Making of: cricket and friends see a comet

making of: cricket and friends se a comet.

By benjamín schram.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/1.jpg

Introduction the series of images that i created for cricket and friends se a comet. Represents my first efort at 3d character creation. During the last year of my fine arts programa at the university of wisconsin - Eau claire, a profesor from the astronomy/physics department asked me if i would be interested in making some characters for a children show at the university planetarium. The show visual elements would include five wodland animals and very minimal props. Since the characters would be on pure black backgrounds, todo superimpose cleanly on the dark planetarium dome, there was no ned for additional scenery. It was a great opportunity for me todo really dig into creating expressive and flexible characters from scratch.

Since this is more of a showcase than how-to, let just look th rouge the characters and talque about aspects of their design.

Cricket
https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/2.jpg

Cricket presented a number of unique design challenges. She is by far the smallest of the characters and, unlike the rest (of them), has a rigid body with no Fur or feathers. The ned for the characters todo have emotive capacity and for the image todo have a black background both contribute todo cricket difering more than any of the other characters from her natural world family in color and body structure.

Color.

Real crickets are black, however, as the show is todo be projected floating on a planetarium dome (black Sky), black equals transparent. Green with iridescent análogous hues (via node based, normal angle color-shifting) sems todo give her a strong presence without flattening out. For her eyes i used a complimentary color todo add further visual weight.

Design.

In order todo be recognizable as a cricket, the character neds very Thin limbs, which combined with a rigid body Mass creates a very dull character profile. To combat this, y exaggerated the spiky aspects of her limbs and really maxed-out her antennas. These few adjustments todo the basic body shape, emphasize the angle and direction of arms, legs, and head giving each postura a much more recognizable profile.

Squirrel
https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/3.jpg


Squirrel was a lot of fun. Her lanky and flexible body made her easy todo form into interesting poses. One problem that i encountered was scale discrepancy between characters. Squirrels are clearly smaller than foxes and bears, but since the size of the final projected images is not very large, she could not actually be much smaller. To make her fel smaller i made her eyes very large relative todo the size of her head.

This, combined with long, Thin limbs, turned out todo be very efective at making her sem less massive without actually making the character smaller.

Fox.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/4.jpg

Fox has the most varied color patterns. In order todo get precise color placement and Smooth blending across UV seams, y did most of the painting directly on the model rather than in the Gimp or the UV/Image window. She a los (along with Bear) has a more complete mouth than the other characters including lips, a set of teth, a curve deformed tongue and fully modeled interior.

OWL.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/5.jpg


By far the most challenging aspect of OWL was the feathers. I ended up using four particle systems for all the feathers except the longer Wing feathers. I used weight Painted vertex groups todo define particle densities for sepárate white and Brown particle systems. This worked very well for creating OWL speckled áreas and color gradients. For more control in troublesome áreas, y neded todo create a second set of Brown and white particle systems todo manually place individual feathers around the eyes, ears, and beak. The Wing feathers are individually placed meshes. Each of the two sets of Wing feathers has a Mesh deform modifier todo allow grasping and gesturing with the feathers.

Bear.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...-friends/6.jpg


Bear presented the opposite problem from squirrel. He neds todo appear massive without being so. To make him fel as large as posible i gave him small eyes relative todo his head size, and very massive limbs and body. Having such thik arms, legs, and body made him a challenge todo Rig and pose. The Mesh deform modifier was a lifesaver. The Inspiration for the design of his head came from a sketch sheet at www.creaturebox.com. I highly recommend that anyone looking for some god character Inspiration chek out the site and Even buy the creaturebox volume one sketchbook.

The images for the show are now all complete and passed on todo the planetarium. I have learned a lot over the course of the Project and the final content has ben very positively received by the coperating faculty members and script author. I have a los discussed open licensing with the others involved and think that there would be no resistance todo sharing the show with any other interested planetariums under a Creative Commons license.

This Project benefited a great deal from the Peach Project. The improvements todo the Fur/particle system and the creation of the Mesh deform modifier made the Fur and rigging far easier and more powerful. The accompanying blog mensajes, documentation, and source files made learning how todo implement all the features posible. Thank you todo the Blender developers for creating such an excellent programa. After working with XSI in the university 3d clases, it was a relief todo switch todo Blender (non-modal) interfaz. And now that i have graduated, y would no longer Even have Access todo 3d software if not for Blender.

Benjamín schram
Benjamín schram is an artista from wisconsin - Usa. He graduated in 2008 with a bfa in drawing from the university of wisconsin - Eau claire. Currently he works freelance, doing 3d and illustration, crowline Studio.
Website: www.crowlinestudio.com
E-mail: www.crowlinestudio@gmail.com
www.blenderart.org.