Okay, I Jumped the Gun

I Started Modelling & Rigging the Main Character

OOPS!

I acknowledge that I started this WAY too soon, but hey - 3D is my jam and I couldn’t wait any longer.

Here he his in all his rigged glory.

Consider this my ‘concepting’ phase, as I’m much faster at modelling than I am at drawing. I didn’t know I was going to give him these cute beady eyes until I made them and I’m still unsure if he’ll have a mouth.

I did some weird versions that made him look part dolphin though (see below for a laugh).

Weird human-like lips on a beetle. Why?

A dolphin mouth on a beetle… Not much better.

After these failed attempts, I figured I’d do a draw-over later to decide if he’ll have a mouth or not.

Then I did a silly little doodle to see if I like him having the anatomically correct about of limbs (see below).

He is not impressed that I’ve modeled him without having a final concept.

It’s also important to note at this point that this isn’t the final model.
I’m using a modified version of the referencing pipeline and will swap this mesh out with updated versions without having to redo much weight painting. It’ll be more of a tidy-up job, as long as the character silhouette doesn’t change.

Which, let’s be honest, could very much happen because I’ve skipped a major step in concepting.

Moving along!
Here’s his rig and control set. Nothing fancy. It’s bare bones so I decide what his range of motion is going to be.

I think I’m going to give him antennae too.