New prop...

Today I decided to work on the 'find interesting people' project. I decided to combo this with the character i designed for the Wii contest. This is one of the new orthos, it looks way cooler than the first one. I modelled some of it, but lost interest and decided to make another prop instead...

This is Ross......

and this is my Ross prop, he is 502 tris. I had to add 2 more after texturing and realizing the writing would be backwards on his tag etc...

I think hes pretty cool, but i get the feeling I'm dancing around what I should be doing a bit... so I'm going to have another crack at the organic project today, hopefully I will have a final piece to post up later tonight! Adios

Prop Dog...

This is Pip, he lives in Essex, so i waited till i came back to model him. I didn't model him with the scared ears, he just doesn't like having photos, so he looked nervous in all of them.

This is my finished model! I did the whole thing, reference, modelling, uv's and texturing in one sitting. He is 498 tris including the ball. Admire the alpha beard. The face looks a bit flat though, and the eyes maybe too high up and not defined enough. I forgot to put his coller on the texture too. So i will make a few changes, but I'm happy with it.

I attempted a final piece for my organic project too, I haven't done as much research as i did for the mechanical project, so its still a bit hazy. I'm not sure about this as a final idea, so I'm going to try it again.

Its once again nearly 11am and i haven't slept so i might do the refreshing nap thing again.

Mission Complete!

I finally entirely finished and textured a self portrait, I sent this page off to blitz today for the open day thing.
I feel like a cheat because Ive ended up with the hair tied up in this one, my intention was to do another model after this, but time is of the essence now. Once i have completed my other projects i will see if i have time to go back and change the hair, i still have to do my prop though!

I'm going to have a refreshing nap now, its 11am and i still haven't slept, I will have to reorganise my sleeping patterns before next term...

Christmas...

Here is a screengrab of my low poly and high poly wii character head. As i didn't get the opportunity to upload it before.

I finished my final piece for the mechanical project today. Theres so much that i could've done better, but i need to get on with the other projects so I'm drawing this one to a close. (The fence is sopposed to illustrate the actual size of the character, pretty small. The background makes it look a bit huge though)

Its been a good day, I got a some Artbooks, one for Okami and one for Oddworld. Watched a Guillermo del Toro film 'The Devil's Backbone'. Ate a fair bit.

I've tried out Heavenly Sword aswell, its awsome. Not just a rip-off of God of War as some people think. Its got some really awsome characters in it, and you get to throw stuff and shoot stuff using the sixaxis to direct it all slowmo like.

Happy Christmas all! Farewell

LocoRoco!

I haven't blogged in a few days. I spent a few days relaxing in leicester playing some games and watching season 2 of Heroes. I did a high poly head for my Wii character and baked the normals. I want to change to body entirely though, its too dull. I'm leaving in for the moment though, and doing a bit of extra work on my self portrait.

I came back to essex on the 21st, but i don't have the internet on my pc, so blogs may be a bit sparse for the next two weeks.




I've been playing a game on the PS3 called LocoRoco Cocoreccho. I spent 3 and a half hours completing the whole game this evening finding all the LocoRoco's allthough 3 got eaten by Moja's. It's such an addictive game, and makes fun use of the sixaxis controller.

I've been playing a fair bit of Guitar Hero 3 aswell, i don't want to get too involved in any games this holiday, thats why i decided to complete LocoRoco early on or it would distract me.

It's Christmas Eve now, 3am, I'm going to try and get my most recent self portrait unwrapped before I go to sleep, it can be done.

Wii character, mesh progress...

I don't have photoshop atm, so I've done a render to show my mesh progress. I've been working on it for most of the day, apart from going to Ben Mathis' Lecture this evening.

I'm trying to model all the elements separately so i cant work into them easily in Mudbox. This will be my first Mudbox model, so its taking me a while to work out the most efficient way to layout the mesh. I've used a lot of chamfering to maintain the shaper edges. As a result this mesh is already quite high poly. But, my plan for the future is to block out the basic form concentrating on volume. The duplicate this and add the extra chamfering in to import into Mudbox. Then i will have a low poly version redy to edit when i bring the high poly back into max.

I can't do that now, as I naughtily only have one save, but its trial and error. It wont take long to edit the mesh anyway.

I really want to get onto Mudbox tomorow, but I've still got quite a bit of basic work to do on the head. I'm really enjoying the rush of this project though, even though I'm not keeping up. I feel like I've learnt a hell of a lot in a just a couple of days.

I'm gonna get some sleep now, once again I've stayed up ridiculously late pumped with lucozade. But I still always make it too the lab on time!

HUZZAH!

Its 5am now, but i have Max finally. I've decided it would be best for me to get some sleep instead of doing my mesh now, i will just mess it up coz I'm tired. It will be better to face it slightly refreshed tomorrow, it will just be a shame I'm behind. The final doesn't have to be posted till Monday, so hopefully i will have enough time.


This is the mesh i made earlier today, hopefully i can finish this base, and get the high poly done tomorrow.

