Project 1- Update

Got into some trouble with my model, got frustrated and walked away from it for a while.. I ended up adding too much geometry too soon. Anyways, spent like 8 hours yesterday and today fixing it up so I can begin modeling again. The entire mesh is all 4-sided polygons. Now, I will be able to actually work with the geoometry and the modeling should go more quickly.

Project 1- Added a little more details

I have converted the head, body, legs, and arms, converted to polygon mesh, spent some time cleaning up the geometry and started building a hand. Still looks like probably 20+ hours or so clean it up so I can begin the rigging process.

Project 1 - Rough Model Progress

I have made some progress on a rough nurbs model of the character. The point of roughing it out, is to slowly build make the character take form before delving into any serious details. Basically, try to find some good contour lines before I make the geometry more complex and converting this sucker to a polygon model. Tomorrow, I will start roughing out some hands. My goal is to make this character seamless.

Project 1- Fish Dude Ready for Modeling

Well, I am ready to begin some modeling in Maya. Hopefully, I can have it done by Monday. I decided to go ahead and wrap-up my character drawings for now. I could get a lot more detailed, but I figured I would try to ease off on that for a bit. I want to ornate the character with a tail, some fins, and whatnot, but I feel that would be too agressive out of the gate. I also decided against the fat belly for now, I will save a fatso for later.

Anyways, here is the character design and the image plane setup for reference in Maya 3d:

Project 1 - Fish dude gets a little fatter

I am trying to add some more weight to the character.

Now I will try adding some more aquatic details and work on feet and hands more.

Project 1 - Fishman Bully/Brute

I have started a project for my first creature model and animation rig sincein 12 years. I decided to quickly decide on a motif so that I can begin character design so that I can get to modeling and rigging by the weekend.

I decided to work on a Brute/Bully character first. I thought that would be fun to work with a heavy character. Another issue I am dealing with is that I am much better at superhero comic style drawing than cartoons. I would prefer to do a more simplified model since that will make the modeling portion go more quickly. My goal is to get a decent model done and build a good rig.

Some characteristics of brutes and bullies are:
High shoulders, no neck, big arms, little legs (cartoony), tiny feet (cartoony), a small muzzle, and a large head

Some of my inspiration for the character will come from sea creatures since I am a salt water hobbyist. I chose to take some characteristics from these fish : http://listdom.wordpress.com/category/top-10-ugliest-critters-ever/. Also from some comic-book characters like : Merman (he-man), Kingpin, Hulk, and the Blob. I am still struggling with whether or not to make the character fat or ripped.

Here are some initial sketches: (Keep in mind I have not drawn in years either. I am sure the skills will come back after a month or so. Hands and feet ... ugh. These were taken with a webcam. I was kinda lazy on getting the lighting right.

Creature creation

I just started designing a creature today for modeling and rigging. I will post pics when they are ready.

Some basic walk cycles