SCD: Inari Update...

She's looking good at the moment. I think it's almost time for texturing! :D

SCD: More Inari Progress...

Just a few new additions really. As I want to make her look a little more unique I decided to add a nagajuban, inspired by the one worn by Saito in Inception. It makes her chest less plain and works well with the new attempt at a wrap-around top. Still been tweaking her face as well but I think she's coming along nicely now, and with a few more refinements on the rest of her clothing I can start thinking about texturing :D

Inari Progress and Some Minor Project Thoughts...

There's been lots of tweaking on Inari recently, particularly on her face and a little on clothing creases:

Her face is definitely coming along nicely now with a few things here and there that still need to be tweaked. The clothing still needs work though and a few accessories will be added to make her more unique and ninja-like ( I do still love that she has throwing darts in her hair though :D).

Now, onto the Minor Project ideas I've had so far!

During the summer I've picked up the rather therapeutic hobby of knitting and crochet. Probably sounds a little odd and unexciting but some of the creatures I've been making are adorable, even if I do say so myself.  It was after I'd made my first long-legged monster-man that Jon mentioned something like that could make for a very simple but charming animation. I haven't really given too much thought to design or creature-type yet but I do know that something like that could really be the small, but perfectly formed, animation I need to really throw myself into the third year.

The narrative ideas we've discussed have been silly, but cute and fun too, such as:

• A mix of live action and 3D, where knitting hands will pop the creature into frame and then add or take away knitted elements comically.
• The creature could be snagged on something at the beginning of the animation and as it tries to reach its goal, steadily unravels itself through the narrative, culminating in a funny or sad ending.
• There could be two characters in the narrative. One discovers that the other is caught and at first thoughts thinks it's dead and mourns its friend. However, the caught creature wakes and laughs at the others mistake. The first creature, now frustrated at being laughed at, grabs the loose thread and completely unravels the caught creature. Laughing as it walks away, leaving angry blinking eyes in a pile of wool.

These ideas aren't refined yet of course, but I want to keep the narrative simple so I can get the character, rig and animation to the standard I want. This way I can start the Final Major Project confidently and with something I can be proud of! :)

SCD: Inari Progress...

I've based her face on an actress called Hannah Simone as she has a similar face shape and features that I was after for Inari, which turned out to be a big help! She's still a ways away though, but I thinks good progress has been made!

SCD: Inari Progress Update...

Here I put some block colours on her clothes to break them up, tweaked the eyes and started modelling in some of the clothing detail. Her face is looking much better now and the creases in the clothes could do with a lot of work still but she's coming along nicely. :)

SCD: Minor Update...

Just a few tweaks on her face after some topology help :D

 

Looking gooooood! :D

SCD: Inari's Modelling Progress...

As I've been battling a little recently with various things I've decided to jump into a project I know I enjoy and that's modelling Inari:

I haven't entirely finished her overall design and it's still at a very early stage, but I'm enjoying the modelling and she's starting to become something resembling human too! Her face has been a real pain to get right and it's only just developing into something promising but as I'm typing this I'm spotting things that need to be tweaked!

I think she'll end up a little cuter than I'd first planned but I think that'll make her sit quite nicely with Kitsune when I come around to modelling her too.

It's nice to feel passionate about something in Maya, so onwards and upwards hopefully! :D

SCD: Inari in MyPaint...

I've hit a bit of a road block with the Sea Witch's Lair so instead I decided to work a little more with Inari.  I'm still unsure how she'll work out but she's been a lot of fun so I thought I'd have a go at a portrait of her below:

The reason it's so messy is because I don't have Photoshop on my shiny new PC yet ao I'm using some free software called MyPaint. It's been pretty nice actually, it's just let down by the fact it doesn't have any kind of select and move functions yet.

Looking forward to trying it with colour though! There are some really lovely examples of what can be achieved in this software HERE.

SCD: Drawing from Reference, Part One...

All of these, bar one, are from reference:

The top drawing wasn't from reference, but I used
images to help improve how I draw 3/4 views.

 

Curse you squiffy eye!

I'm definitely improving now. The final drawings show that I'm sort of starting to draw faces more realistically now, but there's still a long way to go, especially when it comes to face shapes. Good stuff though, very exciting :)

SCD: Inari's Face Progress...

I'm having a go at giving Inari a face now and it's starting to work.

Here's an image map of the faces I've been using as reference:

 
Here are the first attempts:

 The 3/4 is still squiffy. I'm improving as I keep rejigging parts of the face but I'm going to nail it down before I start work on the rest of her.

Summer Character Design: Improving Inari...

Over the summer I'm planning on making Inari from my previous Character Design project.  To do this I'm going to recapture what I lost from the early drawings and make her more original than she was.  I'll also be using this as an opportunity to improve my drawing skill.

Here are the first face sketches:

They're getting there, but there's something I keep repeating as I draw that makes all the 3/4 views look squiffy. I'm going to keep drawing from reference so I work it out and will eventually be able to draw more original features too.
It's all good stuff though! Also, the sooner I pin down Inari's design, the sooner I can start work on Kitsune and maybe even get to do a little animating too! So, onwards! :D