Catnip Wanderer

Finally, I'd be able to finish this challenge, I never thought it would take me a lot of time but since then I started to learn new techniques and a better understanding of the tools I am currently using. It was really fun that my two princesses decided to help me pick a free sound for the video and with my guidance I let them use my mouse so they can pick whatever they think is suited the scene, 11 and 5 years old and I brainstormed the ambiance sound.

It was a really nice journey. I also bonded with my wife as my second eye to ask her if the lighting is okay, and if my color palette is okay, this challenge makes my family bond and laugh together, and my two princesses fought for that facial look since the youngest choose it.

For the organizer and sponsors that plan this challenge thank you so much without this, I would not be able to learn new things. Thank you so much!

For other aspiring artists like me, never give up, it's really hard but it's also rewarding, always be open to criticism, explore new things, and don't be afraid to have mistakes, along this road you will meet a lot of amazing artists and people. Always thrive to become a better person and artist. 

Wish you all the best guys and Good luck! we can do this!

Since I rigged I then decided to create a basic Idle animation on it and create this short video, I also decided to make an animation video because I also created a bunch of moving material in Unreal Engine 5.1, and also with the help of substance designer.

Include a different angle shots

I tried to retain the color value from Substance Painter to Unreal Engine, that way my Unreal Engine and Substance Painter lighting is aligned so I don't lose much of the value settings from Substance Painter.

I chose Unreal Engine for the rendering because I have always wanted to work in real-time.

I'm starting to add elements to the scene like wind gusts, as you can see the previous one doesn't work well with the overall intention so I adjusted and changed it. I created a sphere and cut it behind so the wind didn't look like it was circulating back.

the material for the cloud was simple as it's only using vertex to push the detail outside. and I use fresnel to be able to create different colors from the edge and from the center, I'm still in the experiment if I'm going to proceed with this concept of cloud or change it.

I will try to include a few breakdowns before the final push and this will be my very last update on the work in progress before committing to the final entry I just need to do a few more things. Goodluck to All!

finish with the rigging and pose, then will export it to the unreal engine where I will create all the lighting setup and adjustments in the material if needed, though there's still some texture that needs to be rebaked and add support loops to avoid some jagg in map.

I also overpaint the pose to have a better vision of the ideas that I wanted in the final image.

I started rigging my Catnip, thinking about where to place the bones and weight, manually adjusting the texture in photoshop, and adding extra mesh in some areas like joints. I'm happy with the progress that I've learned a lot and understand some workflow and tools I am using.

Finally able to finish the material, time to setup the working mesh for rigging and posing.

I don't want to make Catnip to be noisy and realistic as I still want to add a bit of stylized but not too much so that is why my material is really simple and I used it for almost all of the elements. I added a simple roughness setup to have nice reflections not too shiny and lastly added curvature on the edges, I didn't purposely overdo this as I don't want her to be an unattended robot but instead crack up a bit and thought of she is well maintained, dust not so much and scratch too. I mostly play on the colors only.

Done with the topology, assigning material IDs, and finally applying the overall color on the piece. My next approach now was to add scratch, wear, and tear to make it more alive and presentable. I wanted to add a lot of things, but  I will try to add some elements for the remaining time frame. hopefully.

I demonstrate my material creation in Substance Designer. It was not that good I think as I'm not really into recording XD but I will try better next time.

Most of my update was toward the leg part because I feel it was a bit empty and thin cylinders, I added a skirt because she was a girl, a school wanderer to be precise. 
The purpose of the catnip was to provide her with food/fuel while she sent water back to the capsule soil.
Change the headphone a bit.
Change the legs and feet to be like sneakers and long socks.

My plan for the next update was to add further detail and proceed to retopology and texturing.

Added some basic catnip plants on the back, and some roots, and adjusted the water pipeline.

Notes that some parts are still just a placeholder like the tail and I am still considering changing the placement of the yarn ball. The tail will be model straight so I can easily rig it. 

1. I adjusted the design base on the note that I added
2. Increasing the scale of the hands
3. Below the knee I remove the sharp "V" as I want it to be curvy and round
4. Adjusted the shoulder sleeves to be not parallel on the sides
5. Instead of adding 3 cylindrical drains, I put 2 and scale them up.

The plan was to retain the volume as I can when creating the high poly and sculpting as the direction of it was already determined when sending it to the sculpting process.

After the block-out was done I tried to look into the area where should I add further adjustments, details, or changes. I find this method very effective when dealing with the concept and reviewing your own work.

I started to block out the shapes, adding some minor details and used the images from my reference to add some accessories. While I was working my daughter decided to sit beside me and start criticizing me XD, even though I did not follow her drawing, she accept it because we wanted the concept to be adorable, she criticize me the most in the ear part, cute must have no spiky things she said :D

I asked my daughter a favor to make me a cute robot, and she decided to make a cat robot as she loves all of our cats.

I gathered some references with some information that I wanted to add to the current concept and add a note of how I will use them in my work.