Rigging

19/10/15
Rigging

A very stressing and frustrating process.

Above is the smoothed version of Cottonbun with his rainbow coloured joints and stylish hoop controls. I had trouble with retexturing but it should be ok now...i hope.

Look at all of Cottonbun's siblings! Jokes, those are blend shapes in other words duplicates of the dummy of the original. Basically they're doppelgangers. Each one helps control an emotion such as happy, sad, surprised etc.

Look at this snazzy bunny XD

(low poly mode)

3D Rig-joints

7/10/2015

3D Rigging setup

Finished creating joints. Looks like a creepy skeleton now.

Turntable of Textured Character

2/9/15

Cottonbun with texture!

I was attempting playing with lighting by adding in spotlights at different angles. 

A little hard to see but I made the belly and tail stand out more because they looked too similar in colour to the body.

Now his tail is more white in colour so it stands out more.

UV texturing

31/8/15
UV-ing Cottonbun
Getting him ready for texturing.

UV's are essential for telling how the image texture will get mapped when applied to the surface mesh. 

Character Turntable

24/8/15

Cottonbun

Prop Turntable

24/8/15

The Carrot

Character Modelling

12/8/15

Character Modelling

My kinda mostly completed prop. I probably will go back to fix some of the indents on the carrot but right now it's looking good.

Cottonbun's construction is underway! Yay! I've managed to get the arm attached and I am currently working on his ear.

Maya is still a bit overwhelming at times though but I can't let the program  control me haha.

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully managed to successfully attach the ear and then start work on his leg.

:)

Modelling

10/8/15

Model

Using clay I constructed a physical 3D model of Cottonbun. I don't have pictures of the after result but after modeling the clay I drew out what the wire frame around him would look like.

I have a better sense of what I will be doing in Maya after modeling my character. Its a good way to help you figure out how you could approach the construction. My character is quite a simply constructed character anyway.

Prop

5/8/15

Progress : Prop

Using Maya to construct my prop, the carrot.

Ok so totally forgot to post this, my bad. Here it is anyway!

I have never used Maya before this so what I've constructed is super simple and basic in shape. I'm personally quite happy with what I've got but feedback is always welcomed so I can further improve myself.

Coloured version.
The typical orange carrot with green leaves.


No textures on it currently.

My attempt at creating a turntable animation for my prop. Took a while but I think I understand how to do it now :)

Storyboards

4/8/15

Storyboard

Read from right to left, as if it were a Japanese manga 

From the bracket at panel 15-19 I don't plan to add because I'm worried I won't have enough time, but if I do manage to have some extra time I will consider ending it with a rain of carrots. 

For now though I will have it end with a sad Cottonbun just to pull on your heartstrings a bit. 

Enivironment

2/8/15

Background research
Visual research behind my environment concept.


I chose to do a grassy plain for the background because Cottonbun often enjoys taking walks through meadows or flower gardens.

The background is going to be tile-able to create the illusion of an endless loop. I'm thinking of drawing the clouds separate to the background. This is so the clouds can move at an alternate pace and it wont look too flat.

Above is just some colour sketches I did from the reference pictures. I then tried to map out how the background would work. I figured it would be easier to storyboard when I got an idea of the flow of the background ;)

Concept Development

30/7/15

Prop

My props a carrot.

The Carrot. 

It has many purposes such as being projectiles or, a more commonly known purpose, to feed hungry people and bunnies.

Character Model Sheet

26/7/15

Character Turnaround

The images on the left are screenshots of my characters turnaround. Basically thats what he'll look like from a front, side, back and 3/4 view.  

He's 4 heads high and has an overall round shape to his body.

The turnaround image isn't complete because I forgot to draw the eyes in but I think he's looking good in terms of the proportions and shape.

Character Pose and Expression

^ Trying out the flexibility of the character.                         ^ Possible emotions he could express.

Character Colour

I tried out simple combinations of colours to see how he would suit them.

The dark brown seems too intense and dark for Cottonbun and I don't feel it working well with his happy-go-lucky personality.

The light brown feels ordinary and average but simple which I think could work with how Cottonbun thinks and acts.

The pink and purple I like quite a bit because for the purple it stands out and catches your eye. But then you've got that light baby pink which brings out the softness and sensitivity of the character.

Concept Development

25/7/15

Cottobun is my character in the family genre short that I'm creating. The sequence I will be doing is inspired by the sic-fi/action film "The Matrix" bullet dodge scene. The matrix scenes key point is the slowed down motion of the character and the environment around him. I'll be utilising that for my animation.

My character Cottonbun is a bunny who loves taking long walks through flower fields. One day he is confronted by a bigger rabbit called Rufus. Rufus has always disliked Cottonbun and is determined to get rid of him. He does this by trying to fire a cannon at Cottonbun but his fuel for the cannon happens to be Cottonbuns favourite food;carrots.

For the sequence I had an idea that the scene starts off with Cottonbun going for a stroll like he usually would. It suddenly changes to an establishing shot of Rufus' silhouette and Cottonbun as he finds himself standing in Rufus' menacing shadow. 

I haven't thought how to proceed from here as I'm still working out a few other details with Rufus and Cottonbun.

For Rufus I've been thinking about the "cannon" he's going to use to fire the carrots. I was suggested by my classmate Lauren to take a look at Sam and Max for helpful reference. In the first picture I quite like the look of the bazooka launcher.

For colour concepts I like the look of Pororo and might do something similar when I come to rendering my character. I feel soft pastel colours would work well for Cottonbun.

Concept Development

21/7/15

The iconic film sequence I've decided to use is the Matrix bullet time sequence.
For my character research I've been looking at animal characters and watching parts of their animated series to get an idea of how I wanted to draw my own character.

The animal I decided to make my character is a bunny. My research included looking at Pocoyo, Pororo and Hello Kitty. I liked the style of all the animations and how cute and simple the aesthetics are.

I've done a few sketches of what I'm thinking my character will look like. Playing with the feet and face shape. Whether to give him big rabbit feet or small stubby legs and trying to figure out how the face should look. Rabbits tend to have quite cute chubby cheeks which add to their cuteness.