HMC#20: Expressions - Akane Tendo

#1

Hi all,

 I doubt that I'll have time to actually finish this, but I'll enter anyways, since I can use this as a nice excuse to shove some facial-rigging/animation style-experiments inbetween my current projects.
 
 I'll try to tackle Rumiko Takahashi's Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2. 
 
 [img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc280/Tuxedoknek/HMC%2020%20Akane/akane_28.jpg[/img]
 
 I thought about choosing Ranma him/herself but decided that Akane is the most fun and expressive of the whole bunch. I'll shoot for building a complete, animation-ready blendshape rig.
 
 I wont have enough time to do an extensive wip-thread this time, but I'll try to make it cohesive enough so it makes sense to follow.
 
 Cheers and happy modeling to everybody!:arteest:
#2

your w-i-p is always keeps me interested :slight_smile:
subscribed!

#3

I’m really excited about how this turns out.

Have fun, pal.

#4

hey felix!

looking forward to see another great model from you.
think you did an awesome job on your last one.

good luck.

-r

#5

Thanks a lot guys, I’ll try my best not to disappoint! The first effort will be in finding the time to get started. :wink:

Cheers!

#6

Good luck Felix. I was wondering when you`d be starting your thread. I have no idea who this character is (I don’t really like anime), but I’m sure you’ll do a good job of it nonetheless.
Hope you can find the time to complete it too.

Cheers

-Rage

#7

Hey good luck man.

I have no idea either. But I know anime can be tough in 3d.

#8

Go go go! =)

#9

Thanks a lot for the encouragement, guys! :slight_smile:

I havent been able to spend much time on this yet and have to admit I failed my first challenge on this project, which was [i]not[/i] to watch every single episode of Ranma 1/2 in its entirety that I was going to search for reference in. lol I failed miserably on that one. It's just too darn funny and addictive.:D

Anyways, I did manage to collect some references for expressions though.

[img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc280/Tuxedoknek/HMC%2020%20Akane/AkaneRefs.jpg[/img]

I also have some shots for orthos, but I'm still shuffling them around, deciding which ones to go with.

Cheers!
#10

To get this started and really familiarize myself with the particular shape- and animation- requirements of this style, I started a rough concept sculpt in ZB. I havent gotten very far yet, but I thought I’d post what I have as of now anyways.

      ZB Concept Sculpt Part 1:
      
      [img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc280/Tuxedoknek/HMC%2020%20Akane/AkaneConceptSculpt1.jpg[/img]
      
      I'll take this a little further and add a rough hair sculpt, but wont go too far before I take it into Maya for retopo. This is all just a sketch to figure out the specifics of where I'll have to be going with this in regards to topo and animation. For final silhouette-perspective and -proportioning I'll be going into MB with the animation-layout anyways, since my top priority is to stay as true as possible to the established look. I sure hope they'll at least fix the persp-issue with ZB4, then I could say "Sayonara!" to AD/MB in regards to that aspect for good.
      
      Hopefully I'll have more time to spend on this over the weekend.
      
      Cheers!
#11

Hey, will be great see your work with Akane, love it! I remember she in Ranma, hehe. Keep it on! :beer:

#12

Love your great starting.:thumbsup: I am a fan of this animation.

#13

Thanks a lot for the encouragement, stridiggio and shin4! :slight_smile:

I didnt have much time for this over the weekend either, but here’s the 2nd and final part of the concept sculpt/sketch.

ZB Concept Sculpt/Sketch Part 2:

This rough sculpt gave me enough of an idea of what the base will have to look like and be able to do, as well as what does and what doesn’t translate from 2D to 3D for this particular style and where compromises will have to be made in order to retain the established look. I’ll get started on the base mesh in Maya next and then move on to MB for final silhouette and contour sculpting. Some of the animation requirements are still somewhat unclear, but I’ll figure those out along the way.

Salute!

#14

Nice approach to this character, Felix. This free style you’re incorporating is so vastly different from the technical/methodical approach you took with She-Ra on the previous challenge, but it seems like you’re getting the results you’re looking for. Nice form at this early stage, but apart from that, I don’t really have any crits at this early stage. I must say, though, that your versatility is inspiring. Keep up the great work!

-Rage

#15

Thanks for the comment, Joel! :slight_smile:

Every 2D style and even sub-style has its own little thing going on, which is usually exactly what gives it its unique charm and in order to get that to translate well into 3D, some exploring is on order. Since I dont want to work myself into a corner with predetermined notions, that’s just what I am doing here.
She-Ra was aimed to be more realistic in style, with lots of established principles to fall back on and there was no need to re-invent the wheel in her case.
I have to say I much prefer the free-flow development I do here, since it’s so much more creative and has some problem-solving involved, making it a more interesting process.

Cheers!

#16

are you gonna model the eyes or stick with varied textures? I like the progress on this so far - perhaps making the nose a tiny bit wider would work better - it’s very narrow and long at the mo and looks kinda squashed sideways because of that. Anyway looks great

#17

Hey!

Nice subject choice there. I’m too much in a rush to participate on this one but I’ll follow you along. Good luck!

#18

Intervain: Thanks a lot for the comment and crit. :slight_smile: I’m modeling the eyes. Regularely shaped spheres wont really work here, so I’ll have to go a different route. I have some ideas, which should work for animation as well, but still havent decided on the exact way to go. The nose is a tricky thing, since it is so darn tiny on the original stylistically. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll keep that in mind when I work the first sculpting-pass in MB.

            FICTIS: Merci beaucoup for stopping by and commenting. :)
            
            
            I managed to squeeze in the time to put out the first base with Retopo in Maya/wNEX. 
            
            Maya/wNEX Retopo v1.0:
            
            [img]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc280/Tuxedoknek/HMC%2020%20Akane/AkaneBustRetopo.jpg[/img]
            
            I'm calling this a version 1.0 since there'll most likely be some changes to it once I start playing with different shapes in MB. I might have too many loops around the mouth and eyes, but I'll figure that out soon enough. lol There's also still some more geo, like mouth interior, eyebrows etc to be build, but I'll get to that once I have the global shapes a bit more finalized. The hair is still only the placeholder ZB-sculpt and will be replaced later.

            Cheers!:arteest:
 
 PS: Contrary to what I expected, the overall silhouette did not come out of ZB into Maya too distorted perspective-wise. Overall it appears a bit slimmer, but not too bad. Perhaps ZB lends itself a bit better to 2D-3D work. For realistic heads, I dont even try anymore. It's a darn shame, 'cause I actually prefer the ZB toolset over MB.
#19

Clean and effective topo, it seems. I understand that you mentioned you were still working things out. Were you planning on moving the pole in the center of the forehead up? I recommend moving it up and behind the hair, to avoid one badass dimple. :smiley:

-Rage

#20

Thanks a lot for the comment and suggestion. :slight_smile: Believe it or not, but that star is completely unproblematic on this particular mesh.

While I have been able to put some time in for this project, I dont really have anything worthwhile enough to show off yet, so no pic update this time. Sorry!

Skol!