Thursday, 16 April 2009
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
erjiweorji
THAT is a reeaaaaaally (really) rough turnaround of the stripper, which I will start modeling asap. Since we broke up for easter i've sort of lost a little motivation, I guess I really need the working environment. But this can also be seen as taking a break, this is our break after all. Scary shit is afoot though. We still don't even know how to rig! We had a shot at it but we are afloat in a sea of ignorance. /drama. But yeah, we still have no rigged characters and are therefore unable to animate, and I worry that we will not have finished them til even as late as the end of next week. Or later. blerg, then we have all the other shit too. This is getting really messy and is quite worrying, but as with everything i'm sure we'll pull it together. It won't be no phoenix project either, not while i'm included. but yeah, strippers.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Stuff what's happened.
First off. I lost my bag :( bawwwww. This event meant that along with my sketchbooks, I had lost the book that I was meant to be writing my first literature review on x_x
'twas a nightmare, I'm not sure if I lost it on the bus (who don't pick up their phone btw) or in the taxi I got home from Tesco, but it was an obscure firm who I didn't check the name of :/. The ordeal is pretty much over now though, I'm not too sad I lost my sketchbook, I mean, it did have a ton of my drawings in, but i'm not a very nostalgic person so I sort of see it as a chance to start again. The main problem was the book thing (How much do they charge when you lose a book?)
I was 70 something pages through the book when it happened, and had it all nicely scheduled out so that i'd read about 60 pages a day up til sunday when i'd write my essay, but instead I had a panicked look around the shops in Truro for this obscure book that nowhere had. After that I came home and searched allllllllll night long for first of all a collection of essays which was way harder than it should have been, and finally settling on illegally downloading a different book by the same author. That was Saturday night, and the deadline was Monday... that meant that I spent just over 8 hours full-on reading this book- no breaks at all, not even for food, I had to rush it down, followed by a 1 hour break and 3 hours writing the bloody thing.
It's all over now though, and i'm fairly happy with the review, although it was a little short.
Had a lovely day today continuing the modeling of Karl. He's the guy I've assigned myself to model, I couldn't wait to get from the concepting stage to the modeling one. I've actually been too hasty, in that I've not even drawn turn-arounds of all of the characters that i'm meant to.
Here's my guy for now, Karl, the cool black guy.
Turn-arounds:
Various Screen-grabs:
I'm really getting into modeling now, I feel like i'm settling in (even on topological terms) and all that i've left to do now (on a strictly modeling stage) is continue to improve my knowledge on the tools and techniques that i've already started to grasp, this, along with speeding up significantly. That AND a literal ton of other things like rigging, blendshapes, shaders, lighting, balhaerlhalh etc etc etc etc.
I'm having fun though, and that's the main thing. I quite happily sat there for pretty much 7 hours today plodding along with work. It's also a great thing that I don't have a big distraction right now either (i'm looking at you, street fighter). Today's been a great day work-wise, also the sky when I left the studio was really something special, I wish I had a camera with me at the time.
Alright alright. More updates to come, I may possibly post the rest of the turn-arounds when they're done, all i've left to draw is the stripper and the waitress possibly. mewoemow peace out.
p.s. If you're actually reading this crap, whoever you are, leave me a comment. I keep meaning to write this but always forget. I just wonder if anyone actually reads these words :o I promise i'll reply.
p.p.s. Broken Social Scene sound promising *pirates*
'twas a nightmare, I'm not sure if I lost it on the bus (who don't pick up their phone btw) or in the taxi I got home from Tesco, but it was an obscure firm who I didn't check the name of :/. The ordeal is pretty much over now though, I'm not too sad I lost my sketchbook, I mean, it did have a ton of my drawings in, but i'm not a very nostalgic person so I sort of see it as a chance to start again. The main problem was the book thing (How much do they charge when you lose a book?)
I was 70 something pages through the book when it happened, and had it all nicely scheduled out so that i'd read about 60 pages a day up til sunday when i'd write my essay, but instead I had a panicked look around the shops in Truro for this obscure book that nowhere had. After that I came home and searched allllllllll night long for first of all a collection of essays which was way harder than it should have been, and finally settling on illegally downloading a different book by the same author. That was Saturday night, and the deadline was Monday... that meant that I spent just over 8 hours full-on reading this book- no breaks at all, not even for food, I had to rush it down, followed by a 1 hour break and 3 hours writing the bloody thing.
It's all over now though, and i'm fairly happy with the review, although it was a little short.
