Printed Model

This is my printed model of my character. It's still in progress so there is allot of detail missing but at the stage it's at now, I have to say I am happy with it. The only thing that went wrong was that the tail broke off due to it being too long. Even though this wouldn't effect my model in Maya, I think I will reduce the length of the tail so it fits the character a little better.

Maya

So its time to start modelling!

I'm using a tutorial I had from a while back to start of my model 

This is the upper torso of my model so far in Maya. I think it's going well but my only concern so far is that because I have made the body lean forward slightly at the hips, when it comes to rigging later, there may be a issue, but I will carry on for now and change it if need be.

Finalization

I have decided for this to be the final of my character and am now choosing to move forward towards the modelling of her. I feel that  I like this characters look and if anything else needs be added, I can during the process of modelling.

I drew these to use as a reference for when i'm modelling in Maya. I have tried to put my character into the correct pose of how I think she would stand but I'm not sure wether or not It will cause issues later or not. We will see!

Concepts

From what's come into my mind so far, I very much like the idea of Pocahontas Billiams being a monkey but I thought, why not try go through a few others ideas before I hit a conclusion.

I was trying to think how I could merge a few ideas together into one here by having a girl who pretty much acts walks and talks like a gorilla but also has a few tiny characteristics of one, such as the snout like nose and big bushy hair like the character Blanka from street fighter but it didn't really work because it was simply not thought about and to be honest, boring. So I have kinda started to look back at the idea of her being a monkey as it has more options in my opinion.

I have been going through ideas and have tried compiling and creating concept ideas for Pocahontas. I very much like my top idea of her being a monkey that wants to be a gorilla as I have added a fur hat and jacket that will be grey to try and imitate the look and feel of a gorilla, as the colour of a monkey that normally comes into mind is brown. The grey jacket will have silver tape on the back to show she is trying to imitate a silver back gorilla. As well as this, she will have a very calmed look to her as she tries to imitate the gorillas mood and attitude. Just like when you find a person from one culture that sounds like another culture because of them either being around that culture so much or just out of wanting to be like them.

Trip to London 2

Here I was just having a few more looks at there environment to see if I could gather any more ideas. One thing I did notice was that there were a lot of greys, greens and browns. Many earth tones which kinda gives me a idea of the pallet for my characters colours.

I like this picture ^ because of the posing of the monkey. I think when it comes to concepts I will try and imitate something like it.

Trip to London Zoo

This is the first creature I encountered as I ventured into the zoo. If I remember correctly It was a lemur, If not it was in very close relation. I really liked this as the way they moved and sat down had a lot of personality to it without needing anything else. You could see the hyper monkeys as well as a select few that were chilled and relaxed. The main one that caught my eye was the leader in my opinion as it was just looking over the entire pack making sure no one was causing to much trouble even though it started playing with the other monkeys soon after. The way it lazed about before hand, has really inspired me for my character to be a monkey of some sort.

I then went on to find the gorillas. This one had a baby holding onto it's stomach and was just generally relaxed. compared to the monkeys before, these gorillas were moving in slow motion and didn't really care about doing anything in the slightest. It was almost like they were opposites in the prim-ape world

Monkeys: hyper, small, fast, lack of attention to anything

Gorilla: mellow, large, slow, paying enormousness attention to everything.

I think I have an idea! Monkey who wants to be a Gorilla!

Blanka from Street Fighter

Blanka from street fighter also comes into mind as a inspiration as he is very much gorilla based in design but a hybrid almost of a gorilla, the incredible hulk and a pure beast. I think in relation to my design of character, she wont be any were as aggressive as him but i like some features such as the long hair rough spiky hair on his head.

Gorilla poses and features

In the brief, the character I have chosen wants to be a Gorilla. Here I am looking at key features of there anatomy as well as how they could relate to the girl.

I very much like the hunched back view of the top image, as it almost looks human it self. They also have very relaxed eyes with prominent facial features that look quite serious.

The gorillas face already looks like its made from clay in my opinion. It has that very shiny leathery look to it and is also quite disproportionate in places such as the nose and mouth compared to the eyes. I like this look a lot.

The hands are very short, stubby and thick. The thing that comes strait to mind when I look at it is a leather glove. Those really thick gloves that you see men wear at winter time. This could possibly be used towards my characters design but I don't want to create the character completely on what she is wearing but more on her own features.

In terms of there limbs, they appear very elongated and muscle bound but surprisingly human like in nature.

Noodle from Gorillaz

Hrmm..

I also like how she is quite long in terms of the proportions of her legs and arms but quite a small character. This once again makes me think of the anatomy of a monkey (aka band Gorillaz)

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Pocahontas is "Noodle" from the band Gorillaz. She is silent and layed back about everything, with the slight appearance of a monkey. I don't want my character based on a already made character but baring this in mind, I think Noodle is a very well fitting character to what the brief gives so at least I have a starting point.

Brief

“We would like your students to design and animate some
characters for us for a potential animated advertisement for
London Zoo. We are thinking about using a visual style that
reflects traditional “Claymation” techniques but will be generated
using CG processes. The characters should be worked up from
the following list:”


Pocahontas Billiams – “Willie’s sister, she’s seven
years old but much more relaxed and more knowing than
her sibling. She wants to be a gorilla.”

Plan

Research – Internet, books, visits to relevant locations.

Initial ideas – use bits of research to plot some ideas down

Concept drawings – the character/environment

Character design – anything that needs adjusting/adding for the brief

Character colours – what type of pallet are the colours, (dark, earth tones, bright)

Basic model – create from scratch basic poly model from drawings

Watch rig tutorial – learn to rig

Rig – basic rig for posing model

Basic model > higher poly model – adding subdivisions to model for better quality

Watch texture tutorial – learn to texture

Texture – make skin/clothes look fitting, while keeping to the clay style

Pose – put completed character in a fitting pose

Lighting – create a good mood for model to sit in

o_o