Week 22: End of character project!

The end of this week marked the end of the character project. I've learned so many things and I think I've definitely impressed myself with the work I've produced.

Final texture and model

Final model and texture with wireframes

Unwrapped texture

I've already written a lot about my model over previous blog posts so I'm just gonna insert my reflective assessment to save me typing it all out again!

" Overall I’m very pleased with my model and texture, especially considering how much of a struggle I thought this would be. I learned a lot through the process and feel like I could do the whole thing a lot better if I started from scratch again (unfortunate time constraints).

I spent a lot of my time concepting going in the complete wrong direction and it was only during the last week or so of allocated time for concepting that I actually decided to go back and change my original idea to something more appropriate. I think my issue was I knew that my original idea wasn’t very strong but I kept pushing it further in the hopes that it would just ‘work’ after I’d put colour on it etc.

Although I am pleased with my final design I wonder how much further I could had developed it if I hadn’t spent so much time developing in the wrong direction.

The topology of my model isn’t the strongest; I had difficulty getting it right for the face and I always seem to be quite messy when it comes to modelling and since I know texturing is more of a strength than modelling I think I get lazy and leave things as they are hoping that the texture will sort out my faults. I feel if I had used my topology more efficiently I could have a better model and nicer textures.

Since some of my modelling was bad my unwraps weren’t as clean and tidy as I had hoped they would be, leaving myself some nasty seams and overlaps that I spent a lot of time going back in to re-model and unwrap (time that would have been saved if I modelled my character more carefully in the beginning).

Rigging turned out to be a bit (a lot) of a shambles. After many attempts to do it while I was mid-way texturing I kept abandoning it because I ‘didn’t get it’ and it ‘wasn’t going right’. I’m not sure why I thought anything would change if I left it till last! I really feel like my rigging let me down because I was just so lost with it and didn’t leave myself enough time with it, despite knowing it would be difficult.

As well as this I neglected to model an accessory, despite having one in my concept. Part of the time I simply forgot and then the rest of the time I thought ‘I’ll do it later’, which ended up leaving me with no accessory!

Although my model and my texture are of a relatively high standard (for me) I think it’s definitely overshadowed by my awful attempt at rigging."

This week was also review week in which I received some really positive feedback on my model/texture as well as ways to improve it. I was also told I was working at B level at the moment and if I keep improving I should be on track for a first. I know grades aren't everything but it's nice to know your hard work is paying off and you're not quite as awful as you thought you were!

Study of Frederic Leighton-Pavonia

I managed to do a quick study at the end of the week and I'm really happy with how my digital technique is coming along- just need to start doing my own stuff!

Week 21: Texturing

This week was pretty straightforward as it consisted of getting my head down and texturing my model.

We learned the basics of rigging but I decided I'd leave that till after I'd got my texture done as I knew that was going to be the most time consuming and important part.

I'm very nearly finished my texturing and I'm pleased with how its turned out so far although I have bumped into some issues which I think could have been down to my thinking of 'a good texture will cover up bad modelling'.. which is wrong is seems. I wasted a lot of my time because I had to go back and change my model and then re-unwrap to make it easier for myself (which I ended up scrapping because I'd got so far in my texturing it would actually hinder me more to start again for little gain).

I've learned a lot so far and have in fact learned a lot from this, I like to think I'll give modelling my own personal characters a go in my free time.

Week 20: Modelling

This week marked the beginning of the daunting task of modelling my character, something that I'd managed to forget about when I got so caught up in the concepting.

I started by essentially wasting(?) a whole day attempting to model the face and getting the correct topology which ended in my going home frustrated and with nothing to show for my day's work. Although the next day when I came into labs I took a different approach and finally did it right! I tend to find this happens on every 3D project I do, so I should probably start accommodating more time for it.

I wasn't 100% sure on things such as deadlines as things had been changed around so much and I'd lost track so I decided to just work as fast and effectively as I could and it paid off.

Front view of finished model

Back view of finished model

I'm pretty pleased with the way the model turned out, especially considering how awful I thought it was going to be.

Even the unwrap went well!

There are a few bits and pieces I need to work on but I've decided to slow down for now and wait till I can get a tutor to look over it and check everything is okay before I trip up and make a mistake later on!

Life drawing

I also produced one of my favourite drawings in life drawing, focusing mostly on foreshortening. I feel like I managed to capture the foreshortening in the leg really well as well as have enough time to put some detail in the drawing.

This week in critical studies we were told to peer assess each other so we teamed up and assessed each others work so far. I actually really enjoyed giving in depth feedback to a peer because I felt like I was confident in the advice I had given them from what I have learned since I have been here which shows how far I have already come in just a few months.

Week 19:

Last week was pretty disheartening for me in terms of feedback but I was determined to improve on it and find out what I did wrong.

I think the most important advice I was given was that I didn't make enough dramatic changes between concepts which was certainly true, and that I should try to make my character look more like a main character than a NPC.

Some re-iterations on my previous final concept.

I decided to try and follow the advice and worked into my 'final concept'. I got some interesting directions that I obviously hadn't considered before.

Colour variations on the new design

Quickly moving on I started working on the colours (after I'd done some value work of course) and even started to come up with an idea in my head for the character's personality; the dress was starting to look very young so I instantly changed to the idea of 'Mayor's daughter'. I then needed a reason for her overskirt to be tied up in such a way when I figured she could be a girl who enjoys going off on walks and picking flowers, pulling up her dress like this to reveal a shorter underskirt stops the mud from ruining the hem of her dress!

Facial variations

Since I also didn't include any face stuff in my first submission I figured I should probably start working on that too. I wasn't quite sure how to work on it because I didn't particularly enjoy looking at my own face for an extended period of time...
To combat this I simply traced over a photograph of me and then worked in the colours and accessories. I felt like the flowers in her hair would give hints to the idea I had in mind for her.

My final concept

After a few tweaks I arrived at my final concept! I'm really pleased with it especially after everything. I'm still waiting on feedback so I can make sure I'm definitely and then its onto modelling.... save me.

In the spare time I've had I managed to work on something quite different; League of Legends splash art repaint:

I'm ever so pleased with the outcome; its the first painting in some time that I've actually put over 3 hours into and I feel like it really shows. Its given me the confidence boost I needed to do my own (relatively) original works more often!