I've recently started looking back at an old project I've been wanting to make for a long time. Up until now, I hadn't really had the tech, nor some of the skills, to make it happen the way I would like. But having a refreshed outlook on things, and with some refreshed skills from my studies earlier this year, I've decided to try and reinvigorate myself to make this one happen.
The project is meant to be a silly animation of a character I've had for a long time. I wanted to use motion capture with him, but didn't have the means to do that when I first created him. So, I left him sitting in the wings, waiting for the right moment.
It's hard to know when the right moment really is, but I do think now is a good time to start exploring it again. I have a few things to solve - the two biggest being how can I animate the character and how can I shoot the footage for it.
Now, I may have a solution to the animation, albeit a fairly naive one. But it might be better than nothing.
The filming however, will be trickier. I want to film in a national park, but you're not allowed to without a licence or approval from the trust etc etc. It's pretty stupid really - can't even film in our own backyard. But anyway, not sure how I can solve this one yet, though I do have some ideas.
While I try to figure out the filming side of it, I can still do some 3D modelling and prep work for it. I already have a base mesh for the character, he's been UV'd and rigged. I also modelled an eye for him, which you can see below.
The eye has been loosely based off how a real eye is. It's not just a texture slapped onto a sphere. The iris, the eye white and the clear coating are all separate models. These have been further textured and displacement to get the result you see above. It's still not completely correct, but for my needs and for now, the eye looks quite OK.
The question is - who does the eye belong to? Hopefully I can unravel more of that soon.