Had a lovely day today continuing the modeling of Karl. He's the guy I've assigned myself to model, I couldn't wait to get from the concepting stage to the modeling one. I've actually been too hasty, in that I've not even drawn turn-arounds of all of the characters that i'm meant to.
Here's my guy for now, Karl, the cool black guy.
Turn-arounds:
Various Screen-grabs:
I'm really getting into modeling now, I feel like i'm settling in (even on topological terms) and all that i've left to do now (on a strictly modeling stage) is continue to improve my knowledge on the tools and techniques that i've already started to grasp, this, along with speeding up significantly. That AND a literal ton of other things like rigging, blendshapes, shaders, lighting, balhaerlhalh etc etc etc etc.
I'm having fun though, and that's the main thing. I quite happily sat there for pretty much 7 hours today plodding along with work. It's also a great thing that I don't have a big distraction right now either (i'm looking at you, street fighter). Today's been a great day work-wise, also the sky when I left the studio was really something special, I wish I had a camera with me at the time.
Alright alright. More updates to come, I may possibly post the rest of the turn-arounds when they're done, all i've left to draw is the stripper and the waitress possibly. mewoemow peace out.
p.s. If you're actually reading this crap, whoever you are, leave me a comment. I keep meaning to write this but always forget. I just wonder if anyone actually reads these words :o I promise i'll reply.
p.p.s. Broken Social Scene sound promising *pirates*
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Wooooooooo
So we got the voice actor's takes on the robots, and the rest of them and... eh. I don't like them. The black dude's voice is quite cool, but too 'big' sounding for the character that we'd concepted. The white guy's voice... christ, this is the worst thing about it I think. Not only does he sound NOTHING like what we'd imagined, but he's really irritating. I'm not sure whether that'll affect the humour, I don't know if you can laugh at irritating characters or what...
Regardless, we're pressing on. Luckily the guy who created the thing is allowing people to do the second sketch now, so we're doing this instead. It'll be a ton easier to do than the first sketch, but still a lot of work. Omgs we have a lot of work on nowadays. It's a bit ridiculous, we have nothing for weeks (or so it seems) and then it just falls on you. But i'm not really complaining (I am, but whatever) I did ask for more work in my head. Tbh I would rather if the work was more to do with what I'm interested in. Here's a little breakdown.
-Main Robots Project
--Alright so this is pretty interesting, aside from the fact that the voice acting kind of messed things up, we get to make interesting characters. Create them in Maya, which i've wanted to do forever, rig, texture, etc etc etc. I think this'll help us a ton in getting to know Maya and how to actually make finished articles in it. And it gives us a kick up the arse and some motivation to actually do something. I'll also get the chance to paint, too, which I always enjoy, but i'm not sure to what capacity right now. Definitely no time for finished, polished character concepts but there will be time for backgrounds and such. Still a bit up in the air right now though.
-Literature Projects
--...ergh, these are nasty. Very hard work and fairly time consuming, and apart from the fact that they're helping us work towards our dissertation, I don't think they're really teaching me anything that'll really help me in getting a job or whatever. I'm just thankful Andy's cut down on essays up until now to a minimum. It's not exactly how it seems though, I am in fact really interested in a lot of what i've read, what the authors have to say and stuff. I'd love to be able to read and write things in the way that they do, it feels really intellectual (some say pretentious) and right now I feel stupid most of the time reading these things when i'm looking up words every second and re-reading sentences time after time after time. So it's a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy it, but it's just taking me away from what I feel I really need to do i.e. improve my art to a point where I can make a living from it. I don't feel i'm there yet. After all, I won't be writing essays for money when i've graduated.
-Editing Project
--This seems like a bit of fun, might teach us something and I dont' think it'll take me much more than a day of solid work, so I don't mind this one too much... should be interesting seeing the final results. I really appreciate the lenient deadline too. Hmm... speaking of that I think we have a week left lolzors. Maybe 2.
-Compositing Project
--To be honest I haven't looked at this one too much. I'm not sure how much work it'll be, but i'm not really interested in it.
I've been doing some more designs for the characters in the robot thing, (can't upload from home, no scanner) I think we've got them pretty much down, even with the set backs. Tomorrow we'll draw the final designs, turn arounds for modeling and get to work! I can't wait for one to be finished in maya, it's going to be so cool. Even if the voices are shit :P
I wonder what we're letting ourselves in for... how much work is this actually going to involve? Also, what am I going to be able to do myself? Will I be stuck painting the whole time? FIND OUT IN NEXT WEEKS EPISODE!
