Category: Character Animation

No sound

With sound

Critical Appraisal

Quick Rig and Weight Painting

Creating the rig for the character was a very smooth step. I simply followed everything that was shown in class, and it’s looking great!

Weight painting was A little bit more complicated at first. Every time I finished a section, I locked it. In doing this I didn’t know that by the time I got to the final element if every layer was locked, it would start deforming the mesh. Fortunately, I was able to figure this out and it all worked out fine.

Update – Gun Position

I was trying to figure out how I would create the gravity effect on the weapon, attached to the character’s shoulder. After giving it much thought, I thought It would be better to just change its position so that I don’t have to be worried about trying to make it believable.

I reckon this is a wise decision. Instead of trying to make it more complicated by adding effects, this simple rotation should solve this problem.

Update – Rig Issue

Unfortunately, I have tried everything but the rig doesn’t seem to work when I set the animated rig as a source. For some reason, The legs become all distorted and deformed. I have tried reassembling the dots from the mesh individually, redone the rig and weight painting, and nothing.

And Kelvin couldn’t tell me what was wrong because this is most likely a problem to do with the software or the mesh. He doesn’t know… I don’t know… This is giving me a huge headache!

Update – I am so dumb sometimes…

I swear to God… Why me? So basically, I am so dumb that I position the character’s hands in the wrong position. According to the T position, the hands should be facing down. As a result, when I try to apply some sort of animation to my wolf, it assumes the hands are in the position they should be and distorts the wrists.

I thought a lot about this. I tried rotating the hands but couldn’t because the mesh was already done, so my decision was to remove the hands and give him some gloves. I am not happy about this but I think it’s the best solution I have for this issue. Therefore, I created a pair of green gloves to match with the helmet.

I am not happy about this but I think it’s the best solution I have for this issue. Even though it’s not ideal, the result isn’t bad at all, still not my goal. Oh well…

MoCap Alternative

I have been thinking about it and even messaged Kelvin regarding this decision. I think it is better to use Mixamo instead of trying to find mocap animations since I have been having so many rig issues. Fortunately, someone broke the mocap suit and I’m allowed to do this otherwise, I’d be doomed.

I tried using Mixamo and it looks so good! I even recorded a video of the wolf smashing expectations XD. This was fun.

Update – Lowering mesh definition

I didn’t know about this but apparently, there is a very easy way to lower the mesh definition. This solved the problem I had with the flower. Thanks to this, now the flower mesh is much smaller and I can finally combine it with the weapon without having to wait for it to process the action for seconds. Thanks, Kelvin!

Mixamo Animation Demo in Blender

Even though the tail gets a little distorted, it works! And this would be an issue anyway, even if I had gone with the rig option. I’d probably have to animate the tail, otherwise. this actually gives it some bounce and it somewhat feels natural.

Overall, this experiment was very successful!

Animation Sequence Sketch

I used Procreate to sketch out the general idea for the wolf’s movement. The idea is to have him relaxed at first, then straddled, ready to act and finally celebrate this holiday’s victory. My goal is not to express violence, as this holiday’s core celebrates the peaceful nature in which the revolution was conducted. Therefore, I want this character to be mild at first but also show he is ready to fight if necessary (so not weak). This is pretty ironic at the same time because this character is supposed to represent a ferocious species of wolf, which in this case is a metaphor for the strength of the Portuguese people that was used peacefully rather than physically.

It’s also important to note that I had to check what was available on Mixamo first since the library is pretty limited. However, I reckon I found some pretty good shots to use in the final animation. They are already selected on a list I created during class.

Combining Animations in Maya – Try

There really isn’t much to say here, since I found out that I have no idea how to blend each action smoothly and other arent many tutorials for this software. I also had the issue that I couldn’t move the character if it was walking, for some reason.

But to cut this short, I’m switching back to blender, since I have found multiple tutorials on how to tackle this problem, there.

Combining Animations in Blender

This was a much smoother process. Every step was so clear and easy to follow that I seriously question Maya sometimes XD. Anyway, I followed a great YouTube tutorial that I will post below and that will save me the time of explaining what I had to do.

The results are very promising! The ease in and out tools are so useful and have made the transitions almost perfect.

Update – Animation

Now that the actions are combined the next step is to set the scene. So adding lights, the camera, a background, etc.

I am so excited! The hardest part is complete now it’s adding small details and this will be ready in a couple of days!

Background

I don’t want to lose my time focusing on elements that are not extremely relevant right now. So I downloaded two images from a free stock website and will use them as background. I think they kind of resemble Portuguese traditional buildings, despite some details that make them look medieval. But they are useful nonetheless.

Update – Background

I used the images as they were but soon found out that they blend with the wolf’s colours too much and make the viewer lose focus on the character’s movements. So to summarise, I changed the hue and colour values in photoshop to create the contrast between oranges and their opposite colour, blue. Same thing for the ground.

Extra 3D models + Easter egg ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

At some point in the animation, the wolf climbs something. In this case, I decided to make it a building. I quickly modeled it using Maya and imported it into blender. I also used a building model from sketchfab for the structure next to the one I created just because I thought it would add more realism and detail to the scene.

