Presentation Pass

 29/10/20 - Week 4

I think the outcome of these are way better than last week. I am much better at developing an idea than coming up with them! I think I started to run a bit low on the last one as I ended up being much more into the use of the bars in the first two, I think my favourite is the first one but there's aspects of the second I really like as well. I think my best idea would be to combine them all into one somehow.

I think I managed to make them look a bit more threatening during this stage and I think with maybe a few more adjustments it would be much more applicable to my concept.

Overall, much better progress and I am looking forward to getting into photobashing.

Shape and Pattern

 28/10/20 - Week 4

This week, we focused on man made objects, patterned objects and natural objects. I found this piece really quite difficult. I think a lot went wrong in the beginning of this piece with the structure, the arm of the mirror on the left side is off and I should have positioned the piece better on the page. I think in the next piece I need to be way more careful in the beginning. As for composition, I think this piece is successful and I like how the mirror stands as a centre piece.

As I got further into the piece I did manage to correct some of the structural mistakes but I found some more issues started to arise, I wasn't quite able to get the texture for the oranges right and the patterned object, the candle wasn't really taking shape as I wanted it to. It was a white pattern on a white candle, and with the type of shadow that fell on it it made the pattern dark, so I think it doesn't read too well. I started to struggle with the mirror at this point as I think the lighting made it contrast too much and was hard to get the mirror effect I wanted.

By the end of this piece, I sort of managed to sort out the mirror and make it tidier and look a little more like a mirror by using my eraser. The oranges are still an issue I feel as I couldn't get the textural effect I wanted, the putty rubber was too soft.

 I think overall there is some effective parts of this piece, like the bananas and some parts of the mirror, but there is major issues. This includes the overall tonal range and the textural inaccuracies mentioned and finally the fact the shadow falls off of the page. I think in the next drawing I will try to plan my work with more accuracy and thought.

Drapery

 25/10/20 - Week 3

I am really happy with the outcome of this piece. Looking over the progress of this piece, I think I had a pretty strong start that was a good resemblance of the composition I had in front of me.

I really like how one of the tips from the video from this week looks that is on the darkest cloth where I used crosshatching to shade - instead of the lighter shading I used on the other material. This provides a nice contrast that shows the type of fabric on both the dark piece and the lighter ones. 

Something I could do to give this piece the finishing touch it needs is to just make my tonal range a bit better and increase the darkness on the chair and some of the darkest parts of each material.

Overall, I think I did pretty well on this piece even though it did take me some time to complete due to the complexity of fabrics.

Thumbnails

 25/10/20 - Week 3

These thumbnails were really difficult to create and I struggled a lot with idea generation. I finally got it by sort of photo bashing, but using silhouettes. I think the outcome is alright, but there isn't too many of them and I think some of the ideas are quite weak. I am hoping that when I put some colour onto some of them that it will make them look a bit more interesting.

Something else I struggled with was getting them to look like they could aid in a fight against my horde, I think I am struggling with this concept as a whole as I dont really know what I could put onto the vehicle whilst making it look realistic/cool.

Overall, not very successful thumbnails but thumbnails at least.

Finalising my High Concept & Main Inspirations

 23/10/20 - Week 3

Final Idea: 

a. The apocalypse - 1990s mainland India, India seemed to be going up in the world especially economically, the calmer nature of the country at the time doesn't prepare them for a huge earthquake + tsunami that destroys and floods most of the planet. From this, lots of chemicals + nuclear waste is poured into the vast oceans, creating ravenous sharks that will eat anything they can get their teeth on, no matter how difficult. The sharks can jump onto land but are much weaker there as they can't move, but jumping kills are still deadly. Though originally mainland, there is swampy water in most places meaning that there is always a possibility for there to be a shark lurking nearby.

b. Horde - Ravenous sharks, they have no limit on their appetite and rule any water, can be killed easily, but are very powerful & fast. Blood can cause attraction.

c. Vehicle - Motorcycle scooters - bajaj super, with modifications. Has to be able to travel through shallow water quickly and have lots of storage as it is best to be on the move to not run of resources, much of the land is unfarmable due to many environmental reasons.

d. Survival - There's not enough good land to grow crops so our survivalist must travel around to find resources on the traversable areas of land. Sharks can appear out of nowhere so there has to be a way to keep them at bay whilst both in and out of the vehicle.

