Doodles and then some

A few doodles that I had forgotten to add in before the deadline, but very rough and loose to get into the swing of sketching again

Some fun inspiration

Referring back when I posted about the walk animation and the connection to the music video

I researched the french artist Jeff Le Bars out of curiosity and found his showreel which parts of actually reminded me of a previous groups work: Cope

But I also loved the style and the colours that were used in several of his animations.

There was also the fun video on how ZBrush is used to create character models, seen in the link below. It’s made me want to try and dabble in mudbox or even ZBrush itself to try and create full body models for myself.

ZBrush Video Link

I also found an artist on the website Tumblr who had a few amazing animated pieces that was great for a four legged walk cycle, and is great both artistically and for movement.

http://katieomeara.tumblr.com/post/129374825989

https://secure.assets.tumblr.com/post.js

Katieomeara

The whole scene together

After everyone in the group, Clare, Courtney and Siobhan, had modeled what we wanted for the village, we set about putting it together for the final rendering.

I had started importing the models and such onto a scene but each time my maya would shut down, so thankfully Courtney was able to take over and managed to get everything together. It was then sent to Clare, who set up the cameras and took some final images.

Unrendered Images from my computer

Rendered images from Clares set up.

Evaluation of the Assignment

Starting out on this project I was really excited to expand my knowledge in maya, animating and practicing art.

For the modeling I joined up with Clare Millar, Courtney Sproule and Sionhan Robinson and we started working on our medieval village. For this aspect of the project I was a bit worried in case my models weren’t up to the rest of the groups standards, but I was surprised at how they game out, and how I managed to finally figure out ambient occlusion.

I wasn’t happy with the amount of buildings or work I got done, but I learned a few things that I can’t wait to try out and use to build my own things.

As for UV wrapping I got around to learning the basic’s, but will still need to practice it more to get a better idea for it.

 

For the animation section of the assignment I enjoyed it too, I still need to work on movement and weight a lot more, but I was enjoying making walk cycles and making the models come to life. Again, same with the models more practice is needed, but i’m a bit more confident in that I can actually improve.

 

For the concept art assignment, I paired up with Natasha Crowley, and unlike the other two areas I feel disappointed with how the concept art turned out. I have the ideas which I do intend to carry on, but I didn’t get to improve with colours and such due to circumstances, but really intend to push myself this term to improve as much as I can. That being said, the few pieces I did create aren’t the worst thing i’ve drawn, so I can a bit of improvement from the last time I have drawn.

 

To conclude I feel disappointed in myself for not doing as much as I wanted to for an assignment that I was extremely excited to start but I really hope I get another chance during the term to show what i’m capable of.

 

Sculpting

For modeling I had considered using mudbox to create buildings and creature models for our village.

The tools are fun, handy, and I enjoyed creating face models on it. There wasn’t enough time to however, but I did get to make a few attempts

The first mudbox attempt creating a face model. Its not too bad for a first try I think, but looking back there can be a lot to be improved on.

Second time modeling, and to make a wolfs head for our village and getting the hang of mudbox some more.

Third time, and redoing the wolf head again. Finally got the basic outline and overall shape, and even managed to make the jowls a bit realistic.

Fourth time, and after the previous model I tried adding in fur bumps, an open more and tried doing up the nose and eyes again. But more than that I tried to add emotion into it, to let the viewers know what the model is feeling. I think I caught this guys enthusiasm very well

 

The Shack

Every village needs a shack to store its random items and livestock, even if its a run down one at that.

The shacks in skyrim have made me want to create a more detailed, spacious shack, but due to time pressure i’ve had to stick with the simplistic version.

As well as adding on the ambient occlusion I tried to render the shack in a few simple colours for future texturing.

The Beasts

To rival our feathered fiends, Natasha has considered fish, but i went in a bit of a different direction. To contrast our slim and narrow birds, I considered a canine like beast, must like a hyena. Using strength and primitive weaponry its no wonder they lost to the birds.

Using Fran from Final Fantasy, I considered a more human shape with exaggerated canine features, but felt the shapes were similar to the Beaks, and had to rethink it.

Pinterest:

The idea is taking a bit more shape, bulking up the beasts and adding extra slopes and curves to their bodies to make them appear bigger, bulkier, and more dependent on their strength, unlike the birds whose main advantage is their magic.

Miguel Regodon:

More warrior like, more strength orientated, more primal. A bit better to rival our birds.

Our feathered friends

Natasha had first come up with ideas for a bird vs fish rivalry, and I really loved the idea for using our antagonists, the magic afflicted, as top dogs so to speak.

It gave us a lot of potential ideas for our species, and fun things to research.

Brent Hollowell:

Brent’s work gave a few ideas, meaning it could be interesting to create the species in forms of prehistoric birds

Pinterest:

Then again a cloaked/feathered, litle creature has always held the air of mystery and uncertainly, it would give the species a more mystic feeling.

Shape and silhouette is important to creating more notable characters, so for our feathered friends, the Beaks, tall, slim, best way to describe them would be unnatural.

 

 

 

Well i’ll be

Although I didn’t get to model as much as i’d have liked to due to unseen circumstances, I did do a few miscellaneous models for shacks and adding in a well to go with an interesting fact Courtney had found about Vlad the Impaler, and how he left a goblet at the well in the courtyard, threatening that if anyone touched it there would be hell to pay.

Thankfully the UV wrapping was a bit more easier to follow than with the house, since the model itself is simplistic.

The Caravan

As well as the house I also made a caravan to fit into the scene. Going back to the Fable games as research I based the vehicle on the old fashioned gypsy carts that would have, to some extent, been around medieval Romania/Transylvania.

Starting again with a simple base I I built it it up from there, creating an underbase for the wheels to be attached.

Using the guidelines for these Fable caravan concept art, I kept the designs and models simple and easy for the UV wrap and eventual texturing.

Same as the house, I added on the Ambient Occlusion to make the caravan stand out a bit better for rendering.