Unit 7: Narrative - Rapid Prototype Charles

Hello Everyone,

Coming down to the final few posts for this blog now, I may do one more post when our books arrive in Jan but that may be something for my personal blog as opposed to here. I don't wish to clutter or fill this blog with tonnes of Junk when there is no more development. Anyway this post is about Rapid Prototype printing particularly for our Charles model, for this I will be referencing the company I have used in the past and personally know. It was said by Phil after our presentation that he would like to know this information so here it is...

The company I used for our Printing is a German firm known as "Expo Nat", they do a number of jobs including Rapid prototyping in various materials. They also provide scanning services for bringing physical objects (such as peoples faces or specific items) into 3D geometry. We met them at one of our many games events where I happened to ask them if they could print a model of ours at the time. While we were waiting for the print we kept coming back to their stall to check on it, when we came back my business partner kept helping them cleaning up some of their scans... Before we knew it they had some work for him in a freelance capacity, I got introduced through him...

Their website can be found at - http://expo-nat.jimdo.com/ and as I said they can knock up any number of prints in any shape or form. So if you have any rapid prototyping needs for your project give them a heads up they will do their best to accommodate you. I have been made aware that the Uni have a facility for printing but if you wish to contact an external company such as these I'm sure they will give you a deal. Phil also wished to do a greet with them specifically should other students wish this facility in the future and I think its to reach out to more businesses on a professional basis something which I know they are more then happy to do...

Our main contact on the Expo Nat side of things is Dirk Moller (pictured above), I will direct him to this post once I have made it so he is further made aware of a CG students standing point for printing. Dirk is a nice guy and will do anything and everything to make sure a students need is met for their print. I would present his email but to be honest I think any of the people at Expo Nat will be able to accommodate your needs, just submit a request through their website. Of course if you have an issue understanding it just mail through your requirements from the contact page. Alternatively you can ask me or Phil I will connect Dirk with him when we return in Jan.

The image above shows the print created from the 3D file I provided Dirk which was pre-posed and devoid of any holes in the geometry. The colour print takes on the polypaint from the UVs when sculpting. The only slight flaw is some of the ruffles on the surface where it is not quite "finished" but in this case its still quite cool. Nat told me dipping it in Glue would pristine the colour back up but for this model I thought it worked this way... Charles is old fashioned so its only right that he looks like he's covered in dust haha. Anyway as you can see the quality is top rate so if you need anything printed, hit them up I totally recommend them and would be more then happy to get you connected.

Last but not least the image above is a shot of me on the D-Day for our Narrative Crit, holding little Charles. Dirk asked me to take a picture when I received the model I just kept putting it off but never the less this is me happy with the result. I will give Dirk the link to this post so he can see and join in the masses at mocking my dumbfounded expression. I'm personally amazed I managed to muster a smile I was pretty knackered by the time we took that Photograph.

I almost forgot to mention that Dirk gave me this model for free as well as the models for my partners and the Uni... THANK YOU VERY MUCH DIRK!!! I will be using your services for future prints, can't wait to get working on some more 3D work!!

Well I think that's it for this little post, I have a few more to make on this blog before the dreaded deadline complete post which I always do for my time management. Gonna miss this little blog but at least its here for me to marvel at in the future :)

Take it easy!!
xXStItChXx

Unit 7: Narrative - Charles 3D Model Initial - Final Development

Hello Everyone,

I've been cracking away all weekend on our 3D Model for Narrative, in our case the character is Charles our sad little orphan boy. This was originally going to be lots of little posts but then I thought I would save myself a little time by posting them all at once. For this post you will see a number of things ending in the final representation of the 3D model.

I took quite a while constructing some of these elements (mainly because most of it for me has been trial and error). I created a number of time lapse videos (shown below) of me creating certain elements of the Charles mesh. In some cases I forgot to bother recording or stopped mid way because I was worried that the video would just consist of many mistakes that I made during its development. For these you will have to bear with me.

I have broken the components apart into separate videos, please have a gander if you are interested, of course If not I wont be offended. You may wish to watch a little and fast forward as I said these videos are quite long, I don't want you to get bored. I will also mention that most of the videos don't finish on the final rendition so don't be shocked if you see more development in between.

