Finding my monster Milo

I've been taking this class on Maya in Florence during my study abroad time, and thankfully my professors have already started to encourage USC students to start thinking about our thesis'. During the summer I have had some time to think about my story, so the rough idea involves a little girl- Noemi, a friendly (but perhaps misunderstood) monster, and a sick grandfather. 

Before the semester started I already had some idea of what I wanted my little girl and monster to look like. I've been doodling and drawing various character designs.

Initial little monster doodles

playing with the idea of a little monster

concepts for Noemi and grandfather?

More monsters (I was leaning towards the tall monster at this point)

Playing with the relationship between my monster and Noemi

But talking to Laura and Michael (my professors) during class made me realize that my monsters were way too conventional and had a "mimic-Pixar/Dreamworks/Disney" feel. So I tried to find designs that would make the monster stand out a little more and have a unique shape/silhouette. 

I wanted an awkward monster

But these designs were still too "mainstream" so Laura and Michael suggested that I look to nature, Renaissance art, mythological creatures from around the world, and other unusual sources to find inspiration. One of my classmates, Tiffanie, also suggested that my monster could be more of a forest creature. 

So I went on a little online internet hunt and looked up all kinds of monsters/plants/animals. There are some pretty big weirdos and bizarre things on the internet... let me tell you. And if you're ever in the mood for ridiculously frightening ideas for monsters, the Philippines have fabricated some of the most twisted and demented creatures EVER. Anyways, here are the images that I decided I really liked:

Michael suggested that I look at various eyes- for example, Toothless' cat eyes

I found this really cool drawing of Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh, he's absolutely terrifying but so BA and woodsy

I also discovered that Gineseng/Mandrake roots are pretty sick

They actually look like people!

More mandrake

I also never realized how cool antlers were

Nature has some really fascinating geometry

 So combined, I started to come up with totally different designs. Instead of being an awkwardly tall cutesy monster, I decided to go towards a more mysterious and "foresty" direction. Perhaps my monster could have an "iron giant" feel, where your initial reaction would be some kind of fear because he is so unknown. Oh! I also decided to name my monster Milo :) Here's a progression of sketches/designs for Milo:

As some of you may have noticed, I added a red scarf to Milo. The inner child in me wants to pay an homage to Mr. Tumnus :)

Playing around with ideas for Milo's eyes and antlers

So here is the finalized version of my design that Laura, Michael and I agreed on. It still has a lot of room for improvement but we decided this would be a good exercise to start on for this class.

Milo!

Front View

Back View

And so begins the process of modeling! The antlers were by far the hardest for me and I must have started over on certain areas at least 20 times. Since it was my first time modeling ever, I also had trouble figuring out the right way to create the mesh. Here is a work in progress picture:

And after hours of modeling, here is the (almost) finished first model of Milo! My professor Michael was awesome and rendered/added the music for him. With the practice I've had in this class, my goal is to refine the design and model of Milo and build another version of him from scratch. His antler's still look quite two-dimensional so I would like to add more volume and body to the overall shape. It would also be nice to exaggerate the difference in height between the two antlers so he looks more organic. And of course I need to fix the little divide in his stomach because while I was modeling I forgot to delete a few faces :3 

But my packing/studies are calling in Florence so this will just have to wait until I return to the states.