Well, I guess I got a little board after finishing my last project. Usually I move right into some other project, but at the moment, I am lacking inspiration on what to do next. So, in the meantime, I decided to work on my low poly skills, namely, the art of character creation and rigging.
Rigging is the addition of a skeleton to the model so that they can be manipulated or animated. As you can see from “Dude”, he is able to move about and be articulated into any natural (and some unnatural) positions, such as running, pointing, kneeling, and being pushed backwards.
Perhaps the most interesting feature was that I gave him an articulate hand. He doesn’t have all 5 fingers, but he has a thumb, a pointer finger, and then three “connected” fingers on each hand. This allows for the pointing motion and some other articulate movements such as picking things up, or pushing buttons and holding objects like controllers.
Low poly art is interesting. There are so many “flavors” of it. Some low poly is focused on more of a “cartoon” look. Others are actually high poly objects with a small color pallet to produce a low poly feel. Yet some actually go for a square or “Lego” style. What I’ve done here is given the model sharp, angular features with no texture. The clothes are simply a change of the surface color of those polygons, rather than having a mapped skin with details.
I like this style and I’m trying to see what I can do with it. Hopefully a little practice will improve my skills.
Linux – keep it simple.