Completed Environment Model

To help give an overall update on my film, I have included pictures of the completed environments for the film. These were created by Peter, and although they are not my work, I thought it was important to include them on my blog to give context to the overall scope of the films progress. All modelling is finished now, so the environment models have been passed along to Chelsea to UV Map and texture. The completed environment and characters means that I am now in a position to begin animation. 

The Old Man and The Orphan

Seeing as rigging is now complete, I wanted to put the two characters together, to gain an impression of what they will look like on screen. I really like the outcome of these two. I think the juxtaposition of size is great, and exactly what I envisioned when I first designed them. The Old Man remains a huge, dominating figure, while The Orphan is stick thin, and half his size. I believe this dynamic will work very well within my film. 

The Orphan - Character Model and Rig

The second character to model and rig was the character of The Orphan. As with The Old Man, I followed the designs created for me by Chelsea, and was able to accurately represent and recreate the 2D design within a 3D environment. The first couple of images, displayed below, show my character model before the rigging process had taken place.

Unfortunately, although I felt that my character looked the part, I had made a few errors within the modelling process. I had not incorporated the correct edge loops into the legs of my character, and once I began rigging, I found these problems surfaced, causing my character rig to be drastically affected. Although I had no problems during the rigging process of The Old Man, The Orphan was proving to be very difficult. The damaged rig is shown below.

Luckily, Sultan, my tutor, was able to fix the problem I had and complete the body rig for the character.  Extra controls given to me by Sultan include the ability to control the character's scarf, as well as the coat he is wearing. Once I had the finished body rig returned to me, I was able to create the different blend shapes for the character, meaning I was able to create controls for facial animation.

The finished rig is pictured below.

I am pleased with the outcome of the rig. I would've been unable to fully complete the rig by myself, so I thank Sultan for all the help he has given. I am looking forward to begin animating with the character, because, as the pictures below show, the character has a lot of scope for interesting poses and characterisation. 

Now the two character rigs are complete, I am able to begin animating.

The Old Man - Character Model and Rig

The below pictures show the completed character model for my Old Man character. These designs are based upon the final hand drawn designs created by Chelsea. I think that the finished Maya models reflect these designs well, and capture the nature of the character. The Old Man certainly retains the look I wanted, and is just how I pictured him to look on screen. While modelling I kept in mind what I had learnt from the use of shape language, and have incorporated the use of strong, simple shapes into the creation of this character. After the completion of the character model, the next step for me was the rig the character model.

The below photos show my finished character rig, complete with joints and controls. I haven't found rigging the most enjoyable, or easy, of processes, but I am glad I have been able to get through it with the rigging of this character. The rig works, and is able to be moved and posed efficiently. Facial controls were created through the use of blend shapes, which are also pictured below. I also used blend shapes to create controls for the pockets, allowing them to bounce with the coins within them. 

I am glad that the rig for the Old Man has been completed, as it now means I will be able to begin animating the character.

Below: Test poses of the Old Man rig.