Minor Project: Mr Polo Modelling Progress

Fig: Mr Polo Head Model 1

Fig 2: Mr Polo Head Model 2

Fig 3: Mr Polo Body Model

The head needs some more finessing to get Mr Polo's brows and eyes sorted, I haven't quite figured out whether or not to model the hints of a mouth he has on the sides of his head or leave it for texturing, so that is also another thing on the list of things to do.

Bodywise, Mr Polo's is rather simple in comparison to the other two bogeyman due to it primarily being his coat. His feet are my main concern as I want to make sure that they aren't obscured by the coat to allow for a clean rig, so i might lift up the coat as to avoid the overlap shown in the orthographs, allowing the entire shoe from the side to be shown. If that doesn't work i might also have to consider increasing the size of the base to allow for clear back and forth movements to be shown.

Minor Project:O'Barney Orthographs

Fig 1: Final Design for O'Barney

Fig 2: O'Barney Body Orthographs

Fig 3:O'Barney Head Orthographs 

From the feedback I received on the previous post, this is the final result for O'Barney. In the orthographs for the head I included an unhooded O'Barney to help in understand how the hood of his raincoat would Rest on his head.

Minor project: O'Barney Continuing Design

Fig 1: Continuing Designs for O'Barney by Exploring Body Types

Here are some more concepts for O'Barney, coming off from the Interim Crit where admittedly he was my least thought out design of the three bogeymen characters I went and re-evaluated his design and played with some body types, as well as some raincoat and macintosh designs from around the 1980's which is the time when Matthew, the person I got the description of O'Barney, would of been a child. While i liked the idea of him having a blank stare I felt like that restricted the character a little so while I kept the round eyes I made him look more angry and threatening.

Minor Project: Mr Plimsoll Modelling and Updated Orthographs

Fig 1: Model Before the Addition to the Orthographs

As I was in the process of modelling the head for the character of Mr Plimsolls I ran into some issues as to how to model the top of his head as I didn't feature it in my orthographs, having him wear his hat instead. This cause me some problems in understanding the head and where to put vertices so I went back and updated the orthographs to show potentially how the head would look under the hat.

Fig 2: An Update to the Orthograph

The addition is pretty basic but because I don't plan on showing the character without his hat I thought that keeping it simple was the way to go. Also I realise that the character also doesn't have a well rounded back to his skull, it lands a little short of the mark, this seems to be a common mistake I do as it also happened in the previous project I did in regards to 3D modelling and it is something that I would have to work on in future.

Fig 3: Model After the Addition to the Orthograph

 Overall I feel like the addition I made to the orthographs helped in increasing my understanding of the character in a 3D space, it does feel better having an idea of where the skull could be laid out under the hat rather then guessing. There are some things about this model that I am nervous about, like the protruding cheeks, the nose and the mouth, I feel more confident and positive in going about it.

Minor Project: Mr Polo Final Design and Orthographs

Fig 1: Finalised Design for Mr Polo

Fig 2: Head Orthographs

Fig 3: Body Orthographs

Fig 4: Additional notes for Mr Polo's Scarf

This is my finalised design for the character of Mr Polo for my Project. His design is significantly simple in comparison to Mr Plimsoll, he doesn't have visible legs, something that would be a challenge to create in 3D, however due to the description on the character mentioning how he appears to "glide along" I felt like it was a direction suitable to the character. Although, as I go about the modelling process, I might widen the end of his coat slightly just to allow for minor leg motion when it comes to rigging. As well as this I wasn't sure if I should include a mouth on him or not, considering his face is mostly covered with his jumper and scarf I didn't think it would be too necessary to include one. However if I do end up giving him a mouth I would probably add it in 2D as a time saver instead of modelling a mouth that would barely be seen.

My main concerns over modelling this character mainly revolves around how to model his eyes and the process of making his scarf despite the fact that I was able to make one in my previous project.

