Wednesday, October 13, 2010

New Cute Lil Alien Character

OK so no I've not been slacking although I did take many days off this summer to go out bike riding, you know how I love my bike lol, and besides I take plenty of pictures when I go out bike riding so I still wind up being somewhat creative even when I'm trying to take a break ;) But now that summer is over and fall in in full swing it's back to creating again. First up in a long ongoing project (I have the folder named "Box of Aliens") is my latest character addition a cute lil alien complete with jet pack and ray gun. Took a lot of hair pulling sessions to get this lil guy posed right. I'll be the first to admit that I kinda suck when it comes to pelt mapping and skinning characters, I usually prefer to leave that bit to people who are far more talented at that than I am, but I'm getting a little better at it.

As you can see in the beginning of his construction he started out pretty simple. I had a basic idea of what I was looking for body shape wise and general sort of look but the details I had not yet figured out. Usually I'll just sort of make it up as I go based on a somewhat fuzzy idea. lol








Eventually I added his spacesuit details like the wrist couplings and his jet pack, his boots were originally going to be metallic but I later changed that in favor of something more organic or plastic looking.

Eventually it was time for the texture or "Pelt Mapping" process, which I must confess I dread almost as much as trying to add bones, but I like the end result so persevere we indeed do.


I kept thinking he needed something and one morning staring at the screen just before going out for my morning run I thought; "Ray Gun... That's what he needs is a Ray Gun!!" something almost toy-like to be sure and so after my run that was created next and then onto the pelt mapping which I am finding easier so long as I take the time to create proper seams, a rather lengthy process but well worth taking your time for.

He has a counterpart I'm working on too, a big sort of robotic tank or robo suit I'm calling "Big Joe" which uses just the head of the alien since that's all is seen I don't need the whole alien's body stuffed inside this thing. I still have lots to do on this guy but I'm taking a little break from this to create a blob-like alien for my cute lil alien to fight.