Week Summary - BA1b Week 7

Vintage Phone

Here are some screenshots of the finished phone. Creating the wire gave me some trouble - I couldn't get the helix shape to follow the path at first, but after asking for some help we found that I wasn't setting the correct axis for the shape to deform along. Once this was fixed I found the process to be much easier, and I'm fairly happy with the final result. 

Digital painting

This week's workshop was looking at gradient maps and how we could apply them to our work. As well as a small value study where I tried using the lasso tool to block in large shapes, I also tried a version where I desaturated the image and used a gradient map to reapply colour. (Original left, recolour right.)

As you can see the effect wasn't quite accurate, but I can still see this being a very useful technique to apply colour to pieces which have been started using only value.

Here is my own value study with a gradient map applied, this version has a lot more contrast to it as I brought in some near-black to the lower end of the map. I didn't completely finish the study as I felt I had achieved my goal with what I had - testing out the functions of gradient maps and testing whether I could use them for future work. I can see this working well to quickly establish mood and to apply a rough palette to a piece before going further.

Research: Industry Roles and Studios

Roles:

Character Artist

This role can cover everything from 2D concept design to 3D character modelling and rigging, often varying according to which company is being considered. What is needed is: 

• A solid knowledge of anatomy (Possibly creatures as well as human)
• The ability to create interesting, diverse, and believeable characters
• The ability to work in any given style

and for 3D: 

• Mostly organic but also possibly hard surface modelling skills
• An understanding of topology and other aspects of modelling relevant to deforming meshes
• A knowledge of texturing and UV mapping
• Possibly a knowledge of rigging 

Environment Artist

Again, this role may cover both 2D and 3D practises and often varies by company . Environment artists require:

• The ability to create believable environments and capture the atmosphere of a scene (2D and/or 3D)
• An extensive knowledge of different environments and how they might integrate or change

For 3D:

• Mainly hard surface but possibly some organic modelling skills
• Again, uv mapping and texturing skills

Both of these artist roles may also require knowledge of game engines and other skills from different roles depending on the studio,

Telltale Games

Since their foundation in 2004 Telltale has become the top of their field in their genre. Most famous for its adaptation of The Walking Dead, with its signature choice-and-consequence system, they have made a very successful business out of their episodic adaptations of third-party franchises, carving themselves a niche that has since been extensively emulated. 

2K games

2K is most famous for a number of successful series, including (but not limited to) the Bioshock, Borderlands, Civilisation, and XCOM franchises, as well as a number of smaller standalone titles and series. The studio was founded in 2005 and is based in numerous locations around the world, as well as having a number of subsidiaries such as the acclaimed Bioshock creators Irrational Games.

As a company, 2K prides itself on pushing its staff to the best of their ability and on "[getting] the job done."

Week Summary - BA1b Week 6

Vintage Phone

My phone is almost finished now, just a few small fixes and the wire to go. I've learnt a lot during the process of making this model, and I'm really proud of it.

Critique session

This week's crit was very helpful, I got some good feedback on how I could improve the structure of my phone model, and seeing others' approaches to the problem was also very helpful. I need to start bringing wireframe versions of my models to crit sessions so that the group can see the geometry of the model. We went through a lot of theory around 3D and I also got some great advice on some personal pieces about aspects like clashing colours that I hadn't really thought about when I was making them.

Study

An environment study I did this week. I was particularly looking at colour for this study, and at establishing a good workflow. I made a mistake in this piece by starting with the foreground, I think, it's much more fluid to start with the background and work forwards. Also, I want to try blocking in the whole image with tools like the lasso tool and working from there, instead of working piece by piece with a brush. I did use a hard brush and some gradient overlays to set down rough shapes, but I feel like I fell back into old habits very quickly on this. That said, I'm really happy with how the mood of this turned out, and I think I really learnt a lot about colour here.

Establishing workflow and colour study

Week Summary - BA1b Week 5

Vintage Phone

I made the mistake of using the wrong reference initially, but as many of these phones share similar shapes, it didn't take too long for me to correct.

All that's left for me to do is to add the dial and wire, and make a few additional tweaks to certain proportions. Having only ever tried low-poly modelling in the past, creating more realistic models has been interesting, and I like how this one in particular has turned out. Creating these complex shapes requires a very distinct thought process which I think I'm starting to get the hang of, although I still have a long way to go.

Photoshop Session

As I was ill last week, I attended another group's photoshop session to catch up. We used adjustment layers, masks and some other techniques to merge two images together. I chose two images at random and tried to focus on colour temperature and lighting to make it look believable.

