Modelling and Stress

Carrying on from last week I did some more drawings and studies to get the feel for my idea more and to finalise some design choices like the style and appearance in general. I then had to really get on with refining the idea as it had changed throughout this week.

So for my dichotomous pair I had decided on the pope hippo or better known as the "hippope" and the scientist gorilla. Dichotomous in their ideas and views these characters worked however I found that as a pair they didn't look like they would ever come across each other in their world as Steve pointed out. It really made me think how would you ever see these two together if they're practically enemies and have oppositional ideas? Taking the idea of religion and science and seeing the disputes between them I realised they probably wouldn't actually ever see each other and the idea was fun and interesting but just wouldn't work.

Steve then suggested a really good idea, an assistant hippo with a professor sort of scientist gorilla. They may not look particularly dichotomous or different in their clothing or appearance but are different in their personalities and actions. I have decided on  a serious gorilla scientist and a clumsy and rather clueless hippo who is destructive and a bane of the gorilla's life. I find that this makes the pair more dynamic and whilst still be dichotomous they work together in a weird way. 

So here's a final concept drawing: 

I also painted some really crude colour palettes which I haven't quite decided on but I'll have that finalised before I start texturing. Sadly I found that I couldn't change much in colour as if the lab coats are lost in the colour palette the characters kind of lose their identity as scientists.

For this week it's been mainly modelling. I have to say it's been a slow process deciding how to model it depending on the style I wanted took me forever.
I'm getting there however as I've finished modelling and just need to refine some things like topology and making the characters look more dichotomous.

I'm quite happy with the gorilla at the moment as I think it looks pretty nice aswell as staying to the low poly idea. The hippo however I find doesn't look as interesting or as dopey as I want so I'll probably go back and mess with it a bit.
Here are some basic renders of the characters so far:

Sadly I'm kind of behind on this project which is slightly stressful however I think once I have the unwrapping done and start texturing I'll feel much more on track. I think unwrapping will be tomorrow's job as I don't have 3ds Max at home however that can be finished in a couple of hours so I'm confident I'll finish to give myself more time for texturing as it's all hand painted textures. Thankfully our deadline has been extended an extra week too so I'll definitely get finished which I didn't think I would with the previous deadline. 

Drop in next week to see some 'amazing' hand painted textures from yours truly.