Unit 2 - Character Development

 Character Development

Introduction

To be begin with for character development for a western style computer game. I began by creating a mood board for my character. Talking about the brief, making notes about why I have chosen the images I have for the mood board and possible character development, for ideas and inspiration.  Finished mood board with notes, and started mood board on Photoshop and one in Pinterest.  Learning techniques on Photoshop, for silhouettes.


Mind Maps & Lists

Below are mind maps and lists of thoughts and initial ideas for the character development.  Trying to be as diverse as possible in getting ideas together for the character.  

MoodBoards

From my Mood boards, I was trying to gather as much diverse inspiration for my character as possible by looking at different types of character, whether they be action film characters, science fiction, comic book based or historical.  I did this based on their personality or the equipment they used, or maybe the background story.

Silhouettes

We were asked to do some basic silhouettes for the character development.  Still at very basic learning phase and not to over complicate things, I took 3 images for the silhouettes.  One of Han Solo, another from Mad Max 2, and a third but more detailed of a soldier image from google.

Sketches

Above are some sketches from inspirations from the moodboards, mind maps and lists.  Trying to get thoughts and ideas together in what I want my character to look like.  Not just appearance but what accessories he might have too, in weapons and other pieces of equipment.  As the character is meant to be in a western style environment and that I am a novice in terms of using Maya and Mudbox, I have decided to try and keep things as simple as possible in this initial design stage.  Had I had more knowledge and skill on Maya & Mudbox, I would have liked to have developed my character more in terms of equipment and imagery with armour etc.

Character design

Once I had finished my research, I began developing my character in Maya. Using a character template and altering edges, in trying to make its face look smoother by taking out five edged faces, and also making a eye ball.  From there, I began developing what the characters build will be, small, big, muscular, what its clothing or equipment will be etc.

At this point it was a case of smoothing out the faces and using the extrude tool on his body to get the definition and detail I wanted the character to be.  As well as working on accessories for the character, like sunglasses or a holster, and developing his clothing, boots, jacket.

As development progressed, I began to get the ideas together on what I was trying to achieve with this basic model of a character.  Slowly but surely.  Being more influenced by Judge Dredd and Mad Max, I decided that would be the route I would go down.

At this point I had begun to develop the characters body, i.e. what kind of boots, giving it a jacket etc, using the likes of the extrude tool to help develop the body.

At this point I began to try and give the character a holster belt for a gun, as part of its accessories.  My next thought had been to try and give him some aviator sun glasses, and make its boots larger and quite heavy.  In this thought process, trying to bring the character some depth, to be feared by hiding its eyes, and heavy boots, to put fear into his enemies.

As you can see, the character is starting to take shape more and developing more into what I want him to be.  It is looking more smoothed out with its faces, and I have added more detail to his clothing and added accessories with the holster belt, sunglasses and also tried to add a Mohawk haircut.

UV Model

The next phase was to UV or unwrap the models parts, i.e. arm, leg etc. to make sure there would be no problems moving forward with texturing, painting when moving the model over into Mudbox.

Mudbox- Sculpting

Once Uv-ing was complete, the next phase was to move the model over to Mudbox to be textured and to add further detail before painting the model.

Due to complications in Maya, I ended up using a basic model man in mudbox, and carrying on from there with the construction of my character.  The next phase was to begin developing this basic shape into what I had set out in my sketches and what I had started in Maya.

Using the sculpt tool, I was able to begin to develop my characters body to what I wanted, and also further the detail by adding sub-division levels to work with more detail.  The routine for this part of development phase in Mudbox, was sculpt, Flatten, smooth, in helping develop the models detail.

After a while, my character began to take shape from his original basic form.  I was able to develop his body to make him muscular, as well as giving him a Mohawk haircut and enhancing his boots, again drawing inspiration from the likes of Judge Dredd and Mad Max.  Also adding a holster belt.  Unlike the model in Maya, I decided to use the mirror tool here, and give a gun holster on both sides of his leg for effect.

I also added textures to him, to the likes of his hair, face, belt, boots etc.  In the attempt to try an make the model more realistic, worn etc.

Mudbox-Painting

Once sculpting, smoothing and adding stamps was done, the next step was to paint the model.  Being inspired by Judge Dredd and Mad Max, I decided the model would be pretty much in Black.

It had been suggested that instead of just directly painting the model the colours I wanted, I should spray it in bright colours and then adjust the colours appropriately change the colour to what I want from the layers strength colour bar on the right hand side.

 Once painting was completed, this only left to prepare the model to be exported to Maya to be baked.

Exporting & Baking

The model from Mudbox had to be exported over to Maya to be finished for the baking process.  Once the bake was completed, it resulted in two models, a high and low poly resolution which only left for the final details to be finished in Photoshop for the model to be complete.

MudBox Tools

-Sculpt tool

With the sculpt tool, it can be used to as it says, sculpt the model to what you want it to feature.  Like with the man character, i used it to give the model definition with muscle or build, its hair, other points like clothing, boots etc.







-Flatten Tool

 The flatten tool can be used after the use of the sculpt tool.  As the tool describes, basically to flatten the surface of the model that you have been working on for several reasons, this is handy if you have sculpted too much to what you wanted to, and this can be used to bring the selected area back into alignment, or proportion, or even just for correcting slightly the design.







-Smooth Tool

The smooth tool is the last part of this particular process I used.  After the flattening tool, I would use the smooth tool, to just smooth or rub down over the areas of the model I had been working on, to smooth en out in attempt to make it look more "realistic".








-Grab Tool

  The grab tool can be used to grab apart of the model you wish and basically pull or extend that part for a large part of the model, to make such things as armour, change clothing etc.










- Pinch Tool

Pinch tool is similar to the grab tool, but used for more particular or small detailing or altering on a model that just needs slight improvements.

Conclusion

To conclude, although I am content with the model I have produced, I feel there is a lot more I could do with it to develop it further, in terms of clothing/ outfit, and maybe in developing accessories such as guns etc.  The Maya part of of this development is the most difficult part I found found in this process.  This is obviously the part I need to work on the most to develop my skills.  Mudbox I have found to be much more enjoyable to use.  However, there are still improvements to be made in using this software.  Improving on the techniques and the use of the tools I have used in the development in Mudbox, as well as the painting side, and sculpting side to improve my skills to a higher level moving forward on future projects.  I feel now looking back, there is more I could have done to the character, but I feel at this early stage of my development I am lacking the skill base and knowledge to improve.  Only with practise and time on Mudbox, Maya and Photoshop will I prove my skills and knowledge.  Moving forward, more practise time is required on these pieces of software. 

Extenstion Task

As part of our extenstion task, we had to take our characters and bring some animation to them.  This was done by firstly to upload the low poly fbx file to Maxamo, then downloading Maya control rig to the pc and extracting the files.  

Once this was done, it was a case of dragging the low poly fbx file back from mixamo to Maya.  The next step was to upload the Maya auto control rig file to Maya.  This file would give the character its animation basically giving him the ability to move or motion.

The next task was to alter the FK/ IK option from 0 to 1.  This gives the character movement or me the ability to move the arms, legs etc.

Once this was done, the characters limbs had movement.  Being able to put him in different stances. etc.  

The highlighted points around his body, are the areas that able to move.  Help bringing the character to life.