Sketchbook 5 - Teddy and Shading

 Here was a sketch of a teddy bear I did, I tried to focus on the lighting and shading mostly, I'm fairly satisfied with how it came out, but the perspective was a bit warped, even more so in the photo.

 

Here was just a quick sketch of a man, I was trying to create his form mainly through shadows and lighting rather than linework. Although the proportions are out, I think it was a successful attempt for the exercise.

2d Lesson 5 - Troll

 

 

In todays class we were mainly focusing on lighting and shadows. Using a reference of a troll, we had to create a rendered painting.

I found the task difficult initially, getting the base lighting was easy but painting the natural shadows and shades was more challenging. I wasn't too happy with how it came out, as it looked cartoony rather than realistic like I was originally intending. However I will continue to work on my lighting and shading and hopefully improve for my next piece.

3d Lesson 7 - This is Halloween

In this session we had to animate a 2d drawing using a skeleton in 3ds Max. I used a program called Animestudio last year for one of my projects, and the two programs use the same method, so I found the task fairly easy.

The process simply involved adding bones and using the skinning filter to attatch the skeleton to the image. Following that I adjusted the strength/envelope of the bones to avoid tearing, and animated the skeleton.

The animation itself isn't perfect, as I forgot to add bones to the shoulders, but I'm quite pleased with how it came out for a quick task.

Life Drawing 2 - Swans and Negative Space

 In this Life Drawing session we had to sketch a still life from an installation in the center of the room, in this case a swan's skeleton.

In the first drawing I used a pencil to draw the swan's form, I feel that I am getting more confident in my line-art, and over time I hope to produce these images quicker, as I was unable to finish sektching the whole figure.

The second drawing was done looking through a perspective grid, which was in the fore-ground, here I attempted to sketch using negative space with charcoal, intiially just drawing the shadows and erasing the swan out of the charcoal with a rubber. However it proved far too difficult to get the grid and perspective of the swan correct, if I had more time I might of been able to finish.

Sketchbook 4 - Fountain and Sheriff

 I did a still life of a fountain in the estate near my home. It originally started off as a one point perspective sketch but I moved the horizon line at one point by mistake, so I tried to make up for that fact. I think it came out ok, but not amazing, I feel it got the main features of the location.

Here is a sketch of a character design, I was playing with proportions and goinf for a more stylised/cartoon approach. I'm quite happy with how it came out, I feel it has a solid design and I'm quite pleased with the hands.

2d Lesson 4 - Perspective Vehicles

In this week's assignment I had to draw two vehicles, one from stark trrek and one from star wars, using two point perspective.

I found it to be challenging, especially the speeder, as I had trouble getting the curve at the front of the vehicle lining up right. I sketched them first in my book before scanning them and painted them in photoshop.

I think as a lesson it has helped me improve my perspective for when it comes to more complex objects - but I certainly need to concentrate on working with curves more.

3d Lesson 6 - Church

For this brief I was tasked with creating a low poly church, and texturing it based off some reference images. I had to apply a UVW map with multi-texture material, this allowed me to pick a part of the model's surface and assign one of the textures to it - which meant I could essentially texture the entire object with only a few select textures.

The task overall wasn't too difficult, and aligning the textures was tedious but easy. I think it served as a good stepping stone into producing buildings and texturing objects as a whole.

Sketchbook 3 - Blue Bird and Warrior Woman

I did a still life of a few ornaments that were given to me, I found it a bit of a challenge to get the shading and smoothness of the bird in the drawing, but I think in future I might try using paints to capture it's texture.

Here was my attempt at a warrior woman character design, I wanted to practice drawing a female character, I think it came out ok, I was trying to concentrate on shadow more than form. I'm happy with the body and hair, but wasn't too pleased with the woman's face - still I feel it was at least a decent practice attempt.

2d Lesson 3 - Monster Concept Art

Our task for this lesson was to produce six concepts for monsters, starting with simply silhouettes and then adding more details to them afterwards.

I really enjoyed this task, as it gave me a chance to familiarise myself with the graphics tablets we were given. I enjoyed how the designs came out - especially number 6. I look forward to improving upon my technique in the near future.

3d Lesson 5 - Asteroids and Enterprise

 Here in this lesson I had to make a model of an asteroid using the deformed tool which alters the model's surface based off the texture applied to it, this allowed me to get the nice rocky texture for my asteroid.

The next thing I did was insert a startfield and animate the comet drifting through space. I added the illusion of the camera moving by slowly rotating the starfield in the opposite direction.

Our next assignment was to make a model of the USS Enterprise from Star trek, using three images supplied by our tutor.

It more of a task of creating shapes and altering their form to match up and overlap the blue-prints we were given. It was a bit of a challenge getting the shapes to match up precisely but I believed I got away with it.

When I created the textures I took a bit of artistic license due to time constraints, I textured the model as best I can to at least match the style of the ship.

Overall I found the project a good lesson in creating more complex models, but I am keen on trying my hand at something organic now.

3d Lesson 4 - Mug

Here we used the multi texture tool in 3DS Max to put different textures onto a single model in different parts. It was a simple process although lining up the KitKat label proved to be a challenge.

