My First Toon style characters

Artwork Works in Progress
41

I really like what you are saying there :slight_smile:
It’s actually quite inspiring. I do like to watch shows alot and how you used my own words back at me with “You once told me 10 seconds was enough to tell a story.” that got me pretty good thinking. “yeah i did say that. O_o”

Starting a scratch project and rip apart what i have and restart does sound like something that is probably needed and i have to accept. A “heavy sigh” might be an understatement lol.

I have some interesting news however, something that has me very excited. You say that what goes into the great 3D anime models is their wonderful texturing. The more i look around at it, i couldn’t agree more. So i’ve actually been practicing some texturing. I learned that the vertex paint option is not only in the UV Image editor, but also in the viewport to allow you to paint directly on your model. It’s really neat and decently helpful. My skills for drawing textures is still greatly lacking so i think i may need to paint the texture and then import the texture into photoshop and put on some real detail using my paint as a base. I havn’t tried that just yet though.

I learned that some people sell 3D models online and that has been fantastic news for me and i’ve been looking into that and getting alot of help on the forums here for that as well.
So I used that as practice for Texturing. I’ve been making some Low poly stuff as if i were making game assets but i have a long way to go.

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Here’s some of what my texturing looks like right now. These guns in no way pertain to what Raz does or anything like that. He was just told to pose with it and look cool :stuck_out_tongue:
The guns i modeled with no reference what so ever. I wanted to be flexible and creative with them. The parts on them that i am most proud of on those model’s textures are all the parts i have no idea how i did. Sadly…
Like on the top of the pistol, i had unwraped the gun by projection so i couldn’t paint on the top and it left weird lines that looked amazing but i just wish i had done that on purpose.

But anyway. practicing textureing :slight_smile:
My assult rifle looks like a fish, so i definitely have to keep trying.

But that good news i mentioned!
I actually sent an E-mail, to the company that is making that closers game i last posted there^
I had no idea what to expect, infact i as i dodidnt even expect a reply at all, but i gave it a shot anyway because “You miss 100% of the shots you never take” as, i don’t remember who, says.
I just kind of, in a professional manner, said ‘hey i’m a at home 3D model/animator in training and i’ve been having some trouble lately with my own models. I found your closers game after a wild goose chase of having an image of it with no name and i absolutely love the designs of your characters. It may be alot to ask but could you share any tips on how you created the hair? I’ve been having alot of trouble with hair lately.’
Then i shared an image of Raz with them and went ahead and sent it.

The very next day i had a very thoughtful and sincere reply from one of heads of the design team members also encouraging me to keep working, giving advice about how i should practice drawing some more, thanking me for sending them a message, and get this. They actually attached 2 files with the message, one of a photoshop document of the texture hair they made for the main character (the one with the PSP) wthat shows every detail added in order layer by layer, along with a 3D file of the hair itself for me to examine and learn from! :smiley:

They asked that i do not share it with anybody though and i will greatly respect that wish of theirs ^-^
I’m surprised they would trust a random stranger with that right off the bat especially cause that game isnt out yet apparently.

The 3D file however cannot be opened by blender and i’m having to install a trail 3ds max so that i can look at it. Which i’m fine with.

So yeah, this is awesome! and i can’t wait to get started on trying to remake the hair using what i will learn from what they have so nicely shared with me :slight_smile:

And then after that i will work on trying to think of a 10 second story to animate :wink:

42

Here for an Update! :slight_smile:

I’ve been all over the place with messages and emails lately :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I got into too many projects all at once again. They seemed small at first but have grown larger as i interact with them.

This project is still my #1 though! :slight_smile:

So i think i mentioned to you about my amazingly successful email having a gaming company give me some tips on making Poly hair. I think i can show you the rough draft now of what i created after examining the information they gave me :slight_smile:
They said not to share the files they gave me so i’ll show you the texture that i created in the end.
It’s alot more work than i expected but… Overall it wasn’t a task that you dread every second of.

