Project 4 : Character Modeling

Reading: Learning Alias

• Lesson 16
• Character Animation (pp. 331-340)
• Lesson 19
• Lesson 18 (as needed)
• Lesson 20 (as needed)
• Lesson 17 (as needed)
• Lesson 21 (as needed)

Once again, you will have a new group to work with. You will create a few animatable models and make them move. Unlike the past few projects, this project does not build on models from previous assignments. It does, however, build on your experience in creating and shading models.

1. Design an articulated character, i.e., one built from a collection of rigid pieces. Draw a model sheet in which the character is sketched in a neutral pose (front, back, side, and/or 3/4 views as appropriate), in various "typical" poses, and in a few extreme poses. Jot down the articulation parameters that control the model.
2. Build the character. Pose it in the various sketched poses of the model sheet. Create a series of animations that exercise and illustrate the various articulation parameters (e.g., flap the wings, wag the tail, wiggle the ears, and so forth).
3. Think about the personality of your character. Design a pose to convey some aspect of this personality, or some mood your character might be in. Model the pose, prepared to show it to the class without explaining it first.
   Example: sitting sad
   
   • hidden description: the character adopts this pose when feeling gloomy
   • challenge: posture must convey the feeling of sadness -- drooping shoulders, arched spine, elbows may be bent to help support head, etc.
4. As a separate exercise, design and build a simple (only a few moving parts) model that has articulated parts but smooth joints, i.e., the surfaces that connect the parts must bend as the parts move.
5. (Optional, if you want an extra challenge.) Design, build, pose, and animate a highly deformable expressive model, such as the flour sack in Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life.

1. The key here is coming up with a character that is interesting and expressive despite having entirely rigid pieces. The character may be something abstract (like "Fluffy", the dog built from disjoint polyhedra), realistic but not normally animate (like "Luxo Jr."), or surreal (like "Baby-Head", the Erector Set spider mutant toy in Toy Story). Be creative! Also, think about how the character moves, and what the best way is to control it: What's the "root", is it controlled by forward or inverse kinematics, etc.
2. Here, the purpose is to implement the design of the first part. The model should be built and shaded with however much (or little) care and effort is necessary to make the character look good. If you are able to make use of existing model pieces that you or someone else built, that's fine. Some issues may come up that necessitate sending the initial design back to the drawing board, e.g.: it can't take on the desired poses; it looks bad in intermediate poses; it's too ambitious to get done in the time allotted; etc.
3. This is an exercise in conveying the emotions of an animated character.
4. This is an exercise in making a deformable model. Keep it simple -- having even only one joint is enough. (Think about E.T.'s finger coming in from offscreen.) Make sure that the surfaces stay together and that the joint doesn't collapse or bulge unnaturally as the parts are moved.
5. Making models that can express themselves via deformation is one of the harder tasks in CG animation. Find out why!

1. (Bring your model sheets to class on Wednesday or Friday.)
2. Rendered still images in the various neutral, natural, and extreme poses, and one or more animations illustrating the range of motion.
3. Rendered still image in expressive pose.
4. Animation showing the joints bending.
5. Same as for (2).

Projects will be critiqued in class on Monday. Details for handin will be discussed via email.