2d Lesson 7 - Lizard Dude

 

Using supplied line Art I had to paint and render a drawing of a Lizard Man. I started by painting the values in black and white, but once again adding colour on a colour layer. I also added a texture overlay of snake skin, to get it looking more realistic.

Personally I'm not too happy with how it came out, but I know what I need to focus and put my practice into now, need to work on smoothing out shadows and highlights. I think the colour might of been too loud and I could work in more subtle shading.

3d Lesson 9 - Bounce

We had a short lesson on animation today, focusing mainly on bouncing and convincing gravity.

The task was simple but very educational. I had to create a ball rolling and bouncing down some stairs in 3ds Max, which I did with the movement tool. I then had to open up the time line ui in the animation window and alter the trajectory in the time line - making the points where the ball 'bounces' a fast contour to give off more realistic gravity and movement.

I also applied a stretch filter to the sphere, and squashed the ball slightly when it landed and stretched it slightly when it's reached it's high point, this helped to exaggerate the movement of the bounce.

I found this a fun exercise, and I'm extremely happy with how my resulsts came out - I kept the squash and stretching subtle which I think worked in my favour, as it didn't destroy the realism of the movement, but made it a bit more interesting to watch than none at all.

The Scoundrel

Click for full image;

A personal piece I did for myself, depicting a typical roguish character in a fantasy setting. I wanted to do a set of such archetypes for fun and practice, so this is the first of hopefully many.

I utilised the methods we were taught in class, starting with a rough silhouette and adding values, followed by colour.

Life Drawing 3 - Chairs and Ink

This week we had the challenge of drawing a pile of chairs through the perspective grid using charcoal. However this was very difficult, as the shape of the chairs were complex in themselves, and with the added effect of the grid it made the piece very challenging, I had great difficulty with it, I need to work on constructing straight lines in particular.

Our second task for the day was another skeleton based installtion, this time within the perspective grid.

I produced two drawings using ink and a lolipop stick. I found this to be quite fun, as I took a different approach to drawing these. I aimed to create the suggestion of form and movement using merely lines, rather than sketching the form out accurately. I was pleased with how it turned out and they proved to be a good practice for working with perspective.

Sketchbook 6 - Room and Gentleman

Here I did a drawing of my girlfriend's room when I was staying at her campus, I confused myself a bit with the perspective when it came to drawing the room and it stretched it out a bit, but otherwise I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. I do need to practice drawing with perspective a bit more when it comes to rooms.

This was just a sketch of a victorian mage/gentleman, once again I concentrated on the shading more to try and capture the lighting and shadows within his outfit.

2d Lesson 6 - Monster ball

The 2d lesson this week was the same as the previous one last week.

I'm much happier with how this piece came out, I found that practicing with painting values made it far easier for me this time around, when it came around to shading. I also focused on making the lighting/shadows stronger and more obvious, so that when I came around to colouring it, it came across as more 3d/realistic and less flat and cartoony.

I'm happy with the design, I think the top might be a little washed out, but I feel the creature has enough texture and shading to stand up well as a design. I enjoy these technique alot, but I would like to try other styles of painting soon in the future.

3d Lesson 8 - Hey Chef

This lesson we were tasked with doing a quick animation, using our own south park character we created.

The aim was to create a character talking, so animating both their lips and movement to fit in with a audio file. This was achieved by using the Dope sheet in the graph editor, to hide and show multiple mouth textures, to create an illusion of lips moving. The same thing was done with the eyes for blinking. I added the audio file first, then arranged the different textures to show/appear when appropriate.

I found this animation to be a pain, 3ds Max lagged in the animation window and had a tendacy to crash when I deleted or moved a key frame. In the end I only did the base work as it was incredibly frustrating to just do this small piece of animation. I feel I would of done alot more to a higher standard if 3ds Max was responding better or I was using a different program for the task.

Games Encounters 2 - Unity Scripting

 

I've made quite a few additions to my unity Project since the first update. We had mainly been focusing on scripting to add features to my world.

 

The very first feature I added was a campfire. Using a stock model, I placed it in the world, and then added particle effects to the model to create fire and smoke. These were easy to create as they were just textures with an alpha channel.

The next task was to add a scrip to turn the fire on via collisions. My first part of the script was a function to pick up a set of matches from the world, once the matches were picked up and 'added' to my character, I could then walk to the fire and light it. The script checked whether I had any matches on me, and if I did it would add the fire particle effect.

To add some challenge to game world, I placed the matches inside a wooden hut that was locked. It could only be opened by obtaining four batteries, in the same manner that we obtained the matches. Once the batteries were collected the door would open when colliding with it. I also added a GUI to the game showing how many batteries had been collected.

I later replaced the hut with a model of a crashed helicopter that I made in 3ds max, that would open in the same way.

For another challenge, I imported a target range, and removed one of the batteries from the world. The aim was to 'win' the last battery by beating the target game. The targets were animated, and would stand up in their idle state, and would fall down when a projectile collides with them.

I then had to make a launcher script, that would fire coconuts when pressing the left mouse button. The coconuts are merely textured spheres with a collider on them. When the spheres collide with the target it becomes knocked down.

When all targets are down, a script spawns the final battery.

I've learnt alot from these past few weeks of working with unity, I hope to go back and polish some of these elements, aka texturing the helicopter, etc. But where it stands I think I've got a solid framework to begin expanding on certain game features (shooting, expoloration, etc)

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.