Character 3D Modelling & Rigging - Zephyr (April 2017)
The second part of our "Introduction to 3D Animation" coursework had us design, model, and rig a character for the very first time (at least in my case), all in Maya. It was a very interesting project and I'm thinking about revisiting it regarding texturing and painting the weights for skinning, I was very happy about understanding UV Unwrapping more this time around (in comparison to my very first time modelling the head/bust of an organic character), and practicing it each new project now. It was fun learning about blend shapes and set keys too! The character design here is quite simple but it was good to practice new modelling techniques and for rigging for the first time. So meet Zephyr, a creature-spirit of the Winds in the land of Erayfen :) !
Character Design
I was not able to spend as much time as I would've wished on character design for this project, but I knew from the start I wanted some kind of humanoid-but-not-fully-human, cute-ish creature, who would live in the woods and be some kind of mystical, mischievous spirit in the world of Legends of Erayfen, possibly with scales if semi-aquatic, or a skin similar to amphibians. Below are developmental stages, including very rough sketches for brainstorming.
I ended up changing a few things when modelling: I decided he'd be wearing protective, simple leather boots over his animal paws, and changed some of the colours when reaching the texturing stage.
Character Model & Rig
Here are images and screenshots of the model within Maya, showing the skeleton, rig controls, and geometry. The body was box modelled, the head was edge-modelled. Turnaround renders are available below as well :)
Playblast - Showing the Rig
Though the movements are pretty stiff (the animation was done within 10 mins or so because of time constraints), this playblast was done to showcase that the rig functions. Zephyr enjoys music, even if there is none in the playblast ^^
Learned a lot during this project, and am excited to do another one soon! I might update this project in the future if I do any changes to it, you can check out my Twitter to see if I do :) !
Thanks for passing by!