But (lol, butt) up to this point, between that cursed and forsaken Bones of Essimir and Digital Illustration jack-in-the-boxes (aka homework due the following week which I am never really able to account into trying to plan all these tasks, scheduling this stuff is nearly void), I have been focusing on building the characters up, and a couple have been UV unwrapped and have basic textures applied to them.
The rest are either half-unwrapped or I neglect the hell out of it (mostly because it will suck my life out of me anyway, much like multiple assignments.
...I wonder if the life-sucking monsters are a subconscious metaphor for the multiple assignments and tasks draining my energy...)
Anyhoo, I will do a picture thing.
With pictures.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in my case it's worth a thousand dollars.
And I have a bunch of pictures to show.
Tarri - Fairyfox
First we have the protagonist of the Dreamspace series, Tarri, as his true form.
The head has always been a starting point for me, and this is no exception. While building the head, I always build using half-a-head, and a mirroring duplicate for the other side.
At first, as I designed Tarri's head, it became clearer and clearer he was becoming less of a fox and more of a piggy-pig-snoggleton.
I decided to restart, following a similar process as before, only this time round the shape actually began to form the way I wanted it to.
And in the end, we have Tarri's head, which I gave two spheres for eyes, which make him look of the undead. Quite ironic since he is a being of pure life.
Next I needed to begin work on the body. To do this, I start with a new piece of geometry. Like the head, I create a special duplicate to create both side simultaneously.
The first basic body set-up.
I quickly realised with this render that merchandising was feasible, and that
Fairyfox Coffee Tables were the in thing.
The body came together, as I built upon the basics. Once the body shape had come together, I extruded a simple neck from the body to the head, and then I combined the geometries of the body and it's mirroring duplicate.
I then UV unwrapped him, of which was only really necessary to facilitate the features of the body of which had different colours, and no fur (which would be added later).
Andler - Fairydeer
The same process was followed for my fairydeer character. Head first, then body, join by neck, then combined both sides together to form a super-deer.
Oh, and the name Andler is just a name, it won't really be referred to in the animation. I just couldn't think of a name at the time, so... antler... Andler...
When it comes time to actually work on the story in later times, chances are I may find a much more awesome name.
Like Auron.
Auron is badass.
Auron from FFX
Anyway, back to the stag that is Andler.
Fairydeer Coffee Tables are just as popular.
Of course, these are just basic colours. The fur for these characters should, in theory, make them epic.
The form of this male deer is staggering.
Fairytails
Cannot forget the fairytails, the fantail-like fairies. These were obviously different from the previous two characters in terms of building and shape.
Like the previous two, I started with the head, and then build the body. The body was a different shape, more like a squashed, really fat banana.
The problem I did find with this one is obvious. When I attempted the feet, I accidentally imagined the "knees" as being forward-facing, instead of the reverse.
So reverse feet became a thing, and Creepy Feet was born.
Of course, I corrected this error quickly, and worked with the geometry until it looked right. In terms of wings, I was advised to forego the idea of using paint feathers and just using geometry. I worked out the feathers before I even began - after all, given the patterns and colours the wings for every feather will be separate from the whole wing, I had to know where the edges of the feathers would be in order to cut them when it came to UV unwrapping.
Airy Fairy Air is now go for take-off.
To get the desired effect of all of the feathers (wing-bound and tail), I realised that I would ultimately have to overlap the edges of the feathers with others in order to prevent them from looking like spikes or something.
Because they would totally be the fairytail's weapon of choice, since a being of life would totally take yours (sarcasm).
The fairytail thus now looks like this, and is currently in the process of UV unwrapping.
The Anticre
Then you have these badasses. They don't give a fridge magnet about whether or not you want to stay alive, they actually don't give a thought or anything. You could say they have no real purpose other than to feed off your life force.
They don't think, or feel, they have no remorse, therefore you cannot bargain with them, they will just feed off you without any real thought, since thinking is not something they do.
They do, however, have an impeccable singing voice.
And by singing voice, I mean otherworldly screech which will paralyse you with fear where you cannot move while they will slowly move in to feast while all you can do is just stand there, watching them draw in closer... and closer...
Same story with before, start with the head, then build the body, join by neck, combined both sides.
These sexy babes used to be human, then they died. Then their corpses were overtaken and tainted by some anti-living force.
The last image depicts that it wants a hug. (It's not after a hug, it will suck your life out, but hey, it could be your grandmother! Who will kill you. And then you will become one of THEM. Cheery food for thought. I don't like cherries).
Another thing with the head I need to keep in mind is that the lower section of the mouth needs to extend drastically.
Also, this one has no texture, since they are purely black.
Whether or not I decide to give it a texture is to be decided, but at this point there isn't any point in it.
Fairyflies
The fairyflies are basically the fairy version of fireflies.
I have created a basic form for them, although whether or not this will be ultimately the last form is yet to be determined.
For the meantime, they have wings much like the fairies of The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, etc), however these are just basic wings and are supposed to look a bit more like steams in the near shape of wings.
The main focus for the time, however, was the lighting.
The initial tests looked okay once I had some good lighting, and the wings were very faint.
These shots I had encased the fairyfly body in a glass-material sphere. This gave the effect you see above.
The above image shows the wings clearer than the last, the last having a bit more glow on the wings.
While the top one may seem to display the detail more of the wings, the bottom one would give them less of a generic wing-like appearance, which is kind of what I am after.
And that is what I have to show the class today.
I have run out of tea, I need to brew some more.
Oh, and the whole thing about "a picture's worth a thousand dollars," you owe me $26,000.
I will send my thugs to collect the money at some undetermined time.
