Embedded Files
I touched briefly in previous subpages on how, for this project, I will model, rig, and animate a 3D character for some of my action sequences. I will only be modeling and rigging Klause since they are, of course, the focus of most of these action sequences, and the process of making a character is time-consuming as it is. This model will never be directly shown in the music video and will only ever be used as a reference, so I don't intend on making it 100% perfect. However, the dynamics and proportions must be good enough to make it believable and easy to reference. You can see all of my research and experimentation into how to do this in the software subpage of my research.
Character Model
Character Model
I started out by, of course, modelling the character. You can see my research and explanation on how I do this in my software research under the "Blender Software Techniques" subheading. For this character, I used my official reference directly and tried to keep to the proportions as closely as possible, except that during the modelling process I kept the mirror modifier on throughout.
I won't go into too much detail; however, the body, arms, and legs are assets that I box modelled and then used the subdivision surface to make more detailed. I did a similar thing for the gown: the symmetry tool was used for all portions of the mesh. For the head, I took a UV sphere into sculpt mode, keeping closely to my reference (both front and side), and moulded the head, using mirrored UV spheres for the eyeballs and one for the nose. The hair took a little while to create; I wasn't sure how detailed and realistic to make it, so in the end I just copied the reference exactly using a plane and then extruded it to create a 3D mesh. I then finally created the scarf, which is just a modelled cylinder with bevelled edges to give it a more fabric look. I also added a tail to the scarf, which I intended to rig as a separate object but decided against later on.
Finally, I textured the mesh, picking the exact tone of grey from the reference. I didn't have much trouble here, the character being monochrome and all, but I did have to look up how to texture paint for the pupils (as referenced in my bibliography). I decided against adding the little hair flicks; it was hard enough trying to sculpt the thin mesh of the horns, and the design is not incomplete without them.
Character Rig
Character Rig
This bit was going to be the trickiest. First and foremost, I saved the model as a separate file and merged all of the assets together to create one mesh in order to make weight painting and parenting easier. Referring back to my software research and re-watching all of the tutorials I used to aid my Blender primary research, I created Klause's skeleton.
I adjusted the bones to match the mesh, using the mirror tool throughout, and got rid of the bones I didn't need. This doesn't need to be a complex mesh; it just needs to hit the main parts of the skeleton, and so I didn't worry about things such as eye movement, individual fingers, or clothing. I then, with much difficulty due to assets not behaving, parented the mesh to the skeleton with automatic weights.
Next came the job of weight painting the mesh; this was, of course, the longest and most tedious part of the whole process. This was definitely not helped by the plethora of problems that began popping up as soon as I started: the mesh was not entirely centred, it was facing the wrong way, and the gown was slightly off, so the "mirror topology" option didn't apply to it. Trying to get everything to move in the right direction, bend in the right places, and mirror evenly on both sides was extremely difficult and tedious, and it took me about three or four hours total from start to finish. Eventually, though, I managed to complete the weight painting, and finally my 3D character was fully created and ready to be animated.
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