Character: Snail

#1

This snail is a character I’m creating for use in an animated logo project. I used a similar snail in a previous project where it was supposed to look more realistic. For this animaiton though, I’m going for a bit of a cartoony look, but we will see how everything progresses.

Here the body and shell are seperate objects, both made out of splines (Max 6). This is to just get the right shape and the topology flowing in the right direction. I’m going to convert them to polys and probably attach them to a single mesh before detailing.

Any and all critiques are welcome and appreciated. I’ll be posting progress over the next week or so.

Color concept:

Wire (splines) and test render (default lights for now):

#2

really simple concept, but it looks great. It’s got a lot of character… looks even better than the concept. nice.

#3

Heres an update to the shell. I think it’s more “solid” and fleshed out now. I’m going to start on the body and think about connecting them.

I’ve thought about the rig for him, and I think it would look good if he had a bone that controlled 100% of the shell and just a bit of the body around where the shell would touch it. That way I can make the shell sway back and forth a bit and it would bring a bit of the skin of his body with it. Good idea, or should I keep the shell as a seperate object and just link it to the body?

#4

New body. I still like the old one a lot, but I had to make these tweaks to make it more suited for animation.

#5

wow i mean wow thats really cool, i mean ive never looked at a snail and said its cool, I would love to see it with textures, a good slimy coat would also be great. :thumbsup:

#6

Haha, thanks.

Right now I’m having a really tough time trying to figure out how to rig it. If anyone has any ideas, please share.

#7

It is a good idea to make a fantasy designed snail.:slight_smile: But i miss soft details from the snail body.:slight_smile: Otherwise it is nice.

#8

Woo… A snail!
It’s looking really nice at the moment… You should make it so it leaves a trail behind it.
I don’t know anything about rigging sorry… Can’t help you.

#9

Well, I know next to nothing about rigging. I’ve never successfully rigged a character before in my life; but here’s my opinion, nontheless.

Something like that maybe? It’s simple, but I think it would allow you to have the stiff shell, and enough mobility in the body to give you wobbly eyes and such, and have a good ‘squishy’ effect when the body moves.

Anyway… I like your snail very much. =)

#10

Awesome Andyman. Thats pretty much the rig I’m folling around with right now! =)

I’ll try to post some animation tests soon.

Thanks for the rig suggestion, I’m glad to know that at least someone else has the same idea in mind for the bones as I do.

#11

I added some mesh details to the body and shell, connected them to form a single mesh. Then I textured it and did some render tests with the lights I’m going to use for my animation. Now… on to the rigging!

#12

lookin good matt! very nice color and texturing! :slight_smile: i love this piece!

a question: you said it was for a logo. do you think it might draw attention better and leave a more lasting image in the viewer’s mind if the snail had fairly obvious eyes to look at you with? it looks awesome the way it is right now though :slight_smile:

#13

Thanks. All procedural textures. =)

I know what you mean about the eyes. Without explaining too much, I’ll just say that at the end of the logo animation his shell is going to be used in place of the letter “O”. His “face” really isn’t the focus, and I was (and still am) worried about it looking too “saturday morning cartoon” style. (Maybe I should be worried more about using so many “quotes”)

I’ll think about placing some eyes in there. I am pretty sure I’ll be able to convey enough emotion by just using body language though.

Anybody else with a vote for/against eyes?

#14

all procedural huh? hmmm you and i could probably learn some things from each other. send me a message on aim and lets chat sometime
aim: q2veteran

#15

Yep, i’m in for the eyes too.
Right now i’m kind of undecided whether it’s a cartoony or “just” a fictional snail. The eyes could tell me.

#16

Thats what I’m afraid of. I’ll have to try to put some eyes on him. When I’m testing stuff out, I will have to be careful not to make them too big, too bulging, too white. It could be very funny, but funny is not what I’m going for.

#17

Well if you are going for a more fictional yet realistic (= non-cartoony/funny), then you could think about using some black, bumpy area on top of the eye exetensions. (or the like)
Kind of like insect compound eyes, just smaller.
Maybe taking a render to photoshop and sketching in different eye types could help you finding the right idea.

#18

I am just going to finish up some animation today and render overnight and tomorrow if needed. Here is preview of one of the frames:

My rig turned out pretty nice, and I got him looking quite squirmy with not many bones. =)

#19

lookin good matt :slight_smile:

#20

The animation is now up in the finished gallery. Whew, finally done. (Theres always a bit more to tweak though :wink:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=163166