3D Character Portfolio

SELF PORTRAIT BUST

The aim of this project was to achieve an accurate likeness in 3D through sculpting and texturing. It also allowed me to try out Maya's Xgen hair to create eyelashes, brows and hair similar to my own.

Texturing was a combination of hand-painted and procedural.

PUNK HEATHCLIFF

Brief:

Design and model a character for a new adaption of the public domain listed literature: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Solution:

To make a twist on Wuthering Heights as a video game, I am taking Wuthering Heights from 1800s Yorkshire to 1980’s London. The game follows Heathcliff, a rough-around-the-edges punk who has the one consuming desire to take revenge on the establishment that ostracised him as a child, the largest and influential family business in London- Wuthering Heights, owned by the Earnshaw's (Cathy’s family) and the Linton's (The family she married into).

Through gaining influence among the underground punk scene, leading riots and rebellions with more than one fistfight, Heathcliff must destroy Wuthering Heights Inc. and the lives of those associated.

For his physical appearance, I paid attention to the literary description of Heathcliff in the novel. He is described as large in stature with a lowered brow and dark hair and complexion, it is suspected he is of Romani heritage although this is not confirmed. So I gave him tanned skin with black hair and dark eyes. He has a very masculine face with a wide jaw and prominent nose. He has Sid Vicious style hair and padlock necklace as well as a safety pin through his earlobe. He is wearing an adaptation of Vivienne Westwood’s famous anarchist’s shirt but the armband that usually says “chaos” now says “revenge.” I gave him the famous tartan trousers and a straight jacket style harness that shows off his Cathy tattoo over his chest. The straight jacket straps are also relevant to Heathcliff’s psychological state. And of course, he is wearing Dr martens to finish the look.  

THYRA | SAVAGE MERMAID

Brief:

Design and model a character for a new adaption of the public domain listed literature: The Little Mermaid By Hans Christian Andersen.

Solution:

In the original fairy-tale, Humans have immortal souls and mermaids do not. The little mermaid makes a deal with the sea witch that if she gives up her life as a mermaid and gets a human to marry her, she will gain a human soul. The witch cuts out her tongue as payment and tells her that the day her love marries another, she will die and turn into sea foam. Unfortunately the prince she is in love with marries another and her sisters trade their hair as a way to save her. The sea witch gives them a knife and says that if the little mermaid stabs the prince in the heart then she can continue to live as a human. The little mermaid refuses and is turned to seafoam.

This isn't a particularly empowering storyline for young women. The little mermaid puts her life in the hands of a man and sacrifices her own life and soul for him. I propose a mermaid that simply takes what she wants, cutting the beating heart from men to sustain her human form.

NEWTON

This was my first character design and model, the brief was to design a character who was a scientist.

Upon completing my university degree and revising my portfolio, I made the decision that the original character asset that I created was not portfolio-worthy so decided to re-model Newton based on the same concept but with a more stylised approach.

Newton is a dreamer who suffers with his identity. He has a creative and imaginative streak with grandiose ideas and sometimes can be a little bit delusional in his ambition. He is exploring his sexuality and self-expression through makeup and clothing and has conflicting personality traits that are influenced by his fluctuating self-confidence. At his high points, he is self-assured, egotistic, somewhat narcissistic, vain and excitable. He has strong beliefs that he can outwit science and that he will be successful and famous. This confident façade is quite fragile and can easily be shattered by flashbacks of his past trauma and he can become small and child-like and full of self-hatred. When his confidence is low, he is more likely to flee from a situation rather than work through it.   

THE LASS

A 3D character design as part of an animation project. She is a Scottish girl who falls victim to an each uisge (a mythological celtic water horse)