Vorax

Vorax was my Final Major Project for the UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production and Technology I studied at Gateshead College. The project ran for twelve weeks including two weeks for the Easter holiday; in that time, I planned a 3D character/creature design and animation project, explored design ideas for the character, used peer feedback in combination with a reflective process to decide on a final design direction, used software tools and techniques to implement the design in 3D, prepared the finished character mesh for animation, and finally created a series of game-adressable animations for the character, making use of reference material and regarding the principles of animation.

At the outset of the project, we were advised to tailor our projects toward an area in which we wanted to develop our skills and/or were passionate about. I chose a character design and animation project following this advice, and also decided to test the skills and knowledge I had gained over the past two years by applying them to a favourite subject matter.

After planning the project, the first step was the creation of multiple design ideas to provide inspiration and reference when building the character in 3D, which requires the collection of visual reference material. While variety is important, I also tried to be selective, choosing images which either provided useful information or portrayed the mood that I hoped to capture in my own designs.

In addition to creating design ideas drawings (first row), I experimented with my design ideas by editing elements of different designs into a single image (second row).

I would admit that the standard of the design ideas drawings is a possible weak point of this project, and feel that my exploration of the design was limited by how long it takes me to draw anything, but I hope to improve in these areas soon. However, I was able to obtain feedback on my designs from tutors and other students and use this to inform my final design decisions for the 3D character mesh, the final design featuring elements of the second, fifth and eighth design ideas shown in the first row above.

To create Vorax in 3D, I used the process of subdivision surface modelling, wherein a polygonal "control mesh" is modelled at a low level of detail, and an algorithm then generates a smooth, organic surface from this mesh. This technique has the advantage of being able to non-destructively generate multiple levels of detail for the same object, making it ideal for the modelling of game characters. Some parts, such as the limbs, were modelled as separate mesh objects in order to give more control over the structure of the surface.

Since this was a design and animation project, it did not include UV mapping or texturing, but I later added placeholder materials for presentation.

The main way of animating a complex organic character is by creating a "rig" consisting of bones, whose position and rotation can be animated to deform the mesh, with how much each vertex moves being defined by a "weight" value. During this stage of the project I learned a lot about how vertex weights work and also learned the technique of using detached bones to give more control over how certain parts of a mesh move.

The final stage of the project was the creation of game-adressable animations for Vorax. Regarding the principles of animation, and referring to scientific motion studies of six different dinosaurs, I created a series of three life-like animations (idle, walk cycle, and an eating animation required by game mechanics). I am somewhat disappointed that I only had time to create those three animations, but I believe that they are among the stronger points of this project.

Vorax is the college project with which I am most satisfied and possibly my strongest project to date. In an industry environment, the tasks involved in the creation of a 3D character asset (including several that were altogether outside the scope of this project) would be divided between a number of highly experienced specialists and usually take several months, so I was highly pleased with what I was able to accomplish by myself at my level of ability in twelve weeks. I look forward to further improving my abilities in character/creature design, modelling and animation as I continue my academic career and my journey as an artist.