Pre-Production: Flesh to Final Turnarounds

Hello Everyone,

I have been working my ass off to get everything complete and while I still have a little ways to go I am happy that I am producing something which is acceptable to me. Those of you that know me know exactly how fussy I can be especially when it comes to characters ha-ha. Anyway I have been doing a bit of modelling and stuff but the other day I wanted to finally post up our turnarounds. So I sat down and got all of those to an acceptable level and thought Id do a whole post on them. For those of you keeping score this should be the last bit of 2D work I produce for this project.

Now I have 2 images to post per turnaround because I thought it was valid that we see the whole point of the skeleton turnarounds I knocked up in the prior post so let me explain... If you look closely at the "Stage 2 Adding Flesh To Skeleton" images you will see the skeleton underneath. All I did was essentially draw the flesh over the joints of the skeleton. These acted as my guides for the turnarounds and they are incredibly useful. The word isn't on these but "Stage 3" is essentially adding clothes and creating the turnarounds.. You can see the end results below.

So let me show you these turnarounds so we can finally get to CG.

The image at the very top of this is the underline anatomy of the character Benjamin is slightly podgy but Sammy and Chrissie didn't have an overhanging Belly in mind so I overshot that one. Still they corrected me and I corrected the flaws in the final turnaround. You may notice some differences in Benjamin's facial features from the original. There were a couple of issues with the side profile which made the front not line up properly so I went in and fixed most of the problems. The colour was something I thought worked but the ladies will be texturing I think...

Next came Barnabas's turnarounds I had quite a few issues with the feet (as I tend to do) they are in severe perspective and that's something I still tend to have problems with. The good news is that the skeleton really does provide nice anatomy for his character. I can feel the S curve in each character which you notice particularly from the upper to lower portions. He is naturally taller then Bernard which is also reflected in the turnarounds. The kids turnarounds look more interesting because there is less space as they are smaller and take up much less room.

Young Barnabas's turnaround was interesting (you can see the entire process below in the form of a time lapse video). I had originally drawn up a profile which I thought worked but I then adjusted a few things when I considered Benjamin's. I wanted to reflect Barnabas's torso in the child rendition how it overpowers his lower body (unlike Benjamin's). This demonstrates more importantly that he is thinner then Benjamin. I kept the colours washed out but I wanted a subtle blue which I added to his shirt... again I wasn't sure maybe the ladies can fill me in on this later.

Next came the grumpy Bernard, most of his form was Adapted from Barnabas's turnaround as they are very similar in proportion. The key difference is Bernard's shoes are longer as is his torso region. This makes him a little shorter then Barnabas which we felt earlier on was acceptable. It made sense on some level that Barnabas grows up taller to somehow not be fearful to change his ways. We also felt when lining them up in the form army post that the forms of the family made sense. I kept this in mind when shaping the skeleton which in turn shaped the flesh which in turn shaped the costume on the form.


I thought I would conclude as I have been known to do with a little video showing the process of creating these turnarounds. I know I am not being graded on this part but I don't know I kind of like showing my process for people to understand. The video has a small introduction with me taking a look at my original skeleton turnarounds just before I sat down to ink out their flesh and costumes. The video then takes a nose dive into me creating the turnaround for "Young Barnabas" in time lapse form. To conclude I show all the turnarounds turning around ha-ha... you will know what I mean when you see it.

I have been working very hard over this Christmas, I'm hoping to sit down for a 5 minute breather after next week (even if its a day that's enough). I have not stopped since boxing day due to my own blind trust in ZBrush. I wish I'd started in Maya from day 1 at least I'd have a couple of these models by now. Hey-ho. I will be posting a couple of additional updates as I have to check with the ladies to see if they are still texturing or if that's something else I will be fitting in. I have taken the hit mainly because this is my bad. Oh well I have learnt a lesson at least.

Catcha ladle!
xXStItChXx