week 16

This week we carried on with boot camp, preparing us for the upcoming character project.

Visual Design

In visual design we discussed the various proportions of the head and how to construct it. I have had previous experience with head anatomy and proportions, however capturing likeness has always been my weakest point. One thing that stuck to me this week, when discussing head proportions was the idea that jaw definition can determine the look of ones gender or perhaps create an androgynous look depending on the models other features.

This I feel will be very beneficial for future character projects as say if I want to design a female character I have more insight as to what an idealised woman may look like.

Moreover, during visual design our tutor taught us when drawing we should draw what we know first and then draw what we see. Hopefully with this mentality and the right balance I should be able to produce stronger images with given time.

Game Production

In game production, we learnt how to model our heads via box modelling. This task was given to us as we learnt from last week’s tasks that one way to model a low poly character would be to strip model it from the head, hence this week we needed to learn how to model this starting point using the tools we discussed in visual design the previous day. I found this task quite challenging as I do with all new 3d modelling tools and techniques however when I started thinking about how I would construct a head via 2d mediums such as pen or pencil the process started to become less intimidating and difficult. When modelling this head I thought of it as if I were modelling a planar head model. This proved to be handy as I could think about the model more in 3d although I do find some difficulty modelling lips. This is something I plan to practise in the future.

As sort of an independent task to explore, we were tasked with modelling our own heads by first taking orthos of our heads and then tracing the topology for us to follow in the modelling stage. My experience of this task was quite difficult as my understanding of topology is quite limited. This meant I had to research examples of facial topology and try to dissect what it represents. From my research I started to notice similarities with the loops and the structure of facial muscles.

This allowed me to develop my topology orthos with some comfort, however as you can see in image below my first attempt at modelling on the left didn’t go so well. This was due two reasons: one being my front and side view topology didn’t line up meaning I may not have gotten my topology accurate and two my first attempt was modelled via strip modelling which we were not taught. I initially thought it would be nice to experiment this way, in addition to this I believed strip would help me achieve a stronger more accurate head as all I would have to do is follow the topology of the head. Strip modelling on the other hand made me get caught up with fine details instead of looking at the head as a whole and as a result caused this weird dipping texture around areas of the head.

First attempt - left
Second attempt - right
Third attempt - middle

To improve on this fault I modelled a low poly head (right) and a low poly model with some more details (middle) via box modelling allowing me to model with the big picture in mind. These methods were both less time consuming and produced stronger result. I have learnt that perhaps when modelling heads I should work from a box first and chisel in more details as I go along.

Critical studies

This week’s critical studies focused on how we may work in a team and the job roles needed for working within a team. In addition to this in the session we learnt about keeping our digital footprint clean as well as how to look up our digital footprint via the tool pupil which searches the internet for any records of you.

Other work - (work I produce in my free time)

 Below are various paintings that I have produced to get me in the mindset of drawing characters

Egg king in colour- Produced to develop last weeks pencil sketch and explore using colour digitally painting
 Happy with the use of colour however for some reason everything looks very blurry and lacks definition and form. Next time when producing a painting such as this I should block in more values to create more defined form

Silhouettes for Brainstorms redesign Darth vader challenge
I took inspiration from french nobleman dress sense as well as samurai armour
referencing the original design of vaders inspiration being samurai armour.
When desiging these silhouettes I should've had my research on the side allowing me easier access to reference
as well as giving me more opportunities to design a stronger  character

Final concept- drapery needs to be improved as well as how well the form reads
I need to learn how to manage my values better as things seem flat

Learning from previous paintings I decided to block in my tones to make my image sharper
in its end result as well as vary up my tones

Final image - getting better however there needs to be some more slight contrast

Quick character concept, concepting Ghanaian folk legend anansi spider
If I get more free time I would like to reiterate on this design more
The symbol on the character is that of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana to which I owe my heritage to  and thus I wanted this
character to really represent my parents tribe and Ghanaian culture hence making sure any reference I received
when coming up with this initial concept where only from Ghana and about Ghana

             

                                          

I have upoaded this image as it is a good example of where I have been going wrong with a lot
of my paintings.
A lot of the time I've been working with pure blacks and pure whites which is causing  some of my paintings to
become slightly fake and at times muddy. As a result of this I am now working on using more midtones to develop a better
sense of form in my paintings