Regardless, we're pressing on. Luckily the guy who created the thing is allowing people to do the second sketch now, so we're doing this instead. It'll be a ton easier to do than the first sketch, but still a lot of work. Omgs we have a lot of work on nowadays. It's a bit ridiculous, we have nothing for weeks (or so it seems) and then it just falls on you. But i'm not really complaining (I am, but whatever) I did ask for more work in my head. Tbh I would rather if the work was more to do with what I'm interested in. Here's a little breakdown.
-Main Robots Project
--Alright so this is pretty interesting, aside from the fact that the voice acting kind of messed things up, we get to make interesting characters. Create them in Maya, which i've wanted to do forever, rig, texture, etc etc etc. I think this'll help us a ton in getting to know Maya and how to actually make finished articles in it. And it gives us a kick up the arse and some motivation to actually do something. I'll also get the chance to paint, too, which I always enjoy, but i'm not sure to what capacity right now. Definitely no time for finished, polished character concepts but there will be time for backgrounds and such. Still a bit up in the air right now though.
-Literature Projects
--...ergh, these are nasty. Very hard work and fairly time consuming, and apart from the fact that they're helping us work towards our dissertation, I don't think they're really teaching me anything that'll really help me in getting a job or whatever. I'm just thankful Andy's cut down on essays up until now to a minimum. It's not exactly how it seems though, I am in fact really interested in a lot of what i've read, what the authors have to say and stuff. I'd love to be able to read and write things in the way that they do, it feels really intellectual (some say pretentious) and right now I feel stupid most of the time reading these things when i'm looking up words every second and re-reading sentences time after time after time. So it's a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy it, but it's just taking me away from what I feel I really need to do i.e. improve my art to a point where I can make a living from it. I don't feel i'm there yet. After all, I won't be writing essays for money when i've graduated.
-Editing Project
--This seems like a bit of fun, might teach us something and I dont' think it'll take me much more than a day of solid work, so I don't mind this one too much... should be interesting seeing the final results. I really appreciate the lenient deadline too. Hmm... speaking of that I think we have a week left lolzors. Maybe 2.
-Compositing Project
--To be honest I haven't looked at this one too much. I'm not sure how much work it'll be, but i'm not really interested in it.
I've been doing some more designs for the characters in the robot thing, (can't upload from home, no scanner) I think we've got them pretty much down, even with the set backs. Tomorrow we'll draw the final designs, turn arounds for modeling and get to work! I can't wait for one to be finished in maya, it's going to be so cool. Even if the voices are shit :P
I wonder what we're letting ourselves in for... how much work is this actually going to involve? Also, what am I going to be able to do myself? Will I be stuck painting the whole time? FIND OUT IN NEXT WEEKS EPISODE!
Monday, 2 March 2009
Just a quick Robots post
Here are a few designs from our new and exciting project. We (Me, Andy, Sam, Dan and Sean) are taking on 'That's because you're a robot'. HUGE undertaking but anyway, I don't have time to chat. Here are just the designs that I've done this far.
These are my first real attempts at designing the characters, in short I believe their bodies are way too detailed, and the black guy's face is a bit boring and probably too detailed also. I do like how the tough guy has a square head and the black guy has a spherical one, seems sort of iconic. Easy to distinguish blahblah. Basically all I like here is that and the white guy's face.
This is another doodle of the white guy, with a little side crud thingy, and some more doodles. (I've run out of sketchbook btw lolz). Anyway, I sort of like the body but the face isn't so great. Also, I want the tough guy to have a disproportionately large upper body.
Some black guy portraits. These one's i'm pretty happy with. He looks smooth, has personality, and is sort of quirky and I like that. Seem to be able to make a decent angry face as well. Indicative of the modeling necessary (oh noes :///)
Yeah gotta go. Will make a large post later about this and the literature balls.
These are my first real attempts at designing the characters, in short I believe their bodies are way too detailed, and the black guy's face is a bit boring and probably too detailed also. I do like how the tough guy has a square head and the black guy has a spherical one, seems sort of iconic. Easy to distinguish blahblah. Basically all I like here is that and the white guy's face.
This is another doodle of the white guy, with a little side crud thingy, and some more doodles. (I've run out of sketchbook btw lolz). Anyway, I sort of like the body but the face isn't so great. Also, I want the tough guy to have a disproportionately large upper body.
Some black guy portraits. These one's i'm pretty happy with. He looks smooth, has personality, and is sort of quirky and I like that. Seem to be able to make a decent angry face as well. Indicative of the modeling necessary (oh noes :///)
Yeah gotta go. Will make a large post later about this and the literature balls.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
oh noes.
First blog post of the new term. Long overdue too :/
This term has really not been going well. I'd say the last two projects (character animation and environment modeling) have probably been the worst two projects that i've completed for a long long time. Easily university, maybe even through art college as well. And it's not right, really. It's been strange. In short, the reason that I did poorly in both projects is simple; I started the character animation late, maybe a week or two before I did any real work on it, and had two days to finish the modeling project- which i did not. I think if i'd given the modeling project some time I would've actually created something really nice, but I was already too deep into the mess that was the character animation.
I kind of recall looking forward to the animation project (I guess this is why we're meant to keep our blogs updated regularly ~_~). Initially I thought we had a character modeling project, which would have been right up my alley, but then I believe it changed to animation but I still thought i'd give it a really good go. From the off it just didn't click with me. I read through the guide that George said would be great for us, and enjoyed the read. It said to keyframe the poses so I went ahead and did this, albeit very slowly. Actually, not just very slowly.VERY VERY slowly :/ I remember spending practically an entire day on the first pose. I guess I wasn't in the right state of mind. I know I take forever on everything, but not this long.. surely... I don't want to blame it on being a 'perfectionist' either. I don't really like calling myself that because it implies perfection, which I haven't achieved (...yet? lolz?) but I guess it's what I am.
I'm getting closer and closer to completely ruling out actual animation altogether and while I don't want to, I didn't really get any other signs from this project other than it's not for me. I mean i've never enjoyed the process of animation. Thinking back to the Library Project I absolutely hated working in flash, and even as early as those tiny box men we did at the very start of the course. I've never loved it. The only difference with the flash project, was that I got a sense of accomplishment at the end of it when I had a sorta-nice piece of finished animation. Here I was left with shoddy, unfinished animation and a bitter taste. (Melodrama anyone? :P)
I feel like I COULD animate. I feel like I could get to terms with the timing, (even in this abomination there was tiny flickers where I made a good piece of animation, and it is really rewarding) but i'm in a crap situation, which is only down to what I enjoy really, and I don't think i'll be changing. I mean I hated inbetweening in flash, all those 'tiny little stupid drawings' or whatever I called them after i'd finished. And maya promises to remove the need of us making those. Great! But not when you're left with an absolute mine-field of key frames and a graph editor that looks like (i'm leaving this incomplete to save my integrity :P). Crap, basically, and sooo hard for me to wrap my head around. You move one little thing and the whole shambles collapses. This is where I tripped up. I'd come to uni for the day (and it's not like I'm not there often, I'm practically always there til 4-5+ every day) make a few new poses, come up with a problem which was just so tedious that I cowered and procrastinated for the next few hours. It's horrible and feels like I may be losing the motivation that I've maintained since the end of last year, but I don't think that's it. Most days i'd relished the chance to put down the mouse and start a new drawing challenge with Justin and the others.
Anyway, getting to the point I feel like there is only one way out of this mess, and one reason that could be making me feel like this. And that is that I was possibly thrown into the deep end just a little too fast. I'm not sure whether I learnt anything from this project, but I think if I had just been able to manage my keyframes more efficiently, if i'd had the knowledge to be able to keep everything under CONTROOOOL. Maybe I wouldn't run into these brick walls and I could be happier. Actually, what the fuck am I talking about? This isn't the end of anything, this was my FIRST time animating a human, of course i'm not going to be any good. I literally just realised that lol. I'm stupid. Maybe I just learned something.
One thing I do know for sure, at least for now is that I love drawing and painting far more than I do animating. Forget ruling it out forever, but I am really crossing my fingers and hoping that we'll get some tasty projects next, that I can really sink my teeth into. I'm sad that I've just done terribly in two projects that will count towards my final degree and I definitely need to make up for it.
Here's my shoddy 'finished'-lol animation.
God yeah, that's another thing- Couldn't even get the bastard 'smash' sound to work after he's thrown the test tubes! The playblast would only play either the lip sync or the smash.. gah.
From the modeling project, here's the reference that I used:
And my piece-o'-crap. (Which I actually enjoyed making o_O just wish I could've finished it :()
PEACE OUT BROTHAS AND SISTAS.
p.s. Dolphin Olympics 2 is win ^_^
Oh and OMG I CAN'T WAIT FOR STREET FIGHTER IV! Only 12 days left! Seriously. Look at this. Drool. THIS is what makes me want to animate. Srs. srs.