Minor Project: Mr Plimsoll Final Design and Orthographs

Fig 1: Finalise Design for Mr Plimsoll

Fig 2: Body Orthographs

Fig 3: Head Orthographs

Minor Project: Interim Crit Presentation

Presentation: Minor Project by Katie Lima on Scribd

Minor Project: Mr Polo Continuing Design

Fig 1: The Two Designs that were most popular from the Second Character Concept Post

From the feedback provided for my previous post about Mr Polo, these two designs were the most popular, however I got feedback in that while these two concepts are the most successful in understanding the description given for him, they still weren't that creepy or monstrous. 

From being giving this feedback I went back and looked at how could I make this character look scary while keeping the round features that were key to the character. I looked at some Popeye the Sailor cartoons featuring the character Wimpy, one of my influences for this character and found that in the short movie "Shiver Me Timbers" that Wimpy's eyes open when scared which is in some way a bit disturbing. How skeletons and ghosts are portrayed in 1930's cartoons also picked my fancy due to how the "eyes" on those characters appear to be empty by how they apply black to the circle of the eye, similar to shading the end of a cylinder at a 3/4 view. 

Fig 2: Characters that helped influence the creepiness in Mr Polo
(Wimpy from Popeye the Sailor (Image from the animation "Shiver Me Timbers" 1934), Skeleton from the Tom & Jerry animation "Wot a Night", 1931, and a ghost from the game Cuphead)

With these ideas I got to making some designs, based on the 2 original designs from the previous post, and started to mess around with this idea of empty eye sockets and just complete large black eyes in general and seeing how they look with the character. I feel like number 2 I was more happy to play around with his body but I also like number 4 for the fact that only certain expressions would show that concept off however my only concern would be about how expression would he be to allow him to show emotions like surprise or anger to allow for his eyes to show fully? 

Fig 3: Continuation of the Designs including Addition Notations

Minor Project: Mr Polo Character Concept 2

Fig 1: Mr Polo Character Concepts

I went over my designs for Mr Polo from the previous post and attempted to incorporated clothing to his design. Based on his description on being wrapped up in wool and the part of how he seemed to glide instead of walk, I experimented with some ideas that would incorporate those features. I still think that he needs more work to be creepy but I feel like number 3 and 8 are more on the way to be creepy. While 6, suits the style a little better then the others but he doesn't entirely suit the characteristic I was given. However I feel as though his body shape is one that I would like to explore further upon.

Minor Project: Mr Polo Character Concept- Body Types

I'm still in the process of thinking about what clothes to give Mr Polo, so here are a series of concepts depicting different body types. I think that in the final design his feet wouldn't be shown, to help in visualizing the idea of how he looked like he glided along instead of actually walked, however feet have been drawn here to help in understanding what body shape feel more suited to his character. It was hard making him look monstrous as he was described as being round and baby-like but I feel as though I made some progress in capturing some sense of creepiness from some of the facial expressions in some of the design concepts.

Minor Project: O'Barney Character Concept

Fig 1: O'Barney Character Concepts

For O' Barney I want to go for a large character with a big upper half and and smaller lower half. While I feel as though I have achieved what I was going for, I think that I could of worked on more diversity on the types of body to prevent it from looking samey. However I think that facial expression wise I think that I have been able to achieve different looks in most of the designs, each showing different personalities related to the description given to me of O'Barney's character.

Minor Project: Character Concepts- Mr Plimsoll 2

Fig 1: Mr Plimsoll's Concept Art

In response to the feedback I was given in my earlier Mr Plimsoll's concept art post, I went over the design for Mr Plimsoll, the main goal in making him look sinister which was something That I lacked in the older post. I also played around with one body in the other post of him having a hunched back and played with how extreme I could get it to be. I feel like my knowledge of the period of animation style that I am trying to go for has improved from the past post and I think that I have a better understanding of how far you can take characters when drawing in this style.

