Welcome!
KNB217 (Part 2)

This production journal documents the continued development of my 3D character, building upon the sculpt created in Assignment 1. The focus of this stage is to complete the character for use in an animated context, following established industry pipelines. This includes texturing, rigging with a HumanIK skeleton, creating facial controls and blend shapes for animation, and posing the character for a final high-resolution render. Throughout this process, I will reflect on my creative and technical decisions, supported by visual documentation and relevant references. 

Outcomes:

• Texturing:
  Completed in Substance Painter, including the use of subsurface scattering to give the model more depth and character.

• Blend Shapes:
  Created a set of facial blend shapes for expressions like happy, neutral, and sad, as well as eyebrow movement. Additional blend shapes were made for the wings and fluff to help make the character’s body feel more expressive and animated.

• Bones/Rigging:
  Set up using HumanIK, with hands and feet rigged using a 3-joint setup. The rig includes one spine joint, three neck joints, and additional bones for the jaw, tail, and heel spurs. Decorative features like feather groups and fluff were parented to bones for better movement and control.

• Skinning:
  Skinning turned out to be a much bigger challenge than expected. I didn’t realize how tricky it would be to get the stumpy body to move naturally until I was deep in the struggle but it was a valuable (if humbling) lesson!

• Rig Controls:
  Added rig controls for the eyes, mouth, tail, and heel spurs, along with control points for all the blend shapes to make facial and body animation easier.

• Animation Poses:
  Captured a clean T-pose at frame 0, then created a series of basic poses throughout the timeline to support the skinning process and help identify any awkward deformations.

• Lighting & Rendering:
  Set up an infinite backdrop with a complementary low-saturation color. Used a three-point lighting setup with a high-intensity orange rim light to add some dramatic flair and help the character stand out + a complementary prop.

• Advice & Feedback:
  Having an artistic eye for what is or isn’t aesthetically pleasing is, unfortunately, not one of my natural talents. So I regularly sought out feedback on every aspect of the project and did my best to follow the amazing advice I received with varying degrees of success!