production screenshots-torso and legs

To get the basic shape of the torso, legs and shoes i used planes to shape round the 2D images and then i extruded them outwards to give them width. I then curved the vertex points inwards around the rest of the body parts to make them rounded. Although I had to move certain points to form the stuck out knees and elbow joints.

production screenshots-The hand

The palm of the hand was fairly difficult to shape and i had to refer to looking at my own a few times. Once it was created, one of the fingers is extruded outwards and simply duplicated four times. These are then spread across the tip of the palm and all the vertex points are merged together, fully connecting the fingers to the hand.

As the bone in a human arm can twist both ways, i too rotated the vertex points all across the wrist and arm. so if animated the arm will also be able to twist more fluently if needed.

production screenshots

Face Test 2

This is another Face tester, where i practiced more around shaping the cheekbones, bone structure and the eye sockets.

Face Test 1

This is a basic face test that i created to help me become more fluent in building the facial features.

Important note 3

To help create the model frame in maya the main tools that i will need to use are:

Scale-Altering the size of the object
Rotation-Rotating the object
Move-Moving an object to different positions
Split polygon- Creating a edge across the face
Extrude-Extending an edge or a face outwards, altering the rotation, scale, movement. Once finished press the G key to end that reposition
Insert edge loop-Inserts a line all around the faces of an object
Merge-Merges the two vertex or lines together as one
Back face display-Depending on the view this tools turns on and off the back faces to decrease confusion when modeling.
Border edges-Thickens the end edges of an object
x-ray-Fades the object so the image planes can be seen in the background
mirror-when one half of the object is finished, the other side can be copied beside it, making it one.
Duplicate-Similar to a mirror the duplicate can be used during modeling as an unselected object. when any alteratins are made on the modeling half the same movements are made on the duplicate too.

Body structure

Unlike the face, a lot of the body parts can be created by the use of planes and extruded out a few times. Although the structure of the wire frame still has to be modeled to fit the human body shape.

The 3D Face Structure, Important note 2

When modeling a face it is treated as three sections with three holes. Two of the sections are of the eyes and the other is mouth. If the character is to be used in an animation the mouth has to have multiple lines running down the side of the face for it to openly stretch and reshape like a human movement.

here is a basic example of what the wire frame should look like on my character.

3D Father

As i am still learning basic ways in creating a character in Maya i have decided to choose the father chararacter to model. This is mainly because he is the head of the family and like many other father characters in other sitcoms, he should be treated as the main character. He also is quite plane looking and has no hair making him more of a managable challange.

Father

Father Profile

Character Name

Full Name: _Frank Alaway
Nick Name(s): Frank the devil Alaway
Gender: Male
Age: 59
Birthday/year: 20/4/1951
Hair: bald
Eyes: Dark Brown
Language(s): English
Height:6ft
Weight/Body Structure/Physical Faults:8 stone 1
Race/Species:Human
Parents/Elders/Guardians:Francis, Harold Alaway
Siblings:none
Enemies:johnny The Hammer Kain-boxing rival
Beliefs/Religion:Christian
Career/Past Careers:Retired Boxing Contender-Lightweight
Dreams/Life Goals:To be the lightweight boxing champion
Hobbies:Picking his nose, doing the crossword, watching boxing on television.
Loves:his two children Sean Alaway, Becky Alaway, his deceased Wife-Margret Alaway, His new wife mi Ly, all fighting sports-UfC, Boxing, Martial Arts
Loathes:Homophobic, Facebook, Hes old fashioned
Fears:Dying Alone
Strengths:Fairly good fighter, has a softer side to his personality, very generous and loving to his family
Weakness:suffers from arthritis so he had to cut his boxing career short, to trusting which can often backfire especially with his kids. Not the most wises person
Temperament:Can be a little neglectful at time but most of the time he is a loving caring family man.
Background:Raised in rough neighbourhood Frank was always getting in to trouble with the law at a young age. After realising his talent for boxing he turned his full attention to the sport. Here he met his wife Margret as she became his full time manager and had two children Becky and Sean. After boxing for several years he never became champion and suddenly had to quit when learning he had arthritis. He now tries to encourage his children to take up a sport to honor him. A Few years later Margret gets hit by a train and dies unexpectedly. All alone with his two kids Frank wishes to find love again and someone who will learn to love his two children. Getting older frank decides to get a mail order bride from Thailand, from looking at the pictures on the Internet he selects a women named Mi Ly. Disappointed by the results of his new bride, Frank still marries Mi Ly out of the kindness of his heart where they live together with his two children happily. Or so he thinks. Completely deluded and unaware of the antics of his family.

