When I first started this project I knew I wanted to combine 2 outfits features in the Laika Coraline film. The iconic yellow raincoat outfit and the underrated long sleeve striped outfit.
I began my process with reference both from the film and an artist called @little_fishy_things on Instagram
Next I began blocking out my model in Zbrush
Once I had a base I really wanted to start the hair early. I experimented with the hair particle system in Blender early in the process to attempt a natural curly hair look
Once I had the hair somewhat figured out I moved to seeing what the entire outfit would look like
Ultimately I ended up settling with this first pass
As I experimented with the look of my character I also explored rigging my character to find flaws and happy mistakes in my model. I rigged my model both with my own rig and using a Blender addon that syncs Adobe Mixamo animations
While looking at this model, I didn't feel like I was hitting all the elements I wanted in my original plan. So I went back to the drawing board and really let loose.
As much as I want this character to be similar to the original Coraline, the goal of this project was to have the model have my style and attitude. I feel like this model below hits the nail on the head for me.
I was able to use Substance Painter for final texturing which was so helpful! I added some characters as details on the jeans.
Once I added the hair, a different rig, and lighting this is how my character ended up
I applied new animations to the fully textured model to see how everything moved and I'm very pleased with how everything looks