Pre-Production

Our first time in the Studio, we were given instruction to create a barrel in Maya. First we selected the cylinder, this then automatically appeared and we had to select the face on the top of the cylinder only and pressed the button for extrude, I was then able to select the arrow going up and I could manipulate this to expand creating a ridge where the barrel would have bands wrapped around it. I did this process several times in order to get the shape, in the process i also used the bevel tool which would allow me to create a smooth edge on the top of the barrel so it doesn't appear to sharp and again to create the dent on the top on the barrel, to give the impression something my be inside or a lid.

Once I made the barrel and adjusted it, I went on to open the UV settings and selected UV map. I then neatly separated the lines, this was so that when I had applied my own texture in Photoshop I could see what I was applying my texture too, for example, the bands i wanted to be gold and the lines made it evident which part that was.

Milestone 2: Character Statue (Maya, Photoshop, Unity)

Week 1, 04/01.2016

In the first week I conducted my own research to get ideas for the character statue, as the first milestone consisted of a battle arena based on the theme Ancient Rome. This was the era where there would be battles amongst gladiators, therefore I wanted to create a character statue of a gladiator. The first piece of research was of a mood board of the environment and the next piece was another mood board of the clothing styles, armor and weapons that gladiators would typically wear.

Then I used the information I found and created a model sheet in Photoshop of the character statue by getting an image of a well built anatomy of a man, as gladiators are usually considered strong, as well as images of weapons, armor, head pieces and other types of clothing which I carefully cropped and placed on the anatomy image which I lined up to the best of my abilities to show what the character statue will be.

Week 2 - 3, 11/01/2016 - 18/01/2016

Once I had a clear idea of what I wanted the character statue to look like, I then went on to making the different body parts, starting with the head. I choose this body part first as I thought it would be tedious to make and so I wanted to have had time to work on it and if  I wanted to change it throughout I could do so.

First I imported an image into Maya of a face I took from the internet. This would be a guideline for the head that I'd follow to create a 3D model of a male face for the character statue.

I started off with the eyes and mouth, creating a cylinder in which I'd transform into the shape around the eyes and the mouth, I then used the extrude tool to start creating the rest of the face, I followed the outer edge of the image to get the shape of the head just right, as this image was of a female face I had shaped the jaw and other small areas of the head to make it appear masculine.

Week 4, 25/01/2016

Secondly, I went onto modelling a hand, I only had to create one as I can duplicate it to make the other, this would save time and I can easily edit the hands after by adjusting the positioning of fingers or any part of the hand to give it a distinctive appearance so that it would not look exactly the same.

I imported a front, side and back image of a hand as a guideline, again it was female so I adjusted it to make the hand appear masculine. I started with the palm, creating a cube and adding edge loops and extruding. I then went onto creating one of the fingers, I only had to create one as I would be able to duplicate it to make the other three fingers and it would save a considerable amount of time. I followed the image to transform the finger and give it detail.

I went onto creating the finger tip, as this part of the finger is rounded I created a sphere which I then reduced the amount of loops and merged the vertices of the finger tip to the end of the finger. I then created the finger nail by selecting the face of the finger tip and extruding inwards to create a dent, I then used the bevel tool so that it gave a smooth edge.

The last part of the hand I needed to create was the thumb, to do this, I used a duplicate of the fingers, transformed it so it was smaller and thicker and followed the image to create a noticeable thumb by moving around the edges and vertices.

Week 5, 01/02/2016

This week i then created the feet. I added several shapes together to do this, I used my own feet as inspiration. I firstly created the main shape of the foot, creating and adding the toes one by one and then the ankle as it attaches to the leg. I found this harder than creating the hand.

Week 6 - 7, 08/02/2016 - 15/02/2016

Next, I moved on to create the torso, using images as a reference, I created a cylinder and reshaped it so it appeared thin at the side view as a torso is not round at all. I did not import an image as I found  it was one of the easiest body parts to model. As I was creating a male gladiator, I did not have to worry too much about curves by of the muscles. I created pecks and abdominal muscles by adding edge loops and creating dents so that these muscles were seen clearly.

Once the torso was modelled I used the extrude tool to model out the arms, shoulders, neck, bottom, legs and chest. This was relatively easy to do as It was attached to the torso and I had to create a simple base for the rest of body. After this was done, I attached all body parts together by merging them.

I used the sculpt tool to finally add in some detail the whole body to give a realistic feel.

Afterwards, I started to design the clothing and equipment for the gladiator statue, I had done this by overlaying shapes over the already modelled character statue and used images as a guideline. This was relatively easy as the gladiator statue I am creating hasn't got much clothing or equipment on them, only a armoured skirt, a small circular head piece, sandals, and a weapon. I done this simple so that when in z brush I would add more detail.

Week 8 - 15,  22/02/2016 -  28/03/2016

I exported my gladiator statue into z brush where I could then uses different brushes to create a rock-like appearance and cracks to make the statue believable.

As I made my statue high poly in z brush I thought it would be better to essentially paint the statue instead of UV mapping it afterwards. I thought this would be better as statues in Ancient Rome were plain stone textures with a lot of detail, and so I wanted my statue to relate. I used z brush to mould my statue, for example the face as i left features out because I wanted to give my statue hair and a detailed face and i thought z brush was the best programme to do so. This was a very tedious task and took several weeks to get the look i wanted to achieve.

Week 14 4/04/2016

I used this week to create an animation during my battle arena seen. This was fire, this animated whilst on a barrel.

 I also Incorporated more props into the scene of the battle arena to improve upon it, this included the sword used for the gladiator statue.

