cgi Bringing her to life

[James Rogers]

I've recently started a research project involving all the different skills needed to bring a CGI character to life. I've done this sort of thing before but I'm trying to take it to the next level. for me that means creating and animating something that comes closer to photo-realistic in appearance and movement. I chose a woman's head for my subject. I'm not really interesting in making realistic people, but I believe that if I can get close to traversing the uncanny valley, I'll be better equipped when I start in on characters that are more interesting to me; aliens and monsters. Kind of like, if you can lift 200 lbs, lifting 100 lbs is that much easier.

Anyway, I'm posting a short 1 minute video now that shows the start of the project. later, as I make progress, there will be more.

 

[Nate North]

Looks great man! I actually really like zbrush. It's one of those things where I feel like you really need to spend a lot of time at it to be good. I've never been a good sculptor like yourself, so I just buy and modify models, or now I use the metahumans.

 

[James Rogers]

Smart man. There are so many metahumans out there. Why start from scratch if you don't have to.

There's a program out there called Character Creator that allows you to pretty much build your own humans to match your vision. I've only played with it a few times but you can literally dial in exactly what you want, including hair, clothing, how fat or thin, ethnicity, Everything!

The woman in my test is a stock model that comes with Zbrush. I need to put my time toward everything that must be done AFTER you have your model. To be honest though, in the world of CGI opposed to clay sculpting, I do like to start with a basic model that you can find anywhere on the net. From there, you can pull it, twist it, gouge it. Do whatever you want to turn it into whatever you're making. Starting with a basic model saves a few hours so why not... Believe it or not, my little CGI claymation models started from stock human models. lol!

 

[James Rogers]

update
The eye rig is coming along nicely. I've got the eyelids following the eyes as they look around. More technical detail later, but for now, here's a short demo clip.

 

[Nate North]

That looks pretty good man! I wish people knew how much work this stuff takes. It's not as easy as it looks, lol.

I'm sure it's something you'll take pride in for years to come once it's perfect. Even pro animation studios often just paint them into the textures, but doing it right looks so much better.