mother

Mother Profile

Full Name:Mi Ly
Gender:Female
Age:38, Real age:45
Birthday/year:14/7/1965
Hair:Dirty Grey
Eyes:Dark brown
Origin:born in Thailand
Language(s):Thai, Little English
Height:5ft 3
Weight/Body Structure/Physical Faults:very overweight, Smelly, unhealthy
Race/Species:Human
Parents/Elders/Guardians:Adung Ly, (mother), Thaksin Ly (father)
Siblings:none
Enemies:Everyone
Beliefs/Religion:Buddhist
Career/Past Careers:unemployed
Dreams/Life Goals:To get married to a English man and to live a simple life.
Hobbies:Spitting, drinking vodka, Smoking, watching television,
Likes:Alcohol, nicotine, being lazy, food, shouting and moaning
Dislikes:Dogs, Cats, majority of animals, children
Fears:being deported back to Thailand
Strengths:good cooking skills
Weakness:Lack of English language makes it hard to understand, barely interacts with the children and is not exactly encouraging towards them. Extremely unhealthy and at certain times she has trouble breathing.
Bad Habits:Spitting, farting, picking her nose, burping, being very lazy and bone idol
Temperament:Aggressive, self centred, negative attitude to everything.
Background:Growing up in Thailand Mi Ly lived in a rough area in Bangkok. Because she was the only child Mi was spoiled rotten by her parents where she was given anything and everything nice that they could afford. She has no real education and is non domesticated but is surprisingly skilled at cooking. Although because of the harsh times in Bangkok due to money Mi Ly advertised herself as a mail order bride so she could continue to live the lazy life by living of others. By posing as another Thai bride on the website Mi Ly managed to con Frank Alaway into marrying her out of pure sympathy. Now emigrated to England she carries on living her easy life, making no attempt to learn to love Frank or his children. like her old life she sits around the house sluggishly, drinking and smoking, finding things to complain about.

Son

Son Profile

Full Name: Sean Alaway
Gender:Male
Age:17
Birthday/year:8/1/93
Hair:Brown with Blonde streaks
Eyes:Brown
Origin:English
Language:English
Height:5ft 10
Weight/Body Structure/Physical Faults:Athletic build, quite strong
Race/Species:Human
Parents/Elders/Guardians:Frank Alaway, Mi Ly Alaway, Margret Alaway (deceased)
Siblings:Becky Alaway
Beliefs/Religion:Christian
Career/Past Careers: Still in High School-6th Form
Dreams/Life Goals:To play professional football or rugby
Hobbies:Playing Football, Going to Gay bars, being popular, being a jock
Likes:Men, parties, Socialising, leather pants, tight fitting clothes, dicerative sunglasses
Dislikes:Homophobic, geeks,
Fears:Afraid that his father will find out that he is gay, disappointing people, losing popularity, being seen as an outcast,
Strengths:Naturally sporty, very popular, seen as a star
Weakness: not that intelligent, very secretive and making excuses, can be quite jumpy and paranoid when asked about his sexuality.
Good Qualities:With his athletic talents he is honoring his fathers dreams of being a sports star.
Bad Habits:Constantly lying
Temperament:can be obnoxious and stuck up to anyone who is less popular than himself, very confident but also very secretive about his double life. cares for his father dearly and is scared of disappointing him.
Background:The oldest out of the two children, Sean has always been the achiever between the two. Even at a young age because of his athleticism He has always been popular and always picked first when playing a game. Although he is not the smartest child because of his impressive sportsmanship attitude his education has been easy. Growing up Sean was always bi curious and when his mother died he spent most of his time spent taking to girls looking for direction in life and eventually realised he was meant to be homosexual. His relationship with his sister is like a typical love and hate sibling example. often fighting with each other Sean is eventually forced to make up with her as Becky as she knows his true gay identity and would regularly blackmail him. Although his sister knows his secret, his father is left in the dark and completely unaware about any of his social life antics. As his father is old fashioned Sean is afraid that if he finds out he will reject him completely. To prevent this from happening Sean Lies to him constantly making with his jumpy attitude.

