Trickster

Animations

Thumb Up

Confused

Angry

Playblast of 5 animations at 24 FPS

Running

Idle

The Trickster is a project I made in collaboration with the Art Museum of Rouyn-Noranda. It was part of an augmented reality project, where people would be accompanied by the trickster on their visit at the museum.

It is a character based on Native American culture that is represented by a Coyote, an emblematic animal of many American Indigenous cultures. The character is an Anthropomorphic and cartoonish representation of a coyote.

I did the design, 3D modeling, rig, textures and some animations. More on that Below.

Steps

I first started by gathering pictures of real coyotes to see the distinctive elements and also make sure to differentiate it from a fox. I had to give it a goofy and cute appearance that would appeal to children.

References

I began to sculpt a base model on Zbrush

I then imported it in Maya to do more precise modeling and retopology

To help myself with the inside of the mouth, I looked at other 3D model of canine mouths

When the modeling was finished, I made the UVs and then created the textures in Substance Painter. While the eyes were supposed to be golden brown for a coyote, I made multiple color iterations and the team decided that green would fit the character best as it gives him a more mischievous appearance.

Rig

I then did the rig with the use of the tool Advanced Skeleton. There is a facial rig as well as a few blend shapes like puffing up his chest and smiling.

Viewport

Base

Render

Animations

It was now time for the animations! I did a walk cycle, an idle animation, an angry animation, a thumb up animation and a confused animation.

Thumb Up

3D Printed Painted Sculpture of the Trickster displayed at the Art Museum of Rouyn-Noranda, made by the people working there.

Running

Idle

Angry

Confused

Finally, the animations and model were exported from Maya to be integrated in Unity, where Valentin Guillier, 3D technical artist, created the application. The trickster has dialogue and there's a few games to play with him in regards to some art pieces displayed at the museum.

If you want to learn more click here :

Gallery