The 4th interviewee clearly stated how they were in Florida, and with contextual input of them working in a cafe, I decided to research beach cafes that can be typically seen in that area. The main theme I noticed is a lot of primary blues and light-toned buildings with ‘flatter’ beaches and large umbrellas.
Architecturally, I felt very inspired by the image below as it has a lot of interesting shapes and features, which I believe would translate well into 3D space, such as the railing and simplistic beach cafe sign. I also really liked the use of the tarpaulin roofing that abuts the building and window ledges, which could prove interesting later on in terms of simulation and also texture exploration.
Expanding on from this, I drew a design that accentuates this more square shape and adapts it to fit an anthropomorphized character that requires a ‘mouth’ to speak. Trying to thematically engage with the weather of Florida locations, I wanted to accentuate this by using sunglasses. I also feel that later on in the rendering process, I could add some interesting reflections to them. The key thing I wanted to achieve from this design is how the shape will differ in a silhouette sense from the other characterised buildings and also to create a different dynamic door idea that fits into a more modern aesthetic due to its context.
Beginning with the base model, I felt that the addition of the railing was particularly effective here, and it gives the impression of additional ‘layers’ or floors within the building that give it a different scale and also allow me to play around with things that can go on the rooftop. The inward extrusion of the base, it also adds some surface detailing that is not present in the earlier models that I feel will look good in the final render.
When exploring what would be the most effective way to create the tarpaulin roof, I decided to try and use Ncloth to create a more believable cloth sitting that could be manipulated by wind effects due to its setting.
The first process of this was creating the building as a passive collider and then attaching the end vertex of the mesh using a transform constraint to make them fall over the roughly modelled window.
I feel this made the cloth sit more naturalistically and gave me a good starting approach for how this will later be applied when modelled into the correct shape and length.
The next key step was modelling the facial features, which will be the most essential for the animation process. Since my drawing tries to effeminate this character, I added some ‘eyeliner’ to the mesh to give it a bit more personality and differentially it slightly from the other models without string too far from the general aesthetic.
When beginning to model the sunglasses, I was having a lot of issues trying to start the process, originally using too large transparent squares to try and create the effect. I realised later on that it was proving difficult to try and create the circular effect without reference, and I found a pair online in which I could begin to shape the base around.
Using the reference, I found it much easier to get the right shape and focus on the details, such as the concave shape of the glasses, as this will help with helping distort reflections naturally and also work better generally in three dimensions.
After modelling the glasses, I really wanted to focus on a more stylised form of highlight so that it could match the heavy ‘toonshader’ linework of the renderer. In the concept work, I have the white ‘squares’ that implicate highlights. Trying to translate that into 3d, as visible in the rendered version, the contrast of the specular glass and the stylised highlight do not work well together. And turning down the specular also looks odd because it would block the visibility of the eyes, therefore restricting expression.
The most important aspect of the model in order for successful rigging was the door. I wanted to make an automatic door to add variety and also play around with the differing logistics of door styles and how they would work as mouths, so to speak. Since the main aspect of this motion is both of the doors moving swiftly and cleanly to the side without any mesh collisions, it felt important to make sure I get the transforms correct early on so the rigging process goes as smoothly as possible.
For the font for the front sign, I wanted to play with audience associations again to build a stronger sense of the environment and tried to replicate the font of the famous ‘sandals’ beach resort that was popular in the 80s and could potentially resonate subconsciously with older audiences. This also creates a more ‘beachy’ aesthetic for the whole model.
Now that a good portion of the character modelling was complete, I wanted to start the simulation process again with more accurately modelled cloth and see how this would work with the existing model. As seen in the clip below, the first attempt proved more successful than the prior attempt. However, the cloth is still too long and too thin to effectively replicate the cloth of tarpaulin/ cotton that is typically used for gazebo-type covers.
After shaping the cloth more effectively and using the transform constraints and more points to ensure mesh connection, the cloth sat much more accurately than before and achieved the overall effect I wanted going forward. However, I still felt the cloth deforms could be pushed even more accurately with additional underlying mesh.
Adding the metal bars that would potentially be used under the cloth to help hold and shape them over windows and cafe porches, I created a cylindrical bar and added a passive collider so that the NCloth simulation would sit on top of it.
The final result with the added bar collision, which I think adds a slight bounce and a cloth deform in the centre, would be more accurate to real life.
Applying a similar technique to the umbrella, I initially tried to create the edges of the mesh to have a Ncloth effect. However, this did not work as the Ncloth simulation appears to need to affect an entire piece of mesh to work as effective simulation.
Since the umbrella stick would not, from prior simulation experience, effectively hold the entire weight and length of the Ncloth mesh, I created an ‘invisible’ smaller piece of mesh underneath that it could collide with in a way that could make it appear realistic.
This idea application, with added collision weight and thickness, created exactly the kind of effect I wanted for this simulation. This could also be extremely useful when adding an additional ‘wind’ simulation as it could help just add that slight, subtle animation that helps sell a shot environmentally.
When finishing up the model, I wanted to add some additional detailing that would make the cafe look more full and life-like, such as cactus pots. I also added a ‘sun’ logo to the sign that feels reminiscent of the earlier reference image but acts as its own design. Given more time constraints on this, I would make the sign work as a ‘neon’ light, as beachside cafes/bars generally make use of it due to how dark beaches get at night, and I could play around with the time of day between the differing shots also.
Due to the nature of the type of building it is, I also wanted to add restaurant ‘seating’. Initially, I had thoughts of making the chairs big enough for ‘building’ characters to fit into as that fits the overall theme of the whole world I am building. However, I settled for making ‘human-sized seating as I felt this was a perfect flourish for the model detailing and also implies the existence of smaller living beings in the world without making a direct implication it is human.
Below showcases the final model details, with the textured Ncloth materials, which colour match the building base and also will, later on, match the towels I plan to place on the beach to help fill the environmental scene and make it more believable. Given the additional time, I would add a lot more careful details to the building, such as brick detailing, guttering, tables and little assets such as cups and mugs etc.
Next Week’s Goals:
- Design and Model Character 5
- Design and Model Character 6