Early Concept Development
Tinker is a character from one of the exploratory storylines in my head, and he’s also got the type of shapes that I enjoy, so I jumped at the chance to make him in 3D.
His role in his story is to be the father figure, a bulky and sturdy figure who is a source of comfort for other characters, despite his stony disposition.
Translation into 3D
Tinker was the first character I’d ever brought into 3D. He was made almost entirely in Maya, though I played around in Sculptris to get the look of his head right and then used quad draw to get the edge loops I had in mind.
His textures were painted in Photoshop after I’d UV’d him, and I gave them a fresh coat of paint once I went back to slap a rig on. I also cut some of the model to let him open his beak, and did some touchups to allow for better animation.