Minor Project: Character Influences

Here are three influence maps for the three bogeymen that I would like to focus on for this project:

Fig 1: Mr Plimsoll's Influence Map

For Mr. Plimsoll I first looked at examples of old men in 1930's cartoon, such as the titular character from the Betty Boop animated short "The Old Man of the Mountain" and Miser from "Little Dutch Mill". From there I looked at examples of both old men and long legs from other sources. As one of the key features of Mr. Plimsoll is his long legs and large feet I look at birds such as cranes and the shoebill stork. This was because they have the delicate long legs that look creepy as well as the ratio of body to leg is what I am trying to achieve with the character. As well as this I looked at snapping turtles as well for the way they extend there neck is similar to a person with a hunched back, which fits into the description I was given about Mr Plimsolls. In general what I was looking for as influence for this character was a lanky build,  which is why characters like Olive Oyl and Jack Skellington as examples, as well as old characters or extreme facial expressions that fit with who Mr Plimsolls is as a Bogeyman character.

Fig 2: O'Barney's Influence Map

O'Barney's influences are mainly revolving around large characters with big torsos and small legs. As the one thing I got from his story was the fact that he was violent and did a number of violent acts such as punch through a front door i felt that it was appropriate to assume that his arms would be big, like a gorilla. There are quite a lot of examples of large characters present in early cartoons including Pete from "Steam Boat Willie", Fearless Fred from the Betty Boop series of animations, Bluto from the Popeye series and others. I didn't so rely on other sources for O'Barney due to the this type of character being rather prevalent in this period of animation however I did have a look into later examples such as the genie boss, Dijimmi the Great, and the pirate boss, Captain Brineybeard from the 2017 game Cuphead, a game that is heavily influence by this style of animation. As well as that example I also looked at big animals such as bears and gorilla for influence on how to exaggerate O'Barney's features.  

Fig 3: Mr Polo's Influence Map

The Influences for Mr Polo mainly revolved around him looking round and soft like a baby despite being an adult. Looking at 1930s cartoons, I was trying to find characters that had a bald circular design, such as Grampy from Betty Boop, The Goon and Wimpy from The Popeye Series of animations, Porky Pig from Looney Tunes was also featured for his circular childish characteristic and also Dr Dekapan from Osomatsu-kun was included for his body shape. Also due to his affiliation with plants in his description I also looked at plants and mushrooms that have a dome like appearance. I looked into aquatic creatures like the blobfish and jellyfish for a similar reason. I also looked at Wooden and China Dolls because I want to give Mr Polo a sense of the uncanny and I feel like Dolls allow for that.

Minor Project: Sketchbook Concepts

Fig 1: Life Drawing Clown

Fig 2: Mr Plimsolls

Fig 3: Mr Plimsolls 2

Fig 4: O' Barney 

Fig 6: Additional Sketches

 Some sketches in my sketchbook for some of the bogeyman characters I am creating, still trying to figure out the 1930's rubberhose style and I've been looking around for individual characters and cartoons to help in influencing the character designs for individual bogeymen.

Maya Tutorial: Atmosphere

Fig 1: Without Atmosphere added

Fig 2: With Atmosphere Added

Because of the addition of Arnold as the standard in Maya 2017 and 2018, the capabilities of producing realistic renders has increased. An example of this is with the Arnold Environment setting in the Arnold Render settings which allows for the addition of atmosphere to interact with lighting in the scene, it is also able to be customised to allow for many uses. Setting an Atmosphere allows for a more realistic render and Arnold has made it easier to enable this addition to the render in comparison to mental ray in older versions.

Maya Tutorial: Arnold Lighting

Fig 1: Arnold Area Lighting

Fig 2: Arnold Mesh Lighting and Area Lighting

Fig 3: Arnold Skydome

Here are some Lighting effects produced by the Arnold Lighting available on Maya 2017. While these types of Lighting were available in the older versions of Maya with the mental ray renderer, Arnold in Maya 2017 allows for more realistic lighting with its options being more in depth in achieving the required lighting for a scene.

Maya Tutorial: Arnold SSS

Fig 1: Default al.standard Material

Fig 2: Shallow Map Added

Fig 2: Mid Map Added

Fig 3: Deep Map Added

This class practice was about applying detailed skin texture using Arnold SSS. Using Arnold made the whole process of applying Shallow, Mid and Depth maps to texture for the model was very efficient in comparison to the previous versions of Maya.