This term has really not been going well. I'd say the last two projects (character animation and environment modeling) have probably been the worst two projects that i've completed for a long long time. Easily university, maybe even through art college as well. And it's not right, really. It's been strange. In short, the reason that I did poorly in both projects is simple; I started the character animation late, maybe a week or two before I did any real work on it, and had two days to finish the modeling project- which i did not. I think if i'd given the modeling project some time I would've actually created something really nice, but I was already too deep into the mess that was the character animation.
I kind of recall looking forward to the animation project (I guess this is why we're meant to keep our blogs updated regularly ~_~). Initially I thought we had a character modeling project, which would have been right up my alley, but then I believe it changed to animation but I still thought i'd give it a really good go. From the off it just didn't click with me. I read through the guide that George said would be great for us, and enjoyed the read. It said to keyframe the poses so I went ahead and did this, albeit very slowly. Actually, not just very slowly.
I'm getting closer and closer to completely ruling out actual animation altogether and while I don't want to, I didn't really get any other signs from this project other than it's not for me. I mean i've never enjoyed the process of animation. Thinking back to the Library Project I absolutely hated working in flash, and even as early as those tiny box men we did at the very start of the course. I've never loved it. The only difference with the flash project, was that I got a sense of accomplishment at the end of it when I had a sorta-nice piece of finished animation. Here I was left with shoddy, unfinished animation and a bitter taste. (Melodrama anyone? :P)
I feel like I COULD animate. I feel like I could get to terms with the timing, (even in this abomination there was tiny flickers where I made a good piece of animation, and it is really rewarding) but i'm in a crap situation, which is only down to what I enjoy really, and I don't think i'll be changing. I mean I hated inbetweening in flash, all those 'tiny little stupid drawings' or whatever I called them after i'd finished. And maya promises to remove the need of us making those. Great! But not when you're left with an absolute mine-field of key frames and a graph editor that looks like (i'm leaving this incomplete to save my integrity :P). Crap, basically, and sooo hard for me to wrap my head around. You move one little thing and the whole shambles collapses. This is where I tripped up. I'd come to uni for the day (and it's not like I'm not there often, I'm practically always there til 4-5+ every day) make a few new poses, come up with a problem which was just so tedious that I cowered and procrastinated for the next few hours. It's horrible and feels like I may be losing the motivation that I've maintained since the end of last year, but I don't think that's it. Most days i'd relished the chance to put down the mouse and start a new drawing challenge with Justin and the others.
Anyway, getting to the point I feel like there is only one way out of this mess, and one reason that could be making me feel like this. And that is that I was possibly thrown into the deep end just a little too fast. I'm not sure whether I learnt anything from this project, but I think if I had just been able to manage my keyframes more efficiently, if i'd had the knowledge to be able to keep everything under CONTROOOOL. Maybe I wouldn't run into these brick walls and I could be happier. Actually, what the fuck am I talking about? This isn't the end of anything, this was my FIRST time animating a human, of course i'm not going to be any good. I literally just realised that lol. I'm stupid. Maybe I just learned something.
One thing I do know for sure, at least for now is that I love drawing and painting far more than I do animating. Forget ruling it out forever, but I am really crossing my fingers and hoping that we'll get some tasty projects next, that I can really sink my teeth into. I'm sad that I've just done terribly in two projects that will count towards my final degree and I definitely need to make up for it.
Here's my shoddy 'finished'-lol animation.
God yeah, that's another thing- Couldn't even get the bastard 'smash' sound to work after he's thrown the test tubes! The playblast would only play either the lip sync or the smash.. gah.
From the modeling project, here's the reference that I used:
And my piece-o'-crap. (Which I actually enjoyed making o_O just wish I could've finished it :()
PEACE OUT BROTHAS AND SISTAS.
p.s. Dolphin Olympics 2 is win ^_^
Oh and OMG I CAN'T WAIT FOR STREET FIGHTER IV! Only 12 days left! Seriously. Look at this. Drool. THIS is what makes me want to animate. Srs. srs.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Term One Recap and Crap Talkings
Alright, lets do this. I tend to go through phases. Only in my head, where I start thinking about posting a blog and think of all the stuff I could write, but then I come online and the moment has passed and I can't be arsed. This seems to happen more and more with things I want to do but which also require a little effort. Luckily I've had a lot of free time online today and have found myself in the mood to do a blog post.
Anyway stop talking bollocks. First lets recap the term, starting where I left off.
