The Rhino Warrior

Update3 Rhino Warrior shading

So here is what I've been working on today, been doing it slowly on and off. Whilst of course watching looney tunes as I've got the golden collection for my birthday so happy. Has got some of the real classics. Anyway back to my Rhino Warrior.

Rhino Warrior update 2

Just a quick update, I've been fumbling around a lil but finally got my act together. So I've got the basic thick black outline and base colour, just need to start the highlights and shadowing. Soon the black line will disappear and it will be a digital painting hopefully. It will be my first though, wish me luck.

The Start of the Rhino Warrior

So this morning I've started sketching out the outline of my Rhino Warrior character, not sure where the idea came up from. I think it stems from an evolution show I saw on tv that said there were once covered in fur. Anyway here you can see the breakdown of how I do my sketches, it's also useful doing it on my iPad as I can use different colours easily and erase them where necessary, not something I can do so easily in my sketchbook. So yes I'm loving the app Procreate can't say enough for them, although I do keep turning the canvas and making it wonky which is annoying but hey go, will keep updating.

IPad drawing practice

Just did a quick digital painting of my eye. Wanted to practice as its been a long time since I've created anything like that, also this is my first iPad drawing! I've used Procreate as sketchbook Pro was too awkward and slow to manipulate. Procreate is definitely more user friendly, and with its quicker response time and more layers even in HD, cheaper of the two as well which is annoying but least I now have both. Anyway here is my first iPad drawing.

Witch Hagatha under the microscope - evaluation

So It all makes sense now as to why the animation evaluation didn't publish onto my blog, I just saved it, so it's a little late but that was just due to human error, here it is: With this project I spent a lot of time in the process and development of ideas and understanding the vital elements that make up a good animation. The final execution of the animation had gone through some changes, several in fact until I was satisfied. Had I had more time then the piece would maybe been able to include all the elements I wanted, but towards the end it was just having something produced to show that I understood the breakdown and process of character animation in 3ds max. I think I began to run out of time because I spent so much of it on the walk cycle. It was vital that I produced this well, I had put a lot of thought into the character of Witch Hagatha, I didn't want to have it ruined by poor animation. She couldn't have the standard walk because she was not built like other peoples in my class, she had character and she was big and heavy, she deserved to portrayed as such. I think I might have spent maybe a good month or so on her actual rig and walk cycle, perfecting it, showing her character. I thought about everything, down to the last detail, the bounce in her step the cocky swagger, the arms nearly lost beneath her shelf of a bossom. Every inch of her had a swing, from her shoulders to the individual fingers, I walked in front of the mirror hundreds of times taking notes sketching positions, I wanted her to look like a natural cartoon character. It didn't matter whether this was my first ever go at this, I had to get it right. Anyway Im really really happy with how she turned out, I may have added a little more bounce to her, but that is just me trying to be a perfectionist, I could haverobably spent forever on just that section. Another part of her character that needs some recognition is her facial reaction. I created her so she could have a whole range of expressions. Most of which I wasn't able to use in my short animation, but it deserved a mention due to the fact her face was modelled awkwardly, i didn't make life easy for myself at all in this project. She has one eye bigger than the other, her jawline is very slim which makes it difficult for the scream effect and 'o' shaped mouth expression, but I still accomplished all these feats. I really pushed her and my limits. She can wink, she can laugh, grimace, be thinking, confused, sly, feel rage, anger, sadness and all the subtle ones in between. The reason I created so many variations is because at first I might be able to use them all, but in the newer shortened version of the animation, I could only show a selection, for instance each time she flies screaming past the camera, each facial reaction is different. My most favourite bit of the piece though is when she is balancing just about ready to get onto the broom, breathing deep gaining the courage. I took so time on that section, from actually balancing her to the flicker of her fingers as she's about to get on. Then Hagatha's reaction to the broom unexpectedly shooting off with her. I might have sped up the actaully flying off up and away bit, but that Just me being picky. Although if there is one scene I would change it would be the close up of the finger wagging, it doesn't look natural enough, and I wished I didn't have to rush past it, time was very quickly running out. I also wished I could have shown more of the other elements rigs like the Broomstick and Hat, in the original version both of them were characters, but I had to just make the Broomstick a minor role and skip the hat all together. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, but the process to get there was difficult, I definitely challenged myself during this project and made many mistakes along the way, but I worked round all those limitation and produced something that I'm quite proud of. For instance I modelled Hagatha exactly how I drew it, and that was with bow legs. This made walking a bit of an issue as the knee was prone to weird twisting. Yet even though i made some pretty bad rookie mistakes, like her arms are a little short, the fact that fat characters are harder to animate, I had to create a neck for her as she doesn't have one in the drawings, or the fact she is has a wonderful oddly shaped body so rigging her was hell, I probably learnt so much more than what was intended, meaning my next animation will be so much better and I'll be able to push the limits even further creating better and better characters. Animations and cartoons are about pushing past the standard norms, blowing worldly limitations way out of the water and in this project I think Ive definitely started heading in the right direction in meeting those crucial requirements in becoming a good animation.