UPDATE: I guess I should put the new image first so it shows up in the forum listing, please see and read more in the bottom of this thread. Thanks for your feedback!
Hi, this is my first post and I just started using Blender about 3 weeks ago, and I love it!
I’ve been learning bits and pieces of everything, and now I’m trying to finally create a character of my own, and the next step is to create an animated short using this character.
My goal is to animate both body and facial expressions, and also do motions like walk cycles, holding an object in the hand and doing other fun things.
Below are some images of what I’ve done so far, and I’d love some feedback on how I can improve the character, especially regarding:
How can I make it look more “believable” as a cartoon alien?
What features do I need to make good facial expressions?
Can I improve the mesh to make it more suitable for legs and arms animation?
How would this guy shrug his shoulders, it has no shoulders or neck…
Wow, you are learning blender only 3 weeks and want to create fully rigged and anim ready character… thats really impressive.
I hope you get it to successfull finish
And now back to your character. Its very nice i really like it. Is the model you are showing subdivided ?
I would suggest for every joint part of legs and arms, fingers (or whatever it is:) ) to have enough topology = 3 edge loops.
Add more loops around the eyes.
Are you planning eye lids for him ?
Mouth are planned as separate mesh ?
What about arms… Without shoulders how can he logically move his arms to more relaxed position ? I think shoulders are necessary…
Maybe they can be hidden inside character, but must be on your rig.
Too many loops between the eyes. Too few horizontal loops where the legs start and on the knees. Too many vertical loops down the legs. Too many loops along the arms. Vertical loops on the arms are fine (you made more near the elbow and the wrist, which is how it should be).
Between the legs, horizontal polygons are useful. So this shape /–\ instead of just /\ if you understand what I mean. They can be small, but they help in poses with broad legs.
Generally, too many vertices/loops make skinning more work, so always place them carefully. Place additional loops where the body will bend, and less loops where it will keep the shape.
You can make facial expressions by a standard bone rig or shape keys, in this case I would rather go for shape keys, I’m sure you’ll find some good tutorials for that topic.
To shrug the shoulders, I’d rig it in a way that the shoulder bone can move vertically. Then just move it up and down (without moving the top corners of the head). I don’t think shoulders (in the mesh) are necessary, it would disturb the design, but a bone shoulder should be somewhere there, inside the body.
Thanks a lot @artofpiki and @ania for taking the time to leave feedback!
@artofpiki: Actually I find it hard to complete a project, since I want to learn everything and always skip to the next thing, but now I’m trying to finish something, and at least make a 2 minute proof-of-concept.
The model is subdivided once in the images, the original is blocky, and the subdivision works really well to get the shape I want, and I have 3 in the final renders.
Eyelids, yes! However i’m confused if I should have separate eyelids, like rotating half-spheres, for blinking and make eyebrows a little fatter connected to the mesh to make expressions. Now it’s just eye sockets, which is kind of hard to animate.
Eyes, more loops, good idea, it’s kind of hard when the eyes are much closer together than a human, but I’ll try.
Mouth, yes, will be a separate mesh so it has a depth, and possibly teeth.
Shoulders, @ania’s idea with moving them vertically inside the mesh, without deforming anything sounds good. I also considered that for the eyes, but I’m not sure if it will be hard to animate.
@ania: Thanks! Good points about loops, I will cut down in the middle and add on leg/hip joints. I will also make a crotch, I was considering that, but was unsure if it would help animation, but it will probably look better too.
I will try with the shoulders moving, it should work out find. I’ve seen a lot of tutorials on rigging both body and face, but I gotta stop myself and finish the mesh first…
Thanks, will get back to you with a new update as soon as I find some time to model (which is my hardest problem using Blender)!
It’s good that you want to complete something, I think one finished project, even if it’s not perfect, is worth more than 10 unfinished ones. But I advice you to go rather for 20 or 30 sec, 2min of animation is really more than you think.
Start with good planning. Write your story down. Then storyboard, it doesn’t have to be artwork, but should set the camera and objects position. Then animated storyboard, to see if the shots work together in motion. Act it through, film yourself. Then rough blocky animation. Then clean animation. The worst beginners mistake I’ve made was starting to animate without a plan. Planning just in your head is not enough and only makes additional work.
Hey everyone! I thought it was time for a quick update, after 2 months of work, I’ve learned a LOT! However, I only work on this every now and then, since I have a very limited amount of time. I have an unlimited amount of inspiration though, so I think about it every day, and try to squeeze in a tutorial as often as I can!
I spent a lot of time on modeling, to make it more interesting and expressive, and a LOT more time on rigging. Rigging and animating a guy with arms in his ears is not easy!
