[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.
Count me in! Just ordered a XP Pen Artist pen display, very eager to get into some sculpting.
Actually watching the pre-recorded course Art of Sculpting: Caricature Chapter, could I please ask a short one?
When Kent you make the eyelids and in Blender 2.69 placing the 'Collapse Short Edges' flag (at 20:02) - in version 2.79 is that equivalent with Subdivide Collapse or Collapse Edges or Subdivide Edges?
Got it tonight, it's my first pen display. So far I like the build quality and feel of it. I could never get the hang of just using a pad and relying on a mouse was the worst. Doodling around in zbrush feels so much more natural. For a sub - $400 piece of kit, I think it is going to be pretty great.
csehz The older "collapse short edges" is the equivalent of modern "subdivide collapse"
I know enough to know I would just hold the class back. That said, I really look forward to seeing what comes out of this case.
I would give it a bash to see how you get on.
Im in the same boat pretty much. I've never touched sculpting or any of the character or retopology before having a shot at the melvin sculpt and going through the listed prerecorded lectures to watch.
I might be punching above my weight too, but i have enjoyed watching and working through the content listed that ive worked through so far :) learned heaps even from a beginners perspective like mine. My thoughts were " I'll give it a go as everyones gotta start somewhere. Worst that can happen is ill have to rewatch a few times and practice more"
I don't see a formal place to RSVP, so commenting here. Looking forward to the class!
Hi Ryan,
if you go to the Events item on the left menu, it will list all the upcoming and previous events.
looking at the March lineup, clicking on an event will take you to its page where theres an RSVP button on the screen in the middle that has the countdown timer on it.
https://cgcookie.com/live_streams/bc2-1803-week-1-understanding-character-stylization
Yea its going to be interesting, least i can hopefully make it this time around.
One day I expect to have a more formal class system with a dedicated class page/corner of the website. For now it's more of an honor system, but yes, RSVPing to the scheduled March events is the most official way for now. Being present and active in this thread - like commenting here 👌 - is the next best way.
I'm looking forward to having you in class stonewing! And thanks for the assist oboshape 🙇🏻♂️
Even though school is keeping me pretty busy, I'll do my best to make it in March! I have class during the livestreams, but I assume I can watch the recordings after the fact.
Tried a character. But why my viewport in blender became so slow?
Can't do any fine tuning?
How long do you expect each live-class to last? Can I fit it into a lunch break? ;)
Just a week to go - getting hyped!
I've been getting used to my new tablet. I've never had one before and I wanted to get used to using it before the class gets underway; so I rewatched the Digital Sculpting course and did the Melvin exercise again with the pen. Now I'm as comfortable with it as I am with the mouse, so looking forward to using it for the class.
Question: in week 1's homework, there's two assignments - a caricature bust and some concept art. Just to be sure - is the concept art supposed to be of the subject of that caricature sculpt, or of the character we plan to make over the course of the month?