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!

Week 18: Underwhelming approval

So this week we got some feedback and approval/disapproval of our characters, as I mentioned in last week's blog post I'd really been enjoying the project so far and felt like I'd responded to my house feedback really well and done loads more concepting than I had previously done before.

Some very late stage colour concepts

Since last week I did a lot more colour variations and also changed my dress slightly to fit better with the style guide. I was really happy with the amount of work I was submitting and although I hadn't done any photobashing I felt that I had achieved what I wanted regardless. The only things I hadn't really done much work on were the face and hair- I was a little unsure on how far to take the face as we were told it would be after our own likeness.

So when we got feedback I was pretty disappointed. I scored 'adequate' across the board, which to me says 'yeah I guess you tried'. I am very aware that we're not meant to take any feedback/critique to heart but when I felt really confident with my work it was a bit of a slap in the face.

I'll try and pick apart my feedback and hopefully address what I think I can improve on:

-Research/Mood boards

My mood board

Is it the best mood board in the world? Probably not, but I felt that I got a wide variety of good quality sources that I knew would be relevant for the character I had in mind so I didn't have to extend my search incredibly far. I had written a few little annotations on some photos but I think they were actually hidden in the PSD file I submitted which is probably my fault for carelessness. In the additional comments it was mentioned that my mood board 'should be organised and annotated to clearly show your idea generation and development'. I think perhaps I should have started on a broader scale perhaps? Rather than picking a 'Mayor's wife' straight away.

-Conforms with style guide

An example of one of my colour variations.

I felt that I had worked very much with the style guide in mind which is why I made a few changes to the dress quite later on. I'm aware that the costume and the model aren't stylised but we were advised to work realistically first and then stylise. I think this is certainly one of the parts of the feedback I'm most confused about as I'm not sure what I could change to make it conform any more with the style guide. Since I had chosen to do a slightly richer character than a lot of the 'peasants' the dress was going to naturally be a bit more glamorous but I felt like I was giving information about the character through the clothes she wears.

-Idea generation

In my previous blog post I posted just a few examples of my idea generations and felt that I'd actually done a better variety/quality than I had for previous projects. Part of my feedback said that I 'could afford to be more exploratory at this stage, you seem to have settled for one idea very quickly with nothing to compare and contrast it against.'
I wasn't 100% sure on what this could mean at first but after looking at a few of my peers photobashing I saw that they had done a wide variety of hoods, cloaks, trousers, equipment, jackets, hair etc etc and I found that I had been quite refined in my initial idea generation; I jumped straight to the dress as I knew that would be the most important part of my character considering I didn't think we had to do much else to our faces/bodies. Since I had picked my type of character before I started concepting I knew that she had to be wearing a nice dress to put it simply; I didn't see the point in adding any cloaks, overcoats, hats, hoods, aprons or anything simply because of the restrictions of the character type and the village scene she was supposed to be going into. I wonder whether I should have concepted these anyway JUST IN CASE, even though I knew they weren't going to be relevant? In terms of just the dress design though I thought that I had done quite a wide variety of different dress types from different time periods just to explore any features that I might like.
I disagree that I settled with one idea quickly as I explored 3/4 dresses further before picking one and then refining that one down too.

-Anatomy

Unfortunately I'm not quite sure what exactly I or anyone else was being marked on here; a lot of people used photobashing and their own orthographic photos of themselves to bash over the top of. I decided to draw out my own pose just to model dresses on and so referenced a stock image from the internet. I don't think anything is dramatically out of proportion in my drawing so I will definitely need to try and find out more information on what this section covered and therefore how else I can improve.

-Aesthetic quality of work

Down to personal preference I suppose? I hadn't spent long on my initial concepts as I was keen to get them down on canvas but when I started refining my ideas I made sure they looked good. So again, something I need to find out more about before I can work out how to improve.

I am well aware that I sound like a whiny student because they didn't score very well in their feedback but it certainly came as a bit of a shock when I thought I'd been doing okay. After speaking to a few of my peers I still can't quite establish exactly where I went 'wrong' or just 'didn't do as well' but I thought it was important to try and break down my feedback.

I'm definitely going to speak to tutors about this feedback and try and work out how I can improve on this or improve next time because I'm still pretty lost in where I go from here unfortunately! Any insights into my feedback/my response to it is welcome!

Week 17: An awful lot happened...

Its hard to believe that it's actually only been a week and that I just haven't missed a blog post; I've done so much!

