Anatomy and Character Sculpture - Final Project

9/7/2025 - 30/7/2025 / Week 12 - Week 15

Tay Yue Chern / 0373215

Anatomy and Character Sculpture / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Final Project - Polishing and Dynamic Posture with Props

TABLE OF CONTENT





INSTRUCTIONS



We are to finally polish our characters. Cleanup and retouch our sculpt accordingly with an appealing posture that represents character personality clearly. Character to have props that will further support characters persona and adds visual narrative of its nature.

Sculpture should stand on a platform and retopoed. Lighting to be further enhanced and final renders to then be retouched in photoshop or ad digital painting tool. Below are the required breakdowns list:
  • Collective shots rendered to show components in details
  • Final render to be polished and presented on a potrait sized image. Printable high res. 
  • Final poster with appealing layout.
  • Projection to low-poly model 
  • Character turntable

PROCESS WORK

I learned a typical rigging method from YouTube, but after trying it out, I realised it caused significant deformation to the sculpt, which made the recovery process quite challenging. I experimented with several other methods and eventually found that using a proxy pose was the easiest and most effective way to pose the character with minimal deformation.

Fig 1.1 Rigging process (Week 12, 9/7/2025)

I converted the sculpt into a low-poly model using Proxy Pose and applied rigging to it. After adjusting the posture, I turned off Proxy Pose, which returned the model to its high-poly version with the new pose applied. Although some slight deformation still occurred, it was minor and could be fixed.

Fig 1.2 Weapon Sculpting (Week 13, 16/7/2025)

Mr Kannan suggested sculpting the weapon alongside the posture adjustment to ensure the final outcome looked balanced and cohesive. I decided to have my character hold the weapon with one hand while controlling power with the other. I initially tried to include a special effect in the final poster, as shown in Figure 1.3, but it didn’t turn out as expected, so I chose to remove it in the end.

Fig 1.3 Attempt to add effect (Week 13, 16/7/2025)

During Week 14, I finalised the overall posture with the weapon, as shown in Figures 1.4 and 1.5, and began experimenting with different lighting setups for the character, followed by final rendering in Photoshop.

Fig 1.4 Pose Turnaround (Week 14, 23/7/2025)

Fig 1.5 Final Weapon Design with colours (Week 14, 23/7/2025)

It took me quite some time to adjust the lighting to my liking. After that, I imported the work into Photoshop for further rendering and final touch-ups.

Fig 1.6 Final Character Turnaround (Week 14, 23/7/2025)

For the poster, I decided to keep it as simple as possible, as suggested by Mr Kannan. I used a clean gradient background with the character’s name placed in the top right corner. The font was carefully chosen to reflect his calm yet slightly wild personality as a tribal chief.

Fig 1.7 Final Poster (Week 14, 23/7/2025)

After completing the character rendering, the remaining task was to capture and render each individual component separately, which I then compiled into the final presentation, as shown in Figure 2.1.

FINAL WORK

Fig 2.1 Final Project Compilation

REFLECTION

This phase was about finishing—but finishing well. I spent quite a bit of time adjusting lighting and posing, just to get the feel right. Using Proxy Pose helped a lot, though it still caused some minor deformation. Honestly, by this point, I was juggling between technical fixes and visual choices, and it was a bit tiring, but also kind of satisfying.

I enjoyed putting together the final poster and seeing the character in a clean, polished layout. Choosing a font, deciding on a minimal gradient background, all of it felt like tying everything together.

If I look back at where I started in Week 1, this project helped me not just improve sculpting or posing, but also taught me how to tell a story through the posture, expression, and even how things are presented. It reminded me that every small decision adds up, and that's where the character starts to feel real.

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