Behind the Scenes: Mabel Pines

INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone! My name is Christina and I am 32 years old. I go by the nickname “Fexxist” (which is a made-up name). I am a freelancer and currently exploring the world of 3D graphics. I have been interested in 3D graphics for many years but have always had periods of quitting.

However, this time I am serious about it. I started my learning journey with YouTube and several marathons, and I also took one of the best courses available.

INSPIRATION

After watching many tutorials on YouTube, I wanted to create something of my own, not according to the tutorials.

Since I’m a Gravity Falls fan, it didn’t take long to find inspiration. Definitely Mabel, because she’s so cute. And her sweaters, give me a chance to practice with the particle system in the blender.

I wanted to make the work more atmospheric, at the expense of depth of field and forest backgrounds.

MABEL’S MODEL

The first thing I did was to model Mabel. Everything according to the standard scheme:

cube => subdivision, cube => subdivision, and so on with almost all objects.

And then I had to make the most beautiful sweater in the world, while experimenting with wool.

Too fluffy Too unkempt Too perfect

To make the sweater more realistic, I added some folds to it.

ENVIRONMENT

For the trees, I first modeled the branches in three different ways and placed them on the trees while looking through the camera. I placed the foreground branches right in front of the camera so that they would appear blurred in the rendering.

To create the grass, I used Blender’s particle system and weight paint.

And, controlled its location through the camera lens.

LIGHTING

It took a lot of time to arrange the light sources. I wanted to illuminate the trees and the texture of the wood. And also Mabel herself, so she wouldn’t look flat, and you could see the bits of wool on her sweater.