I don't think I recorded the shorts and legs because I made those at University as well as some of the other little tweaks. I prefer to call these videos just development and experimentation they will demonstrate some of the methods I used throughout. Of course If I recorded everything I'd have a video so long no Youtube video host would have the capacity to play it lol.


I created a turn around showing various elements of the finished Charles model. This was a last minute decision which ended up becoming something I was actually quite proud of. I love how the video flows into its various passes I may have to do this for all of my future models it just looks great when you are looking back after a rigorous modelling session. I'm especially proud of the poly count that I achieved with this mesh, its actually lower then I thought it would be...

The videos showing some of my progression throughout Charles development are below... I would just like to note that they do not show EVERYTHING so mostly you will see it end before reaching its final manifestation.

Developing the head

Developing the Eyes


Developing the Hair


Developing the Jacket


Sorry for the music if you didn't like it, I grabbed some tracks from my premiere scores set that I purchased from videocopilot.com. Do yourselves a favour and check out the site if you haven't already! The videos are time lapsed also, so I hope you don't get a brain freeze from the speed. I was tapping my foot as they were playing through I'm not ashamed to say that I love time lapsed videos.

Well that concludes this little post, I hope viewers have enjoyed my hopeless irritated attempts at creating our final Charles model. It was kind of fun once I figured out how to scratch a certain itch but in some cases it took way longer then I had originally planned. I have just found out today I have to start considering a mouth box next amongst other things... Doh... oh well.

Take it easy people and I hope you enjoyed the show!!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Unit 7: Narrative - Poses & Expressions

Charles' Poses

Charles' Expression Sheet

Unit 7: Narrative - Charles' Development/ Final Turnarounds

Needing to make the character of Charles look younger, I quickly sketched the chosen head shape with slight variations of body shapes. The sketches are rough however, the purpose of the exercise was to put my ideas on paper. I then picked elements and sketched a number of ideas on Photoshop including eye designs.

Next, I took the third sketch and adjusted his body, adding colour and detail into the drawing. Below is a breakdown of each design:

1 - A different nose shape - more upturned however, this is often associated with higher classes. The face also looks too sharp/defined for a young boy. Considering eyelids.

2 - Softer face shape and comparing different eye colours.

3 - Even rounder face shape - makes his face look too chubby

4 - Adjusting face shape, changing eyes and removing eyelids

5 - Chosen character - Eyelids re-added and shape of face a little more defined

Final Turnarounds:

These are the final turnarounds for Stitch to start modelling the character. Technical adjustments may need to be made for the modelling process which I leave Stitch to make while working in Maya.

And finally, I have added colour versions of the character to show the colour scheme that will be used for his clothing, skin, hair etc.

Charles - Garden Colour Scheme and Outfit

Charles - Factory Colour Scheme and Outfit

Unit 7: Narrative - Character Design Development

After receiving feedback of my previous concept of Charles, I started working on making him look younger, in particular, working on his face shape. Silhouette 1 is the original face shape and the other three are the changes.

Having decided to work further on image 2, I then began working on eye shapes to see which would be most appropriate for the character. During a group meeting, we all agreed that image 2 or 6 stood out.

The next stage was to put these various elements together. Using the silhouette and the sixth set of eyes from above, I began to create the concept below. The first image is the early stages of the painting. Both the second and third are variations of the completed version however, the eyes are slightly different in both. In addition, I've added a texture on top of the painting, as we plan to add a similar effect over the final animation.

Unit 7: Narrative - Character Sketches

Here is my progress on the character sketches. I struggled getting into the flow of character design however, I feel as though the sketches have improved. The last face on the left is the one that we have decided to develop as he has potential to be a happy and sad character that the audience can empathise towards.

While working on the face, I drew four costume ideas. The group preferred the third costume however, this may be changed. I then took the preferred face and outfit and put the two together, finally adding colour.

This is not the final character as I still need to refine his features. Photoshop Phill suggested changing the eyes and moving the features around. He also emphasised the point of using silhouettes to improve the face and figure. The next stage will be to refine the current design to give the boy more character.