Fishes are so Delicious

I have quite a few updates and new things to share. Let's start with the updates on projects from my last post.

First of all I completely redesigned the character I am making for my project pipeline class. I realized that I didn't have a clear idea of who my character was and it was really holding me back in terms of being able to let her inner personality show through in my work.

I'm really glad I decided to rework the design. Going back and doing thumbnails really showed that I didn't have a style really nailed down, and even as I started to form a better image of my character in my head it still took me several tried before things started to become more consistent.

She's still very simple design-wise. I mentioned last time that I really wanted to keep the design conservative so that I could really focus more on building my skills instead of spending time making everything really complex. My professor pointed out that something I should really work on is trying to make a unique profile for her so that she's more identifiable. While I was purposefully being conservative, I think my professor was bring up a really important issue. Right now she doesn't really stand out at all, and if I can find a way to change that while still keeping her simple I think it would







I spent a lot of time playing around with hair styles. I knew I wanted her to be a more butch and serious looking female, but being a girl myself, I know how many different things can be down with hair. There is no such thing as just "short hair," there are hundreds of different styles and types of short hair.  But there are ways to limit options, luckily, and since I wanted her to feel more professional and serious and it was pretty clear that anything too wild or messy would send the opposite message. Not only is she a professional, but she's also very rational. I decided she's the type to keep her hair short not because it looks good but because it keeps it from interfering with her work as a soldier. really help.

With all of this in mind, I've decided to go with hair style number 2. My second choice would be number 6. I'm going to begin modeling her today so I should have more to share next time.

Now on to rendering!  I finished my last project. It's not too different from the image I posted last week, but the lights are better and there's some AO in the picture too.  It's still not the most exciting thing I've ever done, but it's not too bad.

I've also begun my second project for rendering in which we have to make an image using only procedural shaders. I decided I really wanted to challenge myself for this one, and boy did I pick a challenge. I decided to make a gold fish, which doesn't sound too bad but if you've ever had to make scales using procedural texturing then you'd know it's no picnic.

It took me three hours to get just the shape of the scales alone. It took me a while but I finally managed to get the shape using just ramps. I then added a bump map, color, incandescence, and some other attributes. In the end I used mostly ramps for a good portion of the entire shader.

The next challenge was getting the texture for the fins, particularly the tail since the lines need to follow along the split "Y" shape of the tail.

They're still not perfect, but I need to work on finishing the rest of the scene and the eye before I play with them some more. It's due on Tuesday, so I should have a finished image to share next week.

Before I go, remember the doctor concept I created in my post The Doctor is In? Well I'll be using him for my next rendering assignment, so make sure to check back to find out how he turns out!

Characterization

Recently I've been doing a little research on character design for my Project Pipeline class. I need to model a character for my project, but I've been having some trouble trying to come up with an actual character. I wasn't originally going to make a whole character but my professor really wants me to do one so I'm trying to put together a plan for it. I had originally planned an entirely different project and I had that all planned out, but I'm having trouble trying to turn it around an come up with something new. I've been trying to pull together images for inspiration but so far I'm not really feeling it. I've done a few quick sketches but they all seem to be going in different directions in terms of style.

 I want to keep the outfit simple because it's the first time I'll be trying to do normal maps in mudbox and I don't want to get in over my head. I think the simpler it is the more I can really practice and get it right without having to worry about having to get a whole bunch of details done. The issue is I really just don't have an idea of who my character is so I'm having trouble being able to invest myself in developing them.

 I started making some t-pose references, but I don't really like what I have so I'm still working on coming up with something different. I have to have everything done by Wednesday, so we'll see what I end up with.

I'm also taking a rendering class this quarter and I'm almost done with my first assignment. We had to make a maximalism themed piece while focusing on 3 point lighting, so it had to have a lot of detail. I took inspiration from the various rose windows you see in gothic cathedrals. 

We can only use shades, so no color, but I think it's turning out pretty nice. I'm not crazy in love with it though. It's nice, but I don't think it's going to turn out to be a portfolio worthy piece. I try to aim to make all my projects good enough to go into my portfolio, but they can't all be winners. Our next project is going to be on procedural shaders, which I am already familiar with from my shading class last quarter. I'm pretty excited to see what I can do with it. I have an idea in mind but I'm not sure how possible it will be.

Spring is Here!

