Poor Ugly Midget

rooster

Hi, I appeared once a while ago and promptly dissapeared, i've not had easy internet access until recently getting broadband installed in my flat, so I hope to get more involved with polycount as it kicks ass.

I'm hoping for some feedback on this model for my final year animation at uni (computer arts, dundee). Im dying to get to the texturing but I want to run it past you guys to make sure its as good as it can be. The model is pretty much my first attempt at something vaguely cartoony, i'm more used to attempting realistic(kinda) stuff;
http://www.rooster13.plus.com/render1.jpg
http://www.rooster13.plus.com/render2.jpg

The animation is about a lonely midget who is the last of his kind, and lives alone in a metal castle. he looks every day out of a telescope at the surrounding area trying to find some friends, and one day he spots a distant village, and strange blue people dancing. He decides to visit them, but first trys his hand at their dancing. Being round he fails outright and ends up rolling about on the floor, and being mechanically minded he decides to augment his arms and legs with a Dr Robotnik style robot suit. He then visits the village, but as soon as he tries to dance he flattens their prized fountain. He is chased off, and later the villagers hatch a plot to kill him. They lure him out of the castle and trip his robot suit sending him flying, but instead of killing him they see him flailing about and simply laugh as they walk away. The midget is distraught at first, and then angry, and he decides to add to the telescope atop the castle with a gun turret. The animation closes as he ponders whether to decimate the callous villagers.

here's some concepts for the character;


some snippits from the storyboard;


and the model;


I'd like some help on the hands too, Im not sure whether to go with the 3 fingers or 4, and Im not to sure about the hand model I have either. Hands are one of my many weak points;


these are a couple more concepts;
http://www.rooster13.plus.com/concept2.jpg
http://www.rooster13.plus.com/concept3.jpg

ironbearxl

The 3d version is perfectly fine, but i'd say you lost some of the character in the concepts when going to 3d, but overall it's a really nice character.

mr.toast

i think the eyeballs should be lenghtened a bit since they are a tad smaller then shown in your concepts

cold_electric

I thihk he looks something similar to Dr. Robotnic.

aesir

stick with the 3 fingers, and the joints could use some extra polys so that they'll be able to bend a bit. Other wise it looks good.

rooster

ironbearxl: yeah you could be right about the loss of character, Im hoping the texture will go some way to reclaiming it, and once i give him cute shiny eyeballs..

mr.toast: I put the sphere eyeballs in as placeholders while building the head and grew to kind of like them like that, I will try elongating them though just to see if it is an improvement to the character

cold_electric: aye, robotnik was indeed inspiration for the round belly (or eggman as most of my friends say)

aesir: there's not a huge range of movement planned for this guy, in fact I want him to be a bit restrained as he isnt too fit- but the polycount is whatever my pc can manage so a few extra polies here and there just in case won't hurt

KDR_11k

The model seems less round than the concept.

Bronco

Hahaha I love it rooster,especially the story board great stuff,how long do you intend to spend on this project? looking forward to see how this turns out as an animations .

Good Job

john

MoP

Cool stuff rooster. I agree with aesir, might wanna check the joints (especially elbows here) to make sure they don't lose too much shape and integrity when they deform.
The character is very cool though, I like how you can only see his eyes and nose... makes him look slightly shy.
I think 3 fingers on the hands works fine, they don't need to be realistic because the whole design is very stylised. I think they're fine as they are now.
Good luck with your final year!

MoP

rooster

By the way, I forgot to mention my animation/dissertation is focussed on mise-en-scene or the 'totality of cinematic moment'. basically it involves study of how every visual element is arranged on screen and what meanings this can imply. If any of you have any knowledge of mise-en-scene Id be glad to hear it, thanks!

KDR: yeah while I was modelling it I started to worry that I was making him too immobile by making him completely round, and thats why I deviated from the concept a little.

Bronco: cheers man! ive got till end of May, but thats with a dissertation to write at the same time

Mop: thanks, thats what I was aiming for with the face, hes going to be pretty shy and put apon by cruel fate.. the joints are the next thing on the list then, I'll get a few more polies into em now

small update, added pocket;

Eli_Heuer

I really like this character! My only complaint is that I don’t like the specular on the feet. In the concept the feet didn’t reflect any light and I liked that more.

Try not to go to overly detailed on the texturing and concentrate on getting subtle hue variation in the skin and clothing. Keep up the great work.

poopinmymouth

Weird character, but good to see you going with something out of the usual. I like the colors on the 2nd from the right in the first picture.

rooster

hey sorry for the update gap, here's where he's at currently;


mr.toast; it turns out you're totally correct the eyeballs look so much better scaled imo, cheers
Eli; thanks, I've turned the spec down loads. for the model shots I wanted the geometry shape to be more visible so I switched it up so the feet werent just a silhouette.
poop; cheers, I guess all the lecturers saying how theyre tired of robots and aliens had something to do with it

it also turns out a lot of the smoothing groups I thought were a good idea turned out to be crap when I started using global illumination and textures. anyone else had this? im still tweaking them atm

any feedback on the textures and eyes is much appreciated, thanks!

adam

Hahah this characters awesome. I have no idea why but they way he's looking at the camera in the first 2 (of the 3) renders you recently posted made me giggle.

Good job man

poopinmymouth

Nice job man, I like the leather. I would give it a bit more scratches and wear in a few places, and work on the specular for him, not sure if you are planning on doing that already however.

MacD

Man, I do like this character...he just oozes...character

I can feel what ironbearxl is talking about, though...maybe if you just brought his shoulders and head down just a tad, he'd round out to something closer to the concept sketches?

And as to mise-en-scene...about all I know is that if the camera is above the subject, it looks as if he's out of control, as if he doesn't have total control of his destiny ('gods eye-view'), whilst if the camera is lower and looking up at the character, it gives the character a look of confidence, of totally being in control of his destiny. Look at movies like Citizen Kane and Clockwork Orange to see examples of meaning in scenes (like if a character puts his hands on another character: depending on where he places his hand(s) you get different meanings, different relationships between the characters).

Or maybe I'm totally misunderstanding 'mis-en-scene'...but that's the fault of me having worked in hotels :P

John Warner

i love the eyes with all my heart.

LtEthe

That's ace man. Excellent viewpoint and artistic attitude. Lotta character here.

rooster

thanks for all the comments!

poopinmymouth; yeah there is a subtle specular on the leather but I agree it's too subtle at the moment- its still being tweaked and I agree on the scratches too. maybe some patches of oil stains also

MacD yeah thats the kind of thing I mean when talking about mise-en-scene, cheers. I've been watching a lot of alfred hitchcock, as he's seen to be a master of mise-en-scene

John_Warner; that means a lot to me, they're not the best cg eyes Ive seen by a long shot but I still spent quite a while tweaking them so thanks

right, I'll get those changes fixed then its on to the next one.. blue prancing guy!

FX Melard

Hehehe I really like the style! the renders look like it is not CG.