T Pose

My model is complete, and the unfold from the t-pose looks straight forward so far. The tougher part for me now will be learning how to rig and animate my character (how grateful I am for online tutorials). I'm concerned about the type of movement I will get but I plan on continuing with 3D lessons in school, so as I (hopefully!) progress in that, I can continue this project along with it.

Here she is:



and her unfold:



I've been thinking about what sort of purpose I have for this project, besides keeping myself occupied... I've wanted to do a puppet animation for some time but I've never felt the patience for dealing with the actual puppet and twisting it to the actions I want it to perform. There are the problems with gravity, and creating that illusion of movement when everything seems to be fighting it back... I want a puppet that I am not contorting, but is custom designed for the moment it is capturing. This is probably already possible, however, my reality is that I am using shareware and have spent 15 dollars so far on cardstock. My budget is pretty limited.

The technical aspect of it is fascinating to me. There are 3D movies I love, but most often with 3D special effects or features I know I am going to be harshly critical of it- it doesn't mesh with the film, it's too smooth, it looks cheap, etc. I think it is the interpolation in the movement that really gets me. I haven't seen a lot of 3D that uses snappy timing, everything is very calculated.... they list along their paths. There is a lot of seemingly erratic factors in real movement, caused by things not noticeable to the naked eye, for example, a table may appear smooth and varnished on first glance, but there is no doubt to be the most minute dips and curves on its surface, and these do have effects. They are tiny but they are there. I don't think these things can be seriously calculated into the animation process, but they can certainly be emulated. With drawn animation I think it is emulated already, naturally, just by the tiny differences that vary from drawing to drawing.

What I am hoping to gain from this project is to be able to utilize that precision and detail from 3D modelling, but to bring it back into an 'imperfect' 2D animation environment. It looks so good in my head right now, I just hope it doesn't stay there.