CONCEPT

Focus:
Krita
2D Drawing
Character Sheet

Everything about this process was a first-time doing for me, a new undertaking, and conceptualising a character was no exception. I used Krita and a drawing tablet to create the character sheet you see above.

3D MODELLING

Focus:
Blender
3D Modelling
Low & High Poly
UV Mapping

The next step was to transport the character from a 2D plane to 3D. You can see the very first iteration of it to the left, and the finished version to the right. While the end result is relatively similar to the original, there was a process of iteration between them, making small changes and adjustments as I went on.

As the character was going to be part of a wider project, we decided to add a low & high poly process to the mix, which again, was a first for me. The image above shows the two different version, low poly to the left, high poly to the right. A group member later used this in Substance to add a highly detailed texture to the character.

Before moving on to the actual animations, I had to UV map the model. This is a process I need to work on. While I understand what UV mapping is and why it needs to be done, doing it wasn’t intuitive to me. But with a little bit of help, I got it done. I was fortunate that the character has simple shapes to it, but I know a character will come along that will surely challenge me.

ANIMATION

Focus:
Blender
Rigging
Animation

It was time to add some bones to the meat. As with everything else, this was a first for me. After asking or teachers and doing some research of my own, it was clear that the rigging my character needed wouldn’t be as complex as, say, a human or some other more intricate model. But even so, it posed a challenge being the first time I made it. The image above shows the bone structure: Root bone, feet, body (inner sphere and other shell), hands, and the head.

Once I’ve completed all the aforementioned steps, it was finally time to animate. While the process of it can be very time-consuming, it was every bit as fun as I’d imagined it would be. Obsessing over the tiniest details was a daily occurrence. The images above are just a selection of about 20 animations I did for this character and an NPC (not pictured) combined, which included idle, drag (objects), jumps, triggered and attack states (enemy) among others.

Above is a short clip showing the characters (player and NPC) and a handful of their respective animations implemented into the Unreal Engine.

NOTES

Focus:
Workflow
Final Thoughts

And this was my how my daily workspace layout looked like. Up until this point, i was working with a single view, which forced me to constantly have to pan and shift the camera around in order to get to appropriate angles to make the right adjustments to the pose of the character. It worked, but it was slow-going, so I did a little bit of research and came across the layout pictured above. Because of a prior lack of experience animating with no points of reference, I can’t say whether this is optimal or not after just one project, but I know it considerably sped up my workflow compared to how it started. Definitely something I’ll stick with moving forward.

As I mentioned earlier, every step of the process was a challenge. But I guess that’s to be expected when everything you do is a first. Having said that, it was a lot of fun, very creative work experimenting with the character and what could be done. Some things worked, some didn’t, some broke and issues appeared along the way, some were fixed and some I needed more time to correct. It’s a learning process.

You can read more about this and my own journey in a blog post I wrote if you want an extra bit of insight, on a more personal level.