Character Sheets

While researching character poses for the Character sheets, I found this picture by Hallum Pose.

It appears to be a character sheet for the film Tron Legacy.

This picture was very useful as it had a similar hood and similar movements to my character design.

As one of my drawing weaknesses is proportion of people’s limbs when in a dynamic pose, the character sheet was used as reference for the length and position of the limbs and as a reference for how the hood would sit and how much face would be visible.

Here is a progression sheet showing the progression from the Tron character sheet.

A rough black outline was drawn, then colour was added as abstract as possible to emphasis the movement, not the clothes. Then the most relevant movement poses were chosen and more detail was added.

The same pose was used as in the Tron sheet to show different actions in the designed character sheet, for example, taking off and landing from the jetpack and shooting a weapon. The image was interpreted to suit the character.

A handgun and stick was also added to the images.

In the context of the game, the stick is actually a liberated aerial that the character can use as a weapon. This gives an original spin on a character that has a jetpack; it also makes movement, silhouettes and poses more interesting.

In the industry, the character movement positions would be drawn from memory through practice, little or no reference would be needed for that.

Modeling the Jetpack

Designing the Jetpack was a challenge because it is an object that has a stereotypical look. Most of the images associated with the jetpack have cylinders that expel a jet (this is how real jetpacks work). As the context of the game means that the jetpack doesn’t work with jets, but a material that can manipulate gravity, the conventions associated with the jetpack could go out the window.

Like a lot of good design work, even fantastical ideas are in some way grounded in reality. Therefore existing rucksacks and backpacks were studied to see how they could be fitted ergonomically to a person. If the jetpack looked comfortable it would be believable, therefore ergonomic design was paramount.

Modeling the Jetpack was Difficult as it would be a fairly complicated design. Here are some preliminary sketches using Alchemy.

Despite the preliminary sketches, the design of the jetpack was limited to my ability to use Maya and Mudbox effectively. It would be difficult to create what looked like an ergonomically designed object in a short amount of time.

The jetpack was modeled by extruding faces of a cube and smoothing them, making them appear as vents, deformers were then used to bend the model, making it look ergonomically designed.

The jetpack did not fit the character in Mudbox exactly, but the grab tool help put it into position as well as further making it look like it wrapped around the back.

Finally to paint the jetpack, a dull grey was used as a base coat, then the stamp tool in Mudbox was used to give the impression of paint wearing off. This aged the jetpack and made it look used.

If the jetpack didn’t have to be transported into Mudbox for rendering, a more intricate design, glowing vents and lights could have been made.

Modeling within Mudbox

This was the first time I have modeled a whole character, previously only a head has been modeled. Getting the limb length very easy just by using the Grab tool. The difficulty came when modeling the hood.

Before modeling the hood, I know it was possible to model something in Maya and then import it into Mudbox. Difficulty arose when trying this however.

The hoods that were modeled in Maya didn’t work properly, they were either the wrong shape or the normals gave the affect of a cloth within a cloth, becoming visible when looked at, at a shallow angle. It did not look like one solid object.

Here are some Maya modeled hoods that were not used in the final character.

If there were more time on the project, it would have been spent on learning why the imports didn’t work.

The Hoods were not a total waste of time however; it was learnt that polygon primitives (basic shapes) could be imported with no problems. This was the process used to Model the belt, which is supposed to be made of flowing fabric (more decorative than practical).

The design process changed while modeling, as it would be hard to Model a gun holster. Within the context of the game it would be viable that the character hid his gun holster (and gun) under his decorative belt. Therefore only the belt would need to be modeled.

It was satisfying, finding a practical solution to a time restraint problem that fitted within the context of the game.

Importing a primitive cylinder that had been flattened to the basic oval shape of a waist created the belt. One end of the cylinder was rotated to resemble the belt flowing over one side and being clumped together at the other. After that, more edge loops were inserted to create more polygons to work from, as the end was rotated, there was a high concentration of polygons near one side. This was a benefit, as more detail would be needed there to model in Mudbox.

A simple flattened cube was used for the length of fabric that hangs from the characters waist; edge loops were inserted so it could be moved in Mudbox to appear as though it is flowing in a breeze slightly.

In the real world of game modeling, there is no right or wrong way to model any one thing.

In reflection the way the belt was modeled meets the same criteria as other modelers. The character has a relatively low polygon count and was done within a short amount of time. With more practice the same results could be achieved within a shorter time frame, or more detail and attention to detail could be added.

Alchemy

A series of drawings was created of the character using the free program Alchemy. This was done to help get a diverse number of software programs in the project. It would be interesting to see what effect it would have on the work and the way the character appeared. It could also be used to create a 2D model sheet of the character as seen in a lecture.

Here are some drawings done in Alchemy using the mirror tool. (A picture was taken every 30 seconds and saved as a PDF to show progress)

The mirror tool was useful as it doubled the workflow, however, the lack of tools like Undo and lack of pen choice made it difficult to create a look that was satisfactory.

The mirror tool also became a hindrance to some degree, as it was hard to know where the mirror line was without drawing a line.

The parliamentary sketches in Alchemy were not successful. therefor the 2d model sheet would be made in another way , instead the character would be modelled in Mudbox (as I am comfortable using it) and then the 2D character sheet would be made using the Mudbox version for reference.

Finalising the character design

As time passed, emphasis was placed on getting the finer points of the character design, for the most part; the design was complete as the character had,

• A jetpack
• A hood or long scarf round the face
• Dynamic billowing fabric
• The colour range for the clothes would be taken from the selected colours in the design document.

