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Monday, December 5, 2011

Lutra Character Concept

This was a concept piece I made for a portfolio application to FIEA, a masters program at the University of Central Florida.  The assignment was to create concept art for an existing game that matched the style.  I chose to design an original League of Legends character, complete with splash screen art, in-game mockup, lore tie-in, and skill list!  One of my projects for this upcoming summer will be to model, texture, and rig this character.  I'll also be redesigning the skills from ground up, and animating each one after the character is finished.




Oh, and I was admitted in to FIEA.  Good times!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Flower Story Facial Rigs

Here is a demo of the facial rigs I did for both of the Flower Story Characters, as well as a sneak peek at what we've got going on in the movie.



It was my job to finish up both of the face models, and make sure that all of the edgeflow was in the right places.  I also built the facial GUI from scratch to my own design.  All of the controls were done using (60 or more) blendshapes.  I was interested in using joints, but when I looked into it, it would have taken too much time considering where I was in the process.  Perhaps my next character will have a more joint-y face.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Silhouette Animation

The challenge of this animation was to use a prop, and to do everything in silhouette.  It was a very clever way for us to learn to animate to the camera.

I decided to use a character as a prop, as well as another prop, becuase I knew someone would have to have experience with this to animate a scene in the upcoming Flower Story film.  This animation helped us solve a couple rig problems, and gave me a bit of insight into how to get it done.  Also, it ends with a double Simba, because we all like Disney that much.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Flint Environment Walk

This was a test of our Flower Story character rig for Flint, the larger of the two.  The challenge was a walk through an environment with a jump (and motivation to jump).  In hindsight now, there are several problems here or there, but it was a nice test.

Also, this project has taught me to appreciate FK a lot more.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Flower Story - Chip Character Design

Here is the redesign for our little character.  Exactly what we predicted, the two characters didn't work out due to the method we were using; the characters didn't resonate with each other, and neither of them really worked in the environment we had picked.  (This is what happens when you blue-sky the environment while also developing characters.)  As a group, we decided to completely scrap what we had done, and completely remodel the characters.

We formed a character design group to discuss what we liked and disliked about everyone's characters, and then split up to work on the redesigns.  I worked on our little guy with Ashley DeMattos, and this is what we ended up with.  A lot of elements were taken from my original designs (which the group had picked as a potential design) and we smoothed out a bit here and there.

What we were going for was a little more cliché.  We wanted something that the audience would immediately accept, so they can start sympathizing with the character.  I based the little guy off of an animal.  He's got a cute and expressive face, but his brows and nose should still read as a sort of carved statue (mixing in the hard edges with the organic shape.)  We decided to keep the hood, since it really resonated with the guardian-guarded feel of the big guy to little guy.  I described the dynamic as a medieval knight and a medieval archer.  One is slow, strong, and moves with intent, and the other is quick, perceptive, and energetic.




Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Flower Story Maquette - Finished

Here's the finished painted maquette.  I added foam core to the base so the armature wire isn't a problem.  My matte spray actually ended up making it a bit shinier and the outside tacky-feeling.  I don't care for that, but I don't want to sand it and repaint it again, lest I lose details.  I'm really happy with this final version, and we'll see if any of this gets into the movie.  The next step is for me to model them.



Secretly, their designs glow in the dark/night.  That is one of the main story points, so I snuck it into my model after the paint job.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Flower Story Maquette - WIP

Here is the near-completion version of my character maquettes.  I really tried to show some personality in this shot, between the characters' relationships together, and the dichotomy of the characters' personalities.  My groupmates seemed to like the dynamic, and we might end up adding this pose into the movie.


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Flower Story - My Character Designs


Here are the final designs I made for the Flower Story characters.  Both of them have a lot of background motifs in them.  I will be sculpting them both in my maquette, since I think they really need play off of each other; the maquette needs to show personality as well as visual design.  However, I get a feeling that we are going to have to remodel them later, due to the convoluted process that we're using at school.



Thursday, January 13, 2011

Flower Story - Character Brainstorming

Here are some of the initial character sketches I made for Flower Story.  This was the brainstorm period, where I was drawing inspiration from wherever I could find it.