Synthespians

Starting the penultimate project for my first year at the NFTS!! A little nervous about how much time is left and how much I still want to do.  For the Synthespians project we were introduced to IClone.  It's a pretty good piece of software for quickly generating characters, animations etc but I'm not a huge fan since there is not quite as much customization as I would like for my final projects.  Our first task was to, using IClone, create a 3D version of ourselves and have them do some form of interaction in Unity.  I wound up creating a scene in which my 3D alter ego acts in front of a background, and if you change the background the music and animations change for the character.  It was pretty fun as an exercise but for my final project I am hoping to only use IClone for adding certain time saving animations to characters I create myself.

So this weekend I got a jump start on modeling the main character for my final project "Moments of Consequence."  My wife, Jen, did some great concept art for this character and I stuck as close as I could to the original sketch (with my current Zbrush skills).  Planning on learning TopoGun for the next stage in the pipeline before texturing and rigging. :)

I have actually decided on a concept for my final project but it has taken me since... July I think and has gone through several iterations.  The final concept couldn't be more different from my original idea :p but that's how it goes I suppose.  I wont divulge any plot or themes yet ;) but don't worry when I meet with my writers and producers in a month or so i'm sure i'll blog about it.

Anyway here is Cass:

Concept art by Jen Killick

Initial T-Pose made with ZSpheres

 After this weekend :)

 She spent a long time in the Uncanny Valley but I think I just about pulled her out for the "Toony" final look I was going for.

 You may notice the hand wraps from my first Zbrush project! they just look so cool I think Jen added them just to keep me happy :)

I got very close to heading into Max for the Converses but I stuck with it just to learn more Zbrush and i'm glad they don't look that great but i'm quite happy with the end product and I learnt a lot :)