Sunday evenings are usually the time I spend organzing my work and other things for the following week. I sit down, draft new checklists, tick off old ones, re-evaluate how I’m doing work wise, stress a little… I don’t always remember to post about it, but I did this time.

This week’s balance is overly positive, and it’s also a reflection on how I’ve done so far and where i’m heading/what I want to do. A hectic week awaits me, but I think I can manage.

A big thing this week was my birthday. I’m 21 now! Celebrations were had, and although work was not forgotten, not as much of it was done as it should have been. However,  I am at a stage where I feel I can afford to take half a day off to celebrate my birthday.

Asides from that, I have been trying my best to work as diligently I have been, although it seems like I have reached a bit of a stagnant point. Having four characters at a very similar stage, I have finally reached the dreaded point of SMALL DETAIL. Which does mean spending countless hours going over the models and adding those little bits that will be baked on to the normal maps.

Which has also led me to research. A lot of research. Research for methods, techniques and advice on how to do those things I want to do in order to make my characters look pretty. Baking textures and maps, reducing topology, UV mapping, texturing… The fun stuff. I may have to change the tablet pen for the pen and notepad for a while as I plough through the research, but it will all be worth it… I hope.

It is moments like this in which I wish that knoweldge was something innate for people. Learning and discovering is fun, but if you got things straight away instead of having to sit down and remind yourself every time because you got distracted is not as fun.

Considering week 5 is up, and I have four characters that are currently being polished, I am quite happy with my work. I am very very pleased with it. There is a bulk of work here, and although I did focus on the 3D for a while and have not done as much drawing as I may have needed to, at least the drawing I can do in my spare time. When in class it’s always better to take advantage of the powerful computers to work on Zbrush as much as possible. Even if it means having people stare at your work from time to time.

The stares are usually followed by good comments and helpful feedback, but it is distracting nontheless.

Where am I going?

Well, I can safely say that the improvement I have made in the space of two/three weeks has been AMAZING. I never actually thought I could do the things I am doing right now, or be as confident in Zbrush as I am. It used to scare me, but now it is the program I swear by. I will become a master of it one day, that’s for sure.

I don’t know about the future, but my immediate plans regarding Zbrush are these:

• Finish polishing the characters
• Bake out the details
• UV and retopologize

This might take me a week or two, but I’m quite confident I’ll make it. The ideal plan would be to have all that done before the end of the month. As for drawing (as I NEED to draw more), it’s just a matter of:

• Silhouette concepts
• Body shape diversity drawings
• Situation sketches
• A couple of polished drawings

My new laptop should be arriving at some point this week, and with it it means that I can now draw anywhere I want. It is a small and portable little thing, which will be a lovely contrast to my current 17inch macbook (affectionately named THE MONSTER because of how huge and bulky it is). The new laptop will also mean I have no excuse not to do any research or work when I’m in town or near uni, as I can take it anywhere. So far, the attitude has been ‘I’ll take my sketchbook and do some traditional art’. Which I do, don’t get me wrong, and it’s lovely to go back to a traditional medium… but it feels like it’s more of a distraction than things that will go fowards to the actual submission.

This has mounted up to quite a lengthy post. I will update soon with a full balance of how much I have done and how much needs doing still, as well with a small update on my self-taught polypainting technique. I am enjoying the tutorial blogging, and I have already been told by others that they like it. Horray for me!

I suppose one could say I have an excuse for taking a bit with this update: I was gathering enough screenshots so I could make a decent post about it, and in a way share my newfound knowledge with those that peak into this blog from time to time. I remember mentioning I had been given some feedback by a Jagex senior artist. Well… here are the results of some of that work:

Four massive images explaining some of my work process. I have more screenshots now, so more will be coming, and hopefully with more detailed explanations. For now, this is all I have. I may do a small tutorial post concerning IMM tools and how I came across them later on…

… When after spending countless hours working on something, you lose some of the information on it? And find yourself having to backtrack and spend more hours trying to get the model back to it’s previous polished state?

Well, this has happened on two of my character models, and has me quite annoyed at the moment. Luckily, the information loss was minimal, and I had had the common sense of saving it in a different format so I could just easily import it and not that much damage was lost…

But damn it zbrush. If you tell me you’ve saved something, and the date and hour on the save file says you have… Why don’t you!?

Rant over. I will do a big post on the afternoon explaining the countless new things I have learnt (It’s a happy post! yaiiii) but for now, let’s go back and finish the two characters that I had finished last week already…

So that thing about posting regularly week by week? It may be a bit harder than I thought, mainly due to the hectic rhythm that my life seems to have taken. Thankfully I do keep progress notes of what I do (and checklists. So many checklists) that I can roughly update on what has been going on.

