Behind the scene of a cute NFT 3D art collection project
1. Preliminary Concept - Started 8th July 2021 2. Made Refinements - Lots of iterations in-between 3. Final Look & Feel - I approved my own design
The Cutie Quirks project came about when my Odd Eggs project got to a halt due to the NFT platform Hic Et Nunc on the Tezos token being comprised in early June 2021. That meant no minting could be done by artist until security issues was resolved. It was at this point that I started creating a character dressed up as a bull costume.
One of the major hurdles I had was getting the fingers to look right. The first attempt was big, chunky and finger sizes were inconsistent. Even bending it was so difficult. In the end I threw out what I had and remodelled the fingers. I also spent the time rigging the fingers just to make it look more natural with the position.
Interesting Pointers: You might notice why is there only 3 fingers and a thumb? This was intentionally designed so that it looks a bit more chubby and reads better with the overall character design. Let's say it's an extra cuteness boost. It is also a common practise in the animation industry. This is mainly to do with time and cost-saving so animators won't need to animate all the fingers. Next time take a closer look at Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Simpson etc.
Then it was on to figuring out an efficient production workflow to effectively replace the different accessories. Fortunately, I learned Blender (3D Application) has a link reference feature, which I did some head-scratching & experimenting with since there were not a lot of tutorials. Not perfect but still works reasonably well.
Interesting Pointers: Why is there no mouth to Cutie Quirks design? I take no credit for this, I actually learned this from my research into Hello Kitty. It came to be that Hello Kitty has no mouth because the designer wanted people to "project their feelings onto the character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." Using this theory I want Cutie Quirks character to have the same emotional feeling and be closely bonded with each owner. Though in the future I may have an exception to allow the character to open its mouth to drink or say something, this would most likely be done by indention.
To tie the story with the art, I created six characters, Happy, Humble, Poppy, Sweet, Wise and Brave. Each has its own personality, different costume and key colours. This allows for the option for similar feature hat styles to be assigned while looking different.
I am proud of this NFT art toy figurine and how it came to be. The beauty of it is that I was able to create something out of nothing. From design through to final art. Non-AI generated trick, just pure hardworking passion of making beautiful art. Hopefully, this adds investment value to all Cutie Quirks collectors. Learn more about Cutie Quirks Series 1.
Comentarios