I’ve been working on my main characters for a while now, and so far I have two finished! A lot of research was accomplished too, and the first chunk of my presentation could be considered pretty much done and dusted. And, as a cherry on top: the first chapter to my dissertation is finished, and the second one is pretty much under way! this is amazing progress, considering I could be doing so much better when it comes to how i’m feeling- this last week hasn’t been the best, but i’m going to try and not let it get me down… At least I have Christmas ahead of me, which means I can always catch up and refine things.

Feeling quite guilty about not having blogged in a while, as this blog is mainly meant to show progress throughout my work. However, real life took a hold of me and this meant I was very, very busy. I was also very productive, and have a lot of drawings to make up for it. Quite bland, but at least I am getting accross what I want to, which I feel is the most important part. I gave up on the shading quite a bit ago, as I have my research project to focus on too, and shading means I spend way too much time than I should on a picture… Mainly because I tend to mess it up and I need to do it carefully in order to do it properly. The result when I do it is amazing (I mean, just look at those giants! But that picture took me all to long for me to be comfortable with it) Hope you like them

I seem to be distracting myself quite a bit with Zbrush, and losing focus on what I want the project to be, and what I actually want to achieve.

After a talk with my tutor I decided to revise my objectives and spreaded out the work a bit, which means that I will not be doing any more 3D work per se this semester, but rather all next semester. In turn, I am focusing this semester entirely on concepting and getting backstories out of the way, so that I develop all the characters this semester and model them, make them pretty and animate them next semester as part of my final major.

No drawings this post, mainly because I haven’t done much. I actually need to get back on track, so hopefully next post there will be more drawings to show!

Today was one of those days that were just GOOD. Plain, old good, and after a weekend of productive-but-not-really, there is nothing better than it.

So, weekend: it was fruitful in terms of research. Many things were identified, sketched, thrown away, re-sketched, and what not… now its just a matter of putting it together. When will I do that, I don’t know… but I really should do it some point soon considering it’s almost novemeber, and my schedule says I really should be done with my concepts soon.

Which I kind of am. Kind of.

I’ll only know how much i’ve done when I piece it together….

And when will I do that? I don’t know… I need to be in the mood for it. It’s one of those things I don’t do unless I have nothing else to.  (i can’t help it, it’s the most boring part of the work)

But back to the interesting bits, the learning bits! I did much learning today… and it is kind of embarassing that I discovered in one day what I had been hoping to do during the summer: TOPOLOGY IN ZBRUSH. 

I can now topologize in zbrush. I am very pleased with myself, as I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and in the process I obtained the most wonderful base mesh I have done to date. It’s really nothing special, I have done base meshes before, but this one is the first one entirely done in one program. All in Zbrush! i’m so happy and so pleased about it I almost want to name it :_)

Asides from the base mesh, I did quite a few bits and bobs… of human. Modelled and individual torso, arm, leg and head that I can put together to create models relatively quickly (it was doing this, and using the wonderful Zremesher that I produced the base)

and I did some sketching, as always… but nothing too special, really. I still need to do some polishing and modifying before I’m satisfied with them.

I’m hoping to be equally as productive tomorrow. Hopefully this way, I’ll be back on track. I had fallen back slightly. Then again, when I look at the pile of work done, it’s not that bad. I’m doing pretty well for being week 5.

like a record player round and round…

and although that’s not how the song goes, that’s what i’ve been up to: heads! photoshop heads, a zbrush head, head sketches… it’s been all about the faces during the weekend. And a lot of research -i’m currently plowing my way through Shadow of a Mouse by Donald Crafton- but I haven’t got as much to show about that…

My life is just not that interesting…..

Like I previously said, here are some of my experiments with dynamesh wax. The rule i’m going by this morning is: spend a maximum of two hours on each model, and then discard and do another one. After I’m done for the day, i’ll go back through and see which ones are worth developing further, and which will just remain as concepts.

Have to say though, this is much more fun than just sketching

Monday mornings are rarely productive. And by that, I mean it takes me ages to get things done. Today was no exception. Even though I had work to do, and a plan to follow, the beginning of the week and just general ‘meeeh’ meant hardly anything got finished, but many sketches and doodles were produced, and which have gone to the pile of stuff of ‘may or may not be developed’

Something good came out of the afternoon, which has opened so many new tangents on the project, which may or may not reduce the ammount of stuff i have to draw, and increase the stuff I model. This would be brilliant, as I am pretty fluent with photoshop, but would love to explore zbrush as a concepting tool. I have seen a few artists on deviantart use it as a concepting tool, and even for life drawing classes! So, following this, i see no reason why I could not use it in a similar way myself -specially considering i can now get a very decent human head on screen in well under ten minutes :)-

My discovery: wax dynamesh.

And how I love it.

During the tutorial we were supposed to model a pillar, but the moment Luis introduced dynamesh I just had to give it a try, and man the results just don’t compare to general zbrush clay. I find it much quicker, much more familiar and I enjoy the colour of it more, which in turn detracts me from trying to find the right colour and material and eventually crashing zbrush with my meddling.

Hopefully i’ll post soon with screenshots of my further experiments with dynamesh

I got bored quite quickly of just sketching -even though it was FUN sketching- and I wanted to attempt something more detailed. Like, character sheets for example.

So, I dug through the many sketches I have compiled so far ( I sketch a lot, but that doesn’t mean i’ll actually develop anything to a finite stage… I just leave them lurking around in a folder and come back to them later) and dug out a very rough one of Damien Dorian, one of the main characters for my project, and even though its not exactly his turn, I decided to have a go at painting him. Becuase, why not? As long as I get all the characters done, it doesn’t really matter in which order I do them.

So that I did.

And four hours later, I found myself with this:

granted, against a white background you cannot appreciate all the details, but its the fact that I managed to get a complete piece just the way I envisioned it in such an ammount of time.

He now needs details on the clothes and all his information, but asides from that it’s pretty much there.

The weekend was research, yet again, but as a relaxing exercise I decided to tackle Aras bleu, another character who was giving me quite a bit of trouble. And so far… he looks pretty good! and just like with Damien Dorian, he is looking like I envisioned him. 

Here is a screenshot of my current progress, and with it I say goodbye until I finish the drawing!

Having started on the 30th of September, today 7th marks the one week of uni! And, first week over, i’m surprised both at the ammount of work done and at how little it actually seems to be…

First days have been spent mainly writing the characters up and any essential information I deem valuable in the journal (lovely brown notebook I am really enjoying) and just concepting and getting the feel for the characters and style.

WHICH MEANS that even though I have produced drawings I am very proud of, not all are exactly useful. It has taken me a long time to get the look of only two of the characters right, and there’s still a few to go. But with these two out already in a week, I am confident I can get at least half way through by next week.

Asides from that, it’s been research what i’ve been up to. Reading some papers, making notes on them, and practicing zbrush.