e. Style - Realism, mixture of the colourful nature of India whilst also being toned down & dreary

 f. Story -

i. Who is driving? - A previous mechanic, he must provide for himself. He also likes to help anyone with his mechanic skills, for a fee.

ii. What are they driving? - A motorcycle scooter that can get through any water quickly, lots of spikes and cages for protection to try to avoid the sharks and large amounts of storage for all the mechanic equipment, food, water etc.

iii. Where in the world are they driving? - Central India

iiii. When are they driving? - 1990s

iiiii. Why are they driving? - To obtain food and resources, anything to survive

g. Vulnerability - Not finding enough food, running out of gas, sharks biting through the vehicle itself, trying to find equipment can cause the driver to be vulnerable as they would be more out in the open. Helping others can also create a vulnerability as not everyone is the kindest.

Pumpkin Zbrush Task

 22/10/20 - Week 3

Today, we learnt the very basics of Zbrush. I really enjoyed this and really want to do more in zbrush soon. I am going to try to download it onto my laptop but I am unsure if I can run it. I am quite happy with the outcome of this task, and I think my pumpkin looks quite cool but it is quite busy and could used some adjusting, though I didn't really design this or anything, we just sort of jumped into the process. 

Concerning what we learnt in this session, I took the majority of it in, but I am still finding the interface with moving around a little tricky, but overall I think there is just still a lot to learn with the different brushes and functions. Another thing I am still a bit iffy on is knowing when to use dynamesh, I am still a bit confused on how to make the topology itself look good.

Line Drawing

 17/10/20 - Week 2

I am not the strongest at line drawings so this is not the best set of drawings to start the year off with. There are different aspects to each piece that is on the right track, and maybe if I was able to put them altogether into one piece it would be much more successful than these outcomes. 

Looking back on it, the second piece is stronger than the first one, though I do really like the way the leaves look on the first drawing. I also notice that there are some inaccuracies in both drawings, such as the bowl in the second and the black pot in the first, which I will have to fix. In terms of the composition of these two, the first is definitely a lot better as it feels more full. I was struggling to fill the second one as the flowers were much taller than the other objects in the scene so it feels quite empty and perhaps imbalanced, I think I will need to focus more on composition in the next drawing.

Overall, I definitely find line drawings difficult as I see everything as contrast, so I instinctively want to pull everything out. But, this was good practice and I could see a bit of improvement in the second piece.

Traditional Art methods in Game Art

 10/10/20 - Week 1

WUESTLING, J., 2020. Lillia - League of Legends [image] Available at: <https://www.artstation.com/artwork/688AdV> [Accessed 10 October 2020]

To look firstly at the shapes in this piece, though there is no overwhelming use of shape, Wuestling uses soft slopes as a major theme to convey the peaceful, soft nature of Lillia's character and the mood of the piece itself creating a strong sense of harmony. As mentioned in the lecture, circles can also provide a sense of energy and this is definitely a major part of the magical theme of the piece and the orbs are strong circles to provide this effect along with the use of light. You could also note the way the tree is positioned as this curves round encasing the right side of the piece. Another shape that is apparent is some triangles, this piece is not threatening but the fact they are slightly prevalent perhaps could indicate some sort of mischief or even a slight quickness.

The composition of the piece is mainly dictated by the figure in the middle with the arm directing the eye right and down the path of the light. The eye could also be led left by the staff and into the opposing light source which provides a sense of balance. The expression of the piece is led by the face and the fluidity of the pose, the face provides mystery as the expression isn't completely certain. It is not in any way malicious or sad, but instead happy, natural, somewhat thoughtful and delicate all at once.

The light in this piece creates a focus on the face too as the light source from the right creates a warm contrast on the upper body whilst the source on the other side highlights the lower body without drawing attention on everything at once.

Colour is an extremely important part of this piece, it is overwhelmingly blue & purple which creates a sense of serenity. As noted in the lecture, blue can also connotate supernatural which you could definitely connect with this piece. Intertwining the blue with the pinks and purples creates a sense of importance, magic, mystery, love and perhaps nurture. The use of pinks also ties in with the very feminine nature of the piece.

