I didn’t have any previous 3D modeling experience before this semester, but I’m currently also taking Flora’s Baby by Design class, in which we familiarized ourselves with the basics of Blender and several useful functions and modifiers. I was able to model in a basic way, but didn’t learn UV unwrapping and texture painting yet (I tried to self learn with a tutorial but struggled and got stuck). The froggy tutorial was very easy to follow, and I now know more about simple UV unwrapping and texture painting for easy character models like my own. I definitely need more practice with creating a smooth topology, because the faces of my model tend to be uneven, causing it to turn out lumpy, whereas I noticed the tutorial was very smooth and regular. I definitely improved the topology of the model of my own Bnuy character (compared to my frog). Additionally, playing around with the camera, light, and scene settings alongside the tutorial really allowed me to create a setup that presented the character in a very polished way.
As for developing my own character, I noticed that simple is best. I made several versions of my Bnuy character, many with lots of details or specific features, but these caused the character to look convoluted or busy and overall too messy. I discovered that with many iconic or well-known character designs (like My Little Pony, Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters), there are 1 or 2 main motifs, and the rest of the characteristics just serve as support. A simple color palette and straightforward images convey the character better than trying to include every single idea from the character’s backstory.