Back to modeling (6/1/2014)

* Returning from the Christmas holidays, today's session was again spent working on my character, as I wasn't able to over the holidays.

Noticing that my model still hadn't taken on the appearance of a 'One Piece' character, as I had intended from the start, I decided to try and model my head in the show's style.
When trying to edit my existing 3D head in this style, I found that I couldn't due to the complexity of a human head and the rounded heads seen in Anime. Therefore, I tried to make it from scratch as you can see below.

 
* As you can see, I used a plane before making the model a 'Editable Poly' and adding 'Symmetry' to do both sides at once. I then added the face's simple pointed nose by merely extruding a Vertex. I aldo decided to go from the side view face with the large forehead using this as my base instead of the straight view face. This way I can animate the mouth to appear larger than life separately, thus also avoiding a gigantic mouth and tiny eyes whenever the it is closed.

* My lecturer felt that, if I wanted to do a stylised character then it would need even more work than a realistic one as, despite the simplistic style, it is more difficult as you have to animate more.

With my model in general, he felt that I needed to include the topology / facial loops despite its style, otherwise the mouth moving would be more puppet-like.

Therefore, my lecturer took me to the library and suggested that I take out a 3D modeling book entitled 'Character Modeling' (Blanche P, Cortina F, Stahlberg S - 2008) which showed numerous examples of how to make 3D faces that I can try for myself in order to figure out the best and easiest process for me.

I also asked whether he would prefer a realistic model to a stylised one and was told he didn't mind, tho the latter would be more work as stated above. I can see the differences more clearly provided I look at his tutorials on Moodle and see how he made his stylised 'Simpsons' esk character as that animated quality may be what I am looking for.

Harvard Referencing:

• Blanche P, Cortina F, Stahlberg S (2008) Character Modeling. Australia: Ballistic Publishing. 
• Unknown (2012) Thread: W.I.P One Piece anime character: Luffy sculpt [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/42911-W.I.P-One-Piece-anime-character-Luffy-sculpt (Accessed: 6/1/2014).