Telling Tales: Modelling My Own Character - Completed Mesh

In my last modelling session I had managed to complete part of the torso and a leg, so my plan of attack was to start working upwards. In a couple of hours in the studio I had managed to model up to the shoulder and the entire arm (including the forearm roll) complete with hoof hand. I was seriously impressed at how much faster I was working in comparison to the demo model; the completion of the modelling process was in my sights. That is, of course, until I was blessed with the presence of the "Pin-wheel of Death" resulting in the loss of the morning's work. It's fair to say I was pretty devastated.

 

Re-modelled Torso and Arm (Due to Loss)

This whole thing did teach me the importance of remembering to save every so often, even if it was the most frustraiting way to be reminded. Ever. Having said this, I was able to get back up to speed fairly quickly and I'm just as happy with my second attempt. 

The only real problem I had (other than losing my work, obviously) was modelling the face. The rest of the body had been modelled in pretty much the same way as the demo character as they both had similar body shapes, whereas with the head I hadn't really experienced modelling that kind of shape. However I feel that I was able to apply my newly acquired Maya skills to the problem, to scuplt a face shape that I was happy with. To start I build upwards making the main bulk of the head, then cut out the faces where the snout/nose was going to build from. To do this I simply extruded the remaining edges and scaled out certain edge loops to create the general shape, much like with everything I had done so far. 

Creating The Head

 All that was left to do at this stage was to add the final facial features. I decided that it would be best to model the ears and the antler/horn separately and then merge the components together, as they were going to be quite fiddly pieces to sculpt, the ear especially. This worked a treat, and to attach them I had deleted faces in the main body mesh, lined up certain vertices and merged them together, resulting in an attached ear and horn.

 Process of Modelling the Ear

The Ear and The Horn/Antler

I did actually attempt to make a nostrel, but there was something about it I didn't quite like, whether it was the look of the nostrel or the fact that it was 3D I'm no sure. Either way I decided to remove it as I thought it would be best if they were drawn onto the character's texture rather than modelled in this way. 

Discarded Nostrel

So after these components were finished with it was finally time to mirror my character. From here I could add the eyes and eyelids, which are currently just sat ontop of the character's face.

 

Final Character Mesh

I am so happy with how it how it has turned out, and I've actually shocked myself at how well I have done without using the video guides. I did refer back to one when it came to creating the forearm roll as I couldn't remember how to set the rotation so that it was the same across all of the edge loops, but other than that I didn't need them at all.  I now can't wait to finish the controls and start animating so I can see my character come to life.