As a way to constantly improve my skills and knowledge about design, I decided to focus my year 2023 on 3D design and modelling.
I followed many classes throughout the year but really enjoyed the series Into the Ocean, on Skillshare, from John Knowles, character animator and animation director for children’s television. It was the perfect class series to express my love of Sea Life (di you see my 2022 calendar ?)
Below I share my final projects for each class.
Personal project
LAUNCH DATE
January 2024
WHAT I DID
Sketch · Illustrations · Character design · Motion design · 3D modelling
Character Design
First part of the course was to choose a character to draw. As the theme of the course is Into the Ocean, I chose to work with the biggest fish alive: the Whale Shark. I love their giant-gentle aura and their spot pattern makes them look a little magical.
I started with a lot of sketches over reference pictures, which is a great way to start and figure out the main characteristics of the subject. I worked in Procreate on my iPad (with a pencil). I had a lot of fun with exaggerating the character's features and creating the different face expressions. I must say it was a real challenge and is much harder than it looks.
Now the next step is to pick one of the design and bring the character to life in 3D with Blender.
John Knowles - character animator and animation director & Skillshare's teacher of Into The Ocean series
"Thanks for sharing your designs, they're fantastic!
You've done a great job of exaggerating the proportions and playing with the shape language to create some unique designs and personalities. I love the proportions of the first design but I'm not sure which I would pick as a favourite, they all have elements that I like! I really hope that you take one of the designs forward into 3D as I'd love to see it animated! I also love your line work and the way you've painted the pattern, the result looks stunning.
I hope to see more projects from you in the future!"
Character modelling in Blender
After completing the Character Design Essentials class, I decided to use one of my design to model in Blender. I adjusted the side view and drew the front view as well.
Then, I created the 3D model, painted the whale (I drew all dots one by one :D) and created the ocean environment with lights and reflections. Then I move the camera at different angles to have different views of the Whale Shark and rendered the character into images.
John Knowles - character animator and animation director & teacher on Skillshare's teach of Into The Ocean series
"I love that you've rendered the whale shark from different angles and the result looks stunning! Whilst it was certainly harder than recreating the example from the class you've no doubt learnt far more as a result and have a unique and personalised result. I also love the fact that you took the time to hand paint all of the markings, it really makes for a beautiful end result."Character sculpting in Blender
In this class, I followed along as John demonstrated how to sculpt a seahorse character and underwater environment. We created, sculpted and painted each rock (which we stacked to create the environment ), the 2 different types of coral (staghorn and tubular) and the character.
My class project was my version of John's character design.
Character animation in Blender
Project to come soon.