I found this useful as a quick and crude way to texture a model, but overall I'd prefer to be able to make use of UVW mapping to create an accurate texture for my models.

Another thing that we learnt in the lesson was how to create a turn table using the dummy tool, I found this a nice way to show off my model as it allows an audience to see it from all sides.

Life Drawing 1 - Skeletons

In our first Life Drawing Lesson we had to draw a sketch of an isntallation set up in the room using charcoal.

The first drawing was a collaberation by the entire class where I started by sketching the skull, before having to move onto drwaing on another person's work, whilst someone else added to mine, this was done with everyone in the class as we went around in a circle.

The second was a drawing of ribs, I'm pleased with how this came out, I feel more confident in drawing lines, but I need to becareful with the line thickness and try to vary it to create depth.

Sketchbook 2 - Crowd and Warrior

 

I missed my train so whilst waiting at the station, I decided to try and sketch the people there. However, as luck would have it no body stood still long enough for me to get a decent study, so instead I did a quick 20-30 second sketch of the people there using pen, my aim to try and capture their defining posture or features before they moved. I'm quite pleased with how this came out, although its not overly detailed I feel the sketches display a nice sense of character.

Here was just a quick drawing of a minotour man I did from the top of my head, it isn't perfect was just merely there for a quick study of character design and practice with proportions.

2d Lesson 2 - Perspectives

 For this quick lesson we looked further in to perspective. The first exercise I had to identify where all the lines met the vanishing point and horizon line, in this three point perspective image. It took me a little while to realise the vanishing point was in the car, but it was an interesting way of discovering where perspective takes place.

Secondly I produced a two point perspective sketch of a hand-gun, I'm fiarly happy with how it came out, although I had trouble with the barrel, and need more practice with drawing circles in this perspective view.

3d Lesson 3 - Palm tree

For one of our assignments we were had to make a palm tree prop with the techniques we have been taught.


I simply made a cone and used the taper and bend tools to shape the trunk, before applying a bark texture I made, and a bump map. For the leaves all I made was a plane and added a leaf texture with a alphablend.

I'm proud of how this came out, I think it looks sharp and crisp and I certainly intend to use it as a assest for one of my projects. This is a good way of making low poly assests of my work.

3d Lesson 2 - Gingerbread

 I made this gingerbread man in another 3ds max lesson.  I simply made a mesh over an existing drawing of a gingerbread man and smoothed it using the turbosmooth filter.

I then made a texture for the bread and bump mapped it to give it that crispy bready feel.

I'm really pleased with how this came out, I think the icing might be a little too 'perfect' in terms of looks, but I enjoyed the lesson and the slick results that came with it. I'm proud of the texture in particular as I feel it captures the hard and cracked surface of the bread well.

Games Encounters 1 - Unity Introduction

 In our first Game Encounters Lesson we were introduced to the Unity Engine, which was an introduction into game building itself. I found the program surprisngly straight forwards to use, you could paint in your terrain using brushes much like the primitive map makers in some games, and scaling the land with the tools was easy.

With some pre-made assests I was able to create a small island filled with trees and a coast. I also included a model of an outpost that was imported.

To make the island more of our own we made our own terrain textures and sprites in photoshop, I have done texturing before and found this process familiar and easy to pick up.

By the end of the lesson I had a wooden hut on a mountain side, surrounded by long grass, trees and a burning campfire.

I look forward to improving upon this map and hopefully applying some interaction to the piece and improving the visual design as a whole, (e.g. adding skyboxes, better shadows and shaders).

Sketchbook 1 - Lamp and Practice

This was my unsuccessful attempt at trying to draw a small model of a lamp I had on my desk using two point perspective. I had great difficulty with this drawing, as I found it a tedious challenge to try and match the curves with the perspective lines, in the end it came out warped and I had to give up out of frustration.

Here I simply did a very drawing tutortials and exercises to keep practicing, I was following a tutorial by an artist named 'Sycra' online and I found his tips to be very helpful, I plan to refer to such tutorials throughout the year as the drawing techniques and study of anatomy will be beneficial in all fields, in both 2d and modelling.

2d Lesson 1 - Perspective 101

For our first 2d Lesson we were given some reading on Perspective. I studied perspective a little last year so I was familiar with the basics.

Still I got a few tips, especially on drawing circles, and positioning of people in a scene, I'll be trying to use perspective in my artwork as from the examples we've seen it adds a lot to a pictures composition.

3d Lesson 1 - Teapots and Snowmen

For our first lesson we were introduced to was in 3ds Max. Given a tutorial on the basic interface, creating and moulding primitives, we were given the task to assemble (or reassemble) a snowman and Animate him.

I found the task to be relatively easy as I've worked extenstively with animation last year, although we were not using bones and it was fully 3d I found the principles simple, and I made a short and quick animation. It's nothing special but I found it a fun experience none the less.

In futre I hope to take this further and create more organic models and animate them, possibly with a skeleton. As for the animation itself, I realise it could use some smoothing but as a first attempt at basic animating, I am fairly glad how it turned out especially the tree's movement, although exaggerated I feel it conveys a nice sense of wind physics.