Animating Characters

The aim of this unit was to further develop our modelling skills in relation to characters and organic objects. We would create a character mesh, which would then be animated using the Biped system to construct a short animation sequence.We had freedom to choose any character we wished, but they had to be bipedal (two arms, two legs, torso and head) in order to be easily useable with the Biped system.

We had a strict triangle count limit that our models needed to fall into; the minimum triangle count being 8,000, the maximum being 11,000.The final animation was required to be at least 30 seconds in length, and also be accompanied by a production report and evaluation.

You can view the full specification for the unit in the below .doc file.

• Unit Specification

.doc file copyright of University of Portsmouth

Creating the Model: The Twi'lek

Being more interested in non-organic, technical modelling, this unit was going to be challenging from the outset. Always wanting a challenge however, I decided to model a Twi'lek Jedi, complete with Lightsabers and Force Powers.

I created a basic human female mesh, onto which I added the specific Twi'lek anatomy, such as the tentacles on the head (known as Lekku). The full process can be seen in the production report, which can be downloaded below.

Base Mesh Renders

Here are some A/O renders of the base mesh before rigging or animation. I was careful to create extra geometry around joints to allow them to deform accurately. The halter-neck top is a separate mesh attached to the main body, as this resulted in a much smoother, cleaner looking model.The final triangle count of the model is 10,668, making full use of the prescribed budget of between 8,000 and 11,000.

Texturing

It was also a requirement of the unit to create textures for our character models. We were able to decide how much detail to go into with this part of the work such as whether to provide a simple diffuse map only, or whether to add specular and normal maps too.

While I did construct a high detail (90,000 triangles) model with the intention of baking a normal map to apply to my low detail mesh, I ran out of time to implement this, instead concentrating on the more important animation side of the unit.Below is a render of the fully textured model.

Animation

I wanted to try to make an exciting, interesting animation, so I put a lot of effort into this part of the project. I had to teach myself about space warps and deflectors in order to create the exploding gun turret, as well as lens effects to create the glowing lasers. The full animation can be viewed below.

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Report

The report covers the process of creating the model, with solutions to problems encountered and reflection on the methods used.

I am still awaiting the final mark for this unit.