Perspective Project: 2 point perspective

I use the same brush set as the 1pt task I did. I start by making grids of 16 Notan drawings to brainstorm the final piece and experiments with angles and shapes.

First sketches/layout of the thumbnails using provide perspective brush

This took me longer to figure out what I wanted to draw as the shape of ancient ruins are harder than just a hallway and I have to think where it would be located after placing in the main shapes.

Finished Thumbnails

In the end, I choose the first one of the second row. the shape was clear and I didn't put a lot of details into it as much as the other which allows me to render it further and add more elements to it.

Final Piece

Final render without colour

Adding gradient map

I am very pleased with the final render and the colour I added to it. The gradient map was applied when I merge all the layers together. At first, I apply the 3 different gradient maps to each part: The land, water and the sky but I can't find to get the colour to harmonize with each other. So I just make it a one layer picture and slap gradient map in the end and it works great!

PBR - Fireplace: Initial ideas

The next project after Gladiator is to create a PBR fireplace hero asset utilizing sculpting and baking in Zbrush.

I have had many ideas for this project since the start and I was very excited to design each design. It turns out it was too ambitious and it become more of a whole scene than an asset.

Initial Sketches

The Ideas I had were an Astrology room, A creepy victorian room with ghosts, Inari Shrine..with ghosts, a Fireplace in the middle of a swamp and a lighthouse themed fireplace.

I end up choosing Lighthouse Theme as my final decision for this project. The concept is to make a fireplace suited to be in the lighthouse with props on the fireplace being objects that can be found using near the sea or a cute collection from the owner of that lighthouse.

Moodboard for Fireplace

I really like the board I made and the concept of it so far. I think it has a lot of potentials I just have to make it right. With a lot of probs, I am a bit worried that it would take up too much texture space but I'll see what I can do.

Blog Task: 3

 Gladiator Pit Stop

Talk about your design and explain your rationale for those decisions. Consider what makes a gladiator look like a gladiator.

- My design of the gladiator was based on a lion. Paganism worshipped many animals the lion had a special place. This lion god was worshipped by the Roman army and the lion appearance appeared a lot in a painting of a gladiator fight. A gladiator was mostly highlighted as a man's job. However, a woman gladiator exists so I decided to create one based on that. To make my character looks like a gladiator, they have strong physiques and weapons that are iconic but not too much to protect every bit of their body.

How has your model shaped up compared to your initial concept?

- The model was quite similar to my design apart from how the hair and some details I can not put in due to the complexity of the poly I can't achieve just yet. So it has to be cut down and make simpler.

What challenges have you faced, if any?

- The modelling of the chest and lion's head shoulder guard was the hardest part for the model. The rigging for the animation test was quite enjoyable but inserting the bones for each part and the sword/shield is a bit complicated. The program crashed and I have to do the rigging twice because the file crashed...

What changes or alterations have you had to make from your initial concept - with regards to translating a 2D concept to 3D - if any?

- The hair curls and the details of the right shoulder guard are definitely different but not a lot. There were a few colour changes but I'd say it did look better than the initial 2D design.

Gladiator: Presenting in UE4

The final step for this for and I am finally free once again! (not really)
After finishing skinning and adding pose to my character. I export the file to Unreal Engine to add my character to a scene.

Importing the character in and check if the joints are working

Checking the animations and movements

Placing my character on the map

I create a photo box and add the lights for my gladiator photoshoot. I wasn't sure what to do at first but I wanted the lights to be dramatic so I use two-tone lights. Each is placed at a different angle to create dual lighting.

Placing the lights

Adding a camera to take screenshots

With this lighting, however, was almost too strong for the model so I decided to make it less dramatic by using one colour light and trying to use soft lighting on the character instead.

Warm lighting test

Final Screenshots

Dual Lighting

Soft Lighting

And it is finally done! I feel a little unsure of this project. I wanted to be happy with it but at the same time I think I could do better than this but during the process I got stuck at a lot of places and redoing a a lot. To my future me, I promise you I will improve a lot more than this and doesn't relies everything on texture. Present me, you did good.

Head Construction - Part 2: The Human Head and Face

This is the first live drawing I did and with the speed of how I usually draw, I did only a small thumbnail of the person and immediately began sketching the face. I think I spend most of the first ten minutes just staring at the model's face...

Process

Final Piece

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

I was given a lot of feedback during the session and the main feedback was once again " It was too stylized ". I have no problem capturing the model's likeness and expression but I keep making it too cartoonish. I think I have a lot of problems drawing the realistic face and I was struggling a lot. I will try to do life studies more and figure out how to draw human faces.