So I finished my forth character of the bunch and two background concepts, as I said in my last post, and on top of that I completed pretty much everything else that I said I needed to do, disregarding baddies (I settled for one little sketch that i'd done, and noone seemed to mind. Apart from Justin? He wanted more baddies lol.). My Powerpoint was fairly standard, although I can never help but make everything just how I like it. I was really happy with my design bible when it was finished and all printed up. Forgiving some very minor printing errors and the fact I needed the pages stuck together, it looked pretty sharp and the effort that i'd put in paid off. I don't mind a nice bit of graphic design. Although my stuff is relatively basic, it interests me somewhat. Also, during this process I learnt more about photoshop brushes and making your own, which was cool. Onto pitches.
I thought my initial pitch with Andy was alright, but that's probably because he's too nice to us :P so I was vaguely confident about the real pitch, but I came away from it kind of disappointed. I was happy that it was all over, but it left a slightly unpleasant taste in my mouth. I felt my delivery was sort of cold, a little too nervous and a bit of a mess, but when I got the written feedback from Andy and Sarah?? Terrible memory sorry, It really helped me figure some things out and I think my next pitch will be a million times better for it.
The BBC lady thought my idea was too complicated for what it was, and after a second of disagreement after being told this, it all made sense and I realised that all that crap about the war didn't need to be contained in my pitch at all. What i should have done was talk solely about the kids, their surroundings, and be really passionate about the whole thing. Not go off on some tangent about stuff that wouldn't even have been in the show like the big baddy.
I believe this confusion on my part was because I had originally planned what is now the last episode (where they kill the 'bots and everyone's shocked and they're whisked away to be cadets or whatever) to originally be the first episode, and the rest of the series being their adventures outside the cube. If you follow. I'm not proof reading this crap.
Anyway, that's enough about the personal project. In summary: It was fun, I really enjoyed the process and being given loads of time to do whatever I wanted with. I'm fond of some of my characters and through this task I think I have a better idea of time management, improved skillz and I think my future pitches will benefit greatly.
Just realised this is gonna be a looooooooooong post. Noone will read this :P
EXETER PR0JECT!
This project got a little lost in the grand scheme of things as far as my participation goes, sadly. I really would've liked to have had more of a hand in things, and it's not like I didn't offer myself up for as many parts as I thought I could handle. I said i'd be part of the 3D team and the background design team, but noone ever approached me after the initial meeting about anything background related. I was all up for it at the start, but i'm not going to lie because i'm sure if I had talked to Alex, Mike or anyone else on the team I'm sure I could've got myself a part in it, but that's such a hard thing to do when you already have your hands full with a personal project.
The only thing that I got given in the end was the clock tower in 3D. No pictures because of those nobs in the media store who took my hard drive off me (Wtf is the point of a hard drive you can only keep in one place???? grr) This was way harder than I expected, but I fumbled my way through it and after plenty of pain I finally got it done. I really think it helped improve my knowledge of maya quite substantially. I'm glad I did it. Texturing too. While being really gay, it helped me learn a bit.
That's all the term stuff covered I believe, now onto something i've been doing in my spare time. This guy!
Probably doesn't look much, but a considerable amount of effort has gone into him. This is actually his second incarnation, I pretty much completely did his head then decided it was all wrong, so i've started again and this is where I am. I'm having fun making him, but it's taking me a long, long time.
I'm becoming more and more aware that in industry, maya's used very little ...if at all in making Hi-poly models. I'm gonna continue to make this guy in Maya, just so that I can learn more skills and stuff, but I really want to start getting to terms with Zbrush and a workflow which will enable me to create models just like companies would make when creating a game. (Here's an amazing link where a pro character artist has sculpted an awesome hi-poly model in zbrush and converted it to a low poly game character. I feel this is ultimately what I should be progressing towards, although to be honest i'm not completely sure this is how it's done, I still have a slightly naive outlook on the business crud.)
Blerg anyway. I can't really think of anything else work wise, and this is a huge post so i'll start wrapping up.
I've had a few ideas for little projects in the future, and i'll post em here in case I forget one day. Firstly i've thought of a fun idea for a hack n' slash game, (which would never work as a real game due to copyright issues, but awesome to work on I think) it'd be sort of a parody of every famous computer game out there. The enemies and bosses would be characters from existing computer games, i'd think up some ridiculous plot and completely construe what the characters are actually like. Lots of in-jokes and sillyness, but for one I think it'd be awesome fun redesigning and ruining the classic and current computer game characters, and fits perfectly into a project on the work side of things. I could make concepts and models, it'd be great or something. Hmm.. I did have more ideas but thinking of them again they aren't up to much. I guess that's my only idea for now.
The very last thing I want to talk about (yay!) is what I want to learn. Sam Pascizzle recently bought into an online Gnomon event, and was ridiculously kind enough to lend me his account to get in on the goods too. Thanks again! Burying myself in these videos has sent me a bit nuts and I can't stop thinking of what I want to, and what I NEED to learn if I want to make a living for myself doing things I love. Of late I haven't been sketching as much as I was at the start of the term. It's sad but my job just took all my free time away from me, and what little time I had I spent relaxing. Hopefully next term i'll have enough money so that I don't have to work and can get back to really learning as hard as I can.
Things I want:
---To have a strong knowledge of anatomy. Incredibly important. I've found after picking up the pencil again, I remember that I feel like I don't know the body well enough to draw what I want to freely. I can't let myself just draw characters most of the time because I just get caught up on the figure, and I can't let myself just draw shoddy shapes. I want a really strong understanding of the figure which will allow me to really get into just drawing the characters without having to worry about the technicalities. I'd love to have someone teach me about this, I find it very difficult to learn by myself. My plan right now is to draw as much as I can over Christmas, and if i'm still as motivated when I get back to uni i'll go to the library and see if they have any good books which will help me out.
---To learn the ins and outs of Maya, and to be able to create models of all levels of detail. I think I just need to make more models. But do I spend forever creating highly detailed things in Maya or should I just do the base models in Maya and send them to Zbrush and push my skills in that? These questions probably won't ever get answered.
There're more but they aren't as important. Basically these are the two things in my work life right now. 3D and 2D. Digital 2D too but I understand that somewhat, and I know the only thing I can do to progress there is to do more and more paintings. But those two puzzles are what's bugging me right now. Anatomy and 3D stuff in general. And splitting my time up between them is hard. Everything's hard. I'm worried about how little time we have left until we're thrown out into the business world, and I really hope that what's left of university will give me the time and the oppurtunity to further my skills to a place which will allow me to go into work where I want to work! I want to be a concept artist/character artist/character modeler but i've a long long way to go. WORKMOREWORKMOREWORKMOREDRAWWWWWWWWWWW
definitely been writing for too long. I had 62% for this term by the way. I think that's about right. I don't agree that the exeter project was made for advanced maya stuff though.
Anyway stop talking bollocks. First lets recap the term, starting where I left off.
So I finished my forth character of the bunch and two background concepts, as I said in my last post, and on top of that I completed pretty much everything else that I said I needed to do, disregarding baddies (I settled for one little sketch that i'd done, and noone seemed to mind. Apart from Justin? He wanted more baddies lol.). My Powerpoint was fairly standard, although I can never help but make everything just how I like it. I was really happy with my design bible when it was finished and all printed up. Forgiving some very minor printing errors and the fact I needed the pages stuck together, it looked pretty sharp and the effort that i'd put in paid off. I don't mind a nice bit of graphic design. Although my stuff is relatively basic, it interests me somewhat. Also, during this process I learnt more about photoshop brushes and making your own, which was cool. Onto pitches.
I thought my initial pitch with Andy was alright, but that's probably because he's too nice to us :P so I was vaguely confident about the real pitch, but I came away from it kind of disappointed. I was happy that it was all over, but it left a slightly unpleasant taste in my mouth. I felt my delivery was sort of cold, a little too nervous and a bit of a mess, but when I got the written feedback from Andy and Sarah?? Terrible memory sorry, It really helped me figure some things out and I think my next pitch will be a million times better for it.
The BBC lady thought my idea was too complicated for what it was, and after a second of disagreement after being told this, it all made sense and I realised that all that crap about the war didn't need to be contained in my pitch at all. What i should have done was talk solely about the kids, their surroundings, and be really passionate about the whole thing. Not go off on some tangent about stuff that wouldn't even have been in the show like the big baddy.
I believe this confusion on my part was because I had originally planned what is now the last episode (where they kill the 'bots and everyone's shocked and they're whisked away to be cadets or whatever) to originally be the first episode, and the rest of the series being their adventures outside the cube. If you follow. I'm not proof reading this crap.
Anyway, that's enough about the personal project. In summary: It was fun, I really enjoyed the process and being given loads of time to do whatever I wanted with. I'm fond of some of my characters and through this task I think I have a better idea of time management, improved skillz and I think my future pitches will benefit greatly.
Just realised this is gonna be a looooooooooong post. Noone will read this :P
EXETER PR0JECT!
This project got a little lost in the grand scheme of things as far as my participation goes, sadly. I really would've liked to have had more of a hand in things, and it's not like I didn't offer myself up for as many parts as I thought I could handle. I said i'd be part of the 3D team and the background design team, but noone ever approached me after the initial meeting about anything background related. I was all up for it at the start, but i'm not going to lie because i'm sure if I had talked to Alex, Mike or anyone else on the team I'm sure I could've got myself a part in it, but that's such a hard thing to do when you already have your hands full with a personal project.
