Seven

A 3D Character Turn-around

Created during my 3D studies at RMIT, in which the brief required us to build, rig and animate a 3D version of ourselves. The character would be a heroic, stylized aspect and would be performing one of our hobbies. For instance, some students created a sports character, and others a fantasy character performing an action as their stylized self.

What was also required in the final animation was one special ‘move’ by your character to showcase the skeleton and rigging. 

I created a Tim Burton-esque angular/wooden marionette/ styled version of my then-bearded self playing the drums. Playing with the classic ‘turntable’ style turn-around (frequently used to showcase a 3D characters form and movement) I had my character spin on a flying carpet whilst drumming.

Seven is the title of the piece because I started the process by recording the drums first (on my Yamaha DTX e-kit) in a 7/8 time signature (so that the rhythm could then loop smoothly along with the looping animation). As the animation had to last 10 seconds, I played around with the groove a bit when recording until I got the four bars of seven to fit exactly within this time frame. 

The final turn-around had to composite the character’s animation in its finished rendered texture, as well as a wire frame and generic flat shaded render.

To enhance the theme of the number seven, I used the Pleiades star system as a backdrop (also referred to as The Seven Sisters), I created geometry (drums, high-hats and sticks) as strictly seven sided objects and used a sacred geometric symbol called ‘The Seed of Life’ on the bass drum head, which incorporates seven circles (spheres actually) enclosed by one larger circle. 

Basically, I made sure I included the things I love: music, the cosmos and geometry. A little homage to light sabers was also necessary…

Created with Autodesk Maya and Adobe’s Photoshop/After Effects.