Minor Project - Character Skinned and weights blended

I have skinned the Junior character to the rig. I have also blended the weights to allow the correct look for the movements of the joints. I will now go to add controls to the character before texturing him and creating a 2d mouth rig. While skinning the character I encountered several problems, such as the ribbon spine breaking and realising I did not have enough edges in the stomach to allow the movement I wanted. Due to this I had to go through the skinning process several times but this has allowed me to skin the character slightly better each time then the last, as I would see where it did and did not work correctly, then be able to fix it when updating the weights.

Minor Project - Character Rig

I have created a rig for my Junior using a ribbon spine. For the forearms and shins I have also added an extra joint to allow falloff when rotating the wrist or ankle joint. Once skinned I will use a IK/FK switch for the characters arms and a no flip pole vector for the knee. I have already been experimenting these before skinning the rig just to confirm they will work for my rig and character.

Character Rig

Character Rig

Character Rig

IK Arm Controls

IK FK Switch

FK Arm Controls

Minor Project - Junior Character Full UV and UV Map

I have finished UV'ing the character to allow easy texturing. I will now move onto creating a skeleton for the character. I am going to use a ribbon spine when creating the rig as this will allow cartoon-ish movements that may be necessary during the animation.

Head UV Map

Hair UV Map

Eyes UV Map

Body UV Map

Minor Project - Junior Character Finished Modelling

After a slight bit of clean up and adding extra edge loops around the joint areas and also creating detailing for the sleeve ends of his jumper. I now feel as if my character is ready to be taken to the next step.

Minor Project- Main Character Modelling Near Finished

I have currently almost finished modelling my first character, Junior, for the animation. I will now go on to UV the character before rigging, skinning, adding controls and finally adding a texture. My aim for finish the character by the end of the week is looking as if it will be reached which I am very happy with.

Minor Project - Character Body Modelling Progression

I am currently half way through modelling my body. I still need a lot of clean up and to model the hands and shoes, but I feel as if I am on schedule and I am liking the overall look of the character. I plan to have this character finished and rendered by the end of this week so this will allow me to move on and model the Garbage-o-saur and then produce the pre-viz.

Minor Project - Character lip sync mouths

After looking online at the different mouths needed for cartoon characters to be able to lip sync, I have drawn 8 different mouths that I will be able to use on my 3d model for lip syncing, using 2d facial rigging. There is little  actual dialogue for the character within the animation but I still want him to have the character to have full mouth movement to be able to follow lines of the poem.

Aah, A

Sss, Dee, Stuh

Eee

I

La, Luh

Mmm

Oh, O

Fuh, Vuh

Minor Project - Garbage-o-saur Reworked

For the design of the Garbage-o-saur I have been looking at the classic, generic American trash can for the basic shapes of the character. Since the animation is set in America I feel as if this makes most sense as it would not fit the environment having a wheelie bin shape for example. I have been working on the design and come down to two rough designs. The main difference between the characters is the characters arms. I wanted the Garbage-o-saur to have small arms as obviously trash cans do not have arms, so this suits better rather then having giant strong arms attached to it. In the two designs I have just a normal straight arm and then a curved chicken wing shape arm. I feel as if the chicken wing shape works the best for the character as it is suited for a dinosaur and the arms aren't overly practical so it fits into the criteria I would like for the character. I also feel as if having the chicken wing arm will allow for easier animation as I would be able to use and IK handle for the movements of the arm.

Minor Project - Character Head Modelling

I still need to create the final eyes for the character and do one last clean up of the head and hair to smooth it out and make sure everything is in the right place. But besides that I am very happy with how the character has translated to 3d. I feel as if the character has appeal to him and fits the role of Junior. I feel the style of the character will work very well for my animation. After the clean up and creating the eyes I will then go on to create the body, then move to next step of the process.

Minor Project - Character Modelling Progress

So for with the progress of modelling of my character I have managed to model the main shape of the characters head. I have made some slight changes to the character while modelling, such as initially I was planning on having 2d eyes and mouth. But I found it is easier for me to model eyes and create an eye rig, then it would be to draw all the different sets of eyes. I am still planning on keeping the character with a 2d mouth as creating a full facial rig can be very time consuming. Currently the character is bald as I am trying to work out the best way to create the characters hair. I am planning on using a similar method to how we made the skull cap with the Jet Pack Jones model, but I am going to do some research to find the most time efficient way to model this part of the character. 

@Alan- Minor Project - Character Corrected Front and Side Views

 After looking at the image Alan commented on my last post it became apparent what was looking off with my side view of the character. I have now updated this and feel as if my character is looking a lot better and ready to be taken into maya to be modelled in 3d.