Perspective Project: 1 point perspective

I began by creating a grid of 19 Notan drawings to brainstorm my ideas. I used the perspective point brushes given in Blackboard and start working on the general angle I want.

First sketches/layout of the thumbnails using provide perspective brush

I was really struggling with the creative way to think of 16 hallways in a scifi setting. Scifi is not really my strongest suit...but after feedback, I slowly got a hang of it and finish the sketches in Notan.

Finished Thumbnails, there was a lot of readjustment on the angles

I like the lower half of the sketches a lot but non stand out to me at all so it was hard to pick the final one to render. In the end, I choose the third one from row three.

Final Piece

The hall rendering is a lot more fun than I thought but I think the dark value was a bit too much in this piece after I already finished it but I'm still proud of it I will try to control my value better on the 2 pt piece.

Gladiator: Rigging and Skinning

Rigging

The first step was to resize the model into human height. At first, I was confused if I wasn't making them in their regular height? The model was a lot bigger than I expected... She was 1300 cm tall at first then I resized her to only 175 cm.

I then create the skeleton for the rigging process with Biped

I adjusted all the joints to line up with my character's body and start moving each limp to create short animations to test out the joints. I failed once because I accidentally move them outside figure mode and have to redo everything again. The animation below is my second attempt.

It was not that great but it was very fun(ny)

Animation test

Skinning

Skinning was not as easy as the tutorial video showed but that was because these are all very new to me and still have to learn more. I did get the hang of it the more I work on the character.

The hand and each of its joints was the most annoying part in this process

I test out the animation and how the joins interact throughout the skinning

I still have a lot to fix...

Skinning without weapon and shield

Skinning with weapon and shield. Haven't fixed the finger yet.

Fixed!

Overall, I really enjoy making the animation and funny movements for my character but the skinning is the most complex part for me. I was happy the work was done but because of the bad timing I have for this work, I feel like I could work more with the model, the skinning and everything in general if I have the chance to do it again.

Future Tribes: refining designs and colour palettes

After cleaning up and adding detail to the final iternation I made, I search up colours to use for my character. This took me too long that I like and I was worried if I can finish all my projects I have at the moment in time.

Final design and clean up from Iterations

Becuase my character is Thai and is strongly based on their culture, I also use this website to pick up " Thai tones " colour palettes to help with my work. Thaitone primary color consists of Red, Yellow and Blue. The colors are called, Chard (Red), Rong (Yellow) and Kraam (Blue). However, the tone of the color is not the same as the standard due to the resource it was from to give it a less saturate and earthy tone. I wanted to achieve that colour on my final product but also giving it futuristic tones to it.

https://notionallybetter.com/thaitone/pantone-cmyk-thaitone-colour-charts-2/

With these tones iterations I start filling in each colour.

Colour Palettes

First Sheet

The first 6 palettes are made with thai illustrations and artstyles that is commonly seen in their old culture and architectures. It was harder to pick the colour as there were a lot of colour. With that I use a technique 7:5:2. with 7 being the main used colour. I was not satisfied with the colour yet so I keep going.

Second Sheet

I start using colour picker website and pallet that is frequently used in works and combining them together. I liked the last one of this sheet the most. Blue is also ok but it looked a bit too cute. Keep going!

Third Sheet

At this point I was very tired trying to find the colour that I liked and was about to give up since I didn't like any of the ones I did so far. The last sheet was a little bit interesting and with little help of gradient tool and gradient maps I made 6 more colour iterations with the top rows being my favorite.

Top 3 colour palettes

I pick out 3 of my favorite colours and decided to use the middle pallet for my rendering process. I really like the harmonious colour of the red/wine colour but it was too monotone or else I would choose it.

Final Colour Palettes

And I finally have my character's colour palettes! It took me too long to just make a colour combinations. This means I have to be very fast on the rendering to catch up with all my works. Art blocks I have current is a little bit of a problems but I am very happy once I figure the colour out. Planning which part will be made out of which material and texture, I am ready toe render my character.

Head Construction

Today's work was quite hard for me to get and my feed back I got throughout was that I looks very stylized. It was and I have no idea how to fix since I did fix it and keep getting the same comment when I thought I already fixed it... This might take a while to get the concept. 

 First Head Plaster

Sketching

Second Head Plaster

layout

Sketching

Final Piece

It was not as fun as the last work and I don't understand how it work just yet. The fight in the room was very soft and I can barely see the shadow, I wonder if it was ok to leave the shadow that light or do what was logical and make up the value. That's why the statue looks a bit grey and light.