On a slightly unrelated note:

Quote of the Term....

'Goodness makes this Good, Badness makes this Bad'

said by Jolyon in the lecture he gave us. I think its really important for people to be honest with themselves. No matter how long you have spent on something or how much or little effort you put it, if its bad its bad. Sometimes i write next to a sketch 'Badness makes this Bad' just coz it sums it up!

also, if things are good, hurrah, but don't stop, it can always be better.

Being truthful to yourself is very important

sleep now

*sips lucozade* (4am)

so, I'm not in the best mood atm, but i can't just blog when I'm happy

Tools...

I thought about this when i was reading 'Valley of Horses' but forgot about it until now. Ayla, the main character, is constantly coming up with new ways of doing things, she lives alone through most of the book. So, here ideas come from necessity or accident. What is interesting is the way she would have a task, then create tools that would make the performance in that task quicker and more efficient.

I thought about the tools we use, the 3D programs, photoshop, drawing materials. Some one created these tools for us, to aid us in our creativity.

One thing I like about Game Art, is the translation from one tool to another. The variety of skills that we get to exercise. The entire process a combination of technical ability and artistic ability, this cross-over is a fantastic example of what creativity is about.

To quote myself....

'Game art is a triangle'

Unwanted time on my hands...

I havent posted in quite a few days due to a number of reasons. Ive been pretty busy, but i also got a new PC which brought a whole host of new problems with it. Me and Jesus have spent the whole evening trying to fix it, and now I'm waiting for Max to download so i can get on with my character. I'm thinking there is no way I'm gonna get a high poly done now....which is really lame.

This is one of the orthos of my character, which i did yesterday. Ive got quite far with the base mesh, but haven't been able to do any since 5 o'clock. I can't show progress as i don't have max to take a screen grab from!!!!! gah, this is very frustrating when trying to do a project in a week......

Anyway.... while I've got some time I might as well Blog....

We got our formative grades this week. It went pretty well, given the amount of time we had to do it in. I'm sure it will be a lot more stressful and tiring when we do the Summative ones in January. What a horrible way to start the term.

I want to get some insight into game engines over the break too, as I'm fairly clueless

It's nearly 3 am, I'm drinking Lucozade in the hope it will keep me awake to do this mesh. But with Max only 19% downloaded in over 20mins, I'm gonna be up for a while...

...maybe a good time to think about creativity..........

*dies*

And today I...

went up to the lab without a clue what i was going to do... I don't work to work on my self portrait up there as i have yet to acquire Max9 and the appropriate drivers and stuff, then i have to export blah blah....

So I decided to use some of my rough sketches to model the head of a Neanderthal, I'm pleased i did. I'm going to use this to help me with perspective for my character project, Neanderthal heads are a really awkward shape to get right from 3/4 view...

I'm also going to try to use it as some form of variation for my self-portrait, i don't want to dedicate myself to it too much yet though, I'll worry about the main one first, maybe save the variation for over Christmas.

I missed out on the speed paint today, I was there but my PC crashed so many times, and Photoshop lagged so much it was impossible to do.... excuses eh? I will be missing it tomorrow too as I'm going to London that evening.

So I'm afraid I don't have any snazzy images to post up today, and I'm not showing my meshes until I've tided the edge loops...

farewell!

Ex-nihilo...and striving...

Ex-nihilo is a Latin term, is basically means to create something out of nothing. It is often used in philosophical arguments to describe God's creation of the Universe. Which was literally from nothing, as God created existence...supposedly. I could be treading on thin ice with a few people here.

So I thought about Creativity on a kind of time scale. There was a beginning, a nature has been an amazing creator, who we can all draw inspiration from. Think of evolution as being a trial and error process, like when we do R&D kind of. The good ideas stick, and the bad ideas get dropped. But there is always constant development, change, and striving to be better.

I find some people lack this sense of striving and they forget that they should never settle for anything, things can always be better.

Although we have to draw the line somewhere, as thats the kind of industry we are hoping to work in. But, a quote I always like to use is 'A piece of Art is never finished, it is merely abandoned' I looked up who said this before, but always forget who it was because its not important... what is important is the message. Strive for greatness and never be happy with you work!!! abandon your work because it is part of the process.

I find it hard to work out when to abandon things, or to move on from them. Thats why i have no finished Self portrait and no final pieces for the character briefs. I'm also going to find it hard when i have to summarize these blogs.

But next term when i let all this go, there will be something new to strive with. I think thats why I feel at a loss when I don't have anything to do. Obviously I don't feel that now, but i have done before. Now there is always something to do!

Going back to what i was saying about Life the Universe and Everything.....

Think about the beginning of the human species. The initial creative acts that occurred, and how they spurred on other creative acts. The entire of our time on earth has been like and epic progressive spiral of creativity that keeps getting bigger.

In a way we have sort of taken over nature. Like we are now in control....

then we will get hit by that epic meteor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it will put everything back in its place...


Boom!

Creativity...the importance of interaction...

