the YuK0n saga

Howdy!
 I am finally done with this semester and ready to start filling up this place with JUNK
OK so
I thought it would be fun to show the entire process behind one of my designs. This was the evolution of my first 3D creation from sketch to finish. This is something i wanted to do with this guy for some time now, but also with other 3d characters i have lying around (and those that havent been made yet!). the problem is I have all of that information scattered across different computers and usb ports, so until I fully clean up and organize all of my files, some of these posts might take a bit longer to show up

Today im showing you the development behind my coward robot character, Yuk0n. Created over the course of 4 months (yeah that sounds about right)  at school....

The character started off as a sketchbook doodle for an assignment in which we were asked to create a mechanical device that could dig in or manipulate dirt. Above you can see the scanned page next to some rejected designs....

I liked the design but  i tried to change certain design elements to make him look less threatening, Even so, i preferred the original design, i just think its cute that a short, self preservating character has so many spikes/ pointy edges. This goes against every character design rule in the book but I believe there is something really cool about characters whose phisical appearance and personality evoke different emotions. With yuk0n i think you can still "feel" hes not so threatening because of his big (camera)eye.

Whenever you are creating robot characters (any character, really) I think it is essential to ask myself where these robots work, who would take care of them (because people like to customize equipment, so this lil guy would be no exception). These color thumbs are an example of what im trying to illustrate.

Due to the nature of the character it was important for me to think more deeply about the mechanics of this robot. I ended up creating some blueprints out of more concrete ideas.

After this stage of conceptualizing and thinking, it was time to begin modeling... this is where doing so many sketches proved to be most helpful

Unwrapping and texturing characters has become one of my favorite things about creating 3d art, but learning to do it with this guy was paaaaainful. still i think it paid off in the end:D

I moved on to rigging and animating the character, but the limited time near the end of the semester only allowed me to create this short test.... (im also not in love with the timing in this, but at least it sells the idea)

I have plans to do more dynamic animations with this model in the near future. aaaaaaand thats all I have to show you for the day folks. thanks for visiting!

Expect a similar character development post in the near future. Paz!

-C. Ortega