"Crunchy" the Calculator

The Original "Crunchy"

Artifact description

The company I work for has developed a program with the image of a calculator scrolling “8675309” across the face of the calculator when certain functions are called in the program.

As a joke, I started creating “Crunchy the Calculator” with that same premise. I took an image of a super-old adding machine and created an endearing character out of it and attempted to get the “8675309” to animate on the paper roll. I was able to get it to work in a way, but it is not perfect. The crank is also animated to advance the roll of paper to the next line.

The original Crunchy exhibits my older abilities to create a likeable character from scratch and develop them into a relative asset to my current career. Being able to take a single 2D image and create a 3D render out of it is a great skill to develop.

"Crunchy"the Calcualator

Updated Artifact

Tool(s) used

- - Blender

Highlighted skills

- - I utilized concepts learned at SNHU to further develop the 3D character and animation. The 3D asset creation and topology standards that I have learned here have benefitted the updates I applied to this artifact.
  - The original mouth topology, more specifically, was stretched and deformed to a point that it was not manageable to reshape and needed replaced with more controlled and planned topologies.

Reflection

- - How would you describe the process of creating and polishing the artifact?
    - I had fun creating the artifact years ago and just as much fun updating it. It was challenging but fun!
  - What did you learn as you were creating it and improving it?
    - I will need to work more on topology around the mouth to eliminate some of the texture stretching that is still evident in the animation.
  - What challenges did you face?
    - This was the first time I had created an armature and "weight painted" the vertices to the bones.
  - How did you incorporate feedback as you made changes to the artifact?
    - There was not much feedback on the artifact that I had to incorporate.
  - How was the artifact improved?
    - I have cleaned up the animation of the paper and “8675309” text. I have also added some numbers to the buttons.
    - I also replaced the entire mouth section as it was horrible in the original.
      - I was also able to incorporate some of the armature knowledge I acquired from the Catabow artifact to animate the jaw and upper and lower lips of the new "Crunchy".