I am a huge fan of the Crash Bandicoot saga and when I started to get a bit into 3D and animation my choice for my first work was quite simple: a tribute to one of the games of the franchise, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
I started with an accurate study of the character, to understand properly how to model the Bandicoot and how to build his rig to make his animation as fluid as in the original game. Using Blender I managed to obtain a satisfying and low poly 3D model that I successfully rigged with IK/FK switch for legs and arms and some basic face controllers.
![crash bandicoot 3d animation 3d character modelling rigging texturing Level Design](https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/e10bf738081515.575595055c5bc.png)
![crash bandicoot 3d animation 3d character modelling rigging texturing Level Design](https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/71754e38081515.575595055cc3c.png)
After drawing some textures with Photoshop to match the UV's of my chacacter, I started working on the design of the environment I wanted him to move in, with a focus also on the object he was going to interact with. I worked with particles and break simulation in Blender to obtain a good animation of some boxes getting crashed by my character and then I moved on the real animation.
![crash bandicoot 3d animation 3d character modelling rigging texturing Level Design](https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/ea2bf538081515.575595055d429.png)
To achieve the characteristic "rolling" animation of the Bandicoot, I animated some cylinders placed around his body, using a transparent alpha texture to create a blurred effect of the arms while spinning at high speed. A Particle System was also added to create some sparkles during the movement, in order to communicate the power unleashed by the motion itself.
![crash bandicoot 3d animation 3d character modelling rigging texturing Level Design](https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/370bea38081515.575595055da8c.png)
The character animations were pretty simple, focused on making Crash Bandicoot move inside a simple game level I designed for him: a basic breathing loop, a run loop, a jumping and a few attacks animations.
When working on the environment (and the character itself) I choosed to keep the result close to the low quality and vintage appearance of the world I was referencing to, mostly trying to extract the texture from the game itself and modeling everything with the less amount of polygons needed.