Facial Modeling may be the most difficult part. Creating expressions carries incredible nuance.
I’ve always had a love for CG. Anyone who’s into SciFi can understand. The ability to create things that couldn’t otherwise exist is an incredibly creative endeavor. I started working in CG or more specifically Cinema 4D around 2008 as a means of branching out beyond the world of photoshop. An area I rarely ventured into those was character design and modeling.
In the advertising world, especially on the art side there are an incredible number of disciplines that can take life times to master. I’d say I’ve mastered very few if any, but explored quite a few. Part of which is I hate hearing the words, “We can’t do it, we don’t have the budget”. For me that’s a huge driving force behind exploring 3D and motion graphics. While it’s best when left to those who’ve been doing it for years. There’s a lot art directors and designers can achieve on their own to bring a project to life.
The following is some of my exploration into character design for one particular project.
Software: Cinema 4D R14
Rendering tests of your models in grayscale or clay is much quicker and a great way to ensure your getting the results your looking for before texturing.
Lighting is key to getting a more “realistic” render. Poor lighting will flatten out your model.
Experimenting with textures is a fun and laborious task. There are infinite settings that can be tweaked.
Many characters have hair, which is a science unto itself. Hair is also dynamic and moves with the motion of your character so getting it perfect can be a challenge, but there are actually tools like scissors and combs to help.