Week Summary - BA3a Week 9 (Reading Week)

3D Model Project

I've been polishing up more of the sculpting this week, really trying to work on strong, sculptural, Leyendecker-style folds. It took me a few tries to get the folds around the legs looking how I wanted to; even with references the cut I've chosen for the trousers isn't particularly a standard one and required some thought to get to a place I was happy with.

I also finished up work on the hair and the hood and added some detail to the torso; I used masking for this section and the extrusion tool to keep the depth consistent, as well as the morph target tool to bring it back in places where needed. I've added some placeholder joints to the arms for now to come back to later.

I also worked a little more on the coat - trying to figure out how to approach the insets is still something of a problem for me and I've been trying out several methods to see which is most effective and easiest to do.

Modelling

Adding more of the muscles this week, adductor groups and hamstrings. I had some trouble with getting some of the wax to stay on so we'll see how the model fares over the next week and whether I'll have to make any fixes.

TIGA session

I used this material cube (coral) as a way to experiment with how to create some depth quickly and easily. In this instance I used four base layers, working in greyscale, with layer styles to give each layer some depth, followed by a gradient map and then a multiply layer to give the cube some more dimension. The overall effect is one I'm unsure of; I think it perhaps works at a glance, but could do with more painting to really look convincing. At the current moment, I think it looks a little flat and I'm not very happy with the physicality of it.

The second part of the task was a concept painting, once again using alchemy for initial composition and then moving into photoshop.

I think I fell into a similar pattern as I have previously, using too much noise in my initial thumbnails. While I tried to simplify the composition afterwards and I think it has a decent foundation, I also think I need a lot more practise in the area. In general, I feel the values here are very muddy, and the image overall lacks depth, I'm not really at all happy with it and I think I could do a lot better. I may try to repaint this at some point in the future to make some improvements with a fresh eye - I think the piece has some interesting light sources, and could have potential given a rework.

Personal Work

I've also been part of a multiple animator project recently, working on a short piece of animation to appear as part of a larger video. I've been working on it on and off for the last month or so, and while I've dipped in and out of animation projects in the past, this is the first that I've attempted in any kind of colour and to music rather than a dialogue track. I'm reasonably happy with the overall result, though I would have liked to try something a little more complex and in something more than flat colour. It comes closer to an animatic than a real piece of animation, but I worked out some ways of making it feel lively without being incredibly smooth, just by adding some slight bounce to the character movement.