I thought this up while i was looking at my brand new mechanical pencil with blue lead refills. The reason i now own this pencil, is because I am part of a group of people who share ideas. I saw work done with the pencil, we talked about the pencil, i bought the pencil and now i will proceed to use the pencil!

Anyway... what i am getting at is the work is directly linked to my life experiences. Being in a group of people like our game art course, is like a catalyst for creative activity. It spurs it on, keeps ideas flowing.

Voicing our own ideas can also help us realize potential we didn't notice before, or maybe even flaws we didn't notice before. Sharing work with others, and hearing opinions about it could turn something mediocre into something great. Sort of like a trial and error process....

So... Creativity is sort of like a gift from all the experiences you've had, all the people you have known, everything, good or bad. No one else in the world has the potential to create the things you can create, as you are unique! I'm talking to everyone when i say this.


I hope that was explained well enough, I have a habit of writing really late at night, which makes me less likely to check what i am witting...but i like that, If i had to think about it to much my thoughts might change...

Today...

The speedpaint word today was Wizard. I drew Vivi from FFIX. I wanted to do a cool pose, but took so long about it, that i didn't have enough time and resorted to a dull one!

Still, Vivi is coolYesterdays word was Fire! chosen by me. I didn't get a chance to post, so here it is...


It's based on the sculpture i made. But its pretty lame.

I drew out a new mech-seahorse design today. After all this talk about layout pads, i decided to use greaseproof paper instead :P, I coloured over it with alcohol markers, then took a photo and photoshopped over it. I really like it, but i keep changing my mind about the final design, and I really need to crack on with the Organic stuff.
So I put my self-portrait on hold for a while, so i can get some more character work done. I'm not to sure what to focus on, as we have the feedback next Monday. But i guess I will end up juggling everything, then doing tons of stuff over the Christmas break. Theres just not enough time in the day to do everything i want...

More Lateral Thinking (and jokes)...

I was thinking about doing another creativity blog, and wanted to write more on lateral thinking. I found this puzzle and spent the last 10 mins talking it over to myself, trying to work it out...

There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half of the distance up riding in the elevator and has to walk the rest of the way up unless it's raining! How can this be?

I came up with this...

The distance from the top floor to the ground floor is the same distance vertically, as the distance he has to travel horizontally to get to work. So he has to ride the elevator half of the distance, and walk the other half. Unless its raining, when he would get a taxi.

I was sure this had to be it! but in fact...

The man is very, very short and can only reach halfway up the elevator buttons (assuming the levels of the buttons designating floors increases from bottom to top). However, if it is raining then he will have his umbrella with him and can press the higher buttons using it.

I like my answer allot better anyway.

Another thing I would like to mention is the like between Creativity and humor. It takes a creative mind to invent and understand humor. It is an entire new branch of creativity, with immense variation. What is understood to be humorous various according to culture, age, context, intelligence etc.

Again this form of creativity occurs as a result of personal circumstance. No one persons thought process is the same as another. Although some methods of thinking are conditioned into us, the people that stray away from that conditioning are the true gems!

Once again...

I didn't finish my self portrait mesh entirely today, but its nearly there. I attached my most recent head to it, just so i can get on with texturing swiftly. I need more practice at rigging too.

The speed paint word today was Treasure


I finally got round to doing some sculpey stuff today! and i loved it. Here are some photos I took before they were cured. The Hares ears drooped off while curing, i think the must have been to delicate or not reinforced well enough. The pygmy seahorse has turned out fine though. I want to try modeling my final character for the organic project, if i can i will do it tomorrow.




I might even use the models to help me work out the perspective in some new sketches.

Me and Carter put up the Christmas tree tonight!!!!!!! Loverly...

Lateral thinking...

Thinking laterally means avoiding obvious ideas, its a way of changing your perception or way of reasoning to create new ideas.

Lateral thinking is an important part of being creative. In order to make something new and original you need to think in a way that hasn't been done before. This can be hard in modern society, as we can end up being conditioned into certain thinking patterns.

It is interesting to see the way in which young children solve problems, as they do not have the same concept of what is obvious. They can come up with interesting ideas more easily, before they are subjected to heavily to conformity.

The speed painting is a great way to encourage lateral thinking. As no one wants to come up with an obvious result, we all want to create something original. It's nice to see so many different approaches to the same subject.

Puzzles are fun! solve more puzzles!

Another day...

So I sketched out my mechanical character and roughed out my new self portrait. The clothing change has made it slightly harder, with a baggier top that hangs weirdly round the armpits. It will be a test when it comes to rigging time. Plus the curly hair is going to making it a poly budgeting test too!

I didn't get round to doing any sculpey stuff, but Carter and I ventured into town to buy some sculpting tools and advent calenders!

The speed paint word today was Weasel, I thought this was a nice word which you could focus on easily.


So tomorrow I plan on finishing the body mesh for my self portrait, and definitely doing something with the sculpey! I'm gonna leave it at that, as i don't know how long the sculpeying is going to take...