LO3: How I created my product

 For this unit I mostly worked in blender and photoshop, this is because photoshop is a digital design application which makes is perfect for generating digital designs such as concept art. For a project such as this one it is more efficient to make a digital version of my concept art as it going to be used in other software such as blender for references so that the model can be properly scaled and rigged for movement.

Throughout the creation of my model I have tried to match the codes and conventions of anime characters and mascots, I learned these conventions through the analysis of existing models and mascots. From this research and analysis I discovered that all of the models have physical features that are over exaggerated, in the case of Wenlock and Mandeville they have an enlarged single eye, a large head and small arms, legs and torso, in the case of the anime girl, she has bright hair, enlarged eyes and a head what is disproportionate to her body. I transferred these skills into my own model by using an overly slimmed figure with elongated arms and legs. I also added electric blue hair which is commonly used for people with a lot of energy and are up-beat which is an appropriate personality for a mascot. Moreover to fit a sports genre, I fitted my design with a tight fit hoodie and short sports shorts, the choice to have them tight fitting and revealing a lot of skin was to match the voyeuristic characteristics present in female characters as to attract a male heterosexual audience. Moreover, with the desired outcome for this project being to make a mascot with the intentions of it being used for advertising purposes, it was essential that i added branding to the clothing of the character in the form of the Olympic logo and colours in the form of Japanese text in order to promote the country but also the event as the colours of the Olympics are well established and will appear everywhere during the time. Even though the design of my character matches many mise-en-scene conventions of the previous mascots, I individualised my character by making her human rather than basing it on an animal or non-human mascots, this makes it distinguishable between other characters. Moreover, I believe by making my character more appealing to older audiences could link to the media theory about how audiences have become more immune to graphic imagery, this includes voyeuristic images which are present within my character.

I initially struggled with the modelling of the head in blender as this was new software to me which we hadn't covered in lesson so i had to learn all of the shortcuts and hotkeys within the software, however after some practice i was able to easily get the basic shape of a head, from this i began to sculpt the neck from a cylinder and proportioned that to be separate from the head and main torso.

Next i would've made the upper body from using the extrude tool to give the square extra faces so that i can create a low poly version of the body which may then be sculpted later on, for the most part of this project will be using the mirror tool in order to make sure the model is even on both sides.

However, even though i am happy with the shape of the face, it may not be the most suitable for advanced rigging as i made it a solid object, so without it being hollow i cannot sculpt a mouth or eye sockets. however I could possible tackle this obstacle by instead animations a 2d mouth onto my sculpt to emulate the idea of the character having a mouth. 

I believe with more time I would've been able to fully construct the body of my character and then even be able to rig the character for movement and 3d animation. However I may continue this concept for this character and with some alterations, use them in future units such as my unit 4 - Interactive media and games design unit where I hope to develop a VR game in which this character may appear as a form of easter egg or main character.

For post production I would've devoted my time to the rigging of the character, this would mean I do research on basic human anatomy and physics to find how the body moves and changes shape, this would take a long amount to time as I would need to also remiss my character to accommodate this movement, for example I would need to make a larger mesh for the eyelids to ensure a smooth blinking animation, however the most important part would be essential joints such as waist, shoulders, arms, head, neck, thighs, hips and legs because to get simple movement sequences, these are most important.

I think if I was to do this again then I would have stuck with a single idea which would have been easier, this is as I believe the task I gave myself may have been too big for this timescale and I would have been able to create a better product from it, so in future projects I will choose a more realistic project for my timescale