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It seemed that my hair that i created was a little thin. I would need to add more strands to give the hair better thickness. But as far as the texturing goes, i think i did fairly well. It was my hair model that was lacking is all :slight_smile:
At the bottom left is what is on the top of the head, and at the top right is just underneath that. The bottom right is on the back of the head underneath the Top right section (Wow that’s confusing) and the rest is just added about in places. The texture helps give the illusion of there being alot more hair than there actually is. Learning how to paint that on was neat and fun to play with :slight_smile:
I think i should have looked at the top of people’s hair (like pictures not actual people) to learn how the cowlick or central region that the hair is combed from flows around because i mostly guessed on mine.

Then i made a quick little animation that spun around Raz to show the hair.
I don’t know why but i’ve been thinking lately about how i miss school so i went with that as an idea.

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Funny animation! The advice they gave you on the hair is a huge improvement. You got it hanging nicely.

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I think i’ve been stuck on the same process for too long. Everyday it’s been working on the characters. I think that’s what has me a bit bummed about all this. So I decided to take a break and work on another part of the project. The show has a strong “to the sky” feel to it because of it’s origins. The vehicles in the show range from Hover boards, to hoverbikes. As well as blimp ship like transportation for large groups of people.

As i’ve mentioned before, Raz is from a game and so i decided to make his Hoverbike. It’s not done yet but i’m following Johnathan Williams’ tutorial on Sci Fi vehicles to create this and i’m only on like part 4 or 12.
I don’t think i’m nessicarily allowed to use it in the show because it also is from the game but i really wanted to make it. Also remaking a bike like that that I am familiar with will help me understand how to make new ones i design as well.

So this is, Raz’s Yellow Meteo Bike.

Haha I’ve never been good with Foley.

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So making the bike worked. It go me to feel better about going back to the characters. It didn’t work to the extent which i would have liked it to because i still didn’t make a face rig for the female, and even though i made a new wig for the female, i really don’t wanna texture it xD It looked good on Raz but man it takes forever to do that :frowning: I learned with Raz though that the texture doesn’t matter if the model for the hair isn’t good and so i even want to make Raz’s hair again.

Oh what to do what to do… :spin:

Anyway.
So i tried to make my girlfriend’s character from the same game as Raz now. Creating Raz really helped the process along because Raz is a character i really know and in a way, cared about because he symbolizes me in a way. My girlfriend changed what her character looked like alot so it’s hard to think of her character as as much of a symbol :c
Not in a bad way, just… it is the way it is i guess.

So i went with one of her favorite choices even though she wasn’t able to use it as often as she had liked.
Hopefully this will also really help the process along because the female side of the project is quite a few steps behind. What with there being no facial rig, decent hair, or working weight paint on the clothes. The clothes in this one are pretty good but still far from perfect. I run into so many problems in weight painting that i never even have a clue how to fix :c

So anyway, here is Nillastar Or Nilla for short.

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Here’s the set from the game


First of all i think i need to redo the hair. I think this particular set of hair after being textured and recolored belongs on one of the other characters and i should try to make something similar to that 3rd image.

This whole project i’m doing here. I don’t mean for it to seem like i’m copying everything.
I think Raz and Nilla should just remain the same or as close to the same as they were in the game because the game is where the idea for this whole project came about about 1-2 years ago.
There will be absolutely no mentioning of it, but in the show i think they should really represent the time me and her spent there. The game is quite different now and i want to make a bit more of an impact on it than i have. (Even though when i look up images or videos of the game, my own are often in the first few)
I wont tell anyone that these things are from that game, but leave people who know about it to find those similarities and sort of “be in on it” by that alone. The whole game has a very happy and to the sky sort of feeling that o other game has.

And so as far as making a story goes, i’m using the rubric of “The hero’s journey” for it. It includes a source of help that no one else would be able to have (For example some stories will have a fairy, or a book, a key, etc)
Like i said i wont mention it, but Raz and Nilla are that source here among some other smaller ones.
So for those who know me more will know that the characters in the show are literally getting advice and help from the person making the show and that knows everything. Raz and Nilla will just kind of be at random places at random times and sort of be disconnected from what everyone else is doing and often just be sitting in a city just talking. They don’t have any work to do or goals to go accomplish necessarily and will just kind of be there when needed at times almost as if it’s too much of a coincidence. They are different from everyone else in this world and to them it’s a game. I guess you could say they could even log out sometimes when no one knows. To everyone else its the real world and there is no other world for them. So that will be why they have the information that they have that no one else does. They don’t fight people’s battles for them but can offer advice or sometimes items when absolutely needed.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this.
But hey. two characters that are mysteriously important are almost done.

