Trying out new rigs for animation I found several which I quite liked. For starters a flour bag rig which is quite robust and easy to understand. The reason why I chose this rig was to redo my flash animation consisting of a flour bag. This is an animation task that is typically given to those new to animation.  Flour bag rig by Joe Daniels Download rig at:  https://gumroad.com/l/floursackmaya I started with the bag dropping which at first was too much like a body. This was due to the nature of flour bags loosing energy very quickly when they hit the ground which does look odd at times. This means that the bag should hit the ground with little to no bounce. I will continue to improve the animation of the bag getting up. Another rig was the Mery rig which I played around with before ending with a quick pose. To my knowledge this rig has not been set up with Arnold shaders and so will not be rendered so. This pose was quickly done without reference.  Mery rig by

 I have started on blocking out the torso for my character. A hole has been cut out in preparation for the arm. Aside from that the basic shape is beginning to form. blocking torso While there is no special event I have modeled, skinned and textured a rose. I actually found the initial texture to be too dark and so it had to be adjusted to have increased saturation. The model is of simple geometry with the petals and the top of the stalk being a single plane. render of model Today's five minute pose consist of heels. Less dramatic than other poses, I still found myself short on time. image reference from: https://www.quickposes.com/en/gestures/random render from behind

In an attempt to keep the character relatively simple the geometry was less dense for the head. The hair modelled contains more polygon in order to get the desired shapes and edges. Because of the denser mesh it was a little confusing to clean but I am happy with the result.    three-quarters view I have gone for a smoother and abstract style of hair which will rely on the texture to give more detail. I have to apologise for having the screen shot appearing so fuzzy as I had not turned the anti-aliasing up on the view port. left side view back three-quarters right side view lower view The 5 minute pose exercise was completed using reference from a pose generator.  reference from: https://www.quickposes.com/en/gestures/random

Continuing with the modelling of the character I have added several features alongside improving the geometry. This included the addition of nostrils, ears, eyelids, neck, lips and throat. These have been done to take a different approach to my previous animation, with semi-realistic facial features. The nose uses dimples that do not punch a hole in the mesh. Instead the hole will be described through textures. head front view The ear follows the same concept as the nose using a dimple to simulate an ear hole. The structure of the ear itself is not actually accurate to a human ear. During modelling it actually had to be sized up from the ortho-graphs to fit within a 3D world.  side view head geometry smooth head cutaway For the hair I started from two different approaches, one of which was starting from the crown and working outwards. On my third attempt I decided it would make more sense of start with the fringe. This is because of the most distinct shapes of