Character Conception

I got the idea for the practical part of my bachelor thesis because I have been asking myself for quite some time now whether human or animal figures are generally better received in animated films. In order to investigate this, I decided to create exactly three figures in the following different character categories:

• Animal-like character with only a few anthropomorphic characteristics (Timwell)
• Human-like character with only a few animal characteristics (Maxwell)
• Character with a roughly similar proportion of human and animal attributes (Samwell)

After I had worked out these 3 categories and developed a first rough pencil design for each figure, I made a so-called Character-Sheet for each pig. This serves, among other things, to be able to classify the figure exactly in terms of character, body and perspective.

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3D Realization

My original plan to realize all three pigs in 3D did not quite work out in terms of time. Since Samwell was the most interesting of the three figures according to my then lecturer and seminar facilitator, I decided to develop only this one completely.

I worked on the modelling, rigging and animation process with Maya, in the sculpting process with ZBrush, in the texturing process with Substance Painter and in the compositing process with Nuke, whereby I was also able to complete the 3D model of Timwell up to his T-Pose stage.

Most of the work probably went into the Rigging-Prozess, i.e. the definition of the skeleton, which is probably one reason why only one character could be realized in three-dimensional space. Maybe later I'll find the time to come back to this project again, to finish the rest of the pigs and to make a little animation.

For an in-depth look of Samwell, use the Sketchfab Model Inspector

Nevertheless, the final practical part of my bachelor thesis, which is a 360 degree turntable of my main character, was more than successful. The previously sketched nature of Samwell can be captured very well by the character-specific pose and especially the transitions of the different renderings (wireframe, ambient occlusion and colored) are in my opinion quite impressive.

Click on the image below to see a GIF of the finished turntable