60s Boy Scout

The year is 1967. A young boy is ready for his first ever scout field trip. Equipped with everything he needs to survive in the wilderness, he ventures out on his first solo adventure - ready for any wild beasties or monsters that may come his way. The character will be an 11 year old boy in the 60s who is part of a fictional scout club.

Having recently watched Stranger Things, I really felt inspired to make a child character. I thought an interesting take on the brief would be to make a character who is in the boy scouts – or some similar fictional club – who was completely decked out in gear. This would not only make for an interesting character, however I think this would give me a nice chance to work on my prop modelling skills; part of the character’s appeal is how oversaturated he is with props and objects. I also liked the idea of having a character from a past time period, purely because this is a popular theme currently. Fashion is currently in an 80s inspired trend (as fashion tends to cycle and take inspiration from past decades) so a lot of people are resonating with this style of character.

I feel like I learn a lot with every new character I make. Something I’m really happy with is how clean my sculpts are getting. I’m trying really hard to be conscious of how I go about sculpting and being smart about it. I learned about Nanomesh during this project and this is a tool I really want to use more as it’s imperative for creative specific textures and materials. I’m also a lot happier with how quick and accurate I’m getting with my retopology. I learned better ways to make a high poly guide and it didn’t take me too long to retopologise this model – which is great because that’s often a step I get stuck on. Lastly I’m quite proud of the hair. This was the first hair I’ve modelled which is made using alpha cards rather than polygonal, and I’m actually really pleased with the effect it gives.

There’s always room for improvement and this project is no exception. My 2D character design skills are not brilliant and I know the character isn’t visually the most exciting – but I did try my best to not be too cliché. Secondly, I really need to work on my texturing skills. 2D work isn’t my strong suit so I do struggle with textures, but it’s one of the most important parts of character modelling so I really do need to improve. Finally I’d like to work on my rigging skills and relearn how to make my own rigs rather than using Human IK. While Human IK is pretty good, I do sometimes struggle with it to create the pose I want without a lot of strange deformation.

Sketchfab Link: https://sketchfab.com/models/ffec996b843e496589901d4f126ed57c

Artstation Link: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XoEQw