However, the finer points of the character had to be defined to start the modeling process (what the hood or scarf looked like, how much face it covered, what the rest of the clothes looked like, the size and shape of the jetpack, what he would or would not hold, what weapons he would carry).

Most of the decisions around the character design came from predicting what was possible to model in Mudbox, Mudbox was enjoyable in the first year project and a high mark was ascertained from it, this could be repeated.

To finalise what would go round the head and face, character designs were studied from the digital games Assasins Creed, Soul Reaver and Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 as all main characters from the games have their face covered up in some way.

These pictures from the games show different ways to cover the face.

As well as taking inspiration form these pictures, it was apparent that to achieve originality within the character design, the head design would have to look different as well as futuristic.

From a modeling standpoint, I was not confidant to try and model what looked like fabric around the face and shoulders, however, it may be possible to model a hood in Maya and then smooth it and make it appear as fabric in Mudbox.

To give the hood a futuristic and original touch, it is separate from the rest of the clothes, sitting on the shoulders (this was due to uncertainty in merging meshes in Mudbox)

The early design also showed that the sides of the hood were see-through to allow the character to see out the corner of his eyes. This was not possible to model in Maya, as only Polygon primitives would convert into Mudbox, this affected the design of the hood to not feature the see-through sides.

Through trial and error, the way the hood was finally modeled was purely in Mudbox, It was created by using a polygon sphere and the Grab tool to manipulate it to the shape of a hood, it was affective as it created the inside and outside of the hood in one object so merging meshes or unrealistic normals was not an issue. The Wax tool was used to make the hood look as though it was made out of fabric.

Light

This picture of Deckard’s apartment taken from the film Blade Runner is a good example of Dynamic Occlusion.

Light is shining on all the surfaces in the image, however, the intricate tiles and wall panels are stopping the light, creating lots of shadows in the tile ridges. The wall panels are most noticeable, but dynamic occlusion is also happening above and below the cupboard, as well as under the counter lip.

The scene is very detailed with very little flat surfaces, almost every surface is broken with a ridge or patterned tile, and this is what is creating the amount of occlusion.

As the picture is from a film set there is probably more light sources than what is visible in the scene, the scene shows 5 possible light sources.

Despite the number of light sources, there is still a lot of dynamic occlusion. The scene is not saturated in light; it is probable that it would be if the tiles were flat and shiny, like most kitchens are.

This picture of a Bat shows sub surface scattering. As the light shines through the Bats wing membrane, the light is refracted off the different textures and thicknesses within the membrane, it is then refracted out into the camera lens.

This process enables the camera to see the veins and small bones within the membrane.

The bats bones are denser than the membrane and they absorb the light, this is why it appears as black in the photo.

The light is even passing through the blood of the membrane giving the wing a reddish brown tone. If the light were not passing through the membrane, it would appear black.

This picture of a bubble being burst is a good example of reflection, refraction and also demonstrates how the human eye works.

The reflection can be seen in the centre of the bubble, the photographer that took the photo is visible in the bubble. The light is being reflected off the shiny flat surface of the bubble. As the bubble is spherical, the photographer appears stretched out at the sides, like a fish eye lens on a lot of skateboarding photography.

For this reflection to happen, the light came from the sun, onto the photographer, then bounced onto the bubble, and then finally into the camera lens.

The refraction can be seen on the outer edge of the bubble, as the bubble is round; the light that travelled to it is being spread out equally away from the bubble, appearing to stretch the image of the building.

On the top of the bubble, there is also swirling patterns of blues, purples, oranges and greens, this is the refraction of light of different wave lengths. The detergent that makes up the bubble refracts different densities, creating the rainbow colours on the bubble.

The human eye sees images upside-down and the brain interprets the image the right way up, this is because the eye lens flips the light entering the eye. The bubble is also acting like a lens as the image of the woman who popped the bubble is seen up side down on the other side of it.

This tunnel picture is a good example of bounce light.

The light is travelling from the sky outside the tunnel, it then is reflecting and refracting off the floor and up onto the ceiling of the tunnel. The ceiling is made up of flat bricks, which also reflect the light further into the tunnel.

You can make out the shape of the bricks, this shows that the cement that holds the bricks together is not reflecting the light but absorbing it.

The light is also being reflected off the sidewalls of the tunnel, which shows that the light is being refracted off the floor in lots of different directions.

The light only travels as far as the camera, as the far sides of the tunnel are black, which means no light has reached there. This is because no light is being reflected back into the camera lens from that position.

Anthropomorphic Characterisation

After the character progression sheets I found an animal that best suited the designed characters traits.
What was needed was an animal that moved in an interesting way and shared the same type of frame as the character (a thin animal), that could fly, jump or run in a way that the character could interpret while using the jet pack.

A Cheetah best suited the designedcharacter because of the Cat family; it is thinner than and not as powerful as a tiger for example. This fit my characters traits as the character is thin due to being poor. The way the Cheetah runs could be easily interpreted into dynamic jumps and landings from a jetpack, the biggest difficulty would be transposing four legged movement onto a two legged, upright human.

ISome experimentation sketches were then created using reference images of a Cheetah stalking, running and walking. The Cheetah characteristic then influenced the design process. the character was drawn lowering his head and arching his back, the torso was made wider at the top and thin near the waist, the limbs became longer and thinner, this helped in recreating the same limb angles in the legs. Billowing fabric was also added to mimic the Cheetahs tail.

The Cheetah drawings was an opportunity to try different clothing for the character, I focused on shoulder pads, what fabric would cover the torso and what parts of the jet-pack would be visible from the front. Colour to define one piece of fabric and where it would go on the character.

Below are some Cheetah design drawings.