WEEK 2 (last week)

Consisted mainly of concepts and completing research I already had on the go. Completed informations on the selkie, started on the gem giants and roughed up Lahja’s design things… Lahja is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but the other two characters, so far named Ila and Baldr, seem to be doing quite well. So far there’s more development going into the selkies than the giants, but I am aiming to rectify that very soon. The aim is to start modelling as soon as possible, but there are some things I want to get out of the way first.

Overall I am getting very good feedback from the people that are seeing my work, and that is pleasing me It’s always nice when people enjoy what you’re working on!

WEEK 3 (this week just ended)

Things took a turn, both for the better or worse, depends on how you want to see it. Mark, a senior artist from Jagex, came in on thursday and reviewed our work, giving us one to one feedback. I like to think he liked what he saw, as he gave me a lot of very good pointers that will surely help me improve my work! The downside is, his feedback somewhat renders the research i’ve been putting into the characters somewhat useless, as he did suggest to focus much more on the individual as opposed to the back culture. The suggestions he gave as to presentation means that more work can be easily produced to rectify it and hopefully improve it for the best, but it does mean that I need to somewhat change the angle  on my work.

I am keeping all the research I’ve done (there’s no way i’m leaving all that to waste!) But it will most probably go into separate blog posts as opposed to featuring in the final submission. It is part of the research I have conducted into the characters, but not relevant to the individual personality of each character, which leads me to what I will be doing this week:

WEEK 4 PLAN:

• Amy (second year student) messaged me with regards with her digital practice module. Apparently she’s having some trouble with it, and would be interested in animating some of  my characters. I am very much excited about this idea, as she is a brilliant animator, but I need to talk to her in order to iron out exactly what her time frame is and how to go on about it. But I would be extremely happy if she animated one of my characters having worked with her in the past and knowing what she’s capable of is a bonus
• Sculpting wise: the aim is to get Ila’s model (the selkie) finished. Or at least the base, which would mean I would only need to fix topology and add the detail to her before baking it.
• If i got time to start on Baldr’s model that would also be brilliant, but not to fussed if I don’t. I’d rather have a near-finished model than two started but not quite there ones.
• This also leads into my third character, Lahja: her design is being tweaked due to the feedback from Mark, so when not modelling I will be working on variations for her. Silhouetting during my free time and then completing some of those sketches on photoshop seems to be the way to go, so I shall be doing that. I am taking everything he said on board, as she was the most troublesome of the trio, so perhaps this will lead me to a design I am 100% satisfied with. She is a character I am very much attached to, so being satisfied with how she looks is quite important.

Quite text heavy post, but I suppose it does make up for lost time. Hopefully posting will be more constant from  now on, as the changes made to my work means there will be more stuff to post about

So I’m taking the sign that the tablet drivers crashed and pressure sensitivity stopped working on Photoshop as a sign that I should stop work. Wether I should actually do this could be up for debate, but I’ve been working since pretty much 9am and I think half 4 is a good time to call it quits.

At least to the digital work. I have some sketching to do still before I can call the work day over.

So, what have I been up to today?

Well, it’s been a day of general doodles, with the purpose of warming up to the characters I have chosen. Quite a few selkie drawings, as I do not seem to tire of them, and quite a nice pic of Baldr the Gem giant talking to Lahja, who to him is nothing more than an annoying lizard-ling.

I also spent a good part of the morning reading up on the inuit culture, partly out of boredom partly out of curiosity, as they could prove to be a very good source of material for developing the selkie clans. I also took a couple of notes (which I will need to decypher later due to a massive case of chicken-scratch handwriting) on the adaptations to hot and cold climates. It was surprisingly interesting, and it pointed out certain aspects that I may need to add to my characters to make them more accurate.

I am aiming to be done with the concepting stage roundabout next week. I have a massive amount of research done at home that I will be posting about in the next couple of days as I piece all of it together, but which I hope illustrates my thought behind the designs of the characters.

Then, back on to the 3D modelling Exciting stuff!

Ten days after my last post, I post again to somewhat announce that my tiny break is over, and to run the people that might read this blog over my thoughts for next semester, and why I took a turn and went for something a bit different to what I had originally planned.

The main reason for the change is some personal problems that happened during the last project that made me resent the work a bit, and to avoid full blown hate over the concept, which I actually adore. As such, I will be doing something more investigation based rather than story based, which will also hopefully lead quite nicely into what I want to do in my masters.

The idea was planted in my head by Baris, who suggested anthropomorphism as something to look into when I do my masters degree, due to my obsession with humanoid characters with animal traits, monsters and the sorts. I love a bit of Frankensteining, getting two or more elements from various species and creating something that could work, so I am actively chosing to pursue that next semester and fully developing monster-like characters.

I’ll be using the character concepts I already drew up as a base for these ones. I’m not going to let all the work I did go to waste. However, I am not going to let myself get into another project so big. I will only develop five characters, the five I like most: A selkie, Lahja the Swamp mongrel, a gem giant, Gea the Human and her friend Aras Bleu, who I like to call the peacock.

