Perspective Grids

 This week's task was to create an interior study with Perspective Grids. We were given the option of creating either one 3-point perspective piece or two 1-point and 2-point perspective pieces. At first, I aimed for 1 or 2 points perspective task but ended up accidentally making all of my work during thumbnail sketch 3 points perspective. I didn't know this at first until I got feedback from my tutor that it was because of the angle I choose which makes it automatically a 3-point perspective.

Thumbnail Sketch

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

I decided to set myself a challenge of drawing a 3-point perspective of the Queen's building interior, which proved to be quite difficult for me. Despite many sketches, I don't feel any strong connections to any of them. In the end, I choose the fourth view because the perspective is more exsaturate.

Outline Sketch
Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

first version

Update version:

Tool used: 2B - 6B pencil and putty eraser on A3

I was not that happy with the final outcome that much. I lately don't good with how my pencil works look. There were a lot of smudges, grey values and need a lot of fixings on perspective. The lines of the pencils are not thin enough for my liking and I face huge art block during the making of this piece. I hope I could improve on the steadiness of my pencil lines in the future as well as proportions and perspective.

3D treasure Chest: Chest texture mapping

Mapping texture process on 3dsMax

There were several tests throughout the process of adding texture maps to my model. As seen in the picture below, I have two flat colour maps and detailed maps used to see how fitting it is to the model. I constantly save the file and update the texture to see the model live with my painting on it. Needless to say, this project makes me very excited.

Flat colour test.

First texture test.

Final texture.

Pressing M to open Material editor, I created 3 Standard Materials; chest, platform and cat. 3 bitmaps are named after each part and linked with each other by diffuse colour.

Final piece

The final design of the model is a golden jewel chest placed on a water surface surrounded by stars. I am very proud of my first ever map texture and even more excited when I see it on the model. This project boosted my confidence a lot because in the first week I was doubting myself. Now I feel like I can do hundreds of these. However, there are many spots to improve including making the UV map neater, fewer seams, and making use of the left out space.

3D treasure Chest: Chest texturing

Making texture in Photoshop

After I finished the mood board and gathered ideas I needed for the chest, I started working on the texture in Photoshop. The process of making the texture of the model was not as hard as I thought it would be. Apart from having to get used to the tools on photoshop, the work went quite smoothly. This work did take me three days to work on though. I have to be careful when colour within the seams as the colour can bleed into other parts.

 

Starting off by making base colour on the shapes to separate them from the background with light grey, I write a small text where each part is located and which one is the top or bottom of the model as shown in the picture.

Painting process

I later used Hard brush to colour the base of each piece. I did not use grayscale during the painting process out of habit but I will try this technique out later to improve my shading and value on the model. I did not forget to name each layer and everything is in its place with folders and names

After I lay out all the base colours for the models I use a soft head brush mixed with a smudge tool to add details to the model. I noticed that I used only two brushes for this project and could have used more to add texture and variety to the model. I will also do that in future projects.

Final Texture

Platform Texture

Chest Texture

Cat Texture

Once I finished with the texture, it is time to put it on the model. I am very happy with my decision to make the platform a water surface and not just a plain blue model as in the concept art. My favourite part of my work would be the golden texture of the chest. Apart from reminding myself to take time, improve on how I do the lighting in a painting and render the art so it could be cleaner in the future, I am quite happy with the final product.

3D treasure Chest: UVW unwrapping

 When I first heard the process of UVW unwrapping I was a bit scared. It seems hard but when I actually did it, with a little help every 10 minutes on the first day I tried, I managed to do a quite clean UVW unwrapping.

Cat's body unwrapping

Chest unwrapping

Platform unwrapping

Because my model has many assets, I divided the maps into 3 parts. The chest, the cat, and the platform.

I did not save the failed first unwarping but I was told that the star shape map was very terrifying. Which is true. I have a lot more to learn but I was very satisfied with the end result. If I could make another UVW map again, which I definitely will in the future, I will try to make the shapes take more space as the map I have at the moment is rather empty in a lot of spots. 

Three-point Perspective

Before going into the post. One note I have to tell my future self is to bring warmer clothes when going out to draw and do not trust the weather reporter.

During the Three-point Perspective task, we have to go outside to the campus and do a life study of the buildings around that area. I chose Vijay Patel building as the subject for my study.

The task was quite challenging but my hands that kept freezing during the drawing process made it ten times harder.   

First Thumbnail Sketch
Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

I start off by making an outline sketch of each building in the area and see which silhouette interests me the most. It was a very fast one as my hands are starting to felt a bit cold.

Second Thumbnail Sketch

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser on A3

After the small silhouette, I start on the thumbnail which take half of the A3 paper. The thumbnail is use to get the composition I wanted. I also did small perspective practice, so my brain can get use to them before working on real piece.

pre-final

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser on A3

The first sketch was a bit hard to do. I have to sit and place the A3 sketch book on my lap and turn my head from the scene to the drawing pad a lot which causes the view to change every time. I did take a picture of the view I used but the lens doesn’t capture as much value, so I continue to use what is in front of me. The lines are a bit tilted and I still haven't gotten used to the three point perspective. Or any kind of perspective. I really want to improve on that and by practice more on both perspective and life drawing.

