Keep it simple
Ends and means
Conceptual artists such as Sol Lewitt understand that there is a difference between ends and means. The primary tenet of Conceptual art was put forth by Lewitt when he declared that “[t]he idea itself, even if it is not made visual, is as much of a work of art as any finished product.”
One ramification of this declaration: it gives the artist permission for the concept to be complex, and the implementation to be simple.
So before we begin our art project in earnest, note the presence of the word simple and what it means. Full-body humanoid bipedal rigs, complex run cycles, and elaborate pose-to-pose sequences are NOT beginning-level projects. You WILL fail if you attempt to work beyond the skill level you’ve attained after the tutorials appropriate for your skill level are complete. Focus on the idea and the skills you have right now…
Craft is the enemy
As a graphic novelist and rock musician, Vermont’s first Cartoonist Laureate James Kochalka keeps things pared down to simple, and this is something it’s difficult to keep in mind when you have the fistful of dynamite that is Maya. In his book The Cute Manifesto, he articulates this position:
I just felt suddenly like I had to write and say craft is the enemy! You could labor your whole life perfecting your “craft,” struggling to draw better, hoping one day to have the skills to produce a truly great comic, this powerful work of art, that you dream of. There’s nothing wrong in trying to draw well, but that is not of primary importance.
What every creator should do, must do, is use the skills they have right now. A great masterpiece is within reach if only your will power is strong enough (just like Green Lantern). Just look within yourself and say what you have to say.
Cezanne and Jackson Pollock (and many other great painters) were horrible draftsmen! It was only through their sheer will to be great that they were great. The fire they had inside eclipsed their lack of technical skill. Although they started out shaky and even laughable, they went on to create staggering works of art.
This letter is not for the established creators… they’re hopeless. This is for the young bucks and does… let’s kick some fucking ass!
—James Kochalka, Craft is the Enemy
In other words, Kochalka believes the honest, hard, willful effort to communicate trumps icy virtuosity. Reread it. His is not a slacker manifesto: this is a dude who posted a comic strip every day on the web from October 26, 1998, to December 31, 2012: that’s a staggering 4,817 drawings with no holidays and no days off, even in a time of personal or even national crisis!
Don’t let falling short of perfection get in your way. YOU have something important to say in this project. Completion is better than perfection! Take some time now to revisit, react to, and possibly revise the concept art, storyboard, shot designs, and timeline of the overall Possible World project. Once you understand what you need — and more importantly, what you DON’T need — to model, dive in.
Classification
Organic vs hard surface modeling
You may have noticed I avoid the use of the word “character” in discussing modeling at the Entity level. It is a biased term, conjuring up a preconception of a bipedal, humanoid abstracted for comic effect. Entity modeling is so much more than this, as William Vaughn explains in his book [digital] Modeling:
Vaughn’s working definitions open up the doors to myriad simple possibilities.
Organic options
Consider organic entities such as:
- Simple, limbless animals such as worms, snakes, or fish, are easily rigged with a simple skeleton or even a sine deformer, and to which squash-and-stretch can be applied through non-linear scale deformations.
- Two-limbed creatures like birds or butterflies whose wings can be rigged using blend shapes.
- Abstracted, anthropomorphized plant entities, like vines or flowers growing or opening up.
- Surrogates for bipeds, such as an anthropomorphized flour sack, grocery bag, or purse.
Hard-surface options
And consider hard-surface entities like:
- Objects falling or landing, like balls, blocks, or everyday kitchen items, all of which can be exaggerated. Surrealism can happen: what happens if a glass jar bounces, or a knife deforms?
- Anthropomorphized vehicles, like cars, jets, or spaceships, can be anthropomorphized with squash-and-stretch.
- Simple tools or machines, like clock-works, pendulums, swings, or wheels.
- Robots seem as hard as bipedal rigs but think of Star Wars‘ R2D2 or Wall-E’s EVE. They don’t have limbs, and EVE just floats!
- Balloons can inflate, and doors can open or close. A rolling flap on a tent, found at the end of the Aquablocks animation below, can be done with deformers.
- Anthropomorphized objects such as John Lasseter’s Luxo lamps (our Entities project icon above) or Abel Tébar’s Teapot (using Daniel Martinez Lara’s Utah teapot rig as seen below).
Most of these are easier and more satisfying to produce than a traditional biped, allowing the animator to focus on narrative content. After all, there’s a reason why most of Pixar’s early work avoided bipeds in favor of anthropomorphized, hard surface rigs!