Minor - "Pipe-Dwellers" Body Modelling Pt 02

The final stage for the "Pipe-Dwellers" body modelling was the legs, which caused caused quite a few issues. As these creatures are similar to mice, they need to have a posable thumbs and fingers to be able to climb, but also have fit the shape of my orthographs. 

 My first attempt was to create the main leg body first and then extrude the paw/hand out. However, doing this didn't give me the geometry need to make the hand structure. 

Next I just modelled the hand and then decided to exude upwards from the wrist to create the leg, but sculpting the leg was turning out to be a near impossible feat.

Looking back at my drawings, I decided to model the hand completely and then cover the wrist with a "stuffed" material sleeve structure. This was the only way I could figure out how to model the arms/hand correctly whilst keeping the design in mind.

There are some areas that can still do with a little improving before rigging. The sleeve is cutting into the hand too much, also I need to think about how this will deform when skinning and applying blend shapes. 

This model is mainly all sperate meshes, which may cause some problems later down the line. I will have to research ways of combining it all together before rigging.  

I feel my inexperience with character modelling is showing a lot with this model due to all the separate meshes, but as these creatures are all made of material, I'm hoping that all the individual meshes may work in my favour.

Next will be to find a quadruped rigging tutorial and to give it a go.

 

First Attempt

Second Attempt.

Hand and Sleeve Mesh.

Render

 

Minor - Room Texturing Pt 7

Some more finalized renders of some of the objects in the room, a lot of these models took a bit of experimenting between using bump and normal maps. The tree proxies was just painted in Photoshop, I felt there wasn't any need for in-depth texturing as they are only notable though the window. Adding the duller colours at the top of the trees helps to create a chilly night atmosphere, these was created by following a online tutorial and then adding my own alterations.  

Tree Proxys

Minor - "Pipe-Dwellers" Body Modelling Pt 01

Starting on the "Pipe-Dweller's" body, I had to think about how to model the main shape so to both give the impression of a sock and some underneath structuring to show muscles etc. As I had already started the neck ruffle in the head modelling phase, continuing on with this was just a case of bringing down the geometry and adding material folds.

However, creating the tail was a bit of a challenge. When I first created the four separate cylinders and twisted them (to make the rope), using the lattice deformer to change thickness in some areas just make the gaps between the geometry far too noticeable. Going back to the four cylinders, I decided to removed the inner facing parts and weld them together. Now when twisting the geometry and reshaping it, the tail was more consistent. Also, laying out the uv's prior to the twisting means it will be easier to texture at a later stage.

To create the knot and the end of the tail, I used the curve wrap deformer and a CV curve. This allowed me to gain the shape I wanted. The spikes along the back are the same as the head (sperate meshes), I am wondering with to remove these and extrude them from the main mesh instead to help with the skinning process.

Next will be modelling the legs and feet

Minor - End Credits Music Progression Pt 01

Progression is being made when it comes to creating the end credits. So far, I am extremely happy with how the music is developing and am debating some music during the animation. I feel like the artist has followed my brief brilliantly and has captured the personalities of the characters. I am hoping (time allowing) to create some small animations as the credits roll to match the music.

KimmiKittie23 · Where Do All the Socks Go Credits - Version 01

Composer: Tom Will Morris - https://linktr.ee/TomWillMorris

Minor - Pipe Dwellers Head Modelling

 Currently, work on rigging the "Sock-Stealer" has come to halt due to some difficulties with blendshapes, which I am in discussion with my tutor about. So to not be wasting time and to continue moving forward, I had decided to start modelling the Pipe-Dwellers. Sadly, these took me far longer than hoped due to feeling quite poorly at the beginning of the week, which also meant I forgot to take progression screen captures.

However, regardless of these setbacks, I'm quite pleased with how the head modelling has turned out. Looking up some rodents for references, I wanted to try and capture the round cheeks which Japanese Flying Squirrels have. My final outcome did stray slightly from the original design and orthographs, this being mainly the larger areas under the eyes have been removed. I found that modelling these just made the head looks skeletal rather than "plushy", so I decided to remove them.

I have made the neck ruffle at the moment, but this is more likely to change shape when it comes to modelling the body. Also, I reduced the size of the pipe antlers. When following the orthographs they looked far to big and just seems out of place. 

Mood Board

Rodent eyes are more positioned along the side of the head, this means that when moving the eyes it seems to creates a odd gap. This gap is mainly due to the Cornea being textured as glass, but when moving the eyes during render, the IOR hides that gap well. The "Pipe-Dwellers" will be mainly turning their heads sideways to look, so this will also help to remove the problem. 

Notable Gap and Glass Cornea

Rendered

Minor - Bedroom Texturing Pt 6

Working on the last touches to the room, I've added socks to the open drawer. This was done by modelling two socks first, multiplying them and then creating passive colliders in the drawers before dropping them into place. I made a base similar to the toybox so to give the impression that there is more socks in there.

Once done, I took out the UV's into Photoshop and painted designs, this admittedly took longer then anticipated but I quite like the effect. Then I transferred them as a whole model into substance painter and made some maps to create a woollen effect (Roughness and Bump).

Sock References

First Render

To add a little extra touch to the room, I saw a board that was for lost socks. With this in mind, I decided to make my own on as I felt it would fit in well with the bedroom. I didn't collect references for this as I looked at few variations and made my own style with the white wood base.

Lost Sock Board

Next was to do the books. As these are more of a background object, I only really worried about placing some base textures (via photoshop) and adding some bump to the pages. Also, there is a small amount of specular to the covers.

Textured Books

For the Moon, I found a texture I liked on the NASA website and altered it to have more of a yellowish tint. From there, I reversed the levels and made a stronger contrast to create the bump map and then added some roughness and specular. Although, from a far distance, these details are not really notable.

Moon Textured

Minor - Bedroom Texturing Pt 5

For the unicorn teddy, I decided to to make the mane and horn metallic to blend in well with some of the other elements in the room.

Looking at the wood texturing, I feel that the normal map may be a bit strong, so I may reduce them down slightly.

Unicorn Model

Small Patchwork Teddy 01 and 02

Small Patchwork Teddy 02

Patchwork Teddy- Toybox

Drawings

Pin Cushion

Picture Frame 01

Picture Frame 02

Ball Textures

Current Render