For the character modelling, I first chose to create a rough shape for the body, figure 1 is the result of my first attempt, as last year’s character was created roughly using cubes and then imported into zbrush for sculpting. But this year’s model is not the same, my character is made in blender, and anime style characters don’t need too much delicate clothing folds and body details. So I followed the tutorials on the web dedicated to anime modelling, starting from the ankles using columns upwards, pulling out the shape of the calves first, following the three views to create the approximate position of the knees, and finally composing the waist at the crotch, up to the neck part. After that, the rough model is refined according to the previous model, such as the navel of the character, the clavicle and the width of the joints, the general shape of the ribs.

The modelling of the face is much more complicated. When modelling the face, you have to reserve the eye sockets and mouth, and determine the relevant proportions so that the finished face does not look out of balance, although there are 2D drawings as an aid, but the character’s face is still a huge challenge. I followed the textbook to determine the extent of the head, and then based on the side view, I framed the shape of the forehead to the bridge of the nose to the jaw, and little by little, I pulled the curvature of the face through the squares, starting from the jawbone. The final join was made at the top of the head and fine-tuned using the sculpting mode, including the connection of the eye sockets to the cheekbones, the curvature of the forehead, and the curvature of the lower jaw connecting to the neck.

After the skull was done, I started making adjustments to the whole body, as the costume design had two legs with completely different outfits so I split the legs down the middle and prepped for the strangulation caused by the costume based on the three views. The optimisation of the head continued, although the forehead was not as well adjusted as I would have liked, it was not too bad because it was covered by bangs. The proportions of anime characters are much softer than realistic ones, but the structure should not be missing, so as to maximise the aesthetics in the subsequent costume production.

There are many different ways to handle a character’s face, some models used only for the front will make the eyelid eyeliner a flat surface, and the details will need to be handled by texture mapping. Some models will pull out the eyelashes on top of the eyelids, and even make the position of the eyelids three-dimensional to allow for changes in the animation later. The eyeballs are not the traditional spherical shape, because the face of the anime model does not have a high degree of folding, spherical eyeballs will make the face of the model inside the exposed, so the basic method is to make a sheet, if you want to make him without animation but have the effect of tracking the viewer, you can use a concave surface, so that the eyeballs of the centre of the eye will always be looking at the viewer.