A silly orange character

Artwork Works in Progress
#1

So this is my first WIP… Here we go.

I’m doing an animation for my high school culminating project. And while I’m not yet ready to begin sharing my progress on what the animation will be about… I am ready to show you my progress on the main character.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOSycNjxI/AAAAAAAAAB4/T4HGjn6zCuM/s720/Ecstatic.png

I designed this silly orange thing to be as easy to animate as I could make it. His topology is also extremely simple. I did this for two reasons, the setting for the animation will be fairly simplistic in nature (like this character), and frankly my animating and modeling skills aren’t exactly pixar quality :slight_smile:

Here’s the subsurfed wire-frame.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOn16pcLI/AAAAAAAAACU/H_2r575Q3Ik/s720/lines.png

The above picture isn’t actually the current state of the character. I’ve since cleaned him up a little and added on to him. But It gives you a good idea of the model.

Anyways, here’s a long list of entertaining pictures. I’m stress testing my model, seeing how well he does under different emotions and positions. As most of you will see, his arm has a tendency to deform strangely. So any advice on how to fix that is most welcome. Also, if you see anything that could be improved about the model, that would be great.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOSywhSGI/AAAAAAAAAB8/rX3ZQD-ZbIQ/s720/ninja.png

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOnl0M2uI/AAAAAAAAACM/2bwPj_W5myo/s720/suprised.png

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOS16dG4I/AAAAAAAAAB0/KnAtEttwx70/s720/confused.png

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOSsgF4tI/AAAAAAAAABw/-Fd_wJxWkzM/s720/bully.png

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOSqarBHI/AAAAAAAAABs/PLK2TI4Kmns/s720/asleep.png

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOnnutjdI/AAAAAAAAACI/Do7E5XgirNs/s720/sad.png

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THMOnXdSGiI/AAAAAAAAACE/fPnfCLqWiqw/s720/pleading.png

Stay tuned for more!!!

#2

Really cool! Looks like something from Monsters S.A. :smiley:

#3

looking pretty good

The only thing I would advise is to make the iris much bigger. A bigger iris will give you much more scope for animation. The relation of the iris to the eyelids gives a lot of emotion. With the iris so small you are kind of limiting what you can do.

#4

I was thinking about following the pixar eye tutorial. Do you think those eyes might work better? Or are do black ones work?

#5

Good question. Typically I would say that eyes are the gateway to the soul and the better your eyes are the the more appeal your character will have.

and this is true, but…

The character you are currently working one has only one colour. Which is a nice look in itself, so if you start to put very detailed eyes on him you will lose the clean silhouette he is at the moment.

If you plan to give him more colours anyway then give him better eyes. If you’re going to keep him orange then black might look better.

I’d experiment with both if I were you. (sorry i cant be of more help)

#6

oh and you can experiment in photoshop rather than building everything of course

#7

Today I did some experimenting on the eyes of this silly orange thing. And now I have two different versions.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THReyNZzAMI/AAAAAAAAACw/7xMnAqw3sUI/s720/eyes%20orange.png

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THRjk7Z6X-I/AAAAAAAAADQ/5CGDAAJktmU/s720/eyesblack.png

So far I’m stumped on which one is better. Your opinions would be great.

Also there is another thing bothering me. Not about my character but about blender. I’m currently using the beta version, and whenever I render the image, it is extremely washed out and the values of some pixels RGB values exceed 1 or are even negative. I have also encountered negative alpha values for some pixels. I can fix it using nodes, but it’s a hassle and sometimes makes the shadows too dark.

I’ve tried turning on and off color correction, but it only has a minor effect and the problem remains.

My lighting setup is really simple. Ambient occlusion, environmental lighting, and one sun.

Is anyone else having this problem, and does anyone know how to fix it?

#8

I prefer the black.

Sounds like you’re rendering to a hdr format like .hdr or .exr.

These have a colour range that your monitor cant display. You can use the exposure tool in photoshop to compress the colour range to one appropriate for your monitor.

or

render it in a monitor friendly format like .jpg

#9

I always render in PNG. That shouldn’t be a problem though. I’ll try jpeg.

#10

While I still haven’t fixed the problem with the RGB values. I found turning off color correction helped “enough”.

Here’s a new scene with a different eye color that I personally like the most. Tell me what you think.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THSmE54PRuI/AAAAAAAAADc/ifcQZuItLYo/s720/hanging%20around.jpg

By the way if anyone is interested in the Iris texture, here it is.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nickclaw/SafetyStressTests#5509210850091787954

#11

I like him, but I think the black eyes were nice, and maybe give him a tongue, or teeth, or both, but I don’t know if you want to go through the trouble of animating a tongue. Also, I would think of changing the thread title to include “character” because I was expecting random noob abstract shapes that were orange. No offense to ppl who think those are cool…

#12

I plan on giving him teeth… But the tongue seems like a lot of work for a pretty minor piece. So we’ll see. Good idea on changing the name. Now that I think of it, i probably wouldn’t click on this thread either with the current title.

#13

He now has teeth!!!

and a decent lighting setup.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THX-QbBwRaI/AAAAAAAAAD0/5zULZFcj_v0/s912/seductive.jpg

I think I might keep the blue eyes. At least as long as I don’t get many complaints about them.

#14

I rise to a question of privilege!
I would like to lodge a formal complaint about the blue eyes. The black eyes were “simple” but I feel that they fit better…

Also I find it creepy that I can tell that he is hollow by seeing the back of his head/torso through his mouth hole. I could sleep at night knowing that he had some semblance of a digestive tract (black abyss inside of his mouth).

Finally, I move that a vote be taken about giving this little guy a few strands of hair. Like a few “Homer Simpson” style comb-over hairs.

Those suggestions aside, I really like it.

#15

Careful not to lose appeal.

The teeth you’ve done are ok, but they make him look ugly. I think you are trying to make him look funny, and that can be done, but avoid, at all costs, making him unappealing.

#16

funny one, but it looks like DOMO-kun witk subdivs on :slight_smile:

#17

Here’s an update. I removed the teeth until further notice and did some work on the mouth.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_S4-zsYmcRsA/THwyEopCn7I/AAAAAAAAAEI/YFQwzHu12JM/s640/waving.jpg

If I do add teeth, I’ll probably make the entire mouth shadeless black to make him more cartoony.

#18

I think the inside of the mouth looks great.

If you do do teeth, and there is no reason not to, don’t underestimate how complex the shapes are. Ok you can simplify them somewhat for a cartoon character but almost every beginner (including me) gets them wrong.

I would also increase the hardness and specular colour of the pupil to get a nice highlight on them.

Its going really well though!