Review week happened !

Week 22

This week I had my review and I'm extremely pleased and proud to say that I'm doing well, that my progression has been shown well. Of course there are still ares I can improve on and things that could be done to really push my projects. In my review I was extremely nervous, even though I knew it would be no where near as bad news as it was last year, I still sort of had that bad feeling I couldn't shake off. Safe to say I walked out of the room with a real big smile. I've improved so much from where I was last year, I'm utterly proud of myself. As much i feel that it's own doing in how far I've come I also think its my tutors at uni since they've really helped me push myself further and harder. I also think as sad and disappointed I felt last year being told I wasn't good at this and that I wouldn't pass, it definitely gave me the drive and determination to get to this point, to be able to say I'm doing this right, that I'm still here.

Here are some of the things that I took note of to push my work and improve it mainly for my character project but things I can take into other projects:

-  Annotate Moodboards more.

- Don't stick to one idea.

- Be more daring with designs.

- Layer work and change values.

- Use life drawing more.

- Far distance of camera, no distortion.

- Check heads high for height.

- Check in mirror.

- Record step take.

- Write plans of action.

- Push feedback more. 

- Blog everything!

- Do a compilation of processes.

I also handed in my Character project this week, which was both a relief and a sort of disappointment, since there were some things I would have loved to have extra time to do especially since Max did its thing were it randomly corrupts your file when you don't have a back up as far as it was. However after speaking to a tutor I managed to submit it and try to get it back to a the point it was previously at. Generally I feel that this project went pretty well but I still feel it could have been better.

 I feel that I spent are fair amount of time on my unwrap and uvs trying to get them easily readable and tidy, as well as making sure there would be no major smearing when my textures were applied, by using the checker board to make sure they were all uniform. I was pretty comfortable concepting my own designs and working from them, especially since I was able to have direct reference all the time as it was based on myself.

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 model still lacks some on the texture side. I would have definitely provided myself with more time to really get to grips with the rigging side of things and to ensure my rig is done a lot more efficiently and smoother, it is one of the thing I need to work on. 

One of my setbacks for this project was that as I already had an idea of my direction I wanted to go in for my character since I wanted to continue with the theme I had completed for previous projects that were part of the village project. I feel that it did restrict me to a certain extent when it came to the concepting phase, so it something I would a void next time or to at least be a lot more open with ideas.

Here are some final shots of my model and my Uv layout.

Upgrading a mitten hand

Week 21

This week I've been focusing on finishing up modelling my medieval character ready for unwrap, textures and rigging. I didn't really find it to hard to have consistent flow lines with my geometry and getting the right shape. I did however still find it hard to really grasp rigging my character, which I ended up having to quickly re do along with most of my textures as I made the mistake of assuming my file wont corrupt and didn't back up my work more, definitely need to remember to back up more next time.

Originally I modeled a low poly mitten type hand, however once I had looked back over my model, I realized that it didn't fit with the rest of my model, so I went back and modeled a higher poly hand with separate fingers, instead of the mitten type boxed hand I had originally created. I think that by doing this it really pushed forward my models 

I was really happy with my unwrap since I feel it went really smoothly and turned out really good. As I feel I hid the seams well and reduced smears to a min. It is definitely an aspect I'm getting better at every time I do it and actually really enjoy doing it.

For my critical studies I've been preparing myself ready for my formal review for the year but mainly around my current character project. To say I'm nervous is a bit of an understatement. After last year I'm definitely nervous to see if this outcome is the same as last year, even though I'm very confident in my progression and how I much better I am now.

Getting ready to 3D model !

Week 20

This week since I received my second lot of feedback on my character design and generally my the comments were pretty much saying that i was ready to begin my 3D modelling and to create some orthographics. Creating my orthographic for my character I found both difficult and fairly easy. I think difficult since I struggled to create my side view orthographics, as it was slightly difficult to get the right proportions and general feel for how the side would look, I feel it is definitely something I need to improve on and my end side reference wasn't all that good. I did however find it fairly easy to create my front view reference since  my initial design and final design already were front view so I think that I gradually had a really good idea of the proportions and looks of the front view, as I worked so much with it.

I also decided that I wanted to double check my colour distribution on my final design to ensure that I was happy with where each colour was as I was happy with my chosen pallet but not on the distribution. so I complete a page in photo shop where I fiddled around with my colours and ended up deciding that my original colour layout was much better so I stuck with that.

For my Life drawing class we mainly focused on proportions and foreshortening. This I have always found a bit of an area that I really need to practice a lot and it definitely isn't my strong suit. I do enjoy the short quick drawings in the beginning as warm up but do feel that I either need more time to plan out my final drawing or to work faster with my planning out.

Also for my critical studies session we were really focusing on being able to give feed back in a positive and constructive way. Since for example in industry if we feel a clients specifications aren't realistic then we need to be able to give constructive feedback in a positive way for professionalism and to ensure we don't loose the clients business, plus it also helped for me at least to understand how to take constructive feedback when it's given to me.

To do this firstly I filled out a sheet on what I did with written feedback comments on my work and then we partnered up with a peer to fill out an assessment sheet for the other based upon evidence of work provided to us on our character project. Personally at first I found it a little difficult to be a little more expanded with the feedback and comments I wanted to give. One hand I understood that I could only actually give feedback on the evidence I had in front of me and on the other I wanted to ask questions, give advice and talk about any other aspects hat may have been done and not shown in the evidence, so I found that slightly frustrating. The marks and advice i got back off of my partner I found very helpful.

Further developments of the character project.

Week 19

It's the second week of the character project and this week has really just been extending our designs further. Developing them the extra mile to ensure that our final design meets the style guide, criteria and has a solid basis/design. Firstly on a personal side of things I've sort of been out of remission on uni work side of things  for reasons that couldn't be helped, however I do feel the need to congratulate myself on the basis that even with this I feel that I have still managed to be up to date with my work and produced an end final design that meets the specifications, has major interest for myself and a solid design which I am really happy with. 

At the end of last week I received my first review on my initial design and generally my feedback was to continue the direction I was going, I was advised to experiment further with tonal values, look at adding more details such as belts and money bags and to then look into colour schemes for my design. 

I decide to complete an extended research board on the extra details and possible props to give my character a more slightly obvious purpose and story. I looked into a belts to help brake down the garments, I looked more closely at the head scarf I have decide to have my character wearing, also a basket with wool and possible baby garments hanging out of it is a possible and main idea I think that I might explore more.

One of the main aspects I decide to create my  female character around is that she is a pregnant woman, so one of the discussions I had with my 3D tutor was about how to help that come across on paper and as a 3D model, so the idea came across of rigging her to have a slight waddle, and the general posture of her back

Once I had some general extra details and props laid out I then looked at tonal values and colour. for the colour pallet I decide to re use the same one I had created for my village building project and the tree project and I used the same colour scheme throughout all projects so help keep it all look consistent and to fit together. I then created 8 colour different colour scheme to my final chosen design. I feel that in general all of the colours schemes work how ever some are a little to contrasting, and I am leaning towards designs, 1, 5, 6, and 7.