Character Artist Demoreel

About

This is a Character Artist Demoreel.


Oru the Alien

Oru is a character I was working on for a personal project. He was one of the characters that I really did not have much thought out for. I was randomly sketching out ideas for an alien character. I wanted to create someone that would not be governed by the constraints that somewhat come from creating a realistic human character. So, by making him an alien type, this allowed me to create different types of facial features, and different types of textures for the skin. This project was more of a complete expression of freedom to focus more on previously learned skills which I could embrace with this type of character. He was a project for me to work on anatomy as well. I really wanted to hone in on using Mudbox in more detail, especially outside of the concept art. This is actually why I chose to create the concept art via charcoal. I created quick and undetailed renderings of him with charcoal and used those as reference images. This essentially was my way of allowing myself more artistic freedom within Mudbox. He was, by far, one of the more enjoyable characters I have worked on.


Maka

Maka is a character from an anime series called Soul Eater. For her, I wanted to work on several new techniques. Instead of creating my own concept art, or working from a human reference, I used screenshots of her in good reference poses. For me this was a slight challenge since the drawings had many differentiations for where her body parts lined up. Also, trying to turn an anime character to 3D and keeping the anime look was very new and different for me. Several of the methods for modeling human models needed to be tweaked to work effectively for her. Another aspect I wished to work on was sculpting a good flow for the cloth objects. I wanted her coat to have the same flowing look as it did in the show. The last new technique I wanted to work on was another method for hair. I used poly cylinders to shape the bangs and pig tails, and then used a sphere to round out the rest of the hair. I wanted to use this method to speed up the modeling process for the hair, which allowed the texturing process to go by smoothly as well. I simply needed to apply a hair texture, and create a transparency map appropriate for the bangs through Photoshop. I feel I achieved the look I was going for. All in all, she was very a fun character to model.


Gugun Robot Mech-Warrior

For Gugun, I wanted to make a warrior for love. I was looking to design a goofy and battler-type robot that was a part of a quirky love story animation that I wrote. The concept art for this character was my first full and singular use of my Wacom tablet and Photoshop. Normally, my concept art moves through sketchbook sketches to the computer. This time, it was more of an attempt to really embrace Photoshop’s capabilities with the use of a digital tablet. I then used Maya to create him, from modeling to rigging; however, for now the animated short has been put on hold. I definitely enjoyed creating this character and I hope to continue the story when time permits.


Padmé Amidala

For Padmé Amidala, I wanted to capture the likeness of Natalie Portman while keeping the model slightly cartoonish. I chose to model her from the arena scene in Star Wars: Episode Two. In this scene, her back is scratched, shirt ripped, and she is in the heat of battle. I figured it would be a good challenge for me since this was my first genuine use of Mudbox for more detailed sculpting and texturing. I also wanted to try new techniques with hair. The new technique involved me creating poly planes and sculpting them in the shape of her hair style. Afterwards, I grabbed the edges that flowed in the direction that I wanted the hair to go and extracted them. With those edges extracted, I then used them as guides for the hair FX curves. This method allowed me the capability of reshaping or animating the hair for later use. I also used this same method for the eyebrows and eyelashes. Based upon the results, I feel that I achieved all of the goals I wished to attempt for Padmé. This was a great new experience for me.

Technical Info

Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Mudbox, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects