Gladiator: Character Design

 After making a base for my character, I took a screenshot and traced it on the 3d model to make a base for the character design. As the task is not centred on making the character and the tri is limited, I try to make my outfit as simple as I could and heavily relies on the texture for the final piece.

I made 2 outfits. I initially just wanted to draw abs but thought that there would be too many floating pieces and separate assets I need to attach so I go with the simpler clothes.

Clothes designs

Next, I draw out a lot of hairstyles based on the hair mood board. I wanted my character to have curly hair for the texture and use alpha to make loose strains There were many options but I ended up choosing the more simple hair because I don't want to make my model looks complicated

Hair designs

Final Design

My gladiator design colour sheet

The final design I have for my character has a few adjustments from the first two sketches of the uniform and added colour as a guide for my painting process. I am happy with my final design. I would like to improve it a lot more but I run out of creativity lately it was hard to come up with ideas… However, when I texture her I will try my best and she would look great! I hope.

New Walk Museum: six preparatory sketches

I really like the task for this week! It was to produce six preparatory sketches of specimens of your choice on location where it will be later use one as a final piece. The walk to the museum was lovely and the environment was a lot more enjoyable than I thought with small children coming to look.

Thumbnail Sketches

 I walked around New Walk Museum to find different things to sketch of  and come across a lot of skeletons and fossils.

I've been stuck in the fossil room for so long I just noticed there was a taxidermized animal area too. I wish I could stay longer to sketch them more in detail but I discovered it on the last 10 minutes of the session. 

Process

The Thumbnail sketch that I ended up with to finish as the final piece was the huge dinosaur in the hall. After finding a seat I start sketching out render as much as I can on site.

Thumbnail

Sketch

Soft shading

Rendering

Final Process

I really like how it turns out! The bones are all black and I wasn't sure how to translate the texture I see on to the paper so I relies the pencil and paper texture when I shade and the cross hatching to convince the roughness of the bones.

Gladiator: Base model

It took me a while to get this final model, it was a little confusing at first and there were many readjustments I needed to do to get the right proportions 

Finale Piece Preview

I began by following a tutorial on how to re-top a high-poly head model from blackboard. I got confused why the retop doesn't stick to the high poly head at first to later realized I have to select the surface...

Importing Hight Poly Head

Re-topping the head

Using symmetry to get both sides of the head

After finishing making the face and making sure it has correct loops and poly, I put it into smoothing groups. I leave a space behind the back of the head to save the tris since I will have to model hair to cover it later on.

Smoothing groups

 After creating the face, I start building the body. There were also many tries and adjustments. At first, it was too skinny, the spines didn't bend correctly and the posture of the arms are off. After feedback and help from tutors and my friends, I finally got the body I am content with to create further detail.

Making the body

I stared at my hand and try to make the hand based on it. It was quite awkward at first, my thumbs are a little longer than average and my pinky is bent inward. I hope this doesn't mess up during rigging.

Hand process

I then attached the head and hands to the body I make earlier. By copying the head model I placed it to the side to measure the ratio and proportion of the body. After I adjusted the body to be 7 1/2 heads tall. I add small features and adjust the face and I am finished with the base!

Adjusting proportions

adjust the fac shape and the nose

I felt like I could make the body more muscular than this but at the same time was too scared I would make the proportion goes off. If I could try and make this again I will definitely make the muscle more defined.

Gladiator: Initial ideas + research

The next 3D project is to create a Roman era inspired gladiator that is need to be rigged later. After I saw the brief I immediately began to search for Gladiator and just learn how many types they have. There are eight different classes of gladiator: Thracian, Murmillo, Retiarius, Secutor, Velitus, Samnite, Dimachaerus and Laquerius.

The gladiator type I decided to take as my main inspiration is Secutor. They have dagger/Gladius as their weapon with armour on their arm and medium-sized shield.

First mood board: Main ideas for my gladiator character/weapons

Second mood board: colour pallet, art style references and real historical references

I wanted to make a female gladiator too and was worried and curious if there was any female gladiator back in Roman time. After some research, Women gladiators were only seen at exceptional festivals, according to ancient literature, to keep the female combatants more exclusive and appealing to the general public.

