Unit 66/67 Creating a model

Creating a model.

I have created a female clown that is supposed to take on the roll of a ringmaster. This character will have a slight movement on her arm and head. She will be used to introduce either the game or a level depending on the design progress of our level. Due to the fact the character has a long dress she will not need her legs to function. She will be seen on a tower on the third level in which you need to pickup 3 dolls in order for her to leave. The character has two objects connected to her which is the hat and the cane. 

This model was created using Maya.

When I started I used two basic woman templates:

These templates were used to make a basic style of what my character would look like. 

Knowing its clown based and that most of the features would be exaggerated, I didn't follow all the guidelines of the template.

I started with a square model which I stretched in order to make the correct widths of the character, I then added extra polygons to make the shape more accurate and make it look more detailed. 

After the body was complete the arms and legs were designed using the cylinder tool, after they were created and edited to the right size they were combined using the combine tool. This allowed me to treat this as a whole rather than some separate piece. 

I decided that the character wont have different clothing so I designed the clothes on the character rather than a separate object.

At first I had an idea of something that shown power, so I gave the character a basic long collar. 

With the dress I wanted it to show confidence and style so that she stands out when she is placed into the game full of clowns. I gave a little curve at the bottom so that you can tell its a dress rather than a body.

The head was a circle originally, which i then edited to get an idea on what the features would look like and where they would be placed, keeping in mind where the hair or ears would start.

As I started to design the clothes I decided to make an extended part of the from the shoulders to the back. I also made an extra collar which is is bigger in size compared to the first one.

I also added a ball and belt that will be designed when I add materials. I also decided to expand the dress so that it would cover her legs and feet. This saved me time for editing her shoes and animating her legs.

I went into a little more detail when it came to the face as I wanted it to give more of a clown feel to her character, so I made her cheeks and mouth wide and made her have big eyes.

 I also changed the shape of the head a little so that it didn't look so wide.

The back of the dress expands as it reaches the bottom. The middle section is longer and further back compared to the left and right part of the dress.

I did this because I wanted to show her power and that she looks different to the other clowns. At this point I decided to make her more important and so I decided to go with the idea of a ringmaster for the game. We know that she will be seen on the third level on the tower but we dont know if she will be seen anywhere else. 

When I started texturing and colouring the face I started with the eye which I made black, this saves me time animating but I would want a sparkle/reflection to replace what the character should of had. The main part of this design in this step was the hair. The hair was designed using the pencil tool which then I did some editing which gave me the chance to make each line independent, which allowed me to edit the pencil lines into hair by making the individual lines thicker. 

At that point I decided to make the hair red as its usually the colour that is seen on a clown.

(UPDATE) This is not part of the finished product and was only a process that I was experimenting on. I didn't like the style of what the hair gave me, as you was able to see there was no hair line and that the head was just coloured in.

I made the nose a bright red as I wanted it to standout so its understandable when she is seen in the game.

I decided to remove the hair and head colour so that I could restart after I completed the textures.

At this point I added in materials based around "ringmasters" so that she would have an actual important roll in the game rather than her being there because of the sake of it.

I added in two objects:

The hat was an idea that I had so that I could cover a wide area on her head so that I didn't have to worry about the hair. 

The cane was added as a way to link back to what most ringmasters have.

I made her face white to look like paint so I decided to make a style that makes it look like paint is going down her neck. I also added the effect to her wrists so that it continues the effect but also makes it look effective. For the back of the dress I made a simple texture that had a line reflection so that it gives the effect that its supposed to have. The collar is black and has no texture properties to it. The further back collar is similar to the back but its darker on the sides.

The dress was one complete texture that was a basic design of red and black lines. The lower part of the dress had to stretch the texture which I actually wanted so that it gave the effect I would like for the dress.

This is my final model, which I basically cleaned up anything that I didn't like.

I felt that her head was to bald and that it doesn't standout compared to her dress, so I decided to make something similar to a jesters hat with the already pre-built hat in the middle.