(Model Provided by eat3D)

Minor Project: Bogeymen Descriptions

Mr Plimsolls:

An old man with a bald head, and a hunched back. During Summer he would wear a peaked cap, a white vest top, white to the knee shorts, brown calf high socks and white plimsolls. Lived in a bungalow with an overgrown front garden, with a giant hedge that covered the entire house, hiding it away from view.
The young girl would see him, early in the morning, shuffle up and down the road, stick in one hand and bag in the other. He would pause, waving his stick and shouting out before continuing his pace down the road. One Summer the girl had such bad nightmare of Mr Plimsolls, of him staring and stalking her, that she spent an entire summer trapped indoors from the fear of him getting her.

(Story by Catharine Lima)

Life Drawing Clown:

A life drawing model, who was modelling in front of a class of primary school aged students, dressed as a clown, wore a red puffy wig on his head and face mask that had a overtly smiley face with a red nose. Wore a purple suit coat, with yellow striped pants, a white shirt and a big comedic bow. Looked scary enough to implement a fear of clowns.

(Story by Kav Bala)

O' Barney:

An aggressive neighbour, he was an unshaven, bald, rough looking man who wore a blue duffel coat. Would stare at his neighbour's house from a nearby field. Was also involved in multiple cases of property damage to his neighbour including, slashing tires, smashing his neighbour's front door and almost doing violent act to his neighbour. The son, my cousin, was terrified of the run ins he had with O' Barney.

(Story by Matthew Robinson)

Mr Polo (The Two Brothers):

Two Polish brothers who, to the young boy, looked "impossibly old and undoubtedly weird". One brother was never seen, acting as though he was a shadow, while the other brother, referred to as "Polo"
Polo appearance was similar to a baby's, bald and neckless, bulky build with skin that appeared grey. He was wrapped up in layers and layers of woollen clothing, and was elusive and mysterious. Picking ingredients in his garden like a witch or warlock. Because he looked and acted so different, hidden in mystery, the boy next door felt as though he brought fear and the cold with him even in hot summer days

(Story by Phil Gomm)

Werewolf Dad:

A dad who when asleep sounded so beastly it was like he turned into a werewolf in his sleep. It scared his daughter so much that she would lay in bed as straight as a mummy trying not to move just in case the werewolf came into her room to eat her.

(Story by Deanna Crisbacher)


More Descriptions will be added in due time.

Minor/Major Project: Mr Plimsolls Concept Art

Fig 1: Head Concept for Mr. Plimsolls

Fig 2: Body Concepts for Mr. Plimsolls

Here are some initial head and body concept art for Mr. Plimsolls in the style of the 1930's. I have decided to go down the route of the surreal cartoon style of early animation, influenced by the early Walt Disney and the Fleischer Studio cartoons. I decided upon this style because I like the appeal of the style and there is a lot more to work here then with my other style choice. Because the animation at the time was very experimental, it lead to very bizarre and, in a way, scary cartoon shorts and because of this I feel as though this style would fit with my theme of childhood bogeymen very well.

Feedback on this post would be most welcome.

Minor/Major Project: Bogeyman Research Assistance @Phil

For my project I am doing it about childhood bogeymen, inspired by my mum's childhood neighbor, nicknamed Mr. Plimsoll who scared her as a kid. I would like to gather a collection of various stories, detailing other peoples childhood bogeymen, to create a good archive of character concepts to have a well informed basis to form character designs from. The main things that I would like answered are things like:

• Who were they to you? a neighbor, a family member, a teacher etc.
• What they looked like (detailed description)? 
• What were the things they did that scared you?

To provide some context as to what I am after here is a synopsis of my Mum's bogeyman, Mr.Plimsoll:

Mr. Plimsoll was an elderly old man who lived down the road from my mum's house as a child. He had a bald head, a hunched back and carried a canvas bag in one hand and a walking stick in the other. In summer he would wear a peaked cap, a stained white vest top, white shorts that went to his knees, brown calf length socks and a white pair of his namesake plimsolls.

My Mother and her Brothers would play "Knock Down Ginger" on the door of his bungalow, that had an overgrown garden. The house couldn't be seen from the outside because of a big bush that so thick that it engulfed the bungalow in its foliage.

