3D Modeling / Final Project & E-Portfolio

06/11/2023 - 27/11/2023 / (Week 11 - Week 14)
Derin / 0354969 / Design in Creative Media
MMD 60804 / 3D MODELING
Final Project & E-Portfolio



INSTRUCTIONS

   

Final Project  (40%)
A) Character Modeling – 30 %
This project will focus on character mesh building with the understanding of anatomy, muscle and proper mesh/topology flow implementation catering for rig setups and UV Layouts for texturing. E.g. models – human, monsters, creature, cartoon character etc.
B) E-Portfolio – 10 %
Students describe and reflect on their social competencies within the design studio context, supported by evidence. Reflect on how to empathize with others within group settings, interact positively within a team and foster stable and harmonious relationships for productive teamwork. The reflective writing is part of the TGCP.

Deadline:
Week 14


FINAL PROJECT

For this final project, I went through a selection of cartoon characters and finally decided on the character 'King Clawthorne' from the television series 'The Owl House' for my character modeling. He's a monster-like creature which would not be easy to sculpt. Mr. Kamal said that if I am able to mesh his model well, it can get an A+, hence why I decided to go for this difficult character.

Fig 1.1 King Clawthorne from The Owl House


Character Sheet

For reference, I tried looking for King's turnaround reference sheet but couldn't find a clear official one. Fig 1.2 is the best I could find out of the ones up there. They're more like expression references rather that design refrences.

Fig 1.2 King's Expression Sheet


I tried looking up for existing 3D models of King which led me to finding this amazing model made and meshed by TY_ADAMICK shard in Cults3D. It has a 360 turnaround view which deemed to be helpful to reference from.

Fig 1.3 https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/king-clawthorne


Fig 1.4 Front King

Fig 1.5 Right King

Fig 1.6 Left King

Fig 1.7 Back King


Modeling

I started by modelling his tusk and then his skeleton head next. It was kind of hard to get the shape right, if it weren't for the references, I wouldn't have been able to do it nicely.

Fig 2.1 Sculpting King's tusk

Fig 2.2 Sculpting King's head

I proceeded to create an hole on the skull for the eyes. I used the boolean modifier with a cylinder to pierce through the skull. After applying the modifier, I used the solidify function to give the skull some dimension.
Fig 2.3 Inserting a cylinder into the skull where the eyes are located at

Fig 2.4 Using the boolean modifier to create the hole

I proceeded to create the teeth, small hole, and his horn. I used a cylinder mesh for the shape and made loop cuts. Then, I used the simple deform modifier to further form the shape of a horn.
Fig 2.5 Adding fine details

After I'm finished with the skull, I proceeded to create the head. Since there are no official art/design for King without his skull helm, I decided to shape it according to the shape of the skull using the sphere mesh. It ended up looking pretty cute!! Afterward, I proceeded to create the eyeballs with the sphere mesh.
Fig 2.6 Creating the head


Fig 2.7 Adding the eyes

After I'm done with the head, I proceeded with his body. It wasn't too hard since I still remembered the exercise of when we created Patrick star.
Fig 2.8 Creating the body and collar

Then, I used a cylinder mesh to create the legs and added loop cuts. I made the number of sides match with the torso. This process took longer than it should... Looking back, I could have extruded them to ease the process, since we're not giving our model bones/rig it. Creating his toes was also no problem as it's similar to King's tusk.
Fig 2.9 Creating the legs

Fig 2.10 Adding his toes


I extruded the torso to create King's arms and used the same shape that I used for the toes to create his claws. Further adjustment are done.

Then, I created his tail using the cylinder mesh and made a neck to connect his torso to his head.

I did King's hair the last. Mr. Kamal helped kickstart the process and taught me ways on how I could mesh the hair. It was a matter of extruding one side from the head and add loop cuts to shape it.

I had struggled in making his belly right. I tried multiple methods like using the material option to color is by selecting the sides, but it ended up pixelated. Mr. Kamal suggested that I use UV and texture map but honestly it's confusing to figure out which side is which.

In the end, I duplicated the sides and adjusted the shape separately from the body. 

The coloring process wasn't so hard since King's color palette already exist.

Fig 2.11 Final look on the model


Rendering

I made a lot of adjustments on the lighting. It was difficult to create a perfect balance of lights. For that, I consulted Mr. Kamal and he suggested to use a 3 point lighting. Blender has this light settings in one of its Add-ons so I used it accordingly. The render engine I used for the final look is the cycles render.

Fig 3.1 Positioning the background and vamera

Fig 3.2 Adding the lighting

Mr. Kamal made a few suggestions I could implement to the final rendering. I also made an infinity backdrop so that the background isn't awkward. I changed it accordingly.

Fig 3.3 Changed backdrop and added 3 point lighting

Fig 3.4 3 point lighting look from camera view 

This isn't final yet btw lmaoo 😭😭 Mr. Kamal suggested  for the model to only have 1 shadow and have a balanced amount of light coming out.

Final Outcome

The following is the final outcome for my final project! I'm pretty proud of it :)

Fig 4.1 Final Outcome for Final Project without Wireframe

Fig 4.2 Final Outcome for Final Project with Wireframe



FEEDBACK

Mr. Kamal suggested a few ways on how I can color King's belly, and that is by using UV and texture map. Moreover, he also helped me creating the shape of King's hair.

When I presented my finished work to Mr. Kamal, he gave me a few feedback on how I can further improve the lighting of my model by suggesting to remove the light coming out from the floor and instead use a 3 point lighting.


REFLECTION

I enjoyed doing this project a lot! There were times when I get stressed 'cause I don't know how to do some of the stuff I needed, like with King's hair for an example. But because of that, this project became a fun learning experience :) Huge thanks to Mr. Kamal for guiding me through this! Please give me an A+