[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.
I enjoyed last weeks assignment so much I went ahead and did Patrick Stewart as well before starting on next weeks. This one was much more difficult to get a likeness and find what to exaggerate. I focused on the flat nostrils, the shape of the bridge of the nose, the smaller squinty eyes, and his somewhat pointy bald head.
Ha! I agree, didn't see the likeness between Ferrell and Perlman before you mentioned it, but this is looking good! Definitely see the Perlman chin.
Maybe in the weekly update to the description we could put a line about "This week's comments start on page 14." @theluthier ?
I'm still working on a very late week one submission. Would anyone care to comment on what they think are some of my distinguishing features?
Other than my eyes being farther apart than the Average Caucasian Male, I'm really struggling to find features to exaggerate.
(Aside from my hair, which, to quote my favorite author Brandon Sanderson is "Slovenly, but not dirty.")
For context, I'm a "year-one Blender hobbyist".
;)
I love that you exaggerated tucking his glasses behind his nostrils. Great job!
Hi Ryan. It's a good start, you've got the roundness keyed in nicely. I'm not seeing a lot of distinguishing features that would be easy to focus on for caricature, but there are a few. You have a slightly crooked smile and prominent, asymmetrical laugh lines. I would try pushing the crookedness and the crease of the laugh lines, and puffing out the cheek bone close in under the eyes. Try starting out with a base head shape that is really exaggerated like the one's in the photo below, probably something with most of the weight on the bottom (this is something I didn't do well on mine).
I'd focus on small eyes with big cheeks, nose and mouth. I think it'll be tough to get both likeness and caricature on this one. Off to a good start though.
Also, did you take one of your references while driving down the highway? Haha
Maybe it's because this is getting a little squished on my phone, but my first thought was John McCain. Either way, looks great!
My phone squishing rearing it's head again... Almost seems like a mashup of Arnold and John Travolta. Great job, though!
Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!
Looks great!
How's this for a story?
Kilyn is a tall, blonde haired half-elf with purple eyes and mocha skin. The daughter of a blacksmith, she never wanted to pursue the same trade as her human mother. Her father is a well known dancer in the village and the surrounding lands. Since her father travels often to perform, Kilyn dances while he is away to better connect with her father during the down times of helping her mother fix farming equipment and militia gear.
Visiting the local library run by her friend Roscoe, Kilyn asked if there were any books on different dance styles. One style spoke to her dream of following her father, a style that blends swordplay, arcane arts, and graceful dancing: Bladesinger. She devoted all available time learning the ways of the Bladesinger, scouring as many books as she could. Despite doing the best she could, she could never quite reach the level of Bladesinger.
One day, there was a call to adventure in the town. An adventure like this would be the perfect chance for Kilyn to bring her dancing to the people and be known just like her father. Maybe she’ll find a Bladesinger to teach her what she was missing, too. Before leaving on the adventure with her friends, her mother gifted Kilyn with an elegant longsword forged in her fires. Her father gifted a beautiful set of blue and purple leathers fit for a dancer. Donning her new equipment, she hugged her parents one last time before venturing forth.
Make it so, number one.
Overall, I'd say that this is a great likeness. Only thing I noticed right off is that Patrick Stewart has a rather pronounced jaw angle back by the ear. More so than many. So not seeing that makes this feel a little off.
Wow... Seems a week went by already and I forgot to do my caricature. Guess I'll have to work on that when I get back home from vacation.
As for my character for the rest of the month, I think I'm going with my old, grizzled medieval knight for my knight and dragon image. I know the pose I want from a previs I did... Have an idea on the basic body type from a reference pack I have. Just need to find the face.
Hey Kent, I watched the beginning of the livestream and was overwhelmed by the kind words about Mr. Seinfeld’s caricature. Your suspicions about the illustrated version were correct; I did that drawing as a “road map” to figure out what features to exaggerate and see what worked. The fact that you saw it and pointed it out was pretty cool. So, I hereby declare the allegations to the possibility of cheating on the caricature... will be taken as a compliment. 😊
Whew - I have some catching up to do in this thread! Real quick, here's a WIP of my John Dunne sculpt:
Today I worked on the head and polished the legs and feet - of course, my affinity for feet... A helpful note perhaps: Don't be afraid to separate your sculpt into multiple pieces. I do this in the Wrangler course as well, but as a reminder, it can make the concept sculpting phase much easier to work with. I separated my feet, head and mask so far.
Also about the head, I decided to sculpt with mirror on (correcting the separated head's orientations) to get the human facial features correct. Now that I've done that I'll sculpt the separated mask object according to the art.
I can already see some John Dunne in there :3.
I'll only have time to start my sculpture tomorrow, but until now i've been developing the story. I'm kind of struggling to make a short and yet appealing story that captures the most of the features in the concept art! I really want to make my very best to get at leat a B+ :3
I'm still confused as to how you will bring it all back together to retopologize, etc. to get the character in an A (Or T) Pose. How do you plan to do that?
Starting to take form. It's pretty cool to see how the pose has evolved when the starting point was (of course) so weird and awkward. Can't wait to see this finished and ps. the shoes look pretty neat