This semester I have been working with the Brass Monkey Studio as part of my Advanced Computer Animation subject and so far I have been part of the modelling team for an animated short called ‘Grandma’s House’.
This post will outline all the work I have done so far on the project and I will put the finished assets on my portfolio when they are done, but at the moment everyone’s models are still being reviewed.
So my first task was to create the Large Rat asset for the project. In the animatic we were given, the rat are featured 3 times, each time the perception of reality changes between horror and real.
- The first is when the possums transform into rats in shot 23
- The second showed the rats running across the screen before changing back into possums looking confused
- And the last, shows them back in the tree
The initial design brief stated that the rat should be scary, but should fit in the style of the main characters. The director was not happy with the design in the animatic, so i was given free reign over the design.
Before I could start modelling, I needed to look at references, understand and simplify the anatomy into bones and muscle groups so that when it is rigged it will deform correctly and create a working design.
(Top left shows a simple run cycle, the taller of the two rat profile drawings in the top right is my concept design, then we have the t-pose profile showing the body segments, bones and muscle groups and we have a quick study of rat hands and feet at the bottom)
From here I was able to start modelling and I had just enough time to create the basic body shape while keeping an eye on the topology.
The director was happy with my design with just a few small changes and I was given the all clear to continue working until the next review.
Continuing modelling my main focus for this week was to get the feet and hands looking like actual rat hands and keeping it scary looking. I was also able to begin on the face, I was told to strictly avoid using triangles in my topology and my main struggle was to keep the edge flow working while adding the detail. I didn’t do the best job around the shoulders and hips but by the time I reached the end of this week i was getting the hang of it on the face.
In the review there were quite a few changes that needed to be made;
- The feet and hands were too realistic and scary and I needed to round them out and make them more stubby.
- The shoulders and hips were too well defined and to soften up the body as well.
I started by working on reforming the body, deleting unnecessary edge loops and giving the rat a more realistic profile. I was really unhappy with how the topology on the hips and legs were working so I spent a lot of time completely reworking it and this helped with the process of making them less defined.
It was a little sad messing up the claws that I spent so much time on last week but now that it is done it does read better from a distance and feel less spindly.
The face went fairly smoothly except for having a little trouble trying to not have any triangles in the topology around the eyes. I was fairly happy with the modelling so far so I tried adding some spiky fur clumps on the cheeks and on the back, as per my original design, the cheeks turned out well but the back didn’t look that great.
For the coming week I need to refine the face, particularly the eyes and the mouth, and work out the kinks in the fur.
This week was all about reforming the face, adding detail and refining edge loops, there is still a little work to go but we are finally almost there!
All that is left is to make sure my topology is good and UV unwrap.