A Crash Course in 3D Modelling

Just before I left for Easter I decided to have a go at 3D modelling. Whilst I had tried a little bit of     3D modelling in maya last year I had not properly picked up the basics and I struggled to follow tutorials. When I was working on Kirk's third year project I was watching the modelling process for the Goblin character and one night I started playing around in maya trying to make my own version.
I had not yet learnt the basics of modelling so the geometry so the geometry is pretty horrible (I didn't know everything has to be made out of polygons so I was using a lot of Ngons and trigons) and I didn't understand the flow yet. My approach was basically to start with a cube and then add edge loops and move the vertices until I got the basic shape, I would then use the interactive split tool to add more geometry and detail.

Although this is a pretty terrible model everyone has to start somewhere and it was really useful to  try modelling something which I had also designed. I would definitely recommend that 3d modelling your character designers because it made me think about the volume of the character and the general shape. I often look at my character turnarounds and think that I spend to much time on the front view and ignore the back and sides and this has helped me to understand the design as 3D shape.
Next I decided to model a monkey I had designed recently, once again I started with a cube, added more geometry and extruded out the limbs and head.

The model needs some more work as I think the character looks off balance in the side view (also the tail and hands need modelling). If i have some spare time over the summer I want to put ome more work into this and sculpt and texture it in mudbox. Although the geometry is a lot better on this model (it's all polygons this time) it still doesn't have the polygon flow I was aiming for. I spent about a week working on this in the evenings (I worked on my coursework during the day).

So having learnt the basics through trial and error I decided to set a weekend aside and solidly work until I had a 3D model of a head (with the occasional break for food or exercise). Over the summer I read a book on dynamic figure drawing which, with some practice, really improved my ability to draw heads (check it out here)(I'm currently working through the theory of drawing the rest of the human figure). I had drawn Walter White from "Breaking Bad" a few times since the summer so I'm very familiar with Bryan Cranston's face which was useful as I was modelling.

This really wasn't easy and I felt like giving up a few times but I pushed through and this is how far I got. By the end it was approaching Monday morning (I began Friday evening) and I needed to stop and work on something else. I don't think this will ever be fully finished as I'll always notice bits that can be tweaked or details that could be added but this is where I got to. If I'm honest I was stupid to go for something this ambitious (I'd only been 3D modelling for 3 weeks, this was the third thing I'd modelled and I'd never sculpted in mudbox before) but I'm still proud of what I achieved. I think sculpting in mudbox is easy if you can draw because all the skills are transferable. After this I also noticed my drawing skills improved and I gained a greater understanding of the structure and form of the face.

Chimp

Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of work for my course and 3rd year projects so I haven't been completing as many personal drawings as usual. This evening I decided to take a night off and work on something non-animation related so I looked through my sketchbook and found a concept which I'd been wanting to turn into a drawing for a while. I put on some music and immersed myself in this drawing and by the time I finished it I looked at my clock and realised I'd concentrated on it for a solid two hours without a break (which is impressive considering I have the attention span of a labrador). I'm quite happy with how this turned one out, I sort of drew it in the style I used about 2 and a half years ago when I began the I.B. and comparing this with my work from back then made me realise how far I've progressed recently. I did the whole thing on one layer using a square brush with 100% opacity in photoshop.

Deep Project Continued...

Here's the latest images from my section of Deep, I spent the weekend immersing myself in the Hellboy and Sin City comics and trying to replicate the styles as I re-drew the storyboard panels. I wanted to recreate the really intense, gritty style of Mark Mignoloia and Frank Miller so I tried to implemented a lot of dramatic lighting and atmospheric backgrounds. I've still got about a few panels left but I'm a lot happier with the visual style.

For the opening shot I wanted the viewer to be drawn to the bag so I gave it a white silhouette.

For this shot I she walks through a clearing, the idea is that the lighting flashes on her face as she walks past the gaps in the trees.

I'm still not happy with this shot so I'll probably revisit it once I get feedback from Derek.

This is one of my favourite shots, I wanted it to be very simple and atmospheric.

I for this one I tried to use the lighting to make him look menacing.

This was the panel I struggled with the most as there shouldn't really be any light but I added in white eyelets on the boots so you can see what they are.

The panel above is my favourite, I wanted to transition from a simple silhouette (in the previous panel) to an intense shot of with a Frank Miller style trench coat.

Theatre Project

Over the past week I have been working on Kirk Tierney's live action 3rd year project about a cleaner in a theatre who has animated schizophrenic visions. I designed the characters for the visions which will be 3D modelled and animated. Most of these drawings were done in photoshop in under 10 minutes as I would be shown a section of film where a character was needed, I would draw the character and Kirk would put it into the rough edit of the film. Below is a selection of the concept drawings I did for the project this week;