Meet Wisteria
About
“Wisteria” is a character I developed during my second semester, spanning two classes that allowed me to bring her to life in both 2D and 3D. In my Illustration and Animation class, I designed and animated her in 2D, focusing on character design and movement. Later, in my 3D Animation and Rigging class, I recreated Wisteria in 3D, including modeling, texturing, and animating her. This project highlights my ability to translate a character across different mediums, showcasing skills in design, animation, and technical execution.
Creative Process
Wisteria is a small young fairy with butterfly wings, who lives in the woods. She is whimsical and likes to wander. She loves shiny and sparkly objects, and she enjoys collecting them while she is wandering in the woods. She loves her friends and shows her love by gifting these shiny objects to them. Her love of shiny things is shown in her sparkly purple bows that she wears in her pig tails.
Wisteria in 2D
Animating Wisteria in 2D
Animating Wisteria was an immersive process. I dressed up as her—complete with butterfly wings—and recorded videos of myself skipping to create an authentic walk cycle. I began by sketching the walk cycle, then refined her skipping motion using the puppet method for animation.
To complement her animation, I designed a parallax background in Photoshop, incorporating elements like trees, rocks, and a tree stump I had painted in a previous assignment. Additionally, for a bonus assignment, I brought Wisteria into a simple game provided by my instructor, adding an interactive element to her character.
Play the game here: https://mkelly.art/KELLY_A3_GAME/
Wisteria in 3D
I was thrilled to carry Wisteria into another class during the same semester—3D Animation and Rigging—where I reimagined her in 3D. My progress included modeling her in Blender, experimenting with animations, adding textures and materials, and, for the first time, importing an animation into Unreal Engine. This experience expanded my skills and brought Wisteria to life in a new dimension.