So the concept of this project is making a woman Secutor gladiator with the theme revolving around lion/lioness.

These ideas may have some change in the future but I am very satisfied with the concept so far, I feel like my art style might not suit 3d models but I will try my best!

References

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nmGQ9

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Vyn25

https://historyofyesterday.com/the-female-gladiators-of-rome-87a035ad78c5

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2326/roman-gladiator-mosaic/

Future Tribes: Itarations

After finding inspirations and making my mood board, I start by deciding what post should my iterations be in. I need to make a post that shows all of their clothes without arms or legs blocking it but also shows the character's traits and personality. I start off with just a stick man before going into more solid shapes.

Pose ideas 1

After I draft out some poses I make a more solid silhouette of the iteration. I got feedback later that my sketch is too dynamic and need to be toned down, so I changed and look up a normal standing pose. I think it was too stiff so I relies of the anatomy for the shape of the iterations.

Pose ideas 1

Making correct proportion of the character base

Designs and silhouettes

Because I already set certain themes I want to use for my characters so I made only one body base for the clothes to be put on. The idea was to make a graceful yet strong Akha tribe Khon dancer. I started with a black blocked out body base and create simple shapes and black silhouettes of the clothing with Lasso tool before adding lighter colour to create more detail.

First iterations: 20 characters

I wasn't sure of what to do at first and the first 10 characters acted as a base/experiment than an actual idea. Some of it are nice and I did use them to develop further on other designs.

Second iterations: 20 characters

I changed up my pose on the 10 later of half of my second batch to create new silhouettes and prevent myself from art block. I really love the multiple robotic hands design a lot and it did end up as one of my top 5.

Thrid iterations: 10 characters

My last one was not as successful but I experiment more on the futuristic side of the clothing as I was focusing a lot more on the culture part in the last two sheets.

Final Iteration Sheet

50 iterations of Akhan Khon dancer

I am quite proud of the iteration sheet. The process sucks a lot of energy out of me and I was struggling with how to make unique silhouettes shapes. As a first try at making this many characters, it's not as bad as I thought and is fun in a way. 

Composition and Compositional Principles (Part 1) - Still Life

The task for today was to produce a minimum of five thumbnail sketches for a still life setting, experimenting with different compositional and lighting changes. I was having a massive art block and was confused most of the time about what to do while I was in the studio despite watching the video twice.

Luckily I asked the tutor and they guided me throughout the class.
I was confused at first about how to draw a still life when it is not in the position of what is in front of me before I drew the thumbnails.

Thumbnail sketches

I sketch out 5 sketches in total with the one on the very left as the original composition of what the setting is in front of me. I kept the composition in the triangle form and ended up choosing the last one that form a right angle triangle to guide the line of each object's height.

The one I choose as the final composition

Process

I started by making grids and sketch out lightly of the object's placement. 

Simple crosshatching and where the light/shadow is

Rendering

Final Piece

I have been drawing the same vase over and over again throughout this year and somehow non of them looks the same. I really do like the end result and how it turns out desite this week being quite a rough week for me. I think I am too comfortable with irregular shapes of the flowers, the more solid shape objects are not as too acurate to the perspective. I will surely try to improve on that and see my process throughtout this term. 

Shading Techniques

Self-directed Activity

The task for self-direct was to experiment with the shading techniques on different objects. I chose what is in my room at the time and begin the sketches.

I used hatching, cross-hatching, scribbling, stippling and smudging techniques to do my studies of: A gemstone, an apple, a pillow, laundry pegs and glass marble.

Process

I started with thumbnails for compositions and begin sketching the objects in front of me

Changing the look of the vase because it was way off ( I forgot to measure and fix it after the feedback )

Rendering and adding texture

Final Piece

Tool used: 2B - 5B pencil and putty eraser on A3

This was quite a work after coming back from breaks, I have to get used to using pencils again since I didn't pick them up again after New year. I am happy with how the hatching turns out and especially the foil on that covers the bunny and the value of the eggplant.

