The Movember Update

So I'm now half way through the current uni project of creating 2 boxes and 2 barrels of any kind with the emphasis on the level of texture detail. This is something pretty new to me so I'm fairly pleased with how its turning out so far

With all of the models I have just gotten the basics of the textures down so that they can be checked over by tutors and given the okay before I start adding smaller details. this is what I've done so far...

My Cargo Container...

My Jewellery Box...

My Beer Keg...

And my Deodorant Can...

I've only just started texturing the deodorant can so its just block colours at the moment to test its working, and most of the models don't have a working normal and specular map yet, and if they do its not finalised

Also as I side note I'm taking part in Movember and shaving off my beard and moustache to raise money for charity, I have a donation page HERE if anyone would like to help out towards a great cause, thanks :)

Art, Crates, Skulls and Tings

Hi, all been a while since I updated my blog so I thought I would give everyone an update on whats been happening.

First things first, I've decided to take the plunge and swap over to the art side of the course...I'll be completing the art assignment for this years minor project and at the end I can either stick with art or switch back to animation if I find I don't like it, so that's reassuring.

So for this years minor project (which is 4 weeks long) I have to create 2 barrels and 2 boxes which have diffuse, specular and bump maps on them. I point of this project is to do as little modelling as possible and rely entirely on the textures to carry the project so it will be a good test to see if I enjoy it enough to follow it through for the rest of the course.

Today we had a quick lecture on texturing and got given some photos to work into our texture, so I made this crate in an hour or two...

In other news I have been trying to improve my drawing by doing an hour or two every night. So far I have been working on anatomy and trying to get character proportions right, but today I decided to try something different and used Photoshop to sketch some skulls to try and help me with facial proportions and also to work on my sketching in Photoshop using a tablet as its something I've never really tried before.

It's not great, but then that's the point of practising, so if I keep it up I'll hopefully see an improvement *crosses fingers*

Another Hand

Hey everyone, it's about time I did another blog post as I haven't done one since the end of my first uni project since I've been quite busy with my 2nd project...the storyboarding...but I'll explain that another time...

The first assignment lasted 2 weeks and we have to model, texture, rig and skin a hand (as well as create the bug posted in the last blog post)

First off here is the low poly model of the hand

Then the mesh smoothed hand

The low poly turned out to be 999 polys, which was quite lucky as we were told to keep it below 1000. I was really happy with how the modelling went and so I'm thinking about doing this years minor project as an Artist to see which path I enjoy more...I'll let you know what I decide to do later

After this we had to texture and skin the hand, this is the skinned model

And here is the final textured model of the hand

I was quite pleased with how the skinning turned out but I didn't have time to add some of the fancier skinning techniques like the tendons as it took a few days to get the skin modifier to work...as for the texturing it was done quite fast as I didn't have much time for that but for the short time I had to do it I was reasonably pleased

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 :)