500730 - 3D Character Design

:: Pre Production ::

The character of ‘Isepia’ in the books is a rather basic design, simply a woman’s figure with wings and clawed hands. However I imagine this design would not transfer to 3D particularly well. I think that following this description would lead to a character that wouldn’t capture the monstrous design I want to create. Instead seemingly seeming as though I had taken a woman shape and stuck on bird parts.

The plan is to create a monstrous character for adult audiences. As a part of this I want to give the character the feet of a bird as well as the hands of one, however I need to pay particular attention to the transition from human to amphibian anatomy. I want to avoid making it seem like the feet are merely stuck on and so will also need to create a unusual pair of legs to blend into the feet.

I like the texturing shown in REF.1 as I think it would work will with the sickly character I want to make, and I like the armoured style of a hawk’s feet (REF.2) to make the character seem dangerous. So, these are both elements I would like to incorporate into my design.

  • Ref. 1
  • Ref. 2
  • Ref. 3
  • Ref. 4

For the legs I looked to alien characters in the ‘Mass Effect’ game series, (BIOWARE,2007). I found inspiration from these character designs plentiful as many of the species in the game have lore backgrounds where they evolved from amphibians and so blend avian features with the figure of a human quite well. I think a blend of the ‘Turian’ leg design (fourth from left {REF.4}), blended with the ‘Salarian’ leg design (right side figure. {REF.4}) would work nicely, specifically the spike from the ‘Turian’ and the backwards knee from the ‘Salarian’.

This is my 2d sketch, showing things like the colours and tones for the avian foot and showing how the leg, with the sickly grey skin I intend to use blends into the cool blue of the foot around the knee. I started by combining the parts I liked from the ‘Mass Effect’ leg references I liked (BIOWARE,2007). Which I could then emulate in my sketch.

I think this shape will be alien enough to help my character appear monstrous while still retaining a human look. Especially when combined with the more human torso and arms. Plus, I think this drawing shows in more detail how I intend to blend the human and avian elements of my character together. Also it shows the cool colour pallet I intend to use for these body parts.  

:: Production ::

as with the other body parts, I began with the Maya block out I had made previously (Fig.1). Just as with the arms of the character, there wasn’t much to do other than fix some of the damaged topology from the Boolean in Maya. There was a lot of strange topology around where the toes connect with the foot (Fig.2). I also added the same ridged pattern along the toes as I did with the fingers before (Fig.3).

  • Fig.1
  • Fig.2
  • Fig.3
  • Fig.4
  • Fig.5

Next, I carved out the bottom of the nails, to add a layer of realism to the part of the model (Fig.4) before fixing the topology around the knee horns and drawing with the clay build-up brush to give the impression of protruding bone (Fig.5)

With the individual body parts modelled, my next step was to merge the different subtools into one. Which would be needed for exporting the character and animating the character next semester. You can find the next steps of my process in my ‘Full Body’ post.

:: References ::

Burroughs, D (2021). [BirdSupplies.com]. ‘WHY IS MY BIRD BITING IT’S FEET?‘. [Online Article]. Available online: https://birdsupplies.com/blogs/news/141050567-why-is-my-parrot-biting-its-feet [Accessed 21/10/21]

Bioware INC. (2007). ‘Mass Effect’. [Video Game] (Electronic Arts). Available online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17460/Mass_Effect_2007/ [Accessed 21/10/21]

Clip Art ETC (n.d.). [Online Image]. ‘The Raptorial Foot of a Hawk’. Available online: https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/72600/72661/72661_hawkfoot.htm [Accessed 21/10/21]

(n.a.) [Online Image]. Available online: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/1l-7FeIpYl_tFOt8Mu4xidunLXdlan16eZ9hOInK7Ch9ZeycA3TToONFKju4OEeYjoS3muTGuWRR1v6RgR01OWTxiZCKnP5vMCk9KhcNdUP8qO52CTTca9CQu8FjF-2w [Accessed 21/10/21]

u/CoffeeSlutt (2018). r/masseffect. ‘Was there a reason behind most of the aliens being digitigrade or was it just laziness and lack of new design ideas?’ [Reddit Post]. Available online: https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/da4hap/was_there_a_reason_behind_most_of_the_aliens/ [Accessed 21/10/21]