Trip to bradegate !

Week 9

This week we went as a year group to bradegate park, to get some sketches and pictures. Going to Bradegate is definitely something to look forward to. It's a really beautiful place, a huge contrast against the busy city that is Leicester. Since we went in November the weather was pretty dull but it really helped to see the change that a season does to the landscape. From the colour change, the lack of leaves actually on the trees and mainly scattered on the floor.

To help create a folder of references to use for future projects I also took a fair amount of pictures of Bradegate. I wanted to have a variety of information to refer back to such as trees, foliage, colour changes in the autumn season, landscapes in general, ect.

One of the main focus I decided to look at and gather reference for was trees since my next project after my current witch house building is two stylized trees. So I took some pictures of different tree types, close up of the textures and colours of the bark, the foliage and the general shapes of trees.

Also I think for myself it was a really good character boost since I'm a away from home and last year was already a bad one it definitely gave me a sense of peace and sort of soothed me. Bradegate is very much like home is with the fields, clean air, open space and its a place where you can hear yourself think in peace. It's a beautiful place. 

Game art conference day !

Week 8

This week for critical studies there was an art conference day put on to help the development of my critical analysis skills, since it's a big aspect of  my course and the industry. Since I had some appointments to go to I only managed to make one session which was the confidence boosting session.

During my session there was a small group where we talked about various types of confidence, how it can come across or be shown, areas that show lack of confidence, how we can improve our confidence and how it will reflect from us when we do gain confidence. We then also did a couple exercises where practiced as a group introducing self and holding our self up in the power position .

The game art conference day is a really good idea, it definitely helps you with things and its really good that you can pick sessions that you feel will help you most since you lack something in them. I'd really like it to be a termly thing, because I found it really helpful the first time round and was able to really take things from it.

Also this week I have been trying to push my village house project further because I feel like i keep getting myself stuck at a dead end, sch as general ideas and shape of my model.

Moving on with my drawing

Part 1 

 

I've always loved all sides of drawing and always wanted to keep getting better. However like most I guess I have my preferences and I had the things I wasn't very good at drawing so I'd avoid them as much as I could. Mainly it was drawing people and landscapes, I tended to be decent with the outline work and getting proportion good, I guess mainly I found the shading the hardest. No matter how I tried my drawings lack enough depth, 3-D form and didn't seem to flow, since I couldn't help but go to heavy with the rendering from the start not leaving enough tonal range.

When I knew for sure I wanted to be in this industry and that traditional skills in all areas would be just as important as the 3-D modelling side of things. I began practicing a lot in the areas I knew I'd been avoiding, mainly with people’s faces. I found myself some patience since I seem to lack it sometimes, some better quality pencils and paper and began sketching a picture at random of a few youtuber I liked. I thought it would be a good idea to record myself drawing so that when I looked back I would be able to start spotting things I could do better or ways I could start better. 

Once I started drawing making sure to take breaks so I don't overdo it, I realized where I'd been going wrong and how much I was improving by practicing more regular than usual.

Rocks, Rocks and more rocks.

 Week 7

So this week was mainly focused on a stylized rock project I got in game production. The aim of this project was to create a stylized rock that has been design with a purpose and to fit loosely with the concepts provided to help with artistic direction. The rock is to be created physically first and then translated into a functioning game asset, within set specifications of 600 tris and 2 512x512 texture maps one for diffuse on the rock and one for an alpha map if needed.

As I wasn’t provided with reference and concepts to work from I began by creating a mood board to help come up with some basic shapes for my rock design. I looked at general rock shapes I liked, crystals and there colours and examples of drawings on rocks. I then created some blocked out shapes for silhouettes to begin designing my rock, before developing a design and experimenting with colours. Once I had my design I began to model it in 3ds max, which I decided on a rock and crystals to symbolize Life, and family.

Generally I feel that this project went pretty well and I already feel that I have improved on some things, such as my time management which for this project and even though there still not amazing I still feel my skills and knowledge has improved a lot on Photoshop and creating my own textures. I’m kind of happy with my unwrap and Uv map, I feel that I spent are fair amount of time on them trying to get them easily readable and tidy, as well as making sure there would be no major smearing when my texture was applied, as I had to make the decision to have my sides separate to prevent smearing. I was pretty comfortable concepting my own designs and working form them and I think creating a physical model really helped understand how to build it in max.

