The Art of The Wolves Within Characters

Recently I have revisited the document for Wolves characters and am posting here a test template before going to order printed copies. I hope the new cover works, also the content itself.. I'm publishing the work I've done solely on characters in ‘The Wolves Within’ Project.
Rereading it lead to correcting some errors in the text. Hope you'll find it neat and engaging

The Art of the Wolves Within by J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

Evil Wolf's 3D Concept

the same routine follows again: I bring  3d render of evil wolf and a maquet environment to photoshop and play with things there to make some nice visual representation. Hopefully the "infinite" space is clearly drawn where  his "steam" goes.

 The Progress :

 I have developed the environment  in relatively good detail, but then had to take it back to bring up some theatrical lighting. Possibly these concepts can serve for our animation lighting ideas.

And that would be it from my side :] Time for some proper Christmas holidays :] Family finaly comes at my totaly empty student halls :D
Wish you merry Christmas! :]

WW Character Presentation Video

Here is compiled character presentation. I chose to show characters in contrast to each other: how obviously different they are in modeling , texturing approaches, and how the time-lapsed animations also embody that difference. To solve some funny perception issues (they looked like about to sniff each other) I have posed the characters slightly differently and increased the distance between them, Hopefully that does it. As for soundtrack, I Used Dave Keefe's earlier soundscape tests.

Wolves Sliding Jump Animation

Sliding jump animations for both of the wolves have reached a decent stage. With these animations I was trying to emphasize the gracefulness and lightness of the good wolf. He jumps high in the air and lands dynamically. For the evil wolf I was emphasizing his heavy mass and an ice-like materiality. Therefore, as he lands down, there is a notable sliding and anticipatory crouching.

Trotting and Jumping Quadruped Animation

Here is another video of refined evil wolf run cycle. I've referenced oxes this time too so to add the heavyness in the run cycle. Also, for the good wolf I'm working on jump and flying animation

Wolves Run Cycle Animation

The animated sequence presents both wolves trotting. I’ve laid out the base animation which will be pulled for scenes. The second pass of animation will be done once they are put within the environment and the particular situation. The key achievement in these sequences are the proper use of the animation handles so there is no twitching anymore. Also and again, Muybridge’s photo sequence of dog run cycles were invaluable reference source.

Evil Wolf's Texturing

Much like for the doll's texturing I've used mental ray shaders, colour pass and ambient occlusion bake-in. The Bump map was applied only for the face (Nose and around the eyes) oppositely to the initial idea to make it scratchy and worn. I've figured that a deity type of character perhaps wouldn't be physically "damaged" as it is more of a spiritual embodiment.

Development of WW: Character Rigging and Texturing

This week main focus was to finish rigs for both of the characters. The soft modification in the good wolf required some fixing, because some parts were collapsing as he is doing general moves. This was solved creating pose deformers.A very useful technique as I found it and am glad we were taught how to use it in our maya classes .

 For the evil wolf , his shield-like structure was asking for a disparate type of movement for his parts. I have created a pre-set animation for all 4 of his legs, so as they move an illusion of the separate muscles moving is suggested.

 The other part of the focus now is the texturing. Here is the doll’s colour pass finished.

 

I also used ambient occlusion bake-in and settings to quickly shape the outlooks. This technique, used for the first time, seems thoroughly useful now.

 

 I have started some developments on the evil wolf’s texture. The tweaked mental ray shader already it has 60 percent of the desired looks, so I’m quite excited what can be done further when all the passes will be solved separately

Scale Relationship and UVs for Evil Wolf

Before going into rigging I wanted to find the scale relationship between the two characters. Making them the same hight, somehow made the evil wolf seem less capable. However, he was already wider and longer than the good wolf. I believe the glowing aura could visually compensate the lack of good wolf's size. I found this scale least conflicting.

Also, and finally, I have the evil wolf's Uvs done. Took longer that expected. But then, he had ..10 times more of details than the previous one.

Week of Modeling

It was of writting dissertation too..

After some while the evil wolf is resolved. It took good two days for body modeling and one for the head. The tricky part was to make it work as armour and as suggestion of body parts, which later have to function.

The good one was modeled last week

If there were lots more time, modeling could go into even finer details. However, I believe Leo's and my ideas for this character in animation should  be  enough. The only question I have at this stage is , does this model need UVs to be layed out? Cause the texture work for metallic ice supposedly will be coming from a more complex maya shader.

Modeling progress:

Also, some fynilising touches to the doll: face, trimming and posing.

youtube converter, limewire