Head

These are a few sketches I've done of how i want the head to look. I've taken the basic shape from the photographs i found on the internet and then adapted it to make it slightly more 'cartoony'... I don't like using that phrase but still, this is what I have come up with!

 

 Now for Maya! Here is how the head is coming along. I've got the basic shape down now and I'm pleased with it so far. Now I just have to work into it more to get the mouth, eyes and nose looking okay.

Personality Ideas

I've been thinking a lot more about how to get my Gorilla to be different from any other gorilla, without being obvious and stereotypical. I like the idea of waiter or butler gorilla. I got his idea whilst researching 'sensible' roles a few posts below. I could give him a bow tie, tux and a tray or something. These are just ideas being thrown around still, nothing set in stone yet but I'll have to take this into account whilst I'm modeling the rest of him. These are a few images I've found from animals as waiters/butlers. My favorites are from Madagascar 2, with the posh English chimps.

Torso and arms!

So here is the torso and arms so far. I'm happy with how it is going at the moment, although I may change the arms slightly because they don't look right... But I'll see where I'm at when I'm done modeling.

Front:

Back:

Curve Networks

I was told about curve networks for a friend, and decided to research into this as it's an alternative way to model. I wanted to see if it would be easier for me as I am on a time limit for this term. I found various tutorials online, but this was the most helpful and in depth one I could find:




Its basically drawing round a reference image from the front and side view in Maya and then inserting polygons to the curves you make when you draw around the images. Most examples of this were done with cars and buildings and objects, not organic material. I thought it would get too confusing to do this way, because you do each section independently, so the arms, head, body, legs, hands, feet etc.

I think I'll just stick to normal polygon modeling with extruding and all that jazz, as this is the safest way for me as I'm a beginner still!

Originality

I've almost finished one half of my gorilla torso now, and have been thinking about how I can make it unique and original from all the others in my class. I thought back to when i read the brief and the synopsis of Cornelius the gorilla. It said he is the most sensible and civilised occupant of the zoo by far. I was trying to think of a few roles that you need to be sensible and wise for, as to be good at it. He are a few ideas...

Chef:

Waiter:

Surgeon:

Fireman:

Policeman:

Doctor:

Security Guard:

Straight into maya!

Because I haven't modeled much before, well only a coke bottle, a basic low poly human and a lamp post - I figured I'd get into Maya asap! I took my first sketch into Maya and set it up on a plain and off I went...

I'm pretty happy with how its coming along so far. This took me about 2 hours (yes i know I'm slow) but at least I'm getting there! I did this from a polygon cube and just extruded faces, inserted edge loops and moved vertex's about. I'm quite liking modeling too, which i never thought I'd say!

First Sketches

These are my first ideas, taking into account some of the aspects i just mentioned in the previous post.

So in the morning...

Next day after being thrown around on the south eastern line from lewisham to hayes, i was doing some more drawings and i came up with the idea of giving my gorilla really long arms, like stupidly long, and a rounded off body with small legs. These idea have come from various scources...

The length of the arms was just because I thought that would be good for the style, but the elbow shapes (as you can see in the previous post below, although it looks like a human arm and hand) came from the Disney version of tarzan which is one of my favourite animated feature films. I like the exaggerated big deltoids (shoulders), thinner biceps and triceps (upper arm, back and front), bigger branchioradialis (elbow and forearms). These are some screen shots i took from the film.

Next, for the legs and body. As we have to make our characters look as if they have been sculpted from clay, as the brief says, i thought about films that have been made this way. Obviously Wallace and Gromit is the main one which everyone knows, but they was actually sculpted out of plastacine. I could texture my model with thum prints, to give the impression it has been pushed and pulled around by human hands.

So the legs and body came from the animaton that was shown on christmas day last year, The Gruffalo. It was made using 3D software but with a clay-like texture to the models. This is perfect! This is a screen shot I took from 'the making of'... This is what i want my gorillas legs to be like!

On the way home!

On the way home on the train, I started to sketch out how I wanted my gorilla to look. In the brief, it says 'Cornelius - a middle aged silver back gorilla, the most civilised and sensible occupant of the zoo by far.'

These are a few rough doodles I did on the wobbly train journey with elbows and newspapers of businessmen all up in my space, so its nothing final yet!

Photographic Reference

These are a few of the photographs I've got together from the internet while researching Gorillas. I've found photographs from a variety of angles and some close up ones of their hands/feet and face too.

Which character to do?

As I read the character synopsis' I had so many ideas for each one, particularly the Zoo Keeper and the Gorilla. As I'm quite new to modeling, I thought it would be more reasonable to choose the Gorilla as modeling a human form to a deadline could get a bit messy seeing as I haven't done it in that greater detail before. I like the idea of a gorilla because they are pretty cool looking, and they are pretty customisable to!

First things first

So when I got the brief, I was immediately drawn towards the 3D animation project as animating is the profession I want to go into. Looking at it in more detail, I wasn't too keen on it because I was hoping it would be character based as I want to focus on character animation. The third project 'Character design' seems much more appealing to me because even though I wont be animating a character, I will be creating it from scratch and modeling it, something I haven't yet had much time to grasp. I want to use this as a learning curve and for me to have a better understanding of the other aspects which all fit into the main title 'Animation'.