During the first 3D modeling class, we worked with Maya to create our characters. However, I quickly realised I didn’t enjoy the process that much and that I could get more detail from sculpting as if it were clay. As a result, I’ve decided to start working with blender instead since most tutorials for this sculpting approach are for this free software.
Blender progress
Sculpting in blender is a fairly simple process. For each section of the body and limbs, I add a new sphere, smooth it out and merge it with the previous elements. The details are very easy to create since the tools allow me to create pretty much any effect I want. My only concern here is that the file is turning out to be quite heavy. Maybe I will have to lower the definition. But for now, I am pretty happy with the results.
Sculpting is Bender – Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed this process more than my initial approach with Maya. It felt more like digital clay as if I was sculpting in real life. Of course, there are pros and cons. Blender feels more natural and allows for more details, but the file will always be bigger and I will have to do quad drawing. Maya, on the other hand, allows for smaller, more simplified shapes that are easier to manipulate inside the software. It also does not require quad drawing.
The only concern I have right now is that this file is huge. 2Gb of data I have to import into Maya somehow…
Update – Class
I was finally able to export the blender file to Maya. In the beginning, it would simply crash and close the software, but I went back to blender and lowered the voxel size. It finally worked! I was starting to worry I would not be able to import my model… I did not know what to do at this point. But it’s done.
Also, when I reduced the voxel size, The mesh between the fingers of the wolf became all weird and deformed. However, I think I can correct this later on with quad drawing.
Quad drawing – Maya
This is hands down the worst step of this process XD. I have been quad drawing for 3 hours now, and I am not even halfway done. This is taking way longer than it should. Since the file is so big, Maya is taking a while to process when I create quads. It is taking so long!! But despite this, I don’t think this is a complicated step. In fact, it is quite easy if you don’t have a file that keeps loading every time you draw one point.
The hand is looking terrible… I can’t get it to look good and the centre of the paw will probably give me some issues later on so I’ll have to redo it. I have the same problem with the foot. I think the best thing to do now is to take a break and watch some tutorials and hopefully, that will help me fix this.
Quad – Update
The hands and feet were a big challenge! Mostly because they had so many details that were round and would extrude from the main object. But I was able to do it anyway. It has been almost 10 hours and I am SO TIRED. I swear if quad drawing were a person, I would beat them up… But I am finally done!
I had to give up some details, such as the fur from the neck, otherwise, I’d be here for another 10 hours and I do not think that is necessary at this point. Also, the cushion on the wolf’s paw is more subtle because I couldn’t get it to be round and respect the coherent quad mesh at the same time. But I was finally able to correct the issue with the hand mesh, I just had to ignore the deformations and force the quads underneath them.
UV
For some reason, every step wants to haunt me. I have been trying to UV unwrap my model but it does not want to cooperate. Every time I unwrap the torso, some parts get deformed and I don’t know how to fix it. I have tried creating new wolf models by mirroring the mesh from the quad drawings, hoping it would fix it. Sadly no. And now I have 3 copies of the same wolf for nothing.
And one of the UVs is completely destroyed, again, for some reason :’).
UV – Update
Today during class, Kelvin helped me figure out some tricks I could use to fix the UV problem. Changing the way I cut it helped a lot and some of the tools allowed me to unfold any bits that were folding underneath the UV mesh.
Also, I didn’t know the separate parts didn’t have to be symmetrical and all look the same. It would be helpful if they did, but I’m relieved that is not a problem.
UV – Update 2 – Markings
I decided it would be better if I marked the places where I wanted my character to be painted since the UV scale is incorrect. I discovered there is a tool called 3D paint tool, and I used it to define the areas that would be painted and what colours. I feel like this was a smart and helpful decision to save me time when I export it to photoshop to colour the parts.
Note: I almost forgot to mention that I added spheres for the eyes and those were also UV unwrapped, which was pretty easy.
Colouring
For the colour and texture, my goal for this character is to make it as simple as possible. I want everything to be very visibly clear and readable, so no textures. And I also plan to use the same colours like the ones I chose for my initial drawing. Meaning natural tones of brown with more saturation to make the character pop.
Update – I exported the UV images and finished them in photoshop. It was actually the most relaxing step of this project up until now. I re-exported and corrected the coloured file a few times before having something I was happy with, but I think this is it.
I am so happy right now! It finally feels like things are falling into place and I can see what my character will look like in the end.
Note: I did the same thing for the eyes, but since I don’t have photoshop installed on this laptop, I used a free version on the internet, and that worked out perfectly.
Accessories – Helmet and Gun
The first two accessories were a piece of cake. For the helmet, half a sphere with a few more divisions and some extrusions. For the gun, a cube and a cylinder extruded in a few directions, and voila.
For the colours, I went with the same ones as I used for the drawing, without any type of variation. Just an opaque base colour that still allows for readable props.
Accessories – Flower
The flower was a little more complicated and I did not know how to approach it. My goal was to create something more organic so I felt that I could go back to blender for this last element. I found a really good YouTube tutorial on how to do flowers and It was a huge help. I used tools that I had no idea existed but turned out to be a great asset to consider in future models.
To summarise, this process consists of creating planes for the petals/leaves and subdividing them in order to bend the shape. Afterwards, there are a couple of tools to navigate in order to get the wrinkled effect. I could explain it it’s literally in the video. For the flower’s stem, I used a spare and sculpted it into my desired shape.
Again, I will probably encounter the same issue as I did with the wolf. This model is a bit heavy, but not as bad as the previous one. I will probably end up using quad drawing for this one, again :,).
After exporting it to Maya, I went with solid colours for this model as well. I think it looks pretty good!
Final model update before Rig