Again, I made them both able for the reasons mentioned above.

The Easter egg is a play on the tradition of the dictator’s portrait. It is very common for dictators to make people hang portraits of them on the walls as a sign of submission and blind loyalty to the leader. Salazar, the main dictator responsible for the country’s misery and regime, was no exception to this rule.

If you look closely at the obstacle the wolf is jumping over, it is a broken frame with a picture of Salazar. This was meant as a sign of overthrowing the regime and leaving behind irrelevant ideas.

Camera and lights

These were both fairly quick steps. For the light, I just added a sun and used a medium intensity yellowish light to make it look cartoony yet still visible and clear. I don’t want to make the lighting too complicated by mixing colours and creating effects. It’s just a simple animation and again, I want to make everything clear and visible.

As for the camera, I just changed the positions and rotations, added a few frames and voila, done.

Rendering

I have to say this. Blender has the smoothest and most well-designed rendering process of all the 3D software I have used. I was able to export it as a video directly instead of an image sequence. I can also change different settings such as the format and the resolution. And the best thing of all is that it only took a few minutes to make a medium resolution (which is already pretty good), soI was able to render the whole thing a couple of times until I got something I was happy with.

I am still planning on doing a high-resolution one but that might take longer since I applied a subdivision modifier to make the character mesh smoother.

But I am happy to say this was the last step and my animation is finally ready! I thought I could add some sound effects but I think this is more than enough and honestly, I am tired.

Sound

For the audio effects, I went with something very simple. Some crowd sound effects I got from Youtube and for the walking part and when the wolf stretches its arms, I created a quick recording of my hands tapping and my fingers cracking on my phone. But what I think made a big difference here, was “Grândola, Vila Morena”. This song was played on the morning of this holiday to give the official signal to the population and the military forces that it was time to strike. It remains one of the most iconic Portuguese musical pieces due to its historic relevance.

I think it works pretty well with the moment the wolf gets startled and then immediately gets prepared for action, just like the Portuguese people, 48 years ago.

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

Portuguese Holiday – 25 de Abril

The holiday I chose to represent is 25 de Abril or Dia da Liberdade (25th April or Liberty Day). It commemorates the peaceful revolution that took place all over Portugal and marked the end of the nationalist dictatorship and colonial wars. It is infamous for its peaceful approach, where soldiers placed carnations inside the muzzles of their rifles. As a result, this movement is often called “A Revolução dos Cravos” (Carnation Revolution).

I chose this holiday because it is one of the few revolutions that happened in the history of humanity that did not use force against their opponents. This shows that strength is in numbers and unity, not violence. For this reason, I want to use this historic day as inspiration for my character.

25th April 1974 – Soldiers during the Revolution

Character Inspiration

I have been thinking and I wanted my character to be an animal. I think it would be a more friendly, cartoonish approach that could help younger audiences feel more drawn toward this emblematic day. However, I want an animal that inhabits Portuguese territory to make it coherent with the theme.

After some research, I decided to use the Iberian wolf as a reference for my character. This species lives in the northern regions of Portugal and northwestern Spain. At first, I wanted to do the “Andorinha” (swallow bird), which is probably the most emblematic animal in Portugal, but I thought it wouldn’t have the same impact and it would be harder to anthropomorphize. Therefore, I’d rather stick with the wolf.

I have also gathered a few images as inspiration for the design. I want the wolf to be a Disney style character, because it makes it more readable and expressive, in my opinion. Zootopia was very useful for this! The wolf characters are very funny and expressive while maintaining anatomically correct proportions that keep them true to the species they belong to. I especially like the way they modeled their noses. That slight arch that wolves have and that Disney artists used to create different proportions for distinct characters is so satisfying!

Character Design

I have been doing some sketches and to be honest, I am not fully convinced about these designs yet. There is something about this drawing that makes the wolf feel like a Furry XD. I want him to be a bit more expressive and less flirtatious… The body is ok, but the whole face just looks off. I don’t know… I will probably redo the whole thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

UPDATE

This took way longer than it should have but I finally have a design I want to work with! The proportions look way more expressive and unique than in the first drawings. Also, this design’s expression conveys more personality.

I did not mention this earlier but, my intention is to make this wolf look peaceful, reliable and relaxed, at the same time strong and decisive. It all has to do with the core of this peaceful revolution. I do not want it to look violent, but it cannot look weak. The relaxed state is also not to say that this character is lazy but instead that it is sure of its morals and confident that peace is a better path than violence. This wolf also has to look like a friendly, reliable character, since I want to express that strength is also in unity, looking out for each other and trusting one another.

I think this design conveys all of that and I am finally ready to move to the next step and start thinking about colors and modeling. Finally… I am so tired! (It is literally 5 am).

COLOR UPDATE

I have decided to make a major change and switch the military hat to a helmet. These were also used during the revolution and I think it makes the character look more like a soldier rather than a common individual with a gun.

For the colors and patterns, I want to keep them fairly true to the actual species but still have them pop out. Therefore the palette is mostly composed of very saturated brown tones. As for the hat and carnation, I made them opposite colors on the color wheel to create more contrast. The weapon is a blueish-grey that also helps create contrast, while not deviating the attention from the character too much.