[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.
No worries on being late. I'm planning on keeping a pulse on this thread through the first week in April. Sorry to hear about 70 hr weeks...yikes.
What a great, descriptive backstory. I like your interpretation of the vulture growing out of his chest. Interestingly it's like you're sculpting and texturing at the same time - is that what you're doing?
Did you have any concept art for this character or are you making it up as you go based on the novel?
Oh now I want that Gandalf, it looks so cool. I'm sorry wallet, you're gonna have to take a hit.
Those are some goals right there. I remeber this one coming by on Pinterest and being amazed by it.
I'm interested in reading that book now. Thanks!
Did I read that right, that you plucked Piero's feathers to make that mask? Poor little fella.
@theluthier I'm just now catching this week's class. (Work kept me away from the live-stream.) I'm honored you mentioned Bob! Thank you!
This inspiration is not late, nor is it early, it arrived precisely when it meant to. Awesome beard! @theluthier I think John Dunne needs a wizardly satchel like this one.
Sketchfab didn't show any shader. Do they support the principal shader? I paintet the base colors, but i still have to do many little model parts like Buttens, pockets and the Hands. Again. And if you move out of camera view the hole pose starts to look wrong. :)
If that noisy chainsaw is connected to her ears, they're going to blow as soon as she turns it on!
Homework Submission Week 4 part 1
Here is my version of the texture painted axercise. I had fun using the techniques in video to create the dings and divots of the metal axe head. I was inspired by reference images of axe handles to add the look of carved celtic knot-work to my rendition.
Now I need to get Mr. UV uv unwrapped and painted.
Coming along. Need to add the last couple armor pieces and I'll be done with week 2!
Nothing's perfect, but hopefully the retopo will yield better results.
LOVE the unique, detailed take on the axercise ullreym! Super cool metal surface quality and celtic handle design. A++ in my book 🤘
That dress/skirt is looking very believable. Did you simulate it?
And her design is interesting in how overly long her legs are. Reminds me a little of the Bayonetta game character. Good work silentheart00, keep it up!
Thanks @theluthier and mmalhomsi !
This class format has really inspired my creativity and made a way to connect with other artists that continues to motivate. With this gift of art we give "life" to these dead pixels and "call into existence the things that do not exist." It is truly an amazing thing.
Yesterday had the chance to watch through the last recorded event as only to the beginning of the live one was able to join, where there was some discussion regarding the topics of:
- Linear classes vs. Random classes
- 4 week classes vs. 5 week classes
and as a Volunteer Assistant for documenting homework grades just thought that maybe it is worth the visualize the experiences of the first two classes.
Basically let's allow two charts to speak:
On the first one you can see that both classes had great participation, however inspite of some covering topics which would associate the point of the linear classes, only just 7 members participated in both ones.
That might have the following conclusions:
1) Blender is hard :-)
2) CG is so complex that people who intend to learn are specialized on particular areas
3) Life happens - simply like that, in one month having time and no chance in another one
The second chart is also interesting, showing that less percent of the members are able to post homework on as the weeks are going. (the Week4 for the actual class of course is not representative, as Kent is waiting for minimum 12 submissions there :-) )
Briefly the statistics seem confirming rather the choice of random classes and having one class on 4 weeks looks as a good balance
Oh man! Do you use mouse or pen + tablet? Whichever you use, you are really skilled with it ha!
How can I get you to voluntarily assist me for every Class I do? 😍
These stats are so great! I just don't have the gumption or know-how to visualize the data like this. Very interesting to see. Thank you csehz 🙇🏻♂️🙇🏻♂️
