First Model

This is my first model created for the college course the model was created over the course of two days.  It was based on a character from a cartoon I used to watch as a child,  I was planning on creating a different first model but had a hard time getting it to work. This was seen as a simpler model to start with. The model was made using the following images as a reference: 

• Breakdown of model development  

Here are some development notes I created while developing the model

• Version 1 .0

I started creating the Blockout for the model by using the array modifier to properly space out the models wheels.

• Version 1 .1

I continued to add to the Blockout of the model by adding axels to the wheels, then duplicating sections of each of the wheel to be merged into a new separate shape. This shape was to later be turned into the final models treads.

• Version 1 .2

In this version the focus was on getting a convincing angle to the tanks treads and getting rid of any unnecessary mesh  in an attempt to prevent overlapping geometry from making the model look odd.

• Version 1 .3

Finally finished minor issues with the tank treads and thought it might be  a good place to back up the model. So this version have no real changes beyond the basic of getting rid of conflicting mesh. 

• Version 1 .4

Here was where I started on blocking out the main body, starting with the part that would connect the treads to the main body. This took a while to do as it had several issues with the mesh to sort out. 

• Version 1 .5

This version was focused on blocking out the characters overall hight and shape, as to make it easier to continue to further develop the model.  This version also included starting on creating the base of what would become the arms. 

• Version 1 .6

On this version I modified the body in order to add a collar to the character, but unintentionally caused the main mesh of the body to become more squared as a result. I didn't really know how to fix this alteration in the roundness of the mesh and chose to incorporate it into the model instead. I then proceeded to add the rim to the model before saving and heading on to a new version to keep the current progress backed up. (my computer stared having issues at this point)

• Version 1 .7

In version  1.7  I created a basic shape for the head that would be developed in later versions. I mirrored what would later become the base for the arms of the model, I then went over the model cleaning up the mesh and trying so solve any issue that came up.

• Version 1 .8

This version doesn't have any real changes as blender decided to crash and take my computer with it, so this version was basically recovering the lost work and saving it in case the computer has further issues.  The only real change recovered was the adding of an antenna to the back of the head.

• Version 1 .9

This version was focused on creating the rest of the arms and putting placeholders for the models more complicated drills 

• Version 2.0

I was having issues during making this  version as blender was taking a while to do anything so after adding facial features decided to move to another version.

• Version 2.1

No much visual happens in this version as it mostly involved looking for and trying to fix issues and optimising the mesh, this seemed to help with stability. So I decided to do a little detailing to what would become the mouth of the model.

• Version 2.2

Version 2.1 was focused on finalising the blocking out of the model before moving on to adding finer details.

• Version 3.0

The focus on this version was setting up the mesh for the drills on both the arms and face, not much else was done during this version.

• Version 3.1

This version was a backup for test version of the drills, this was so if it didn't work then i could revert to version  Version 3.0.

• Version 3.2

This version was focused on adding a basic colour scheme based on the reference, the drills where also completed during this version. 

• Version 3.3

In this version I created a base mesh that would be used to create the "gauge" on the body and later repurposed for the eyes with some modifications.

• Version 3.4

This version was focused on repurposing the gauge used on the body for use as the eyes, this was to make the eyes more resemble the reference image.

• Version 3.5

I had several issue in adding the eyes the the body, I attempted to use the Boolean modifier but differences between both objects seemed to make the modifier not work as intended. Due to this face it took a while to  modify the mesh without altering the shape to much, but still getting rid of the overlap.

• Version 3.6

For this version i turned my focus to the treads again, this time to add detail. Firstly I added colour to the parts, I then added caps to the axels and made a "master" copy of a more detailed wheels.

• Version 3.7

This version was created to play around with a couple ideas I had without potentially losing the progress from Version 3.6. This included replacing the placeholder wheels with the master copy made earlier. I also made some changes to the black bands on the tracks, this was to make it possible to make them look more like tracks and less like rubber bands. 

• Version 3.8

This version was focused on finishing the treads to make them look better, then going over the rest of the model for finishing touches.

• Version 3.9

This version was more of an after thought, I didn't really like the it-pose so I decided to try my hand at posing. It didn't really go as planned but the end result was better then i expected.

Version 3.9 was the last version to be created before rendering the final image,  the final image is as follows:

•  What I have learned

• Overview

I have leaned that 3d modelling using blender key several key important features that are all utilised to create a final model, including but not limited to:

• The layout tab/page 

• The modelling/page

• The shading/page

• The rendering tab/page.

• The layout tab/page 

The layout page it the area where you interact with the separate parts of an object for example, moving rotating and resizing them. For this section I  would like to learn the importance of both the origin and cursor items. I would also like to learn better ways of posing/moving parts of my objects.

•  The modelling/page

This tab is where you interact with the mess of individual parts of the object, you do this through interacting with parts of the objects known as vertices and faces. In this section I would like to learn more ways of manipulating the mesh of the object, as well as leaning more about using modifiers.

• The shading/page

The shading page is where you add and alter materials on an objects or to individual parts of the mesh. In this section I don't really know much, I only really use default settings provided by blender. So I guess I would like to learn how to alter the rendering settings to create better renders.

https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Grounder_(Adventures_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog)