[FINAL, FINAL] CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #7 (Apr 11, 2018): Thanks to those of you who have responded to the Questionnaire. The feedback is extremely helpful. If you haven't responded yet and you participated in the class - or even if you didn't participate - please fill that out and I will gift you 20 Breath of the Wild screenshots from my Switch.
[FINAL] CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #6 (Apr 9, 2018): We've reached the end of the homework extension period and this class officially comes to end. What a month! It's been a thrill to see each of you forge your characters, learn new things, share tips with each other, and offer critiques along the way.
This thread will be open indefinitely but it's officially at the end of it's "class lifespan" meaning I won't be able to commit weekly time to it anymore and I will unpin it from the forum topics list. I'll pop in occasionally if I see activity but you all are more than welcome to keep working on their characters here if you wish!
UPDATE: Closing post on page 44 and XP has been added to each participating account.
CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #5 (Mar 28, 2018): Week 4's stream is archived and available via the Past Events button on the Live Event page. Also a reminder that I'm extending the 'deadline' of this month and will be keeping this thread alive through the end of the first week in April. Hopefully that gives you all a bit more time to get your characters done!
CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #4 (Mar 26, 2018): Week 3, done! Thanks to everyone who submitted by Sunday. I'm quite impressed by the neutralization and retoplogy work I've seen. It's a lot of work and I can see that effort in the WIPs and especially completed submissions.
Week 4 - the final week - dives into adding color to our model, primarily in the form of creating textures. Check out this week's breakdown a little further down in this description and see you tomorrow at the Live Event!
CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #3 (Mar 19, 2018): Week 2 is accomplished and I'm finally caught up on submissions! Thanks to everyone who submitted by Sunday. We have some impressive character concept sculpts underway. In fact, I have yet to bestow a grade lower than an A this week.
Week 3 continues our 3-week character building production. Specifically we're going to look at pursuing an animation friendly version of our character - both how and why we would do this. See you tomorrow at the Live Event! Don't forget to RSVP.
CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #2 (Mar 12, 2018): Week 1 is done! Thanks to everyone who submitted by Sunday. It's been a lot of fun seeing your caricature work and concept art choices.
Week 2 begins the 3-week process of building a character based on the concepts we choose. Don't forget to RSVP to the Live Event tomorrow - See you then!
CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #1 (Mar 5, 2018): Class is in session! Today officially begins the BC2-1803 class. Please check the syllabus below for Week 1's focus and assignments. Begin watching the pre-recorded courses if you haven't already and begin looking for a cool, stylized character design for creating in 3D this month. The first Live Event is tomorrow at 2pm EST - SEE YOU THERE! 😎
Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Creating Stylized Characters with Blender! This class is designed to teach you everything you need to know about building stylized 3D characters. If you’re diligent in watching all content and hitting homework deadlines, by the end you will have a modeled and textured stylized character! It’s an intermediate-to-advanced class which means you’ll do best by having some experience with Blender and 3D modeling before committing to this class.
This is the second "Class" format where Citizen members are invited to focus together on a particular topic/skill for a month. Participation looks like this:
WHEN? The class will take place from March 5th through March 31st
Abstract: Stylization is any deviation from realism. Thus it’s a broad spectrum from slight liberty away from reality to extreme abstraction of reality. This week we're going to sift through various examples of stylized characters, noting their qualities, and categorizing a spectrum of stylization.
Goal of the Week: Train your eye and mind to stylize your perception. Practice simplifying and exaggerating reality. Loosen up your sculpting approach (gestural sculpting).
Pre-recorded course to watch: Art of Sculpting: Caricature Chapter
Week 1 Live Event (Already happened and archived!)
Homework:
Abstract: Story plays a big part in stylization. Not necessarily ‘narrative’ but background, personality, and purpose. The success of a character is strengthened by its developmental arc. The best artists create characters that are more than the sum of its pixels; more than the sum of its brush strokes and polygons; more than its final render.
Goal of the Week: Develop a story for your character; one that can fuel your creative workflow for the rest of the month. Then channel that story into the first stage of sculpting.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Week 2 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: At this point a decision needs to be made about our character sculptures: A) Leave it as a sculpture or B) optimize it for ‘production’. Leaving it as a sculpture means it’s a static sculpture that can be painted, rendered, or 3D printed but not animated. Optimizing it for production means you turn your sculpture into a model that’s easiest to work with up to and including animation. If you opt for optimization, this week is mostly a technical and problem-solving task. We need to both retopologize our mesh and also neutralize it if the sculpt is posed.
Goal of the Week: Understand the concept of “production-friendly” and practice retopology.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Week 3 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: Like Dorothy, our characters have so far lived in a black and white world. This week we’re leaving Kansas and adding color. There’s many methods for creating our character texture(s) including hand-painting, baking maps that accent the painting process (great for the less painterly character artists), as well as photo-sourcing. There's also a couple different formats: Vertex Colors and UV/Textures.
Goal of the Week: Get comfortable with painting textures.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Week 4 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Creating Stylized Characters with Blender" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask me and each other questions and to post homework. As the instructor of the class, I will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of March to review homework and answer questions.
Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication is reserved for Citizens.
Great sculpt! I also guess that's Kristen Stewart, that expression with a half open mouth is spot on.
Also sweet stylized concept you have there.
I laughed so hard when the caricature popped on the screen :D Amazing
Homework Submission Week 1
Hopefully, I'm not too late to submit the homework for the class. I decided to do the character with one of my close friends from college. I would have liked to spend more time on it but I became very busy with school and had to make due with what I had done. Overall I feel that the sculpt went fairly well. Getting the eyes, ears, and cheeks exaggerated was difficult at first but then after re-watching the tutorials, I understood how to do them. The hair was the most difficult part of the sculpt to get how I wanted. I had another idea in mind, however, I began to run out of time and decided to derive from the reference picture a bit with the hair.
For the concept art, I decided to go with one of the characters from one of my favorite mobile games. A scythe wielder named Alice.
Congrats on your first head sculpt, Matt! To do a first head sculpt as a caricature is like playing basketball for the first time at NBA tryouts. So kudos on taking on that challenge!
It's quite good for a first head. Anatomy structures like the mouth and laugh lines are too often 'etched' on with beginners but yours are shaped accurately into the face, with appropriately varying depths. Same with the nose.
The eyes are perhaps the most off-putting to me. It seems like it was an exaggeration attempt but they came out looking a bit like fish eyes - a significant departure from David McCAllum's. Your sculpt's hair is a recognizable feature though.
Overall this is an excellent effort, Matt! You should be proud of what you accomplished. Human faces are one of the most difficult things to sculpt well, and with more time and practice I've no doubt you'll be a natural at it.
ArtStation and Pinterest are the 2 sites I check daily for CG/art inspiration. So yes, it's a cool place! Not just for recipes 😏
Nice job designing your own character. She'll work well for the remainder of this class. And I really like the purpose she has in your game. All that info is part of this week's assignment even. Good stuff 
jack07!
Ok so I tweaked it a bit and feel my soul purified for making it look more like a caricature.
No one can accuse you of not exaggerating! Good job challenging your limits and pushing as far as you could with Tamara's facial features. That is after all the primary goal of the homework this week.
While I can see familiarity to Tamara, it does end up looking a little alien; and the absence of hair doesn't help that impression. But I affirm your decision to accentuate the cheekbones and long face. He nose could have used some elongation imo..but overall, I applaud the level of exaggeration you reached!
It's a B+ in my book. Nice job, 
silentheart00 👍
As for the concept art, it seems a little too simplified to me. It looks like the "block out" stage of a character illustration rather than a finished concept. It would likely only take you an hour or so to model fully. I'd recommend something more fully realized. Even a simple character but with more substance like these:
I can totally see the similarity. Too bad you ran out of time and thinking of the hair before starting made me choose a bold person :)
Nice job on your caricature rrichm! I can definitely see resemblance to your friend. The only note I'll give is that the exaggeration appears more subtle than extreme. Maybe 20% exaggeration. I would have liked to see 50% or more exaggeration for the challenge of the exercise. But still, you've certainly accomplished the homework.
It's a B+ in my book - good stuff!
Your character concept choice is a good one 👍
Wow, you really nailed the caricature look of this characture. excellent job!
I nearly forgot about this caricature since it was posted so early - I'm going to count this as your Week 1 homework. And it's quite good! The neck's length is clearly an exaggeration, so in terms of caricature, I'd give it about 20-25% emphasis over the photo. But it's a good sculpture with recognizable features! B+ in my book 👍
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QUESTION:
From Week 2 on we are going to work on our own character.
On my level (which can be seen below). Is it better to work with the own concept, even if it is very rough. Or is it better to search for a character from a "real" artist, which is more refined. I know I have to practice drawing, what I do, but what is better for this class?
Concept1: Drinking Women Concept2:Big man who likes do paint small things Concept3: Simple mining Worker
I love how you captured his expression and likeness! It is hard enough to do that with a pencil and paper. Great work.
I really like how you painted the skin tones. Rendered very nicely. My guess is swayed towards Ms Stewart too.
Thanks for all of the positive feedback! The CG Cookie community is the best. 🍪
