Dronema
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May 2022 update
🕑 Added 2022-06-07 19:51:53 +0000 UTCHello! I hope you guys are doing well! Thank you for your continued support, here's some stuff from May!
Animation Course.
This month I've finished a Squirrel run cycle! https://youtu.be/nRLh2MmqtFU
This whole chapter from the course is about animating this little squirrel, First the run cycle, then an idle, then climbing, and bringing everything together in a little scene!
I've noticed that I tend to make animations a bit too fast to start with so I'll keep that in mind for the future. I also really struggled with the tail, so I'm looking forward to doing more Follow through/Overlapping stuff! [Link to a vid explaining that]
I'm starting to learn how not to feel overwhelmed with the graph editor. Like other art stuff, it's about the big picture first and then handling the details. Now I know to focus first on the curves with the biggest impact (IK= Location curves, FK= Rotation curves). With the focus of making nice curves to avoid the animation looking janky. I'm still battling with spacing and timing, but I'll only develop an eye for that with more practice and studying.
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3D Model [Tekki].
Not much visible progress here, but I did a lot of tinkering and trying stuff out.
I really liked the shape of the hair before, with the back being more spiky and upwards. I thought it was a nice silhouette at the top [New one definitely looks better from all angles]. But I wanted to try something else because if the hairband would have the little crystals, they wouldn't stand out anymore because of the hair.
The previous front hair as well, I liked it but I kept struggling with the shape and topology. It also looked best without the side-head braid thingies.
The hairband is simple but I'm really happy with it. I would just polish it a bit. Maybe change the floating crystals later.
I'm not sure about the changes I did to the hair, there's a lot of little things I reeally liked from the previous ones, especially the front! I think the space between the rows of hair, and the sharp shapes were really appealing, so much that I was thinking of just removing the side hair thingies so it'd be more visible.
I dunno, I might keep tinkering with it, what do you guys think?
The teeth here are placeholders but I like the shape and size already.
With the unfinished Karkat model from a while back I learned how to make pointy teeth look right to me. Zigzag, perfectly interlocking teeth work great in drawings, but in 3D they didn't feel so good, and the single big pointy tooth in the middle always bothered me.
So now I just try to base it a lot more on human teeth, and make the bottom row smaller to fit under or behind the top row. [I think it looks good since two front teeth IRL are also bigger already, so it doesn't clash too much if more teeth from the top row are bigger.]
I want to make the front teeth individual pieces, and then the molars and pre-molars a single piece. I want to be able to adjust the front teeth, make them a bit asymmetrical. Future asura characters would use the same teeth, and it would be easy to adjust those to make them feel more unique for each character.
I made some modifications to the body as well, I hope they will make a positive difference. While doing the shapekeys [so she'd growl and smile] for the mouth I did realize the laughlines were too wide and the crease didn't look too good. So I'm confident with that change. The boobs may not look like it but I did a lot of adjusting and trial and error. I decided to tinker with them because I was getting weird shadows. I think they look good, less blocky.
Other than that I just did the mouth cavity as well. When doing animation I definitely plan on paying close attention to the mouth so I wanted the lips to have thickness and look fleshy, and I'm happy with the result.
Next on the To-do list:
- Model the teeth.
- Make the tongue[I might grab the one from my previous asura model, since I liked the shape and thickness].
- Tinker a bit more with the hair.
- Finish the hairband [I think I'll go with fabric.. so I'd need to make folds and creases]
- Figure out what I want to do with the eyelashes..
I think my options for the eyelashes are:
- Simple Piece
- Complex Piece
- Simple flat plane, with it's texture having transparency so
The simple options I imagine would also be easier to rig. The plane can have a more complex shape without needing extra topology, but it won't have thickness like the other pieces.
I'll try them out and see what works best.
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Yearly Compilation.
Finally, this is more of a June update, but I plan on finally posting the 2021 art compilation on Gumroad later this month, I will send you guys a message with the 100% discount [free] link, so you can add it to your purchase library.
Comments
Ahh I'm glad that you liked it and that it did feel "Squirrel-like"! And I think you picked the right word! I did try to exaggerate the movements a bit, It's what the instructor of the course said as well, to study refs but exaggerate the movements a bit so they read well. [It's lovely that I'd get to look at cute videos of squirrels running in slow-motion haha <3] HahaI totally get you regarding the one episode hairstyle change..!! [immediately thought of ATLA]. I'll try a few options and either choose something or make a poll here! Also I think the crystals need a more interesting design and better silhouette Oohh, I love their style!! and I see what you mean! >> Yeahh I really like those as well and they are my default when drawing [So suspicious... I also wonder why.. haha]. But I struggled making those in 3D, so I just thought I'd try making them like the left ones. man, I should watch more of their videos for sure! [especially the VFX ones!] I watched their last video with Adam Savage and there they also briefly talked about those older masks there! I don't know how the mechanism for those worked but I think it definitely would be worth checking out. From what I've seen it looks like there's many ways to rig a face, and I think the methods that use Bones [rather than "shapekeys/blendshapes"] could be a bit similar to using cables for those masks?? maybe?? Thank you for sharing that cool thought, it's giving me a lot to think about as well! <3 ;v; thank you as well, for your kind words of encouragement and sharing your enthusiasm! It always makes me very happy to see what you write and how you bring a lot of your own thoughts and knowledge too!
epyon_avenger
Loved the squirrel animation! The movement in it is great, very...active? Energetic? Maybe not "lifelike" per se, but...exaggerated? I'm not picking the right word, but it seems very "squirrel-like" to me. >:] I'm super torn about the hair styles things you posted. On the one hand, I like the crystals a lot, but on the other hand, I like the old hairstyle too... Honestly, this is the same trouble I have whenever you see a character design with like, a bun, or ponytail or something, and then they do an episode/issue with it down and it's like. "Oooooh!" Because both are good. XD Not gonna lie, the teeth on the left are pretty great. QTori (@QT0ri) does a lot of that style and I can super dig it. That said, I'm always a sucker for shark/Pyrope teeth. I wonder why that is. 🤔 Since you're talking about mouth rigging though, I was watching a visual effects video earlier this week (I think by corridor crew/corridor digital?), and it was interesting to me when they talked about the prosthetic masks from the movies, and how they would make them emote and such. Seems like back in the day it was all cables and such that would cause it to deform and change, but it makes me wonder if any of their tricks could be used for 3D stuff, or if there are just way better options and it doesn't carry over. I dunno, just a random thought. As always, thanks for sharing the progress and pictures! It's so exciting to see what you're coming up with, and the iterations on the things you've already done. It's more polished every time. ^_^
