To be honest, it has been quite a challenge for me to pinpoint exactly what I want to achieve in my personal project. I’m keen to enhance my 3D skills and less interested in the compositing aspects of VFX, even though the brief requires merging CG elements with real-life footage.

Fortunately, I’ve recently been commissioned by Gliese Nguyen, a student from LCF, to help create a 3D character and fashion collection for her app prototype. While feeling somewhat lost in my own project, I agreed to work on her ideas, hoping to sharpen my skills and find inspiration through this collaboration.

After Gliese shared her vision and expectations, I was excited to start on the project. This is my first time modeling a character from scratch, as I usually work with pre-made Daz characters. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to dive deeper into an area of 3D design that I truly enjoy.

MODELLING PROCESS

I must say it was a fun process making this cute character. I refered to tutorials from Crossmind Studio‘s course and applied it onto this character and I have learned a lot on shape building, modelling details while maintaining nice topology. I am pretty sure there are some parts that were not perfect, yet I tried to keep the mesh all quads as much as I could. For example, the picture bellow shows the wireframe of the character, I notice that there is a face that has 5 vertices, which is not ideal (N-gons) but since it’s on the character face that won’t be animated, so I hope that it won’t be an issues. I will be more mindful about this in the future.

The tutorial I followed taught me a great starting point: begin with a very simple, low-poly model and add details like loop cuts as needed. This approach is easier because you can always add more complexity, but simplifying an overly detailed model can be tricky.

When modeling, I worked on different body parts separately. For instance, I modeled the head and the torso on their own first. To connect them smoothly, I used a technique to ensure the points matched perfectly at the neck, which you can see in the picture below.

I kept the limbs simple, which meant I didn’t need to create detailed hands or feet. However, based on some feedback, I added extra loop cuts in areas like the armpits and at the elbows and knees. This extra step will help make any future animation of the character move more naturally.

Clothes Sketches and Modelling

UV unwrapping and texturing

This was my first time trying UV unwrapping, an experience I found both scary and exciting. UV unwrapping had previously been an area in 3D design where I felt less confident. Through this process, I’ve learned crucial techniques for marking seams effectively to ensure the UVs are nicely distributed. I’ve come to understand that UV unwrapping is a vital yet complex aspect of 3D modeling, essential for a smooth texturing process later on. To enhance realism, especially for the character’s clothing, I utilized material resources sourced from various sources, aiming to achieve a more lifelike appearance.

With the Tshirt, I was going to make the Annakiki logo as a texture at first. Then I figured it would look better if I make the letter solid and shrinkwrap it on the tshirt.

Especially with this sweater, UV unwrap has helped me to be able to map the knit stiches to the exact direction I want them to be.

Model + Outfit Outcome

Critical Reflection: At this stage, I am very pleased with the outcome, as it fulfills my client’s requirements and has turned out wonderfully. The project has significantly enhanced my skills in modeling, UV unwrapping, and texturing. However, I see room for improvement in my approach to topology. As mentioned earlier, I accidently created some N-gons in the character’s mesh, which could pose challenges for future animation—fortunately, these are located in areas of the character’s face that require minimal movement.

The entire project was completed within a week to meet the client’s deadline, and both the client and I are satisfied with the results. Looking forward, I am now brainstorming the next steps for further developing the character in visual effects,

When I think about how to focus on effectively blend the character with real-life footage, I reconsidered the character’s appearance to enhance its realism. Originally designed with a metallic sheen, the character felt too synthetic and will be out of place against the live-action background. To ensure a more seamless integration into the real world scenes, I decided to revise the character’s skin to mimic human-like textures and tones.