I’m currently on the train to Brighton to take some days off, but ideas have started flowing into my head and I’m already taking notes and planning things in my sketchbook. I actually feel like I have this one under control, and this time the idea is not as daunting. This concept already feels different to the one from semester one, and that couldn’t make me feel happier.

Bring it on, Final Major Project. I’m gonna best you.

Two days until hand in, and I can say pretty safely I have not much left to go!

Dissertation is finally finished, and only needs binding. Shame I only finished it this morning, after a long and thorough spell check from Adam, as I could have handed it in yesterday and have one less thing to worry about.

I suppose I cannot complain much about things, as I am doing much better than other years, and I’m not feeling the stress that much!

This week, instead of a specific drawing, you get a screenshot of my presentation, and hope you enjoy as much as I do how nice it looks now that it is almost full with all the detail it’s supposed to contain

As I wait for my mother to call me for dinner, I will update this blog to say what I have been up to.

Drawing has been slow, as I have been completing the presentation notes I needed done and only managed to finish one character. This, however, means I am officially done with the main characters! I now just need to add all their information and notes to the presentation.

Dissertation is becoming my main focus, as even though I am pretty much finished it it is now being proofread by various friends, and once that is done I can finally concentrate on ultimating the presentation.

I am reaching a point where I am so tired I just want to be done with work, and would actually want to have more of a holiday than just one week. Nontheless, I suppose I will be getting a much later christmas holidays after I hand everything in

Meanwhile, enjoy Lahja, the final main character!

and another drawing I found of Lahja that I don’t think I uploaded here, to bulk this week’s submission up a bit

I got another two characters done, which I am quite pleased about. I am also almost done with my dissertation, which I am even more pleased about as I cannot wait to get that monster of an essay over and done with, as I am starting to lose my will to finish it due to how long it has become and because of having to retrace my steps and rewrite bits of it so many times.

I do not know when I’ll be able to post my progress next, as I am heading over to a friend’s house to finish my dissertation once and for all, and after that my week will be full of catching up with family, friends and christmas shopping. It is the only week I am allowing myself to have off, so there is a very big chance that the next post will be after the christmas days.

Two more characters done, just a couple more to go! This last week has been mainly me focusing on the Dissertation, which I am aiming to finish before I leave for Spain, which is in a week’s time. The fact I had time to finish these two is a miracle, as I’ve been feeling pretty run down due to stress. Nontheless, something is something! I doubt i’ll finish the dissertation by the day I leave, but if I finish the first three chapters, or at least have a pretty detailed draft of them I’ll be happy.

I’ve been working on my main characters for a while now, and so far I have two finished! A lot of research was accomplished too, and the first chunk of my presentation could be considered pretty much done and dusted. And, as a cherry on top: the first chapter to my dissertation is finished, and the second one is pretty much under way! this is amazing progress, considering I could be doing so much better when it comes to how i’m feeling- this last week hasn’t been the best, but i’m going to try and not let it get me down… At least I have Christmas ahead of me, which means I can always catch up and refine things.

Feeling quite guilty about not having blogged in a while, as this blog is mainly meant to show progress throughout my work. However, real life took a hold of me and this meant I was very, very busy. I was also very productive, and have a lot of drawings to make up for it. Quite bland, but at least I am getting accross what I want to, which I feel is the most important part. I gave up on the shading quite a bit ago, as I have my research project to focus on too, and shading means I spend way too much time than I should on a picture… Mainly because I tend to mess it up and I need to do it carefully in order to do it properly. The result when I do it is amazing (I mean, just look at those giants! But that picture took me all to long for me to be comfortable with it) Hope you like them

I seem to be distracting myself quite a bit with Zbrush, and losing focus on what I want the project to be, and what I actually want to achieve.

After a talk with my tutor I decided to revise my objectives and spreaded out the work a bit, which means that I will not be doing any more 3D work per se this semester, but rather all next semester. In turn, I am focusing this semester entirely on concepting and getting backstories out of the way, so that I develop all the characters this semester and model them, make them pretty and animate them next semester as part of my final major.

No drawings this post, mainly because I haven’t done much. I actually need to get back on track, so hopefully next post there will be more drawings to show!

Today was one of those days that were just GOOD. Plain, old good, and after a weekend of productive-but-not-really, there is nothing better than it.

So, weekend: it was fruitful in terms of research. Many things were identified, sketched, thrown away, re-sketched, and what not… now its just a matter of putting it together. When will I do that, I don’t know… but I really should do it some point soon considering it’s almost novemeber, and my schedule says I really should be done with my concepts soon.

Which I kind of am. Kind of.

I’ll only know how much i’ve done when I piece it together….

