Tiny Tinny

Well, here it is! My final render - let's call it - Tiny Tinny's first day at school.

Overall I'm happy with it - I especially enjoyed playing with the metal textures in Substance Painter for the helmet and lower torso. I learnt a hell of a lot and am excited to start texturing more projects in Substance!

I've spent the last few nights working on different iterations in Substance Painter. At first I was having lots of fun with "ultra realism" style metal textures. It was fun, but didn't feel right for this concept and it was a bit messy:

Next I worked on something a bit more cartoony - using a pastel colour palette with simpler textures that were more matte. I like the idea of it, but it still felt too busy:

Then I couldn't shake this feeling I had that I just really liked the vibe from the simple white WIP render that I posted a few posts down. Obviously I don't want it to be an untextured, fully white model, but something about it I think just works. So now I'm aiming for something a bit more simple and restrained - something along the lines of this:

Looking at this last image with fresh eyes, I think I'll modify the "diaper" / hips kind of section with a different colour, then I might have to call it a day!

I've had a heap of fun working in Adobe Substance Painter for the first time! It took me a long time to get my model to import correctly from Blender - I used the video below which was a great help!

So I've made some good progress the last few nights, just dumping it all here in one go!

Revision 01
So after my first models which, to my eyes, looked like an odd potato with antennas poking out, I modified the head shape to give it a bit more expression. Whilst it kind of looks like an old man's head, it still has a cute form so I like it. I also tried to get the arms and legs to resemble a baby's arms and legs - those little rolls of fat are super cute. Also have the kind of nappy / diaper idea visible in the bottom part of the torso.

Revision 02
The second revision I worked on was amending the head shape a little more, as well as beginning to slightly tweak the body to make it more pear-like. I envisage that the eyes / brows / mouth will form in more detail later in the process. Not a whole heap of progress here, and I don't like that he kind of looks worried / concerned now.

Revision 03
Well, then things got really weird. I was just playing around with the head shape and it kind of turned into this duck looking thing. At first I thought maybe it was a vibe ... then I came to my senses and realised it was the stuff of nightmares. Given I've been working on this late at night, who knows what kind of whacky dreams freaky duck robot gave me. So I quickly moved on!

Revision 04
I made the most progress here. I turned the face into a screen, with the eyes still protruding physically. Refined the body shape more, and then added the arm of a "parent" robot, as if little Tiny Tinny is off to his first day of robot school or something to that effect. Created a basic camera and lighting setup and hey presto! Feeling good about the direction this is heading in.

Revision 05
This revision was really about adding in some of the details I've been alluding to in earlier posts. I gave him a little backpack, and also added suspenders, because I feel like suspenders are cute.

The helmet was a bit of an accident when I made an old "head" layer visible that kind of enclosed the current head shape. It immediately felt like a helmet, and something about it just felt cute. Kind of like a kid wearing an Iron Man helmet or similar. So I kept it! Happy with where this is at (or more honestly, very conscious that time is running out) so moving on to texturing in Substance Painter!

Here are some screenshots of my Tiny Tinny in early development. I've realised that in leaning towards a child / infant, that this should guide everything. Perhaps I'll put on a little school backpack. I was inspired that the bottom section of the body could protrude out slightly to give the feel of a nappy. Small things!

I started my initial rough sketches with a kind of strong, “muscular” looking bot. As terrible as this sketch is, I wanted to start with a rough idea of what a “non-cute” robot might look like, so that I could work in the opposite direction.

This quickly led to the second iteration, which is a much smaller looking robot, with big happy goggly eyes and much more infantile looking features.

My main thoughts around "cuteness" is that it kind of arises due to a person or thing's limitations, especially when compared to a more ideal version of the same person or thing. For example: babies are super cute - I have one sleeping near my bed right now. It's hard to pin point exactly what makes them so cute. You notice a lot of cute features such as big staring eyes, rolls of skin on their arms and thighs, chunky little bodies with no neck - but why do these things (and more) make them look cute? I think it's because they're a limited version of the end goal. There's an assumed intention that one day they will be big, strong, fully grown and capable. But until then, they are kind of naive, innocent and underdeveloped, which is cute.

With this kind of working theory in mind, I'll aim to achieve cuteness in two primary ways:

1) Apply limitations wherever I can. Eg: instead of big strong arms, give small underdeveloped arms (or just stubs, as if the arms haven't grown yet!) Instead of a strong and fit looking body shape, use a small and flabby body shape. Etc etc

2) Visually reference other cute things. Predominantly babies / infants, but also the potential to reference commonly cute animals such as monkeys, meerkats, cats etc

Just getting started! My very rough gameplan:

1. Find ref material (have a moodboard which I'll post below)

2. Analyse features, particularly around cuteness factor

3. Write out a concept for myself

4. Sketch ideas (jumping the gun but already started this based off initial musings).

5. Model in Blender

6. Texture in Substance Painter

7. Stage and export