I also expanded the dress to the arm so that it could connect to the collar. Doing so I feel that the arms look much more smaller and that the dress stands out as red and black are my colour scheme with some white here and there.

When animation is involved I will make the cane and her head move. As the dress is hiding her legs her movement isn't a big deal.

I feel that adding the jesters hat and moving the pre-built hat to where it is makes the design look better but also makes her face seem more realistic when size is involved.

Most likely I will import it into Mudbox and make textures onto the skin to make it look more realistic.

With the original design finished I removed most features such as the dress and the collar to make it look like a different mesh. As I was supposed to make a minion the fist time round I re-edited the character so that she would look good as a character that could spawn and kill you.

The weapon the character is holding is an object I made quickly and is an example of what the character would look like if she was to have a weapon.

Her legs are supposed to look like tights and will have to be animated if these were to be placed into the game.

As this version of the original doesn't want to take the roll of a ringmaster the features such as the cane and hat were removed and instead replaced with a weapon and a jesters hat. 

These characters have the same textures as I want to have these as her minions when the wave stats for her game.

This was designed in Maya and Mudbox. The character template is not mine and was created from Mudbox.

As this was my second/third character I wanted to be able to design it quicker while still having good quality. 

The idea that I had for this character was between making it half human half clown, which then I decided to change the design to a clown that has been on fire, ideally in game the character would either be on fire running towards you or just got smoke following them.

The clothes were painted on using a range of different textures that Mudbox offers. 

I then changed the mesh into level 0 which took me to Maya. In Maya I edited things such as the arm and back shape on the right side as I didn't want it to look exactly like the left side.

As this character will be on fire I have made the texture of blood so that it makes the effect look better

This clown will be a character that will damage you by the fire it is followed by and the weapon it will be holding. This character will be the only clown that runs.

This was designed using the Mudbox template. The only reason why I have took the templates from Mudbox from this and the previously spoken character is because they are not that important and only need a basic mesh to get started.
This was then moved into Maya and edited to make the character.
Firstly, I highlighted some polygon faces around the neck and used the Extrude tool, which enabled me to make another shape on top, this was expanded and reshaped to make a collar.
I placed the spheres on the collar and body to give it a clown like feel. The colour of the spheres were determined where they were placed as my colour scheme is black, white and grey. As it was clothing any object not connecting to the original skin would be a different colour, i.e. black on grey surface. Which is why the buttons in the middle section is half black and half grey. The characters feet are different colours to the outfit to make the character standout more rather than be on sided.


The character has gloves which is why they are white.
This character has a basic shape and doesn't have many polygons, this is because i'm going to use this mesh as one of the many minions in the game. My "Ringmaster" has a big more polygons due to it only being seen twice and not having duplicates of it. If I was to add more detail into the character the clothing would have textures so that it didn't seem like a solid block. I would also add more polygons to make the shapes more accurate.
Originally the colour scheme for this character was going to be similar to the Ringmaster (Red and black). However, I decided to stay away from that and focus more on a darker style of colours so it became black and grey. With this style of black it goes well with the feeling for our game.
Having environments that are based in winter and spring the colour schemes go well.

(Any character that will be used for dialog or boss fights will be used straight from Maya and not Mudbox).

I also have designed other smaller objects such as balloons, arrows and Circus tents using Maya:

I designed a circus tent to look at from a distance rather than something to look at. As we are going to design a maze into the tent I have placed the tent outside level 3 which is where the level will take you.  It was originally designed using a cylinder that was stretched then opened up and stretched to give the tent effect. I then duplicated the tent twice to be placed on both sides, making the tent look better and to be bigger. As this wasn't going to be in game textures were not imported and instead was just solid colours.

Feedback:
Noel:Texturing could be improved, including fixing UV. The overall shape of the characters are good.

Amy Flanagan: All of the models above are really detailed and the textures for the models are really well done.

I understand that some of the characters need better quality when it comes to the textures and polygons. I also understand that the faces of the characters could do with better detail.
Overall I am happy with the comments and the result of my models.