Joy Update 05

Joy's hair has been the most difficult and time consuming part of her model to create thus far. My initial sculpt was packed with detail; I was trying to make it as realistic as possible, but I found that the intricate and detailed hair distracted from the rest of her model, which is a touch more stylized.

I decided upon a stylized and more minimalistic look for her hair model that will work in conjunction with textures to realize a look that matches her concept art. She will eventually be animated, so it doesn't make sense to spend too many polygons on her hair alone. This ain't Pixar, folks. Have a look at how I created the mesh for her undercut hair style in the video below.

Joy Update 04

Work continues on my new character Joy. Today I added wrinkles and stitching to her shorts.

Joy Update 03

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I had to take a break from developing Joy to deal with, well, life. I hadn't forgot about her though-quite the contrary, in fact; I couldn't STOP thinking about her!

I've completed the low poly modeling of Joy and am now about 50% complete with sculpting in ZBrush. I've been studying muscular anatomy to make sure I'm keeping proportions accurate. So far, I'm pleased with my progress. When sculpting, I find that it can be easy to become a bit overzealous when adding form to a base mesh, which can result in an unwanted amount of extra mass that can destroy the silhouette and feel of the character.

Check out the photos below.

Joy Update 02

I've been steadily working on the model for Joy. I'm happy to report that she's almost ready for sculpting in ZBrush. Have a look at my progress so far:

Joy Update 01

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog, but rest assured that I've been quite busy. I'll have some new animation of the Toy Thief to show you all soon, but today I'd like to post an update about my newest character; her name is Joy. Take a look at the concept art below.

Joy isn't a monster, or a ninja, or a mutant or anything fantastical. Instead, she's a regular person like the rest of us, chasing her dreams and forging a path through this crazy life. My goal for Joy is to create a realistic person, so that I may practice animating a person emoting and speaking. This will be quite a challenge, for sure! 

Have a look at Joy's 3D model in progress.

Toy Thief 25-Animation 01

Rigging complete! After months of work, I've finally completed production on the Toy Thief model, and I'm now beginning the animation production. The Toy Thief will star in a 3 to 5 minute animated short that I'm creating. Have a look at the walk cycle I created below, and stay tuned for more updates!

Toy Thief 24- Rigging 01

I'm about 8 hours into the rigging process for the Toy Thief, and the end is finally in sight! I've built a rig that features both a forward kinematic and inverse kinematic skeleton for maximum control when animating. Take a look at my progress below.