The next character model is a very proud Italian friend of mine who got very unfortunately caught up in the early issues in northern Italy during the pandemic. In order to pay effective tribute to her location and nationality during this time, we both agreed we should look into classic Italian architecture for this model.
Character Model 5
While she is from Valley d’Aosta and resides within the Italian side of the alps, that area has a very distinctive type of architecture due to the cross-cultural impact of France and Switzerland; a lot of the classic architecture can be associated with any of these areas. In order to communicate with an audience very clearly the Italian setting, I began looking at Tuscan houses, which are very distinct in style. These also potentially match the most stereotypical international views other than Rome and Venice.
Beginning the concept art, I really wanted to ensure that the shutters and the roof tiling were in the most visually-referential way I could with the imagery I had selected. I also felt incorporating the shutters in the ‘eye’ windows could effectively work as eyelids later on in the animation process.
First and foremost, I applied techniques I have learned from previous weeks’ modelling to create the roof tiling in a neat and orderly fashion. In contrast to my first model, I feel this friend of mine is a very neat and particular person, and I wanted to portray this visually in the best way I could.
Trying to get this flat, serious expression within this character model was also an essential point for me as a lot of the spoken content from this character is very serious and self-reflecting, and I wanted her expression, even within the limitations of architectural structure, to look intentionally flat and stone.
In order to rig the shutters later on, I wanted to endure the pivot transforms were correct and also had rotational limits on them so that during the animation process, they could be prevented from mesh collision, which I also something I intend to add to every door on the models I will begin to rig.
Experimenting with brick placement, I realised that due to the type of texture these buildings are traditionally made of, this method would prove ineffective, as it would not reflect the style of the building I was aiming to go for. In a lot of the Tuscan houses I had looked at, there was more stonework than brick.
Starting the base layer of stone, I wanted to see if I could make the bricks appear like a stone on the rest of the mesh; however, personally, I feel this made it look messy and imbalanced, which went against my initial goals for characterisation.
After managing to greater three neat rows of stone all the way around the model and using the same guttering technique used on model 3, I feel I was able to create a (somewhat) authentic italian-style house with a clean and simple appearance. I feel that minimally trying to add subtle location-specific details to my models has proved a slight challenge. However, I think it works quite well here, and I hope to continue to adapt this further with the next model.
Character Model 6
Since this character is based on a man who lives/ and has lived/ in Birmingham his whole life, I wanted to really try to get the essential parts of a classic Birmingham home into my modelling. A very classic trait of housing in Birmingham is this crowded attached terrace style housing which has this distinct’ red brick’ look to it. I also particularly like the layered circular detailing on the roofs, which will interesting to incorporate into my model.
Translating this into a character design, I think trying to play on the attached housing will work really well in a movement design aspect, as I can utilise both doors during different speeches to make a more interesting and dynamic piece of animation. Another element that I think will really help in creating expression is using the unique circular brickwork above the windows to use as eyebrows.
Considering this character is the only one who will be ‘indoors’ so to speak, I also wanted to consider the modelling for the environment early on and consider what the ‘house’ that they will be situated in will look like, as I intend to use this character model as a base.
Beginning the modelling process, I felt it appropriate once again everything very neat as this house will be very symmetrical in its visual approach. The tiling for this house also needs to have smaller, more close-knit lines due to the nature of its source material.
After completing all the individual lines of tiles around the whole building, I was very happy with the result and decided to use a ‘boolean’ technique to make the detailing impression for the edges of the roof. This created a nice effect that I was happy with aesthetically in wireframe.
However, when rendering this effect, it did not show up in a way that appeared there dimensional and lost a lot of its detailing and effect overall, looking like two flat planes on top of each other.
Trying to get this idea to correspond correctly within the Ai Toon shader, I created three layers of this curvy line of mesh to create a similar impression. By moving these slightly off-centre from one another, I was able to create a clean layered effect which appears to have a ‘softer’ and more friendly-looking appearance as it feels reminiscent of tablecloths typically associated with grandmothers. Having had northern grandparents myself, this is something I feel I would have typically seen in their house growing up and it helps set the age of the interviewee and their English background.
This effect also worked much more successfully in the Arnold render view, and I actually feel it achieves the aesthetic preference in a cleaner and more visually simplistic way.
Trying to get this central brickwork detailing and also incorporate it as the eyebrow design proved to be quite difficult as the movement would either have to be restricted (therefore reducing eye movement massively) or would have to move as an entire line which would look incorrect, or far too jarring.
Cropping this down to just the circular areas above the windows seems to work and also really helps add an expression that makes the character appear more friendly without losing its Birmingham characteristic.
For this model, I also wanted to add the appropriate door handling, which gives it a little more detail when rendered with the toon shader that separates it from the other door designs.
Below is the finished house model, which I feel encapsulates its location very well and indicates something quintessential from a northern British attached house. I feel quite enthusiastic to animate this character later on as it provides a lot of opportunity for expression with more carefully designed eyebrows and doors. I may potentially have to turn down the specualar on some textures, such as the tiles later on, as they make the model look very clean or wet, which is not the overall intention. Now that all of the main character models are complete, I now aim to start the rigging process with all of the characters and figure out exactly how they will move.
Next Week’s Goals:
- Finish previsualtaion
- Render tests (If time)
- Start Character Rigging (If Time )