Week Summary - BA3a Week 7

3D Model Project

I spent some time this week remodelling the shoes and coat in maya, using dress shoes as a reference. I felt that a hard surface approach was more appropriate here, although I had wanted this to be an entirely zbrush project, I'm willing to compromise for the sake of speed and for giving the model a better finish. More organic sections will still be done in zbrush but for surfaces like shoes I feel Maya is the more appropriate programme, though I still plan to add more details in zbrush.

I spent a lot of time cutting in the coat detail before realising I could have added it in Zbrush instead, but this method has given a good finish and I now know better for next time. 

Next I have to figure out how to approach the crossed sections/volume of the coat. I'm starting to see a lot of problems with translating my original design to 3D, and areas that I could have better considered, and this is an area that I will very much be trying to improve on in the future with my designs. For the moment, I will be moving ahead with the original, but I plan on taking careful note of issues that arise in order to avoid them in future.

In terms of timescale, I'm currently very behind where I would like to be, but I'm hoping I can catch up with a little extra effort. My minimum goal is still to have the high-poly model finished in the t-pose, and it's looking more like that will be the goal I'm aiming for over having the full diorama finished, but I still aim to get as far as I can.

Wax Model

I didn't quite finish adding fibula on this one, but I'm really happy with how this is looking. The process of building this is very interesting one and I'm learning a lot by constructing it piece by piece. I also attached the arm sections and it's starting to really come together.

I'm very excited to get to muscle sections of the model and build it up, I find the layering really interesting and I find it really helps me to remember the relevant shapes and groups when I can put them together like this and see them in three dimensions.

Tasks

This week's task was an exercise in creating a painting from a thumbnail, starting in alchemy and moving into photoshop. 

Personally, I really dislike how this turned out. I think it's a very flat image and ended up way too busy. While I like the colour scheme (I used a gradient map and painted over the top) I think I need to work on being looser in my approach and putting more thought into the depth of the image and into my base composition before I start painting. My favourite parts of this image are the looser parts, so that in particular is something I want to focus on.

I also think that the image probably doesn't entirely fit the brief, so in future I think I need to put a little more thought into the concept and narrative behind the image before starting.

That said, I still thinks it works well as a thumbnail image (below), so it may be an idea for me to work smaller for longer and then scale up the image once I'm ready.