I apologize for the late post. I've been trying very hard to keep on my once a week posting schedule, but my schedule for Spring is so crazy that I had to immediately hit the ground running in order to keep up with my course work. On top of that I've been rather sick this past week.

I have two updates, both of which are for a scholarship I am applying to. The first is the digital painting I shared in the last post. I am having to call it on this one for now. Ideally I would love to keep working, but the scholarship deadline is coming up, not to mention I need to be focusing on school work.

I'm pretty happy with it. I'd like to add in more details and really just push it further in general, but all things considered, it is probably the best digital painting I have produced thus far. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out the lighting for the leaves and I'm still not convinced I got it quite right, but it is much better than what I originally had.

And now for the other half of the scholarship application, a character that goes with the environment.

I was very frustrated with myself today when I opened it up and realized that at least 3 hours of work I had spent on it earlier this week was entirely gone. I had added a lot more details to the base of the harp to make it more balanced, but somehow managed to lose all of it. Unfortunately, I've run out of time and have to submit it without.  Again, ideally I'd like to fix it up more but that's just not an option right now.  I wanted to give her more of a back drop/setting but I had to chose between that or polishing the character as much as possible. And since the character is what is actually required for the scholarship, it was obvious I had to go with that

Possible scholarship aside, I'm very happy that I was able to produce both of these images because it was an incredible learning experience. I've never gotten to sit down and really focus on a digital painting before, and even though I'd like these both to be more polished I am extremely proud of how far I was able to take them  both. It was definitely an extremely worthwhile experience.

Outer Space, Doors, and Ice Cream

Woot! I'm done with finals! Which means I have a ton of stuff to share! Seriously, I have so much to show it's not even funny.

First of all I finished the textures on my character.

I still don't like a lot of things about it, but at this point the issues I have have more to do with the model than with the textures. I am extremely happy that I managed to do the entire thing with procedural textures (with the exception of the patterns on the belt which I drew by hand in photoshop). I think that the wrinkles in the white shirt turned out extremely well for being a procedural bump map.

So remember way back in December when I said I was going to be assisting some seniors on their thesis projects? Probably not because I haven't mentioned it since (click here to see my post, "Working Toghter"), but I'm actually done with that as well now.

I was working with Skybase on his film The Door to Tomorrow to make some of the settings for his scenes. I modeled a very simple Hospital room and hallway which he then rendered and painted over before adding the animations.

I've got some renders as well as the painted over versions that Skybase was generous enough to allow me to share. I did the models but he did all the rendering and painting.

Please note that the renders are purposefully noisy because of the process he was using to paint over them worked better when there was more noise.

 He presented the finished film last night and it was absolutely beautiful and I am so honored to have been able to have been a part of the project. As far as I am aware the full video isn't currently available online, but he has several trailers which you can find here on his Vimeo. I highly recomend paying it a visit as the stuff he's been doing really is amazing.

I also worked with my friend Kyle West on his senior thesis. He created an asset package with a character and vehicle. He developed this really cool idea of an ice cream man with a special customized ice cream truck. My job was to make the logo for the ice cream company, which he had a pretty specific vision for so it was more just making that idea a reality in illustrator.

He really wanted the logo to be simple and straight forward so the overall concept was always pretty set. He knew he wanted an ice cream cone, for obvious reasons, and that he wanted the company name to be on a banner. So the things I played around with was the style of the cone and ice cream as well as different shapes and placements for the banner.

We came up with the idea of the bow tie because the character wears one as part of his work uniform so we thought it would be a kind of cool way to add a little branding to the company. I think we definitely made the right choice in the end. I wasn't a huge fan of the soft serve cones I was comming up with.

Another thing I did was make the eyes, teeth, and eyelashes for his character.

I know it's a pretty creepy render. He looks like he's wearing a ski mask, haha, but I didn't want to post up Kyle's face model, so I just used the parts I used to match things to. The eye lashes I modeled one lash and then animated along a curve and had it generate copies as it animated.

And one last thing I have is yet another digital painting I've started, hoever I'm going to be finishing this one. I'm doing it for a scholarship so I'm hoping I can finish it up well enough to have a shot at getting some financial aide for college. I've only put four and a half hours into it so far so it's not done, but I'm extremely happy with how well it's going considering I'm not extremely experienced in digital painting.