Lego Character Creation

                                   Lego Character Creation

Initial thoughts 

At first i was thinking that we would be creating it on Photoshop and creating a scenario with our character. 

This is a drawing from out group and we drawn out different pieces of a usual lego man and wrote down the measurements for each piece.

                                                                                         This big one above the writing is mine and i drew mine out pretty big but put in the right dimensions so its too scale. At first looking at a normal lego man i wouldn't think it was as complicated but so simple at the same time. After drawing it out i realised how hard it might be creating this in maya with all the small joints and connections that you have to create to a perfect size so it all fits together well.
I will start designing my own lego characters and that will lead to then picking the best one and then modelling the head, arms, legs, torso and pelvis. I may put hair on depending on my design.

Timeline/Tasks

Week 1-Researching and drawing out dimensions of a lego man

Week 2-Starting modelling process creating a body part (head)

Week 3-Modelling, finished head, body or more
 Half Term

Week 4-Modelling aiming to finish half the model

Week 5-Finish arms and hands

Week 6-Model the legs
 

Week 7-Review over design work and peer assessment

Week 8-Start to do UVS and creating textures

Week 9-finish textures and test or upload final ones onto model

Week 10- finishing of final look of lego man

Week 11-facial rigging, creating different face expressions
Christmas Break
Week 12-Presentation of finished work on blog and lego man, fully animated.

Lego Research

I have been looking online about the most used skin tones for Lego men and the most used is the old yellow one. Im planning to colour mine creamy beige or light flesh.

I also looked up some hair styles that are pretty popular and could help me with designing my own lego man if i decide to give him hair. Also they each have little aesthetics one them like cheek bone lines and glasses. 

Different emotions and facial expressions can also create the lego character. I might go for a more neutral expression.

I then started to get the orthographic of the lego character, so then i could start to create it in maya using a template.

 I found a nice one of google images and then lined them up so i could then create my own base template.

I used the ruler tool and added lines to adjust them correctly.

I then drew over lines so it looks cleaner and without the numbers and words around it.

I then bought this into maya by selecting the camera, then importing the image, i moved them around so they line up exactly with the square i was using to start the body/base of the character. It is a really helpful way to start creating the character because you can accurately create the different body parts in the different camera views.

Video of creating the body and head

Creating the legs
I started to create the leg by getting a square and stretching it out and turning it into a foot, i then brought in a circle and put and tried to create the circleur back and middle part of the leg, however that didn't go well.

So i tried another idea and created the bottom of the foot again and then cut out the top face of it. I then put in a pipe and enlarged it to my orthographic and then cut the faces of the bottom of the pipe.
I then used the multi cut tool to add edges to the leg to then i could use the target wield to join them together. I got the shape i wanted using this method and it a lot quicker than moulding and creating it from scratch.

This is a sped video of me creating the leg: Speed up creation of legs

Arms

I started to create the arms and hands for my lego character , both are pretty tricky but theres many different methods of creating them.
Here is a video of what i went through, however parts are missing since the vlc media tends to corrupt a lot of videos recorded.

UV Editing 

I am now starting to apply textures to my lego man and im sorting out my uv layouts for the face first.

i am also sorting out the body here and making it easier for me to apply textures.

Texturing
I have started texturing my model. I have designs and I've decided to go for a basic design style for it. I've decided to give him a blue shirt with stripes on it with a basketball looking design on the front.

 I've used this skin tone for this face and hands plus arms. There are various skin tones that most lego creations stick with which i have researched. But i decided to go for a creamy yellow skin tone.

 This is the arm Uv being textured.

This is the face of my Lego character, i wanted to give him a casual face, emotionless face.

/