Alternate Uses task

 16/10/20 - Week 2

To think about the scrap ideology of the apocalypse we thought of some alternate uses of some common objects. This intertwines with divergent thinking which is what we were thinking about this week, I understand the premise of this and its interesting to know it has a name and that you can actually practice & get better at it. I think I did alright on this task with the amount of things I came up with though I definitely need to practice thinking outside of the box.

-Brick:

Building material

Projectile weapon

Door stopper

Shelf/stand

Spiky weapon/protection - if you were to break it up

Weight

-Ping pong ball:

Fun game

Fake eye

Projectile weapon/gun ammo

Insulation

Make something float

-Plastic bottle:

Liquid Holder

Armour

Food Holder

Flower pot

Gun holster

Purse/handbag

Palette for paint

Backyard Slice Ideas

 15/10/20 - Week 2

Originally, I wanted to go with quite a worn down type space. I really like the left to the elements look of things and I include it in my work often. I came across some examples of a more industrial style backyard and I really liked it. The theme of the concrete walls, bare brick and raw wood looks really nice. It has some inclusion of being worn down & uses recycled materials so it plays to the style I like without making it feel repetitive. I think if I'm able to capture this in my project I'll be really happy as I think it looks super stylish.

High Poly Modelling

 15/10/20 - Week 2

Today, we learnt about high poly modelling which was extremely useful and fun to learn about since we haven't done much on it before. This includes using new modifiers and making use of smoothing groups and Booleans more. I get the workflow and it utilises low poly to get to the high poly which I really like. Our task was to create some high poly common household objects, I chose cutlery and it was super enjoyable to model. I am still struggling a bit with using smoothing groups to get the effect I want, but overall understood the majority of it and I think the result I produced ended up looking alright for a first attempt, the fork definitely needs a bit more work, however. 

Apocalyptic Vehicle Ideas

 09/10/20 - Week 1

Step 1: Idea

a. The apocalypse - 1990s India, India seemed to be going up in the world especially economically, the calmer nature of the country at the time doesn't prepare them for a huge earthquake + tsunami that destroys and floods most of the planet. From this, lots of chemicals + nuclear waste is poured into the vast oceans, creating ravenous sharks that will eat anything they can get their teeth on, no matter how difficult.

b. Horde - Ravenous sharks, they have no limit on their appetite and rule the ocean, can be killed easily, but are very powerful, fast & travel in groups. Blood can cause attraction.

c. Vehicle - Motorcycle scooters - bajaj super, with modifications. Has to be able to travel through shallow water quickly & be able to catch food, whilst also being protective.

d. Survival - There's not enough good land to grow a large amount of crops, though fish is still scarce, it is one of the only options. Home must be up high where there is no water and no availability for the sharks to be attracted.

e. Style - Realism, mixture of the colourful nature of India whilst also being toned down & dreary

 f. Story -

i. Who is driving? - A previous family man, he must provide for him and his son, nothing can stop him from trying

ii. What are they driving? - A motorcycle scooter that can get through the water quickly, lots of spikes to try to avoid the sharks and fishing equipment to try to get food

iii. Where in the world are they driving? - Central India

iiii. When are they driving? - 1990s

iiiii. Why are they driving? - To obtain food and resources, anything to survive

g. Vulnerability - Not finding enough food, running out of gas whilst in the ocean, sharks biting through the vehicle itself, fishing can cause the driver to be vulnerable as they would be more out in the open.

Mood boards:

Indian 90s vehicles & other interesting vehicles with a similar look

Water & land vehicles with modifications

Swamp vehicles

Another idea, overloaded lorries & trucks

PBR & Packing Maps

 08/10/20 - Week 1

Today, we went over the basics of PBR and the different maps/workflow included. I have used PBR in the past, especially in my summer project but it was good to confirm my understanding as PBR is very important in realistic texturing. We learnt about packing maps today, this was super useful as though we were introduced to it last year, I sort of didn't understand how it worked until today.

We also started the main task for this week, which I completed later on today. I think I struggled a little bit in trying to perfect these maps by using photoshop but I don't think it's too much of an issue considering that it would only be in rare circumstances that I would be creating a PBR texture this way. I only managed to put the one that we created in class into unreal since I cannot run it very well on my laptop, but I definitely have a strong understanding of how it would look if I were to actually render the textures.

Rough:

Metallic + rough:

Smooth + rough: