own personal 3D character model. I began by modeling the head of my character in Z-Brush then attaching the head to a dummy model base and sculpting the rest of her clothes and accessories form there.
From there I imported the model of my character into Substance Painter and painted texture like skin, leather, bronze, etc. This was a similar process to how I painted my weapon shown above. Here is a full render out of Substance Painter of my character. I then used Photoshop to add a character bio giving her a background story.
In order to animate Nienna I had to bring her into Maya and “rig” her. To “rig” and 3D model is to basically attach strings to them like a puppet so they can be manipulated into motion using key framed or MoCap data. MoCap data, or motion capture data, is data sent from wirelessly from a suit a person wears using sensors at their joints. This way a person is able to act out motions rather than animating them frame by frame. You can take this data and attack it to your character animating them. MoCap data is often used for movies and video games. I took my stationary model of Nienna and separated her model from her texture so I could import her into maya and essentially wrap the texture around her. The shadows, depth, colors, etc. have to be flattened out like animal hides before they can be wrapped.
With Nienna rigged I was able to finally animate her using MoCap data and key-framing. There is a website called Mixamo where I looked through a library of free MoCap scenes to attach to my character.
This was a very long process taking up the entire year, however I am so thankful to have been taught all f these wonderful skills. Going into college and studying animation and VFX, I will be a step ahead of all of my peers. Thank you Mr. Cho! 🙂