Week 15 11/04/2016

I used this time to ensure that my model was a high standard as well as putting together the arena and statue.

The limitations i encountered was how difficult the head was to create at first, I then decided to create a basic head shape in Unity and to then use z brush to add features and all the details, so I did not do what i originally wanted, not only this, but i encountered a few problems with using z brush, my model had several holes, I was not able to use this so instead used my low poly statue and applied a stone texture, I was disappointed in myself that I was not able to use my high poly statue nor apply a texture properly, but i ran out of time. I found modelling overall quite different, working to real life proportions and of a body was more difficult than modelling something surreal. However, I did enjoy myself and thought it was a fun project.

Pixel Art

This weeks task, I was assigned to create a robot in the form of pixel art. Pixel art is a very stylised and simple art style which was derived from the early days of gaming when screen resolution and colours were limited. 

I created a very typical looking robot, with arms, legs and a simple square face with a computer screen panel for his eyes and body. I had created this in Photoshop and had zoomed in far enough so i could see the single pixels. I used a pencil simply because most Photoshop brushes use anti-aliasing which means it smooths the brush stroke, this is not what i wanted to create a piece of pixel art, but before this, I was shown how to draw an isometric piece of pixel art, so we designed a 3D cube. 

This is the design of my finished robot, I used bright and bold colours so it would stand out from being a typical robot.

Speed Study: Night Scene

This weeks task was a speed study. I was asked to replicate the image shown below, a girl picking apples in the middle of the night. This task was to focus on the colours during the night, for example the bright light emitted is not a white colour but a light blue.

I found this very difficult to do, simply because of the positioning and all the variety of colours, which made me lack in detail for example the tree leaves.

Paint Technique: Alien Caterpilla

This weeks task was to paint this alien caterpillar, we looked at the original painting and the colour techniques applied, we were given a blank template and in Photoshop had to apply our knowledge to create a replica of this alien caterpillar.

Once I had the blank template (above) I opened it up and Photoshop and looking at the original coloured in alien caterpillar i tried my hardest to select the correct colours. I used the round soft brush to successfully blend in the colours and the opacity to create a lighter version of a colour to get the lighting effect.

Speed Study: Whaleboy

This weeks task was to do a speed paint study of the image below, just like the speed study of the old lady's face, I applied my knowledge and the same technique to do a speed paint of this whale boy. 

The image below shows the final outcome of my own version of the whale boy. I used blocks of colours at first to get the correct shape and then applied details to enhance the depth of the image overall.

Sci-Fi Ship Concept

This weeks task was to create a sci-fi ship concept that was either a fighter or transporter ship, it had to be believable with relatable technology.

We had to create a basic 3D model of our ship and display it with good composition, lighting and viewing angle. I was able to either paint over to create a final piece or to draw the final piece in Photoshop and perspective needs to be accurate.

Firstly, for my research i put together a moodboard of range of ships that had unique shapes, colours and panels.

The image below is my initial sketches that I had made in Photoshop, all individal and unique designs of what a sci-fi ship could be. 

 Here is my model that i created in Maya, I found this challenging but i did thoroughly enjoy this task. I tried to make sure that i angled the ship as best as I could. I added in some detail as well, this involved creating dents and small square shaped bolts and panels. I then took a screenshot of my ship and then added in a grey background and erased the surrounding to create a more visually pleasing and neat design of my model.

With my model, I took inspiration and painted over it in Photoshop, however, I did erase and changed the shape of the ship, such as the two long outer wings. Although i did keep quite a lot of the ship the same, such as the inner wings and the overall shape as i could this more appealing and had looked more like a fighter ship.

Paint Over: Yoda

This weeks task was to doing a paint over for Yoda. This involved using Photoshop and practically getting the correct colours and to colour in Yoda. 

The image above was the image that we were given to paint over. The image below is the final image once I had finished painting over.

Body Proportions: Elf and Dwarf

This weeks task was to design a elf and dwarf, however, the elf had to be at least "10" heads long and the dwarf had to be at least "4 heads" long. This was to test our skill with dealing with body proportions. 

Robot design

During the Induction week, i was assigned to create a robot. First, i created a moodboard with a plethora of different types of robots. 

I then made an initial sketch of three robots that i could further develop.

The robot i created is called Tinker, the reason behind this is because Tinker is essentially a handy man that can fix anything in the house, office or in general. He is able to fold itself away until it is needed. Within itself, Tinker has many components such as hammers and screwdrivers that make it a perfect handy man.

Insect Character Design

This weeks task was to create an Insect character that could be potentially used in a 3D game, i was able to choose what type of theme I wanted and the type of character I wanted my insect to be. Firstly, I out together a mood board with insects that showed human like features as well as a cartoon style.

I wanted to design an insect that is off a cartoon style that would be suitable for a children's 3D game. Therefore, my insect is not in any way realistic with a lot of features or detail. However, i did add a human-like face with arms and mutated feet, these features were added so that the children could have a better understanding with my insect creature as they'd be able to relate better with human features instead of a bug eyed insect.

A Tree With Character

This weeks task was to design a character tree with a sense of place not necessarily with features or a face but a tree that has character.

I wanted to design a tree that is eerie and mysterious, I had to focus on the surroundings as well as the tree to enhance this eerie mood. Therefore, i gathered different Images from the internet and "photo-bashed" them together in Photoshop and painted over and adding my own features and effects to create it my own.

Mutant Fish

This weeks task was Inspired by Mike McCarthy's previous session the week before and so was asked to produce a quick concept idea for a mutated fish.

The design had to be instantly recognisable as an underwater creature and so I incorporated gills, scales, a fish like mouth, and wide eyes.