Update version:

Tool used: 2B and 6B pencil and putty eraser on A3

For the final piece, I finished it off by shading it and added small details like the trees and the poles. I also adjusted the building's perspective to make it less bent as a result of the feedback I got. I'm not proud of this work, but it did make me realize how much more practice I need to improve. The only positive thing is that I believe I created a good composition for this piece.

3D treasure Chest: Initial ideas

After unwrapping the UVW, I started the texturing process by making mood boards with pictures that could act as inspiration for my design.

The first mood board for the overall design.

The idea I have for my box is more of a shiny new jewelry box rather than an old treasure chest, holding stars and gems inside with its protector as a cute cat. I gathered pictures I wanted to use as a reference to use in my work. The first mood board I did was an overall idea of the box which includes pictures for; style use, colouring style, colour pallet, and photographic references of real boxes close to my design. The mood board also included a small sketch of the animals I planned to put in.

Artist use as style reference

- https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1n3eK2

- https://www.behance.net/gallery/73094873/Alchemy-Trunk-(2018)?tracking_source=for_you_recommendations

Second mood board for colour and texture.

The second mood board I made was to be more specific on the colour of the box and the material that is going to be used in the box. I found texture references for shiny metals and ceramic, which I am not sure if I could pull it off when I paint but I have high hopes.

First sketch for the chest before making the board.

Introduction to Drawing

I was not present in the first week of the class due to flying overseas and getting quarantined for two weeks. I did not get to experience the live studio settings and did this in my room from a provided picture from friends which would be the reason why this may look weird or not the same as the class intended.

Task 1: Speed Drawing

First Speed Drawing

Second Speed Drawing

It was very fun to try and time myself and draw as fast as I could without worrying about minor mistakes. I didn’t make a thumbnail for the first one and did one for the second drawing. I can see the slight change, improvements and now neat the drawing after one tries to get used to the composition.

Task 2: Gestural Drawing

focus solely on the outline of the composition

Draw as I normally draw based on the outline composition above

I realized a lot later that the jar is out of proportion and not correct to the picture

There were a lot of smudges too...

Task 3: Blind Contour Drawing

First Blind Contour Drawing

Second Blind Contour Drawing

This is my favourite part of the task and felt most fun of all the drawings as I get to relax and look away from my drawing and focus on the item in front of me instead. I am used to doing Blind Contour Drawing for fun which makes this task my most confident piece.

Task 4: Bringing the three drawing elements together into one piece

The final piece was made within 1 hour timer and I tried to use all the skills I tried above in my drawing as well as my style of shading. I use Blind Contour on some parts of the picture to mix in the styles such as the reflections of the flowers on the jar and the first speed sketch of the shells are made with Blind Contour to get their shape as quickly as possible. I am quite happy with my work, however, I feel like I can improve a lot on line weight and shading.

3D treasure chest model : 2

 

On the second part of making my chest model. To add originality to my work, I placed a cat model in the chest and made its head pop up when the chest was opened to give originality to my work.

This update post will show how I made the cat model and platform for the chest.

With Photoshop, I took a screenshot of the chest. I use the pen tool to design a cat for my chest over the photo after lowering the opacity of the image.

I made a sphere and stretched it up to make an oval-ish shape.

Cutting the bottom half off, I sculpt an ear on the right side of the head with an extrude before using a mirror and symmetry command to create the other ear.

I added two small arms with spheres.

The stars are made to decorate the base of the chest. I made them with a plane and adjusted the edge to become star shape before extruding it to make a 3d structure. 

The platform is made with Extended Primitives > Gengon

The final step was to place everything together on the platform

Final Piece

This project is very interesting as it helps me understand the tools better. I have a hard time with the smoothing process, as expected since I am a beginner. Overall, I think I did pretty great. I would like to work on building a model that isn't part of the tutorial video, such as the cat I just built which I will surely search for more in the future.

3D treasure chest model : 1

This assignment is harder than I realized after moving up from making a simple table and chairs. I was confused at first as I was reading only the document tutorial sheet. I ended up watching the tutorial video at least four times. The tools used in this project are the ones I never tried during the first task and I was excited. Mostly confused, but I still have my spirit up.

 

I started off by making a Box and Cylinder and edit them to poly in order to shape them into lid and chest.

Although my first objective was to build my own variety, I ended up creating the chest exactly like the tutorial video. During the last stages of the project, I decided to make the legs on the chest less detailed and the chest itself more round. The goal now is to make the chest seem as if it were a toy chest.

Final Piece

Extra: Failed Piece

Although the process picture looks like everything went smoothly. I, in fact, was struggling and made 4 unusable chests and lids in total. I deleted a few but decided to keep 3 to remind myself how far I’ve come when I create the final model. I have so much more to improve such as my navigation with 3ds max and how bridging works.

 

On the next update of the chest, I will add more to the chest and customize it as my own.