The document discusses the process of 3D character animation. It covers the basics of character design including designing proportions, using references, and refining designs. It also discusses modeling characters using techniques like polygon modeling and segmenting characters into parts. The document provides exercises for readers to design their own character and start modeling it using boxes and extruding body parts in 3ds Max software. Rigging and animating characters are also briefly mentioned as later steps in the 3D character animation process.

1. 3D Character3D Character
AnimationAnimation
Character Animation Process
Disediakan oleh:
Noorazzahrawani Binti Abdul Rani (Mei 2013)

2. Character Animation ProcessCharacter Animation Process
1. Basics of Character Design
2. Modeling Characters
3. Texturing Characters
4. Rigging Characters
5. Animating

3. Character Animation ProcessCharacter Animation Process
1. Basics of Character Design
Making choices;
a. Both artistic and technical.
b. To know your character’s personality.
c. Communicate this personality visually.
When designing (artistic aspect);
Size, shape, color, texture, clothing and other
att.
Well-designed character (technical aspect); easy to
animate, making the animator’s job easier and
more creative.
“When you pair a great design with a great
personality, the results can be wonderful.”

4. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
1. Approaching Design as an Artist
2. Design Styles
3. Designing a Character
4. Finalizing Your Design

5. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
1. Approaching Design as an Artist
• The Creative Process
• Technical Considerations
• Using Reference
• Refining Your Design

6. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
The Creative Process
• Always starts with creative inspiration,
then refined and developed into a full
character design.
• … a drawing or sculpture that describes
the character in detail so it can be
modeled digitally in 3D.
• Avoid criticizing your work during the
creative process. Critique is important,
but should happen during revision, not
creation.

7. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
The Creative Process

8. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
The Creative Process
Rough Sketch and Quick DrawRough Sketch and Quick Draw

9. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
The Creative Process
Action PosesAction Poses

10. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Technical Considerations
• As you design, keep technical considerations in mind.
Such;
- specific number of poly
- adding details for realistic look will create additional
work, increasing production budget and extending
schedule.
• A solid understanding of the technical issues involved
in 3D animation is gained through experience.
• Ask a lot of questions of more experienced animators.
• For your own initial projects, it’s best to keep your
designs simple so you don’t get bogged down in
technical problems.
• Example: Simple hair took a few minutes to render.
Clothing can be another big technical challenge.

11. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Using Reference
• Nature or look at other design, art and
film for inspiration.
• If you’re designing a creature, you may
want to take a trip to the zoo to find
animals to use as reference.

12. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Using Reference

13. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Using Reference

14. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design

15. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Once you hit upon a good idea, refine it into conceptual art,
which then needs to be refined further into a final
character design.
Redraw the character
many times before it
works for the production.
This is also the point
where you need to ask
Whether the design is
feasible in terms of budget and
Technical requirements.
Refining Your Design

16. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Refining Your Design

17. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design

18. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
2. Design Styles
• Realistic Characters
- … more difficult it will be to animate.
- Audience will pick up on anything even
slightly “off” about a realistic human character.
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
• Stylized Characters
- Designs caricature reality
- Avoids some of the problems involved with
realism. If a character doesn’t look completely
photorealistic, the audience will be more
willing to accept unrealistic movement and expression.
(Example: Anime and Local Style)

19. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
2. Design Styles
- A lot of anime/manga has a standardized style of drawing
based around simple lines with very little detail. If you
pursue
this type of illustration you should practise conveying ideas
with minimum of pencil work, restricted to clear outlines.
Even the shading, added at the colour stage, should be
simple.

20. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
3. Designing a Character
• Head and Body Proportions
• Faces
• Hands
• Segmenting Characters
- Mesh deformation is always a little
problematic and can be resource-
intensive, so sometimes breaking your
character into manageable parts can
simplify the rigging and animation
process.

21. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
3. Designing a Character
- When creating alien creatures it is important to
establish a sense of scale. The most effective
method is to place them next to one of the principal
characters. Simple sketches will be sufficient to act
as a reminder.
- Once the ideas are down on paper, the details have
to be worked on. Drawings should be made from as
many angles as possible, with a minimum of front
and profile views.
- Draw lots of expression that are appropriate for the
character.

22. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
3. Designing a Character
2D Model Sheet
-Model sheet shows the character from different angles to show his proportion.
-Exaggeration, both under-and over-, is a standard method used by
cartoonists and animators to add personality to their creations.
-Turnaround was especially useful when the character was converted to 3D.
-Side views are important in creating a clear impression of the character’s
appearance.
BackBack FrontFront Side/ProfileSide/Profile

23. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
4. Finalizing Your Design
• When creating drawings for modeling, you need
to make sure they don’t cheat and are accurate
to 3D. If not, translating that to 3D can be
difficult.
• To model, need at least two orthographic
views: side and front, can be created using
drawings, sculptures or photographs.
• Side and front views of a character must line up
precisely once they’re scanned into the pc.
• Top and back views can also be helpful for
some characters.

24. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
4. Finalizing Your Design
LeftLeft FrontFront
LegLeg
DetailsDetails
HandHand
DetailsDetails
Pose (Turnaround)Pose (Turnaround)

25. Basics of Character DesignBasics of Character Design
Exercise 1
In this exercise, you get to design a simple character.
Take a pencil and paper, and sketch out some character
designs that you might want to model. These designs
should focus on the outward appearance of the character
and its proportions, and whether the character is small,
large, skinny, fat and so on.
Once you have a number of designs, look carefully at
each character and think of how it might be constructed in
your chosen software. Since you are just getting started,
these issues may not be readily apparent. Your design may
change as you learn more about how to build characters.
Find a design that you like, and create a set of technical
drawings or photographs to get your character ready for
the modeling process.
* Sketch final design of your character in the model sheet

26. Modeling CharactersModeling Characters
1. Construct the Character using; surface
types:
• Polygon modelling
• Plane modelling
• Edgeloops modelling technique
2. Creating Characters
• Anatomy
• Flexibility
• Facial Modeling
• Final Assembly

28. 3. Segmenting character
Many characters are built using a single
mesh. Although this is natural way to create
a character, it forces you to deform every
part of the mesh when you animate the
character.

29. 3. Segmenting character
Mesh deformation is always a little problematic
and can be resource-intensive, so sometimes
breaking your character into manageable parts
can simplify the rigging and animation process.
It’s very easy to design collars, clothing, and
other accessories to help hide seams for your
characters.

30. 3. Segmenting character

31. 3. Segmenting character

32. 3. Segmenting character
Some characters are designed from the
ground up as segmented characters. A
character such as a robot would actually be
built with body parts as individual objects and
might not even need mesh deformation at the
joints. This makes the setup and rigging of the
character very straightforward.

33. Exercise 2:
In this exercise, you can start modeling using box. Box
suggested height is 3 segments, width is 3 segments
and length is 3 segments. Convert the box into
editablePoly object. Apply modifier Symmetry to have
other half of the box is being affected when you model
the other half.
Then you can proceed by extruding hand, leg and head
using Extrude, Cut, Connect and Weld tools. As you
model the human body (by extruding, cutting,
connecting and welding), making sure all horizontal and
vertical edges are straight. Add more edgeloops around
maximum deformation area of the body or to get details
of the body parts. * For head, you can model it as a separated part then
attach it to the body or extrude from the body.
After that, you can apply modifier turbosmooth to see
the human body mesh become smooth to get the best
form of human body.

34. Poly ModelingPoly Modeling
Objects and Sub-Objects:

35. EditablePoly in 3ds Max

36. Cloth ModellingCloth Modelling

37. ReferencesReferences
Maestri, G. Digital Character Animation 3. 2006,
New Riders. Berkeley.
Patmore, C. Character Design Studio. 2005, Page
One Publishing Private Limited. Singapore.