I just wish i had a better idea of what the real main characters were suppose to look like so i could make them alot easier.

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As a former schoolmate once said, “If you can’t draw it out model it to the best of your ability. If you can’t model it, draw it to the best of your ability”. I follow the the same rule. In any case, if you know what they are suppose to look like, it will come to you soon enough. I, for one, am in the same boat as you. It can be hard to create characters, but sometimes it take a little inspiration to help you cross that bridge.

By the way, I noticed that the eyes on your characters aren’t as transparent as they should be. You might want to get that fixed.

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So you’re saying that the lens over the pupil should be harder to see? or that maybe the eye should be less reflective? x:

I really wish that i could find the time to sit down and just draw. I have a desk for it but. It’s in my room and i particularly don’t find my room to be a happy place and when i do sit up there people begin to think i’m mad at them by secluding myself away from them… I don’t know, i think too much about things like that. I’m really wanting to draw some characters from shows i’ve been watching lately. Especially shots of them where i can really focus on how their hair works. As much as i love this new style of hair texturing i learned, i really feel like several hours of work for every single character’s hair might not be worth it. I mean… technically it will be worth it, but what’s wrong is i noticed that they all look nice from normal camera angles. If they turn their head, the shine doesn’t move. I’ve heard people say you can change how that works with something called a normal map? i don’t know what that means but i probably need to look that up.

So along with wanting to draw some more, i think i’m planing on making 3 sets of hair for a character each one the same mesh but texture them in different ammounts of detail and see which one fits the feel of everything the most. Along with that i would like to test different methods of hair movement like some bone controllers to move all the prominent ones at once and some more fine tuning controls aswell. Back in my original post i was comparing my models to the ones on RWBY and even theirs is just a little gradient and i don’t know about how they make their hair move.
The cloth simulator is just so jumpy with hair. It can never sit still and if the character is wearing a hat or hood it just freaks out all over the place. :confused:

I kind of miss when i thought all this was fun xD

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Sorry if I wasn’t more descriptive. The lens over the eyes should be transparent. If you lower the Alpha Transparency, if you have it activated, you can get a better result.

Don’t worry about the simulation until you get the creations done first.

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Hello. It’s been a while.
Life has been sort of… punching me in the face… :confused:

But i found something i really enjoyed working on.

I’ve stressed alot of my characters here when really it shouldn’t be a big deal. I realize now that not only should i not aim for perfection. But that i shouldn’t even Aim for the best that i can do in this situation. When i aim for the best i seem to judge myself too harshly and so nothing ever gets done. What i need to do is aim for “Good enough” so that after i have done that i can go back and tweak what i can make better. It sounds a little weird but basically what i’m saying is is that i should make a good starting point first and then work on the sprinkles. I’m a beginner animator afterall.

So i was really worried about if my characters would work in story like animation or not. I thought that the facial expressions weren’t versatile enough and that i would be limiting myself by that.

So i decided to just stop everything and figure out right then whether or not they would work or not. I popped in my Blender Animation Tool Kit DVD and went over a bit of the Lip Sync section and made a small video of just tests about lip sync.
I found it to be very fun to do, relaxing, creative, and i can’t stop watching the result. Overall i’m very happy with it and i feel much better about this whole project in general.
The very first one you see though is my face rig before, and after that one i went back and added probably 10 more shapekeys for things on the face (and drivers) that i feel like was lacking in the first test. Then after i made the second one and approved of it. I simply just wanted to keep making more because i was having fun :slight_smile:

Good puns were hard to find and there’s some i wish i could have used but didnt :stuck_out_tongue:

anyway,
Just… pun-sync about :wink:

I also decided that as much work as i put in the texturing on the hair, i still really preferred what i made before (I’m a very un decisive person ._. )

So between loving my lip sync, feeling like i should worry less about if they are having a good hair day, I think isimply need to put a face rig on the female and move onto getting started with creating the world the live in and get this story going :slight_smile:

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Not bad for your lipsync animation.