New Bust

I've been needing a break from the other head that I've ben working on, so I decided to start another that I've been planning for a bit. It has a lot of curly hair, which I'm not very experienced sculpting, but I'll try my best. I do have some reference pictures that may help.This bust will probably end up being a rough draft for a much better one, but that's alright.

Reflection Part 1.5

  In my Reflecion Part 1, I didn't really include anything about the digital painting aspect of my project, so I will talk about that here. I didn't really have any experience with digital painting or character design before this project, so that was pretty intimidating. I had a lot to learn on the subject, and I still do. I started out watching tutorials, but that wasn't the best method at that point because I had absoltely no idea what I was doing. This caused me to go back to the extreme basics: I decided to figure out what program I was sing. I was considering Illustrator as a potential medium for this project until I actually used it. Although Illustrator is a great program, it isn't the right choice for this type of project. That is when I really started looking at digital painting.

The Apple

     Instead of starting with the absolute basics at this stage, like I should have, I decided to try jumping right into the digital painting experience by trying to paint an apple, using a real apple as reference. The results are to the right. As you can see, my blending techniques weren't very good at this stage, but it turned out alright for my very first try. I believed that I had done pretty well at the time, but looking back on it, it was pretty clearly not the best I could have done. I continued tomove forward at this point by watching some tutorials on blending and techniques to create a professional feel. These helped quite a bit, but I didn't apply them. I began to look at what my plan was compositionally.

My Corkboard

     I had a general idea of my plan for my final piece of digital artwork, but I didn't really know what it was going to look like in any sort of detail. To organize my ideas, I created a digital corkboard using Padlet and filled it with relevant reference pictures and notations. A snapshot of the corkboard is to the left. This was a useful tool to have because it helped me figure out what I wanted to include in the picture and how they might all fit together. It greatly improved my organization of the ideas that I had. I continued to watch digital painting tutorials at this point as well.

The Grey Scale

     Around this point, I realized that I had skipped an important step in my digital painting quest, and that was learning how to digitally paint. I took a few steps back and made a basic grey scale. This turned out pretty well, if a bit patchy. I am now working on the basics of color blending. I also went back to the apple and applied the blending skills that I've learned to it. It isn't anywhere near finished, but it is beginning to shape up. I am working more on the basics and the general sketches of what the final piece will look like compositionally. I'm excited for how it might turn out.

The New Apple

     I do have some major concerns with this project. Because I began the learning process a bit out of order, it lost me a bit of time. I'm worried about whether or not I'll finish. I'm also worried about my drawing skills and if they're good enough to facilitate such a process as digital painting. I am, however, hopeful that these little kinks will work themselves out with time and a bit of pract

Reflection Part 1 10/7/15

     Since the beginning of the semester, I've made quite a bit of progress with my big project. At first, I really had no idea what I planned to do for my project, and I had none of the skills required. After quite a bit of consideration and looking at other possibilities, I decided that character design would be a good choice for me. However, the practice that we did in Maya wasn't really applicable to character design, so I was pretty nervous starting out.

The First Body

     Mudbox was an entirely new animal, and I had no idea how to tackle the process of starting a character design, so I watched a few tutorial videos. I also messed around with the program quite a bit. To the left is my first Mudbox product.As you can see, I wasn't very good, and I made no major adjustments to the pre-made model. The full body was a bit daunting to me, so I decided to start with something a bit smaller scale: the head model.

The First Head

     The head model was a much better choice for me as a beginner. It was much easier for me to play around with, and it was a good way for me to learn the tools. To the left is my first (incomplete) Mudbox head. It was also not very good. I believe that I did quite a bit more maneuvering with this experiment, but I had no knowledge of basic muscle structure or skeletal structure, so this head looks quite doughy. This lead me to do more research. Reference pictures helped me to figure out where the skin dipped and pulled, and it also helped me see what was and was not realistic. The hair was a difficult piece for me as well. After looking at human body parts and many examples of their sculpted components, I was ready to try again. The tutorials helped quite a bit with the techniques required to create the things that I was seeing in actual people.

The Most Recent Head (Work in Progress)

     My next attempt at a head was much better, I think. It was more realistic, and the individual components were much better, aside from the mouth. It was present, but not much else can be said about it. I believe that my skills have improved further since that point, but the improvements have been getting less obvious as time has progressed. The most recent piece of my project is to the left. It is nowhere near finished, but it is much better than my first product.
     The technical aspects aside, I have also come very far regarding the conceptual elements of the project. I knew that I was going to work on a character design, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was designing. That was quickly narrowed down into a set of two characters. I have begun the concept sketches-- one of them looks very similar to my most recent workings-- but they are still in their earlier stages. I would be very pleased to get both of them fully sculpted in 3D, but I would also be satisfied with one.
     Looking back, I feel that I've made quite a bit of progress on the project overall. It's begining to come together, and I'm happy with the progress. I have been nervous at times that I'm not ready for this project, but I think that I will do fine in the long run. I still need to work hard in the future, though. My mouths need a lot of work, and I will eventually need to be comfortable with the full body model, but so far I am satisfied with the progress that has been made.
   

Grey Scale

This is a basic blending exercise. Nothing too difficult, pretty basic stuff. The blending was very simple, and the hardest part for me honestly was getting the ruler lines positioned correctly.

Detail Work

Lately I've been working on the smaller details regarding the Mudbox heads that I've been working on for the past few days. I've been working on what I hope might be the final head for my project with a lot of work. I've got the basic structure down, though the nose needs some work and there are no lips. I also ned to work on my painting skills because it's very unrealistic. However, I'm pleased with my progress thus far.