There were points where I wanted to paint over the image, but I wanted to see what I could do with only these layers. I found them a very useful non-destructive way of testing out ideas and adjusting parts of the image quickly. Looking at the final product now I think it could do with having some of the mushroom colour reflected in the water, but I'm fairly happy with how this sits overall, and I think it is fairly convincing, at a glance at least.

Life drawing

This week's session focused on hands, as well as a brief look at perspective. I lost confidence during the second sketch, and it took me a few drawings to build myself back up, but I'm really satisfied with most of these, however unfinished many of them are. I definitely need to work on my speed in sketching, but I feel that my line quality is improving as well as my understanding of these structures.

I found that starting from a hard surface like the knuckles or the heel of the palm and working my way out from there to be very helpful, with a quick undersketch to help me keep the proportions in mind. I also never realised before how flexible the base of the thumb is, and understanding this has, I think, really helped me improve with regards to hands.

I'm considering trying out some different media in our next session, because I want to unbalance myself a little. I'm very comfortable with the graphite sticks I usually use, so I want to try something unfamiliar to force me to think a little more when I'm drawing.

Week Summary - BA1b Week 4

Further modelling

This week started us off on some more complex modelling techniques. We looked at how to smooth our models to make them more visually appealing and/or realistic, and how we would cut in (or not cut in) details like buttons onto our meshes.

Unsmoothed and smoothed versions of the same mesh

Experimenting with how edge loops affect smoothing

Below is an example of floating geometry, which can give the look of there being an indent on a surface without it actually existing. Though we've not covered baking yet, from what I know of the process I can see how this process could very quickly cut out lengthy cutting in periods, and also help to quickly see how ideas play out without having to actually change the mesh.

I tried to use the smoothing feature to create a rough chair shape (below). I feel it turned out reasonably well, if a little rough, and with some refining I think it could be usable.

Here we looked at the special duplicate command to create an array of buttons for a dial. The process requires a little maths but creates very quick results. The best thing about this technique however, in my opinion, is that because the new duplicates are instanced using the original as a base, any change to the original will be reflected in the duplicates without any extra work, saving a lot of time.

Example of how one could cut in panels using simple eight-sided shapes, and use smoothing to create the illusion of a circle.

Telephone model

Our task for these next few weeks is to create a high-poly vintage telephone from a reference image. Below are some shots of the model so far, I need to do some work on the dial area but otherwise I'm fairly happy with the lower section, although I may cut the cylinder into the base to make the transition a little smoother, and the base could use the edge loops being slightly closet to the edges for a sharper finish. As for the upper section, I'm hoping to get some guidance at the next session as to how I might tackle the curved cylinder sections of the model, as up until now my construction techniques for these have been fairly time-consuming. I'm particularly proud of the detail around the handle section, producing these lathe-style ridged sections was something I found very satisfying.

Week Summary - BA1b Week 3+

(This includes work finished over the christmas period)

Barrel texturing

This week we moved on to some more complex texturing, creating a barrel with a hand-painted texture. Although I found the UV mapping a little confusing, I really enjoyed the painting part of the process, and love the cute low-poly style I can achieve with these methods. Below are some step-by-step images of the process.

Above I noticed that there was a slight seam on the model, which is in some ways to be expected, but I still did my best to paint it out.

At this point I somehow lost my model, although I still had an incomplete texture map. Rather than create an entirely new texture, I finished my incomplete version, and then rebuilt and remapped a similar barrel. I then exported my new UV map, and adjusted the texture to fit it. I unfortunately had to collapse my non-destructive layers in order to do this, but I know the process now and am confident in the workflow having run through it several times.

Original layer structure

I found this non-destructive workflow to be a really interesting one, and can definitely see its applications and how useful it can be, especially for texturing. Masking was not a technique I had ever tried before, and though I probably won't use it to this extent aside from for projects like these, I've already started putting it to some use in my personal work.

Unfinished UV map used above

Finished UV map 

Below is the finished barrel, I'm very happy with the end style - a little cartoony and fun but still nice-looking. I may come back to this a little later and add some more wear and tear to it (paint, scratches, etc) but for now I'm satisfied with this as it is.

Crit Session

We also had a critique session this week, unfortunately due to it being so late in the term there weren't many people there, but it was still good to see what others had taken from the same brief. The amount of diversity was something I found quite surprising, and some people's work was, I felt, on a whole other level to my own. Although I'm still hoping to work in 2D areas, I want to improve my 3D skills as well for a more rounded skill set, and to allow me to explore ideas in as many ways as possible. This means doing more independent 3D work, and developing my skills in my own time, maybe doing a small 3D project as practise. I'm fairly familiar with UE4, so setting up some small scenes might be a good exercise for me.