Animation is used for many different purposes, from movies and television to web pages and video games. At one time, in order to create your own animated characters for use in animation you would have needed an expensive and complex program like 3D Max or Maya. But these days anyone can (with a little effort) create your own animated characters. All you need is a basic modeling program like Hexagon and the figure animation program Poser or Daz Studio. In this article a simple cartoon-like figure will be created.
Instructions
1. Sketch out the figure you want to create. You want to have two sketches; one from the front with arms outstretched and one from the right in the same pose. Then scan these drawings into your computer and save them.
2. Open Hexagon. Go to the "Scene Properties" on the right and click on the "Browse" buttons next to the side and back facing grids. Browse to the sketches you scanned in and place the front facing one on the back grid and the one from the right on the side grid.
3. Select the "Primitives" tab at the top and click on the "Cube." Use the "Move" and "Scale" function of the "Universal Manipulator" tool to place the cube about where the chest of you figure would be. Then select the "Surface Modeling" tab and click on "Surface Extrude." Click on the top polygon and use the mouse to drag out an extrusion to create a rough upper shoulders.
4. Continue creating these extrusions to form the lower neck, upper neck and head. in the same way, you can create extrusions from the sides and bottom to form the arms and legs. In places like the legs where you need two extrusions from one polygon, go to the "Vertex Modeling" tab and use one of the "Tessellation" tools to divide the polygon before extruding it. This technique also lets you create fingers and toes. When you have finished the rough shape of your model, click on the "Smoothing" in the "Properties Panel." This will automatically give your model a curvy, organic appearance.
5. Now click on the "Materials/Shading Domain" tab on the left. Select areas of the figure you want to be the same color, such as the hands and face. Click "New Domain" and name the domain "Skin." In the "Materials" panel make the "Color" the color you want the skin to be. Continue this process until you have colorized the entire model. You now have built a basic cartoon figure that is ready to be rigged and animated in another program like Poser or Daz Studio.
