(Figure 1: Rig/bones of modelled character)

This week was met with a difficult learning curve with character modelling, rigging and animation as these were all areas previously unexplored. The first difficulty was in modelling the character as humanoid shapes are difficult to form and after many hours and even more spent on tutorials a human model was created. Although the tutorial followed (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCW0Cs7aI8) for majority of the creation process highlights the use of images during modelling, reference images were not used as I instead chose to experiment from memory and shifted focus towards achievable shapes. For example, the dress on the character was created due to difficulty at this stage of upper leg creation and this added to the visual results positively. Materials were added to complete the overall look before facing the largest challenge of rigging.

The first animation created was using a speed rigging method for human shape. Although this was functional, it did not produce ideal results. At points the character model distorted and stretched during the animation stage and there was much difficulty in the hair and ear components of the model to move with the rig (this was later rectified by assigning it to the correct 'bone' to move with). I decided to start the rigging process over and explored a deeper focus in this stage, yet I struggled to understand which areas were not working correctly and after spending hours on another animation process, the results were even worse (this file will never see the light of day again). 

(Figure 2: Nightmare walk results from second attempt)

Key Lesson Learned: Wasted time is a lesson learned :)

This led me to revisiting my first file and simplifying movements as I believe my expectations were too high and my skill level too low to successfully create a more complex rig for detailed animation (although this was a valuable learning experience). I ended up creating three animations for walking, waving and idle (waving was my favourite result). Character focus was on the primary action and following body movements to  increase the flow of movement. For example, the waving animation started with only the left arm moving, making the action seem unnatural as the rest of the model did not move. To fix this, I added slight body movements and head tilting to make the action seem more natural and using the first frame for the end of the cycle to ensure it loops smoothly. Rendering was attempted within Blender for these, due to the technology used this was not complete as the expected rendering time would take over a day to complete.

(Figure 3: Walking animation

(Figure 4: Wave animation)

(Figure 5: Idle animation)

Key Lesson Learned: Small actions have a big impact :)