The only thing that I got given in the end was the clock tower in 3D. No pictures because of those nobs in the media store who took my hard drive off me (Wtf is the point of a hard drive you can only keep in one place???? grr) This was way harder than I expected, but I fumbled my way through it and after plenty of pain I finally got it done. I really think it helped improve my knowledge of maya quite substantially. I'm glad I did it. Texturing too. While being really gay, it helped me learn a bit.
That's all the term stuff covered I believe, now onto something i've been doing in my spare time. This guy!
Probably doesn't look much, but a considerable amount of effort has gone into him. This is actually his second incarnation, I pretty much completely did his head then decided it was all wrong, so i've started again and this is where I am. I'm having fun making him, but it's taking me a long, long time.
I'm becoming more and more aware that in industry, maya's used very little ...if at all in making Hi-poly models. I'm gonna continue to make this guy in Maya, just so that I can learn more skills and stuff, but I really want to start getting to terms with Zbrush and a workflow which will enable me to create models just like companies would make when creating a game. (Here's an amazing link where a pro character artist has sculpted an awesome hi-poly model in zbrush and converted it to a low poly game character. I feel this is ultimately what I should be progressing towards, although to be honest i'm not completely sure this is how it's done, I still have a slightly naive outlook on the business crud.)
Blerg anyway. I can't really think of anything else work wise, and this is a huge post so i'll start wrapping up.
I've had a few ideas for little projects in the future, and i'll post em here in case I forget one day. Firstly i've thought of a fun idea for a hack n' slash game, (which would never work as a real game due to copyright issues, but awesome to work on I think) it'd be sort of a parody of every famous computer game out there. The enemies and bosses would be characters from existing computer games, i'd think up some ridiculous plot and completely construe what the characters are actually like. Lots of in-jokes and sillyness, but for one I think it'd be awesome fun redesigning and ruining the classic and current computer game characters, and fits perfectly into a project on the work side of things. I could make concepts and models, it'd be great or something. Hmm.. I did have more ideas but thinking of them again they aren't up to much. I guess that's my only idea for now.
The very last thing I want to talk about (yay!) is what I want to learn. Sam Pascizzle recently bought into an online Gnomon event, and was ridiculously kind enough to lend me his account to get in on the goods too. Thanks again! Burying myself in these videos has sent me a bit nuts and I can't stop thinking of what I want to, and what I NEED to learn if I want to make a living for myself doing things I love. Of late I haven't been sketching as much as I was at the start of the term. It's sad but my job just took all my free time away from me, and what little time I had I spent relaxing. Hopefully next term i'll have enough money so that I don't have to work and can get back to really learning as hard as I can.
Things I want:
---To have a strong knowledge of anatomy. Incredibly important. I've found after picking up the pencil again, I remember that I feel like I don't know the body well enough to draw what I want to freely. I can't let myself just draw characters most of the time because I just get caught up on the figure, and I can't let myself just draw shoddy shapes. I want a really strong understanding of the figure which will allow me to really get into just drawing the characters without having to worry about the technicalities. I'd love to have someone teach me about this, I find it very difficult to learn by myself. My plan right now is to draw as much as I can over Christmas, and if i'm still as motivated when I get back to uni i'll go to the library and see if they have any good books which will help me out.
---To learn the ins and outs of Maya, and to be able to create models of all levels of detail. I think I just need to make more models. But do I spend forever creating highly detailed things in Maya or should I just do the base models in Maya and send them to Zbrush and push my skills in that? These questions probably won't ever get answered.
There're more but they aren't as important. Basically these are the two things in my work life right now. 3D and 2D. Digital 2D too but I understand that somewhat, and I know the only thing I can do to progress there is to do more and more paintings. But those two puzzles are what's bugging me right now. Anatomy and 3D stuff in general. And splitting my time up between them is hard. Everything's hard. I'm worried about how little time we have left until we're thrown out into the business world, and I really hope that what's left of university will give me the time and the oppurtunity to further my skills to a place which will allow me to go into work where I want to work! I want to be a concept artist/character artist/character modeler but i've a long long way to go. WORKMOREWORKMOREWORKMOREDRAWWWWWWWWWWW
definitely been writing for too long. I had 62% for this term by the way. I think that's about right. I don't agree that the exeter project was made for advanced maya stuff though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)