My avatar was the very first character I ever created, so it naturally went through a lot of different versions and styles. Each stage became a way for me to experiment and learn, whether it was shaping and modeling, texturing, playing with color, exploring different aesthetics, or improving my rigging skills.
FIRST CONCEPTS
Initially, I was aiming for an anime and cartoon-inspired character with huge eyes and a head bigger than the rest of the body, but as my skills developed, my approach shifted. I started leaning toward a more anatomically realistic base while still keeping a stylized, cartoon feel through the use of cel shading.
RIGGING & TOPOLOGY
RIGGING & TOPOLOGY
Working on the topology and rigging was definitely the hardest part of designing this character. At first, I went for a low-poly approach, which kept the geometry minimal and easier to handle. But as the model became more detailed over time, I had to redo the topology, adding more subdivisions and refining the rig so it would better support the body and its movements.
I use a cel-shading setup for my textures to keep that stylized, cartoon-like look in my models. I usually start with a simple node setup and build on it when needed, adding things like roughness or multiply nodes to introduce more texture and let the lighting interact more naturally with the colors.
SHADING