He would leave the house early at 6:30, walking up and down the street at a ridiculously fast pace for a man his age. As he did so he would chuck his stick in the air yelling as he went. My mum suffered from nightmares about him, having dreams of him staring in at her through the window. He scared her so much that she spent the entire summer holidays one year indoors.

If you are able to provide you own childhood bogeymen please comment on this post with your stories, providing answers to the questions above. It would be a big help for me in gathering research onto this topic and with the creative process as well.

Minor/Major Project: Influence Maps

Fig 1: Examples include: Fleischer Studios Betty Boop, Popeye and Bimbo, Disney Studios Mick Mouse and the Silly Symphonies
As well as these Kingdom Hearts 2's "Timeless River" and Cuphead is also featured as modern examples

Fig 2: The Artists featured includes: Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, Kenshi Yonezu, Mikolaj Cielniak, Henry Patrick Raleigh, Shan Jiang
Game included: Machinarium

Some in depth style influences that I'm still deciding on for my project. I'm leaning more onto the early cartoon style of the 1930s because of its simplicity and surrealism. However I'd like to feature the Illustrative styles of the Victorian and Edwardian times in some way. Maybe as a style shift to make the bogeymen appear more monstrous? At this point I still planning out what i want to do and achieve for the characters and the project as a whole so I shall keep experimenting.

Maya Tutorial: Ambient Occlusion and Wire Frame made with Arnold

Fig 1: Ambient Occlusion on Model

Fig 2: Wireframe on Model

Achieving Ambient Occlusion and Wireframe Renders in Maya 2017 is so much easier to achieve with the renderer Arnold. Instead of going through a long process to get these renders in the old versions of Maya with Mental Ray, with Arnold the process has been greatly simplified.

(Model Provided by eat3D)

Year 3: Minor/Major Project: Stylistic Ideas

As a result of both by Initial Influences and the talk I had with Alan, I have decided on two distinctive style ideas that i would like to have for my project. As my Project is about Childhood Fears around people that can be classed as a "Bogeyman" I want to go down either the root of early animation or a more illustrative style.

Fig 1: An Example of a Rubber Hose Style Character- Minnie Mouse

Rubber Hose Animation started of in the 1920s and was a staple of American animation for good couple of decades. Famous examples of this style of animation includes early Disney work like Steamboat Willie (1928), and The Skeleton Dance (1929) as well as the works by the Fleischer Studios (maker of "Swing you Sinners" 1930 and Betty Boop) as well as Paramount Pictures. The first notable character associated with this new style of animation at the time was Felix the Cat, a character that would spawn a whole series of imitations including Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Bimbo the Dog. A key characteristic of this type of animation is the flexibility and surrealist nature of it. As this was a first time experience for animations, almost every action a character did was exaggerated in a way that could be perceived as accidental.

Fig 2: Example of the Rubber Hose style of Animation

This is one of the styles of Animation that I like the style and it can give very odd and surreal results for my characters. I could focus on the key aspects of the designs for the characters and how to exaggerate their movements in a way that could be scary. There is also that aspect that old cartoons from that era in general has a certain creepy vibe to it just by how chaotic and surreal the animation can be at times and I'd like to achieve something similar.

Fig 3: Illustration by Edward Gorey

The other Style I'd like to go for is a more illustrative style by artists like Edward Gorey, who was an American Writer and Illustrated his works with pen and ink, depicting scenes from Victorian and Edwardian times in a unsettling way. His art style could fit into the category of gothic but there is a certain type of surrealist nature to his illustrations as well that has become a major influence in many artists nowadays, a big example being Director Tim Burton as well as the art direction in the film the Babadook (2014).

Fig 4: Example of the Gothic Illustrative style present in 2014's The Babadook

This is another style that I would like to explore as it as some horror roots to it which, in my opinion, fit the world of Mr. Plimsole very well. The style was commonly used in Victorian and Edwardian children books so there is a connection to the effect it has on child as well. I would have to go into more detail texture wise to achieve the ink on paper technique associated heavily in the style.