Firstly I wanted to go over life drawing; looking back through my sketchbook I can't believe how much I've improved! I came to the course pretty anatomy-savvy (in my own opinion). I had a basic understanding of anatomy and could translate it relatively well onto paper, it wasn't until recently that I was (especially in life drawing) filling in gaps with what I thought I knew as well as exaggerating and lengthening some limbs.

This week in life drawing we were looking at both the figure and draped fabric to tie in with our character project. I was quite eager to get started and it was an interesting and different challenge.

Warm up sketches (from left to right) 2 minute continuous line, 2 minute opposite hand and two minute 'blind'.

Although I'm never really a fan of the warm up sketches (especially opposite hand- makes my arm ache and I've never quite fully understood the point) I can see my ability to pick out important forms that make up the figure in the small time we have- our teacher Heather pointed out that she really liked my warm up sketches and that they really gave the impression of a figure with fabric. Always nice to get your work commented on!

Straight line and a standing pose.

The straight line warmup was interesting with the fabric and I really like the way the lines give it weight. The standing pose was relatively dull- I ended up with a really straight on view of the model which wasn't quite as fun but I was also working with trying to give more emphasis on the fabric and less detail on the figure which turned out to be a pretty contrast heavy drawing.

Seated pose- 20 mins

 This drawing is by far my favourite- the fabric was sat really nicely on the model and covered a lot of awkward areas and I feel like I managed to portray the folds in the fabric pretty well!


Up next is the beginnings of a character project that was only actually set officially today but I've almost finished...

Our first task was to do some research and create a mood board; we had received some feedback on our village house project and my weak points were certainly my mood board and the quantity and thoroughness of concepts.

Mood board.

 I began my moodboard looking at the poorer end of the spectrum. Since the character had to be of our likeness I was restricted to doing a female character which solved half a problem for me instantly I suppose!

I quickly realised that peasants don't sit particularly well with me! As a fan of period dramas I was more drawn to the richer type of clothing and since we weren't tied to the building we did I decided to work towards a female mayor/mayor's wife so I could create a more interesting costume.

I was drawn to the Tudor court gowns at first as I know the buildings themselves were styled after Tudor houses, but the gowns looked very lavish and noble which was over-reaching for a Mayor as well as being straight cut accurate which I didn't really want. I found a few other styles of dresses and figured I could combine certain elements of each to achieve what I wanted.

First initial thumbnails

To begin with I started throwing dresses together varying from poor to rich, some made up some referenced from my mood board. I figured this was a broad starting point and I didn't tie myself down too early.

A few stages later...

Subsequently, I narrowed them down and started to look at the practicalities of each. I think I was quite lucky in this project as I have a natural interest in this time period as well as underlying knowledge on how these dresses were put together (as well as a natural enthusiasm for all things Tudor).

Skip a few more steps...

A little later I made myself a fancy pose model base and sketched in some of my preferred designs over the top of those, picked a few and cleaned them up ready for the next stage of development.

Few more steps later..

In these drawings I was looking at various 'accessories' for a few designs at a time, again, to keep my options open. I wanted to convey various states of wealth and power in each dress and even though I loved certain designs I had to bear in mind that we were working to a style guide etc. At one point I got carried away making up a plot for a Mayor's wife who murders him so she can take his money and power etc etc.... Keyword of the style guide? POSITIVE. I can save the murderess for another time I think.

Current stage!

 Above is the second round of colour, as you can probably see I've been writing notes on each as I test them in greyscale as well as colour so I can make sure I get the tonal values right and that it's readable from a distance etc etc.

It's safe to say I'm really enjoying this project. I was hesitant to carry on at such speed when the brief had only been set today and they had quite carefully planned out as and when we need to do things but I've enjoyed it so much I wouldn't mind being told to go back to one of my earlier stages and do it again because something didn't work for example..

I think I mentioned in last week's post that I was ready to get the ball rolling and pick up the pace and I don't think I've let myself down this week!

Week 16: Not a lot happened..

It's safe to say week 16 has been pretty uneventful; A few personal issues put me off doing much work and we still haven't got any projects set other than practice modelling ones!

2 minute warm up exercises (continuous line and left handed)

I think I am improving when it comes to life drawing, especially in terms of drawing what I see and not what I think I see. One issue that I found quite early on was weighting my models down to the ground; they were usually wonky and didn't look balanced in the entire body either. But I'm still enjoying the life drawing lessons so that's always beneficial!

We're starting a character project soon and anatomy is very important obviously so I'm pleased with my progress and I hope it'll show in my character designs!