Oh boy, my model and rig for Xeon are finally done! I've got a lot of info in this post, because dang it's been a journey haha.
Over the past month and a half I've built this lad, rigged him, put him into VRChat, made a 2D background to showcase him, and shot him out of a rocket in spite. Well, not really, but oh man sometimes I wish I could have. *wheeze*
The Xeon rig and model features a new rigging system, a better model, better organization, and a whole host of improvements over my last model of Medea. And dang, I'm excited to dive into em!
First up is the lil fun showcase. Using the new rigging system, I did lots of fun poses! And I'm super happy with how the toon shader looks too. For his model, I focused on refining the topology and making the weight painting better. Noodle arms also helps a ton too! These improvements really helped get it looking as not 3D as possible hahaha.
Keep reading for more of the behind the scenes stuff!
Yes, this is a 2D background! Way back in the day I used to make backgrounds to showcase my finished models... but I kind of strayed away from that. With Xeon though, I decided to get back into making backgrounds, and instead of doing it in Blender- I drew it!
This is the first ever one I've publicly published, and only one of 3 I've ever done. I first laid out the perspective in Blender and the lined/colored it in Clip Studio Paint. The model of Xeon was rendered in Blender on a separate layer, then I dropped him in the CSP background.
There's defintiely some wrong things with my 2D background, but for the first colored one I've done, I'm pretty happy with it. Its all about practice, and as I gain more experience I hope to better refine the Blender perspective to 2D pipeline.
This time for Xeon, I wanted to massively push my rigging skills. So with the help of Rigify, I've done just that. The rig for Xeon features a very advanced and customizable rigging system that allows me to pose him in so many different ways.
Oh and also, noodle arms and legs! That was a thing I've been meaning to add to my characters for so long, I just haven't known how to. But now with the new rig I can do just that!
As you can see below, the rig is also very user friendly. It's definitely complex, but it should be a lot more standard and a lot more user friendly.
I can't wait to add this rig to all my future models as well!
That's all I have for ya'lls today, I hope you all enjoy him!
I redesigned my old Invader Zim OCs from middle school!
Nel is a 12 year old human girl who's curious, bubbly, optimistic, a little ditzy, and most importantly, a robotics enthusiast who thinks aliens are cool, and are definitely real! She has a crush on Dib.
Buu is a stoic, distrustful and mean SIR Unit who was exiled by the Tallests from Irk, deemed to be defective and inoperable. She crash landed in Nel's backyard one night, badly damaged. Using the little Nel knew about robotics, plus some spare parts and old toys, she repaired Buu and gave her a home.
The two have an odd partnership of sorts, being from two different worlds, both figuratively and literally. Since Nel helped Buu and now houses her, the SIR agreed to pretend to be the human's scary teddy bear when out in public.
Made a lil gift for @xan-zenith, a model of their Irken OC, Xan! Xan has an absolutely wild bit of lore behind her, and I thought she'd be a ton of fun to make as a gift to them!
It was a super fun model to make, and it gave a good bit of practice too. I don't get a chance to model characters in a *lot* of different styles, so I try to jump on the oppertunity when I can.
Keep reading for more pictures and the comparison between the original reference turnaround!
More images, yay! I also started this model a few weeks ago but just finished up the finishing touches today. Oops haha.
Below you can compare between the original reference sheet (Also made by @xan-zenith found [HERE]