FEEDBACK P1A

Sweet, I got some feedback from Kah which I think is really helpful while doing this.
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Initial Feedback:

The swimming lizard is a good start. The animations are pretty good too, except the head is a

little stilted. Try varying the speed of motion - could it move faster/slower?

There's something missing in the translation from 2D sketch to 3d model. I'd experiment

further with the proportion, really push everything to an extreme to see if you can improve

on the overall composition.

Then focus on detailing the model. how does the crown on the neck fold. How big are the

claws? How thick are the fins and tail? Don't be afraid of asymetry.

SWIMMING ANIMATION

Oooh, another animation I've done, still awkward though.

IDLE ANIMATION

Tweak, fix and tweak, fix, fix... it's really harsh to do animations, sad!

SKINNED MODEL

After finishing the rig, now time to rearrange the skeleton and skin to make it live.

It was simply applied the "Smooth Bind" command in Maya, I felt so lucky. However, I would fix my model and make it higher poly model so Painting Skin Tools are inevitable.

IK HANDLES APPLIED

IK handle is awesome in the many ways, but when it comes to me, it is a big trouble. I didn't really want to apply to my model, but I wanted my model to be bit more flexible on animating process.

For three fingers, the very top and bottom fingers IK handles are applied from the top and end joint of each fingers...

For the middle one, still the same but in addition, one more IK handles between the top joint of that finger and the wrist.

LIZARD - RIGGING PROCESS

Started rigging with a very basic joints system. I calculated a bit for all the joints fit the limb spots.

A spine system for my lizard, sweet... next is limbs joints

Sure thing is there are always problems when I rig, some I need to fix up lots of thing, and also put on some more limbs joints

 Now apply joints into the fingers. Sweet my lizard's forming lively.

 Finally, I've done rigging for my "baby"

LIZARD - 3D MODELLING

I put the plane which I've created before in Photoshop, into Maya. Started off with a box and here what I've got.

PREPARE TO MAKE THE LIZARD 3D

I carefully sketched the lizard a bit more detailed, then created whole bunch of grids to draw the other views which were needed for modelling.
Here what I've done

EVOLUTIONARY CYCLE SKETCH

I thought about some sort of bugs or insects because I've been always inspired by how butterflies evolved from a caterpillar.

Then lots more of sketches, I just drew anything come up into my head, eg : tadpoles, flowers, frogs, bunnies, moles...

I was about to choose the flower evolved into a cactus-liked plant in a desert environment. However, I wonder why not sketch some more, it would be any ways. Then I thought about animals could live both on ground and underwater; amphibians were probably what I wanted.

And sure I could mix everything on earth up. A reptile evolves into an amphibian-liked lizard which can swim now.
Extra thoughts: a giant island turtle which can be explained simply as a enormously giant turtle brings a whole ecological system on his shell. After all, I chose the amphibian lizard after all.

VERY FAST BRAINSTORM

I brainstormed fast ideas come up into my head. Just figure out a bit what to do.