100 Faces

Well uni has gotten off to a great start, really enjoying myself now I'm back and getting loads done, the hand modelling we have to do for our assignment has been so good that its making me consider switching over to the art side of the course even though I will be somewhat behind...but that's for another time...

As for this post I'm going back in time and submitting something I completed over summer but never get round to putting up here, so here are my 100 faces, which was a task set over on the Ctrl+Paint website where they suggested you pick something your bad at and then draw it 100 times to improve. And I hate drawing faces so this took me a while to do but I hope you'll agree that I have improved at least a slight bit since I started. :)

Sorry about the poor quality and poor Photoshop mashing it together, you cans see a bigger image Here, and then click zoom, but its still not great...

Maybe I'm just embarrassing myself by posting about switching to art and then  posting some badly drawn faces at the same time but you know...

Ill be posting the model of my hand over the next few days so everyone can say what they think I'm better at doing, will be interesting to see what people think :)

4AM? It must be blogging time!

So today was my first day as a 2nd year at the University of Glamorgan and I was excited to get back into work...

The first mini project we've had to do is model and insect in 24hours as a practice for the modelling of a hand over the next 2 weeks. I have obviously not done much modelling as an animator (other than what I've posted on this blog) and this was the first piece I've had to do professionally.

Its been fun so far but has taken up lots of my time as I get to grips with lots of new tools and features I've never used, hence why I'm only just finishing rendering it at gone 4 in the morning :)

I decided to model a Hercules Beetle as its interesting as well as very identifiable making it easier to create something that will make people realise what it is. Another reason I chose this insect was its made up of large solid objects with gentle curves and a smooth body, this helps when making the model as I cannot go into too much detail with my little experience over such a short period of time.

But here is the final product, when meshsmoothed it's 4090 Polys

Here is the turnaround

And here is the mesh turnaround

The renders havnt quite turned out how I wanted but its 4 in the morning and I'm tired, I'll redo them in the time I have tomorrow, as for now, time for bed, need to be up at 9 for a lecture...phew its non stop :)

Uni Year 2!

Woo hoo! So I made it to the 2nd year, and I'm glad to be back. I get my first Assignment on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to getting back into the working mood.

In preparation fro the start of the 2nd year I've been doing some drawings (which I will post at a later date when they're completed) and also finished what I could of the Kizard animation before uni began.

In the end I decided to scrap the running animation as it was taking too long to make for the time I had and if I focused just on the walking/sneaking I could get that to a decent standard, so here is what the final animation turned out like :)

As from now on the posts of work will become much more frequent again as the work load increases :D

My First No Work Post

Hey everyone, sorry for my lack of work being posted up recently, been very busy with lots going on at home and with the move back up to Cardiff to start my 2nd year of uni

Ill be back to posting work up soon and I will post my uni work up here too so there will be plenty to show, as for now I just need to get settled in and make sure everything is sorted

Looking forward to the next year of uni and I'll keep everyone updated with my work as I go along :)

Kizard Running

It's been a while since I last posted an update on my work as I've been busy enjoying myself in the weeks coming up to going back to Uni, which I can't wait to get back too :)

As for the work I've been doing in the mean time, I've been focusing on my drawing more as its been an area that needs improvement for quite some time, so I've been working on quick 60 second poses to get back into the drawing and to practice my scale of anatomy.

Another thing I have been working on is drawing 100 faces, which was an idea on Ctrl+Paint to draw 100 of anything you struggle with to practice and get better at your biggest weakness, so I decided to work on faces as it's an area I consider myself to be poor at...but I have seen improvements in my work already and I have only draw around 40 so far...Ill post all 100 when they're finished (which I hope to do before beginning my 2nd year of uni) and you can all laugh at my poor drawing but you will hopefully be able to see an improvement...

As for the animation side of things, I have been working on the Kizard animation still and have begun to add some more to the animation. After it has walked carefully, looking around as it does so, he breaks into a run which makes the animation less of a cycle and more dynamic. Currently the walk at then beginning is mostly done, with just some polishing needed...the transition between walk and run needs to be worked on and possibly extended so it takes longer to speed up...and the run is still in its early stage as it has only half been animated with things like the wings having no animation yet.

As always feedback is welcomed and I would like to hear what people have to say of the animation so far :)

A Small Update

Its been longer than usual since my last post, and there's not all that much to report on...maybe I'm getting lazy and should do some more work...

I've mostly been working on quick sketches to keep my drawing skills up and not slip behind...who knows, I may even get better and maybe even get to an acceptable standard...but I think that might be a long way away :)

As for the animation, I've been mostly working on the skinning and have sorted out a few areas that had yet to be skinned properly or skinned badly so I can now begin working on the animation some more. Hopefully the project will only take another week or two before I have a finished animation but the main target is to have it done before I move back to uni, which I will be doing on the 17th of September, and I cant wait to get back to uni and get some work done :D

Here is the most recent render of the animation...

Kizard 2012

So I'm back from my holiday in Ibiza, had a great time and enjoyed just taking a few days to relax without having anything to worry about...as for now...its back to work :)

As I mentioned last week I've put my modelling on hold for a while as I animate fellow class mate Kieran Mckay's model, and its been a fun and challenging project so far. The skinning of the project has been hard and every time I think its skinned properly I check it in my animation to find its completely wrong...but trial and error shall save the day.

The actual animation is of the lizard...thing to be doing a sneaky walk as if stalking prey or hiding from something. At the moment I haven't been animating it very long and some of the skinning such as the arms and the front of the thighs need some work as well as the actual foot placements as more skinning needs to be done there too, but this is what I have so far...

I also downloaded 3DS Max 2012 which looks very nice but doesn't really change all that much for us animators...not that I've found yet anyway. The only thing to really affect me is I found I could no longer use the skin modifier to skin the model as I was unable to select points while having the weight adjuster open, I eventually found a fix for this that can be downloaded from Autodesk, if you haven't found it already, Here.

Also one last thing...everyone who loves games, or likes to play a game from time to time, check out the Humble Indie Bundle, its a bunch of small game developers getting together to raise money for charity, you pay what you want and choose how much goes to the developers and how much goes to the charities, so get over there and splash some cash now, give to charity and get some great games :)

Thanks for reading and give me any feedback you can other than the obvious skinning errors ;)