Actor's Studio, lesson 1 - Pallas design

Pallas, modeling guides

For my next project, I'm developing my character animation skills and rigging strategies. The subject for this project is Pallas, a girl of around 10 years age with normal proportions: e.g., no gigantic cartoon eyes.

A character animator is an actor who applies his performance to a proxy, similar to what a puppeteer might do; hence the project name, Actor's Studio.

Pallas' appearance will be fairly generic so that she doesn't assume a particular personality type (e.g., debutante, goth girl, etc.). For now, her hair is covered by a hat because I want to focus on simulating human behavior and not be sidetracked by hair physics.

The above image shows some of the guides used within the modeling program. There are guidelines for the clothing and skin exteriors, edge flow, and bone and joint locations. The rib cage and pelvis are noted to avoid torso deformations in those areas.

next: Pallas modeling