Some ways in which I think I could improve my work would be to practice my Photoshop/texturing skills a lot more as I’m still not very skilled and feel my end model still lacks some on the texture side. If I had more time I think that I’d go back and forth between Photoshop and 3ds max to check my textures a lot more. One thing I noticed was there were still a fair few faces that could do with the smoothing groups being changed on the curved edges, so I would possibly change that next time. One last thing I think I would change would be to play around with some more verts to give a little more dynamic to my rock.

Wire frame shots of my finished stylized rock

 Beauty shots of my finished stylized rock.

 

Here is my Uv template and Texture Map.

Reviews and pondering thoughts

Week 6

This week I had my review to see were my progression on the course is going and if I'm struggling. I'm actually pretty proud and happy to say that apart from a few things I need to do which I agreed with, I'm actually doing really good. Initially I was so nervous waiting to be asked to go in the room, I guess a big part of that is because I'm already repeating the year so it's a bigger deal now and last year didn't go so well at all.

I just generally spoke to two of my tutors about the course how I'm coping with it my thoughts on returning as a first year and to the course in general and what to do to make sure I don't fall into the ending I had last year.

Which also got me think inking about returning and how this year as I'm a first year student again I m one of the few that gets to experience the change in the course structure an the updates that have been done. So I guess I'm going to go a little into that now and then a little more throughout the next year of writing my blog.

Firstly when I returned and was told that the course was updated I was slightly unsure really how to take it since I guess before since I had already gone through the structure for the first year I was comfortable n knowing to expect. However after being told and the first couple of weeks I can already see the difference in how we re being taught and I feel that it's a lot better than last year. Like last year one of the big sort of problems that occurred a lot was the lack of communication and it never really seemed to get sorted but the end of the year so I didn't really feel that I knew soon enough that I wasn't doing as well or that even though it's a fast pace course and it really does create the type of drive and feel that you would get learning in industry, I didn't feel that it was taken to much into account that some people had no digital background at all.

However after returning it's the 6th weeks in and I be already recovered general feedback in classes, there doesn't seem to be that much of a lack of communication compared to last year and I ve had a review session with tutors about all sides of the course and my own personal feelings about coping with the course so far which I found extremely helpful and sort of a small push that I know what I'm doing is right and I'm on the right track.

I also noticed that the way in which the lessons and projects for each module are set out really link together way better than last year. This time it feels that's I can really put together bits from each module to help myself make a project much better then if I had a lot of separate things to do, that didn't go together. As well as this year having a lot more digital art and teaching added which I feel is a huge bonus that will really help with the rest of the course and my own skills.

I also really like now how the 3-d projects are set out which really cover all the basics assuming your not to familiar with it and feel that even though it's still not a snail pace you still feel like you have time to cover things your not too confident with, Which for me is a big deal especially since it's something I really struggled with last year and this year I'm still not extremely confident with it even though I feel a lot more confuse than when I first started.

The 3D Sci-fi crate project

Week 5

This week for my reflections I have decided to mainly focus on my first project submission for my game production module which was to create a Sci-fi crate from supplied reference and concepts within supplied technical and visual specifications, being able to follow a set style guide.

I Feel that overall my project has turned out fairly well, there are some aspects I’m not particularly happy with and feel could be changed but I feel that I’ve met the brief given. In general I feel that my pace of work and time keeping was pretty well planned out and apart from not leaving an extra small bit of time to evaluate how my textures fully look on my completed model and to complete extra bits such as the asset template ect, I feel I kept to my time scale, which has improved a lot.  I’m fairly happy with my unwrap and Uv map, I feel that I spent are fair amount of time on them trying to get them easily readable and tidy, as well as making sure there would be no major smearing when my texture was applied. I was pretty comfortable modelling my crate with the provided reference and didn’t find it too difficult to visualize the reference planes into a 3-d shape.

Four ways that I think I could improve my work would be to practice my Photoshop/texturing skills a lot more as I’m still not very skilled and feel my end result still lacks a fair bit.  If I had more time I think that I’d go back and go back and forth between Photoshop and 3ds max to smooth out certain points in my textures I’ve noticed have bled onto parts of geometry there not meant to. I think I would also budget extra time, if it was needed in the end or not to re check applied textures on model and to complete renders and such. One thing I noticed was there were still a couple faces that could do with the smoothing groups changed on the chamfered edges, so I would possibly change that too.

 

Here is my finished Sci_fi crate.

                                                   Here is my Uv map and texture sheet.