And when will I do that? I don’t know… I need to be in the mood for it. It’s one of those things I don’t do unless I have nothing else to.  (i can’t help it, it’s the most boring part of the work)

But back to the interesting bits, the learning bits! I did much learning today… and it is kind of embarassing that I discovered in one day what I had been hoping to do during the summer: TOPOLOGY IN ZBRUSH. 

I can now topologize in zbrush. I am very pleased with myself, as I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and in the process I obtained the most wonderful base mesh I have done to date. It’s really nothing special, I have done base meshes before, but this one is the first one entirely done in one program. All in Zbrush! i’m so happy and so pleased about it I almost want to name it :_)

Asides from the base mesh, I did quite a few bits and bobs… of human. Modelled and individual torso, arm, leg and head that I can put together to create models relatively quickly (it was doing this, and using the wonderful Zremesher that I produced the base)

and I did some sketching, as always… but nothing too special, really. I still need to do some polishing and modifying before I’m satisfied with them.

I’m hoping to be equally as productive tomorrow. Hopefully this way, I’ll be back on track. I had fallen back slightly. Then again, when I look at the pile of work done, it’s not that bad. I’m doing pretty well for being week 5.

like a record player round and round…

and although that’s not how the song goes, that’s what i’ve been up to: heads! photoshop heads, a zbrush head, head sketches… it’s been all about the faces during the weekend. And a lot of research -i’m currently plowing my way through Shadow of a Mouse by Donald Crafton- but I haven’t got as much to show about that…

My life is just not that interesting…..

Like I previously said, here are some of my experiments with dynamesh wax. The rule i’m going by this morning is: spend a maximum of two hours on each model, and then discard and do another one. After I’m done for the day, i’ll go back through and see which ones are worth developing further, and which will just remain as concepts.

Have to say though, this is much more fun than just sketching

Monday mornings are rarely productive. And by that, I mean it takes me ages to get things done. Today was no exception. Even though I had work to do, and a plan to follow, the beginning of the week and just general ‘meeeh’ meant hardly anything got finished, but many sketches and doodles were produced, and which have gone to the pile of stuff of ‘may or may not be developed’

Something good came out of the afternoon, which has opened so many new tangents on the project, which may or may not reduce the ammount of stuff i have to draw, and increase the stuff I model. This would be brilliant, as I am pretty fluent with photoshop, but would love to explore zbrush as a concepting tool. I have seen a few artists on deviantart use it as a concepting tool, and even for life drawing classes! So, following this, i see no reason why I could not use it in a similar way myself -specially considering i can now get a very decent human head on screen in well under ten minutes :)-

My discovery: wax dynamesh.

And how I love it.

During the tutorial we were supposed to model a pillar, but the moment Luis introduced dynamesh I just had to give it a try, and man the results just don’t compare to general zbrush clay. I find it much quicker, much more familiar and I enjoy the colour of it more, which in turn detracts me from trying to find the right colour and material and eventually crashing zbrush with my meddling.

Hopefully i’ll post soon with screenshots of my further experiments with dynamesh

I got bored quite quickly of just sketching -even though it was FUN sketching- and I wanted to attempt something more detailed. Like, character sheets for example.

So, I dug through the many sketches I have compiled so far ( I sketch a lot, but that doesn’t mean i’ll actually develop anything to a finite stage… I just leave them lurking around in a folder and come back to them later) and dug out a very rough one of Damien Dorian, one of the main characters for my project, and even though its not exactly his turn, I decided to have a go at painting him. Becuase, why not? As long as I get all the characters done, it doesn’t really matter in which order I do them.

So that I did.

And four hours later, I found myself with this:

granted, against a white background you cannot appreciate all the details, but its the fact that I managed to get a complete piece just the way I envisioned it in such an ammount of time.

He now needs details on the clothes and all his information, but asides from that it’s pretty much there.

The weekend was research, yet again, but as a relaxing exercise I decided to tackle Aras bleu, another character who was giving me quite a bit of trouble. And so far… he looks pretty good! and just like with Damien Dorian, he is looking like I envisioned him. 

Here is a screenshot of my current progress, and with it I say goodbye until I finish the drawing!

Having started on the 30th of September, today 7th marks the one week of uni! And, first week over, i’m surprised both at the ammount of work done and at how little it actually seems to be…

First days have been spent mainly writing the characters up and any essential information I deem valuable in the journal (lovely brown notebook I am really enjoying) and just concepting and getting the feel for the characters and style.

WHICH MEANS that even though I have produced drawings I am very proud of, not all are exactly useful. It has taken me a long time to get the look of only two of the characters right, and there’s still a few to go. But with these two out already in a week, I am confident I can get at least half way through by next week.

Asides from that, it’s been research what i’ve been up to. Reading some papers, making notes on them, and practicing zbrush.