Week Summary - BA3a Week 10

3D Model Project

I started this week by finishing up the jacket; I had a discussion with a tutor about how best to approach the insets and ended up rebuilding the coat as a solid object and creating the insets as a separate object, to be combined in Zbrush later. 

I've also added some further detail to the hands, as well as making them smaller along with the rest of the forearm. I decided that I would prefer something a little more organic for the join at the elbow, as I don't want to push this too far into mechanical territory, and I like the softness that the clothing folds add here in contrast to the hard planes on the coat and arms.

I also made the accents for the lower half of the coat, and smoothed out the fabric to give it a better finish, while still trying to keep it largely planar, as well as adding some finer detail like stitches to the coat and seams to the trousers. I'm really happy with the overall look of the model at this point, I think that it's landed very close to the level of detail I was aiming for - not too plain, but not too busy- although I am still behind where I would have liked to be by this time. I'm starting to feel like I may have to abandon the idea of having the model game-ready, though I would still very much like to get it posed and at least put some flat colours on it before the end of the project.

Wax Model

This week's session was a little different from usual, using soft wax and focusing on posing and a looser kind of sculpting. We started with an exercise using our smaller models from the start of the year, posing them against a photograph. It was interesting to think about the weight distribution and considering the pose in three dimensions rather than just two. The twist to the spine on this pose was an interesting element to take note of, as well as considering how the movement of the shoulderblade extends the arm.

The second part of the session was dedicated to some more surface-level sculpting, the task being to sculpt a pair of hands posed into the British sign language symbol for the first letter of our name. Mine was 'A,' which wasn't a particularly complex pose, but I really enjoyed the experience. We created the base models using pieces sized against a diagram for consistency, but I found the looser parts of the sculpt very rewarding and enjoyed the experience of applying my anatomical knowledge in a 3D context, as well as the general experience of sculpting like this, which I found very meditative. I would have liked to refine it a little more, but unfortunately ran out of time in the session, but I would love to do more of this kind of sculpture in the future.

Tasks

This week's task was to create a creature design based on one of several creatures from various mythologies. I chose the haetlik to base my creature on, as I wanted to try something a little out of my comfort zone, which is usually humanoid characters. I started out with my usual process, which I think could do with a little reworking to bring up some new ideas, as I think I'm starting to fall into repetitive patterns with my shapes and designs.

I really tried for an arrow/spear motif here given their use as something like a throwing weapon, considering how force would be applied to the body in that situation and how a creature like that would withstand the impact. I settled for interlocking plate-like carapace pieces that support the spine and neck but have exposed sections in-between that allow for flexibility. The feathers are intended for manoeuvring but also help to balance the silhouette. I would have liked to put more time into the design and colour scheme, as well as the final painting, which ended up being rather simple and rushed, but given the limited time allowed for the task I had to condense my process somewhat.