Savepoint

Character Design | Personal Project | 2025

The sun dips below the horizon and the fading light invites a cozy gaming session on the couch. Ren came to life from a character concept I created to explore modeling and rigging techniques, while trying to preserve the original illustration’s personality.

Characterdesign

At the beginning, I created a concept for my character. I named her Ren and decided to show her during a quiet evening at home, playing games and relaxing. She has a handheld console and a pet snake. Ball pythons are calm and mellow animals, which felt fitting for the scene, and I wanted something a bit more special than a cat or a dog.

Modeling & Rigging

For the modeling and rigging process, I focused on translating the illustrated character into a stylized 3D model while preserving the original look and feel. This included modeling, rigging, and shading the character with an emphasis on clean shapes and readable silhouettes. Instead of fully modeling the character first and rigging afterward, I rigged the rough blockout early on, which allowed me to test movements and poses directly during the modeling process.

One of the main challenges was maintaining a pleasing look from all angles, which can be difficult with stylized 3D characters. Through this process, I learned how important proportions, shape flow, and careful rigging are for keeping a stylized character consistent and visually appealing in three dimensions.

Next steps

My next step is animating the character in a scene to better showcase its motion. I'm working on the background and a storyboard while still tweaking the rig to make it as easy to use as possible.