Daughter

Daughter Profile

Full Name:Becky Alaway
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Birthday/year:31/6/1993
Hair:dark brown
Eyes:blue
Origin:English
Language:English
Height:5Ft 5
Weight/Body Structure/Physical Faults:Slim, 8st 4lb
Race/Species:Human
Parents/Elders/Guardians:Frank Alaway, Mi Ly Alaway, Margret Alaway (Deceased)
Siblings:Sean Alaway
Beliefs/Religion:Christian
Career/Past Careers:Unemployed, School Pupil, Small time drug dealer
Dreams/Life Goals:To have a Baby with her boyfriend, No goals
Hobbies:Spray painting, Drinking, Smoking, stealing, being a Chav __
Likes:Vodka, Lambert and Butler, her Boyfriend, taking advantage of her dads generosity, being lazy, Large earrings and other golden jewellery, skimpy clothing
Dislikes:Homework, any kind of labour, police officers
Strengths:Very manipulative, secretive, Good it lying, dancing
Weakness:Not that intelligent,Little ambition,selfish
Good Qualities:Although she can be manipulative towards her family she still cares for them dearly
Bad Habits:Stealing, Underage drinking, smoking, swearing, fighting
Temperament:Flirty, Aggressive, but can still be caring if necessary
background:Youngest out of the two children. Before her teens she was a pigtailed cute choir girl singer being very respectful and well mannered to her elders. She was also an average student with a talent for ballet. When she hit her teens Becky turned the other way and became much more cheeky to her peers and rebellious in class. With the death of her she went completely off the rails and felt she needed sudden companionship and a family of her own. This when she met her law breaking older boyfriend, Leroy. By skiving of school, selling cannabis and stealing she now has no ambition in life. Although she tends to hide her troublesome behaviour from her father, it is quite obvious in what her personality is like. With the bad influence from her new mother she continues to behave selfishly.

Character Planes 1

Daughter




Son




Father




Mother

Important note

When designing the front and side planes of a 2D character, it is vital that all of the body parts (face, arms, torso and legs) and any other details have to be precisely in line with each other. If any of the body features are not checked and are scaled differently, this will cause great difficulty when modeling them as 3D object, as the sizes from the two views will not interlink with each other.

Emmanulle walker

Emmanuelle Walker is a 2D illustrator and animator from Montreal, Canada. She Recently created an animation called Aprés le Pluie (After The Rain). On her website she displays the development of how the characters were formed in different stances and facial expressions. Although her characters are straighten edged and very simplistic, she focuses her alterations even on the little parts of a the character such as the clothing and the body parts, creating the fine perfect look.

Batman Character Development

Looking through the Batman animated book i found several examples of how the heroes and villain characters have evolved over time. Starting from the original character ideas, these have been constantly experimented with to keep the cartoon sharp and eye catching.
.Altering the shape of the shoulders and Jaw line.
.using darker tones of colours to create a darker mood
.changing the overall detailed weapons features to give the character more personalty.
These are some of the examples:
First Stage


Final Stage

First Stage

Final Stage

First stage

Next Stage

Final stage

First Stage

Final Stage

Maya Mental Ray

To generate 3D models to be the best quality that they can possibly be they are rendered by the software Mental Ray. As a part of Autodesk Maya and 3D studio Max, Mental Ray increases the different levels of the shading effects that feature in the 3D software. Whats absolutely amazing is that Mental Ray impacts every little detail by selecting the perfect amount of light and darkness of the modelled object creating an overall photorealistical image. With this type of software constantly evolving, sooner or later i think that there will be no need for actors to play in films as 3D design will cover all areas.

morgan freeman project

This fantastic model of morgan freeman was created by Jose M Lazaro. This huge process begins by first modeling the basic scale shape of the character and hair by using polygons in 3d studio Max. To add further details such as dints, facial mark features the model was then imported into Mudbox and then ZBrush. The textures were then designed in Photoshop and added onto the model to be finalized. Overall i think this is a superb model as Lazaro has captured all of the main and little features of the actor including his wrinkles, moles, and beard creating a near perfect result.

Tsvetomir Georgiev

Georgiev is a 3D character concept artist from Bulgaria. Mainly using 3D studio max, Photoshop and z brush he focuses his designs around mythical creatures and other monsters that are featured in games and films such as Clash of the Titans and Doom. The textures he creates like the fur for a creature or any muscular areas are stunning. with the different dark and light shading of the character, the skin features blend together perfectly. Here are some of my favourite designs

Rhonda 3D

Rhonda is another 3D tool created by the software designer, Amit Pitaru. Its gives the the artist the ability to create 3D wire framed models by drawing them by hand. Once drawn the design can be rotated in multiple directions and additional sketching can continue from the different angles. Although its at its early stages i think that this type of software could become very useful in the near future. As many of today's, 3D software is extremely complicated and difficult to learn, 2D artists will be able to make models from their basic drawing skills.

Mudbox

Another modeling tool, Mud-box is very different to maya as it does not use any vertex points, edges or face to shape an object. Instead the program is structured as if you were using your hands in clay. You are able to smooth stretch and indent into the model using the different thicknesses of tools that are featured. Similar to Z Brush this software can be quite useful for adding further details on textures after creating the main model form in Maya.