Future Tribes: Initial idea

After deciding and researching on tribes and elements I want in my design, I find pictures and make a pinterest board before gathering the pictures to create mood boards on photoshop. This was so I could write out ideas and what specific items I wanted in my design. Some pictures are searched specifically with Thai languages for references because there were not enough English articles or pictures of them

First mood board: Tribes used and their main elements

Second mood board: colour pallet, art style references and accessories

The concept of this project is a futuristic tribe character from Akha is a young dancer who mixes the art of khon dance with her culture. Having her uniform that represents both aesthetics. She would look graceful but also powerful as she takes the role of a more musculin character wearing a non-human/giant mask.

I am not new to making characters but I usually do casual characters or cute ones. This task might be challenging for my future self but I will try my best. 

Art references

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xJAod2

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PoVaRn

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B15JL9

https://www.naiin.com/product/detail/179953

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lxnkg5

Future Tribes: Tribe research

On our next project, we are making Future Tribes which will let us explore character design with well defined concepts, proper anatomy, and design that aims for a powerful impression.

Before starting my mood boards I need to gather ideas for this project and research for the tribe I wanted to redesign.

I started off by searching just with "tribes" as a keyword. I stumbled upon most of  North America and southwestern tribes that are shown a lot in media. I find them very inspiring but because of the fear, I might choose the same tribe as other people I search for less known tribes.

I then found a picture of Cham Dance while searching. It was not a tribe but a Cham Dance. Which is the traditional dance of Bhutan. It involves a series of masked dances, which are usually performed by monks and laymen, wearing colourful costumes. These dances are vibrant and lively and are performed during Tshechus, the annual Bhutanese festival.

Because of the similar aesthetic to my culture with masked dance, I realized “Hey, what if I did my own culture tribes?”

This is why I choose two topics to research on Akha tribe and Khon

Akha tribe

Chiang Rai-Akha tribe is a group whose ancestors were originally from southern China. In China, They are known as "Hani or Won", where immigration comes on two routes: the first route, entering Burma in Kengtung and entering Thailand continuously. They came to settle down in Mae Fah Luang District and the second path evacuated to the border seam of Mae Sai District. The Akha people's costume is considered a very valuable and valuable art. Some sets can be priced in the hundreds of thousands.

• Because they rely on farming and not hunting with the art form as their most important trait, I decided that the design of them won't have weapons and focus on the clothes.

Khon

Khon, Thailand's Masked Dance Drama, is a genre of performance art that incorporates musical, vocal, literary, dance, ritual, and handicraft elements. Khon performances feature delicate dance moves, instrumental and vocal interpretations, and glistening costumes

Except for the woman, the protagonist, and the angel, the performers in Khon are required to wear all masks. The protagonist and the angel wore the head in ancient times. The protagonist and the angel were later altered so that they didn't have to.

• I will use the various shapes in Khon uniform to create strong silhouettes in my work along with their detailed patterns

References used

https://www.tibetan-buddhist-art.com/cham-lama-dance/

https://minimore.com/b/9OLf$/1

https://www.royalprojectthailand.com/node/868

https://www.77kaoded.com/news/big/1161002

https://www.saranukromthai.or.th/sub/book/book.php?book=13&chap=5&page=t13-5-infodetail05.html

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/khon-masked-dance-drama-in-thailand-01385

Material study: 1

Alongside cube world and shop front project, I also did material studies of more basic material objects with one more on the fun side and a lot more plan to both explore the texture used in games. But also have fun. I see this project as a more relaxed study rather than a chore.

Noted: This page will be update for more detailed screenshots of how I paint each material later

6 material study Starts on 15 Nov

Wood texture

Glass material

Cloth material

Rough metal material

Animal fur material

Magma rock texture

I feel like I could render a lot more if i have more time or enough patient with the work without having side works and assignments but I did have fun especially with the magma texture. I did a pause on this work at the start of december, so hopefully when I get back to it I can see my improvements