Week 15 The human anatomy

It has been three weeks since the last project and it was time to go back to work. Term 2 started with learning the basic of anatomy. We looked at idealised human proportions and learned the average body measurements, like the average human body is 7,5 heads high and the legs are four heads high. The tutors were kind enough to provide the best anatomy material from books and also I have picked up a couple of other anatomy books specialised for artists for a refresher of the basics.
In life drawing the lesson brought me back to the basics as well and we did draw everything learned so far from term 1.

I do think I have improved greatly on life drawing. This class also allowed me to develop my understanding of how the human body works. 

Although I have put in a little more effort into the first drawing because I was given more time,
I noticed I have made a mistake by drawing the arm too short on the third body. I still
enjoy quick gestural drawings as they are much more entertaining to do.

Further research and learning continued with taking pictures of myself and other people.
Doing these exercises makes it easier to understand bone structure, plus facial muscles.
In game production I started making a low poly female body. The method used to create the model was planar modelling. The head was already pre-made, so all I had to do was extrude the shapes from the neck plane by plane following reference.
Another trick in this method of modelling, was that I only had to create one side of the body and then use a symmetry modifier to get a symmetrical copy of the half body. It kind of felt like connecting two pieces of an Easter chocolate bunny.
CRITICAL STUDIES!
The week ended with some new years resolution planning for the course. We were provided with plans containing boxes to fill in strenghts and weaknesses and how to improve in every area of the course. There was also a section in which I had to answer what could prevent me from making improvements. These are some goals I have set myself:

1. Visual Design: Improve on my life drawing and value ranges. I will do that by purchasing a wider variety of pencils and practise more.
   I would also like to work more on researching and taking my time on developing ideas more before moving onto final concepts.
2. Game Production: I would like to improve on modelling by also practising more with the techniques I've learned so far.
3. Critical Studies: I have to admit, probably the hardest part of the course as it is unreasonably hard to write blogs every week. I want to start posting my blogs Sunday nights. Another important thing would be to work on my English skills, grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. Also perhaps the most important thing for me would be to become more analytical and descriptive about my work.

I had to think about where I see myself at the end of each year of studies, also I had to visualise where I'll be after graduation. I know for sure I want to have greatly improved as a student and a person by the end of the first year. The second year I'd like to finish the year and having skills that would allow me do my work in the third year with ease. Eventually the end goal is to graduate and get a decent job.Next week Critical Studies will help me decide which career path I'd like to take and I am looking forward to what I might decide that day.

Week 11 Conclusion of the Tree project and Term 1

The last week of the first term turned out to be a review week and for that reason it was a week full of self directed studies. The self directed time included an opportunity to do some clothed model sketching in the Life Drawing studio. The students were allowed to choose what to draw, so me and a couple of other students asked the model to do some quick sketches of different seated and standing poses. This would have counted as primary research for the upcoming Stylised Character project.

I moved onto modelling the trees in 3DS Max. The project introduced two new techniques for making 3D models. One of them was creating the tree drawing an NGon and a line for the base of the tree. Then I created a loft along the guidelines and continued creating spline lines. Up to that point there was no need to change the model to an editable poly. I only needed to change the object to editable poly for extruding branches along the created splines.

I had applied the bark texture to the loft right after it was created and for that reason there was no need to unwrap it, only the branches needed it.

Example of the tree branch with Alpha
Channels applied

After unwrapping, phase two of the tree creation started with creating a tree branch and leaves. Adding a single new Alpha Channel made the texture transparent in 3DS Max.

To finish the model I had to copy around planes with the branch texture applied to it and the model was done and ready to port to the Unreal Engine.

The trees could have been improved in more than one way.

To improve my tress I could create a different tree with more branches going out of it. I could also change the colours and add more chunkier leaves for the alpha textures. Perhaps adding more branch  and leaf planes to the trees could make it look more rich with leaves.  Also the branches of the tree could have been made longer to look more realistic.

In conclusion I am quite happy with the trees as they do not look alien to the village when in engine.

So far I love the course and I've learned so much in such a little time. I look forward to what the next term will teach me and how I will develop as a person and an artist.

Week 10 The tree project

Week 10 was the start of the Stylised Tree project. It was an easier project compared to the previous house project, but it came with it's own challenges and new techniques to learn. But before I tested out the new ways of making the 3D models I did my primary research by gathering first hand research of images from parks. It came as a benefit that the trees were leafless this time of the year, as it was easier to learn how organic objects tend to grow. The other steps I took were gathering interesting images from the internet and then making of mood boards.

Chosen ideas for the 3D models

I drew silhouettes of trees and then copied the silhouettes around and changed the appearances to create as many different trees as I could. Then my work development continued with making the decisions of which silhouettes seemed most interesting to me, the ones I chose to develop further I started rending out some dark grey values to have an idea what the silhouette would look like in a more 3D form. Painting in values into the silhouettes is probably one of my favourite part in the development. It is most exciting to see a flat shape gain more of a 3 dimensional look. After the silhouettes were done I have gathered some opinions from my classmates and friends to know which tree drawings seemed most interesting to them. I had also to keep in mind that I had to follow the same style guide and avoid making my tree too skinny. So after the big decision making I chose two trees that I thought were most interesting and what suited the given style and painted the trees from angles I will need to use when making my tree in the 3Ds Max.
Those angles were later copied multiple times to do some colour tests for the trees.

I tried to choose harmonious colours for the trees and at the end I chose which colours to use for the textures.

The week was not all about creating concepts of trees, we did some shadow and light drawings in Visual Studies. We used charcoal and white chalk to investigate how lighting reflected on a human body. The challenge was to only sketch out the brightest and the darkest tones of the body and mid tone paper did the rest of the work. I think I could have done better, as I am still trying to improve on balancing how many shades of light and dark I can use when creating drawings.