Before
After
Before
After
During the summer, I decided to iterate on my previous character model.
I created the first version of my character for a class assignment, in which we had to design a 3D model, rig, and animate an original character in a 2-3 minute long short film featuring our own character that we rigged, animated, and designed.
I finished the animation, and submitted it, and though I got a good score on it, I felt that it could have been improved if I had rigged it better. I had a lot of issues with the armature, specifically issues with the way the bones were set up, causing the legs and arms to be harder to animate than they needed to be.
The entire project started as simply remaking the armature, and not changing the model or materials at all. As I started to remake the amature, I noticed that I was having more problems than when I had the old rig, so I decided to remake the model as well.
I ended up completely remaking the model to make it more detailed.
The main gripe I had with my original model was the fact that there just wasn't enough detail, and the topology needed rerigging. I ended up working on the retopo and the crease edges to get a more stylistic and clean look.
The materials also needed a full overhaul. I was going for a cell shaded toon look, however because of the way that I made the material graph, it caused the lighting to both be very funky, and hard to tell different objects apart in the rendered view. It also simply didn't look enough like a cartoon for my liking.
I remade the material by editing the color ramp to display a dot pattern when registered as “dark”. This replicates the dithering effect commonly found in older comics and graphic novels. The effect both helps make the entire artstyle feel more cohesive, and makes it easier to distinguish one object from another, as it allows for more tone variation, while still keeping the toon artstyle.
I feel like it came out really well. Im glad I had this experience it came out well I’m not using it again in the future done