Week 2: Electric Boogaloo

Not to describe my week as being bad. I just liked the name of the title.

Actually it’s been quite the opposite, this week in terms of the course has been a pretty strong one. Group work seems to be making progress and we are meeting the targets we decided to set together last week.

In game production we had to present our current progress in film room project. Once again I had felt as if I was thrown into the deep end again as I had to do something that normally we would have time to prepare for. But I guess this seems to be the theme for this year, meaning I need to start to grow a thicker skin and always be prepared for any outcome on the course.

The presentation did however put things into context for both me and my group and how to practically reach target. The session proved very useful as it became abundantly clear that we had still not finished our whitebox and received scale measurements to adjust our models to. This was eventually rectified and we now have a working whitebox with some measurements but still no accurate measurements to adjust our models to. On reflection this needs to be sorted out soon as possible we have planned according to our time table to get our assets in engine textured by the end of week 3 and there are still no measurements to change the model size. Hopefully it would be possible to resize assets in engine and not compromise the quality of texture. This should be priority for the next couple of day’s research about whether it is possible to do this but also try and get the group convince and discuss measurements as well as look over the quality of our assets.

In terms of personal progress I have found that I did have a bit of a bumpy patch. (Ok so maybe I did lie, the week did get hard) but I had a small patch of doubt whether I deserve to be in second year due to how I was struggling to model a statue bust in 3ds max. Looking back at the time I felt as if I should be stronger just because I have had a year with this program. In addition I started to compare myself to other students to my year which caused me such frustration as I could see so much improvement around me. On reflection now however thinking about my experience of 3ds max although I have had a year with this program I have not modelled enough to constitute a years’ worth as experience. That said if I want to avoid such an experience I need to start modelling more in my free time but also I think I need to be easier on myself and stop comparing myself to others and think about my own personal progression.

Moreover in game production we also had a formal lesson in PBR which I felt confident in since I had spent the previous week experimenting with PBR. The lesson was still quite informative as it providing more methods and tools we could use PBR for such as creating translucent and emissive materials which I plan to experiment with in the future, importing one of my old character models I did in first year in UE4 and play around with its textures.

ZBRUSH – Jumping in the deep end

So as the title suggests I finally took the dive and experimented with Z brush like I always talked about in my first year blog. (Better late than never right?) Anyway, I spent my free time learning its interface and even modelling a weird alien blob face thing and what can I say, I absolutely love it. I feel like it’s a more artistic and rewarding way of 3d modelling organic models and I would love to work with it more in the future. I even attempted to integrate use of this program in the project but I had no luck. The software I find already has a tough navigation to get used to and to use it for coursework would be very risky. In the future I would love nothing more than to spend time learning how to sculpt. I have already sought aid from a friend who is proficient in this software to help me progress as well as a few Gumroad tutorials to refer to.

Film Room Project Development Diary – My own personal 3 picks.

So before we all settled to work on the Great Gatsby as the film we work on for our project, we all had individual ideas which we would have liked to do. My main 3 ideas where the trophy room from the first highlander film.

Any scene from the film called Bunraku

And finally Seth Brundle’s room from David Cronenberg’s iteration of the fly.

Right off the bat it was decided although Bunraku’s props and lighting are heavily stylised to be reminiscent of a stage play we had decided that it’s almost too simple and would end up looking way too low poly.

When discussing whether we would do the highlander film room we had decided although it would be a nice prop heavy room to work with, the level of detail needed to build such a room might possibly not be viable for a 5 week project. The same goes with Bundle’s room the fly.

We eventually settled on Gatsby because of the lighting options we could work with, as well as the variety of different material types within the scene.

Life Drawing

I really enjoyed this week’s life drawing. It was simple and straight forward, we had a model and we analysed it and drew it. All I could ever ask for in a life drawing session. In addition the session eased my fears I have been having with rendering the human form recently as I have started to fear that I have regressed in skill. However as the lesson progressed I started to find that it felt more natural and things we coming back to me. Although this does not mean to coast, but rather to be easier on myself and expect to fail so I can Improve and be more efficient.

Critical Studies

This week’s critical studies was actually one of the best and most informative session I have had on the course for a while now. Prior to the actual seminar we had a stealth lesson in composition which should help both talking about art as well as producing art. Moreover for the seminar we had to find an image we would emotionally connect to and I think today I have found a new artist to aspire to.

The artists name is Christian Rex van Minnen a New York based artist who paints odd and somewhat grotesque subject matter in the old masters style of composition and lighting.

In critical studies I chose to discuss elements of this artists work from both and emotional and artistic point of view, elements of the particular painting above that I was attracted to included:

Focus- Using chiaroscuro to illuminate and highlight the skin to draw viewers to this grotesque focal point which also covers the use of contrast using light and darks.

Space- Using space and the compositional element of movement, the artist has firstly left the background very empty and composed his subject in a triangle sort of shape directing our eyes towards the subjects face once again.

Colour and texture – The artist has used a complimentary palette of warm oranges and cool blues with the purpose of the colder colours taking more of a step back and pushing the volumetric qualities of the form of the portrait. Moreover the different and varied textures seen in the image also add more to the quality of contrast as well sell the story of a lifeless and cold puppet. This can be evidenced but the glass like quality of the eyes caused by the sharp speculars on the eyes conveying the look of a dead eyed object.

This lesson taught me a lot about analysing art and introduced me to a new artist to follow but also one of the tutor mentioned something I must start to adapt into how I work. I need to start becoming less attracted to my work. I need to start thinking of my work as creating something good with intent rather than thinking of my work as an extension of me or my self-worth. This will help me take feedback easier as well as to get into less humps about my own progression.

Anyway this was my week. I’m so sorry about how long this post was. But sequels always got to be grander in scope right?