Week 4

This week has been quite a hectic and if not stressful week. In visual design we took a look at tones and values more specifically how to handle a value scale as well as briefly touching upon the planes of the human head. I was quite pleased with this part of visual design since this area in art is an area I've always struggled with. Not only this but as an aspiring character artist anything to do with the human form and portraiture gains my interest.

Our task for this week in visual design was to approach rendering different textures and styles as a preliminary task for the soon to be arriving rock project and the village project. I feel quite anxious about these projects as I feel that my traditional rendering techniques of texture could be stronger however this week's task has at least started me on my path to resolve this weakness.

Moreover this week I was given quite a challenge which I found took up a lot of my time. The Sci-Fi crate. This project I found was very stressful and time consuming as I find 3D to be my weakest area on the course however I want to push myself so I can one day look these blog posts and have a laugh at my past struggles. I think the hardest and most tedious part about the project was the unwrap process. I found that every time that I would find progress with the crate and import my texture to 3DS Max I would find small minor problems I would have to correct. Although I found this part of the crate the most painful part, the texturing process I found was very enjoyable as it allowed me to explore my creativity and experiment with textures.

During this week I was also introduced to developing silhouettes as well as a task on creating a story for our Cubeeman through photos. Although I myself haven’t practised with the silhouettes process yet I plan to use the knowledge I gained from the session to produce strong concepts for next week’s rock project.

For the story of my Cubeeman I decided to set it around my Cubeeman visiting MCM comic con in London. Not only did this allow me to gain interesting photos and compositions for my Cubeeman, this trip allowed me to see my character design in context against other strong and iconic character designs. (I also got to go to comic con which was a plus).

Below is a slide containing visuals for all the projects I’ve produced this week.

Numerous Failed UV unwraps

Week 3

This week has been quite an eventful week. Firstly my studies in Linear Perspective have lead me to experiment with 2 point perspective which seems like a challenge for me but so far each challenge the course has offered seems to be very fun and very rewarding. I can already feel myself getting better with each day spent on the course. Everyday has been an opportunity to learn something new and exciting. Speaking of which this week I textured my first 3d original character; the cubeeman. This so far has been my favourite project because I had to design an original character, paint my characters outfit /texture, and texture a preset 3D model. This project got me to build visual research through mood boards and create several concepts, reiterate them until I got a design I was happy with. Within this post, you may see my journey on how I designed my character and eventually ended up with a final design I feel works well.

2 Point perspective

Inspiration for cubeeman (Mayan art and Japanese Tokusatsu culture)

Early designs

Sketch of final design (felt this didn't work so much translated onto cube hence I decided to reiterate the design again)

Digital thumbs improving my design and approaching a stronger look

The final design a Mayan art inspired tokusatsu Cubeeman

My Final design printed out

This week I also worked on an independent project of mine. Nothing too fancy but something to test what I've learnt so far on the course. I set myself a challenge to model and texture a soda drink can. This tested my modelling and unwrapping skills and I hope this has prepared me for next week's sci-fi crate project.

My first texture sheet

My Final Soda can

In my free time, I've also pushed myself and started to experiment with digital environmental thumbnails. Admittedly, I would consider myself more of a character art person than an environmental artist, however after experimenting with this area of art I'm starting to find some love for environments. I love how it's possible to communicate an area with such little mark making and I would love to further push my skills in this area.

Digital thumbnail of the canal next time I'll remove the horizon line and vanishing point

Additionally, this week I had to present my presentation on my favourite character design. Since it was my first time I think I struggled a bit summarising my points but just like everything else the course has thrown at me with a bit of work I can get better.

Finally, this week's Cool Wednesday was on cool places to visit for inspiration.

The places were as follows

• ·         Pinterest
• ·         Dark Roasted Blend
• ·         The world
• ·         Cool Hunter
• ·         Atlas Obsucra
• ·         My fellow students
• ·         Polycount
• ·         Stumbleupon
• ·         Good Cultural Institute
• ·         YouTube

These places shall hopefully come in handy when I delve deeper in the course.

Week 2

This week I felt was a much shorter week in terms of skills learnt. I started to learn about composition and practise using a viewfinder to isolate elements within a picture plane and thus build upon my 2D skills and perspective. In terms of 3D I’ve started to become more comfortable modelling in 3Ds max and hopefully in time I can find my feet with this new software. Moreover I learnt how to unwrap and texture my models so in the future I guess I’ll be posting textured 3D work. Sounds exciting right. This week’s Cool Wednesday I was introduced to my lecturers experience in the game industry and learnt about the wonders of the game industries progress as an industry from its first footsteps through to its brooding teen years and now the mature industry it is now today. We also learnt about the less exciting roles in the industry (like a grass modeller).

Finally Fridays seminar seems like the start of something I’m really passionate about which is character design. We started to dissect what makes an iconic and readable design and we have now been tasked with analysing our favourite character design. I can’t wait! It will give me the chance to really understand why I like characters and what is it that makes a character iconic which hopefully will rub off on my future characters.

My first week

My first week so far at DMU has been quite an experience. It’s only been a week and already after my first lecture I’m starting to feel more confident about 1 point perspective and my artistic skill. I have tried to push myself out of my comfort zone and I hope to experiment more in the future with art. Below is an example of work I have produced this week in my own time.

My first 3D model - a warhammer

Before 1 point perspective lecture

Before 1 point perspective lecture

After 1 point perspective lecture

Not only this, but this week I’ve had my first experience with 3D modelling and well it’s certainly an interesting medium to work with. I’ve learnt about Tris, Quads and the infamous N-gon and so far to be honest it doesn’t seem like a medium I’m strong with as of now but that will certainly change as I’m very interested in mastering 3d just as I am 2d. One particular stand out moment this week was an inspiring presentation on Wednesday which introduced to the gif artist Paul Robertson and the medium of gif art. It’s a blend of animation and digital art with subtle movements and it’s something I would like to explore to communicate interesting animation and well make something really cool. Finally one thing that really caught my eye during Wednesday presentation was Paul Robertsons quirky yet energetic animation Kings of Power 4 Billion% which just like the title hints takes it up a notch to a level which left me wanting more.

Media texts like these which have a distinct style to them push me to further my skill in the hopes of one day producing work like this whether it be a game with this over the top style or an eye catching animation such as this

About me

Hello, my name is Chris Anka (not to be confused with Kris Anka artist at marvel comics) and I’m currently a first year at DMU game art design.  I’m an aspiring artist hoping to make the most of my three years at DMU and join my artistic heroes as a character artist although I admire all forms of art and would like to pursue most things that allow me a creative outlet such as film, animation and graphic design. I chose Game art to push my skills and surround myself with a medium that I have adored since the early stages of my childhood. This blog will serve as a diary of my artistic journey and I hope in the future this blog reflects the notion that art is a skill which can be learnt not something we are born with.