Intro to 3D - Model updates

Today I have made a few changes to my vending machine, hopefully the last model changes. I removed all the bolts and gaps in and on the vents as these can just be textured on and are not worth wasting polygons on. Secondly, I changed how the bottles are dispensed (again!). They now come out of a machine at the bottom and then land on a ramp which safely deposits at the end for the patron to take. The third change was that I optimized my model, getting rid of about 500 vertices. Lastly I made the gaps on the top and side of my machine wider to emphasize them.

Intro to 3D - Render update

 Today I found a way to solve a problem I was having with my vending machine model, the shadowed edges. I tried several times to edit the edge positions with no luck and even tried remodeling the whole body of the machine but the method used too many polygons. I found a way of editing the normal's of the object (something I previously didn't understand correctly) and softened the edges all the way round the shape. The first screenshot is before the change whilst the second is after the change. This makes me feel much happier about my model.

CDDA - Prop - The Hammerpick V3

This is my third prop design, this time in the form of a two handed warhammer. I like the shape of this design and the head has a nice shape too yet I'm not sure I'm fond of the handle decorations. Overall, this is my favourite design of the three I've created and the one I would like to develop. I think that the next step forward with this design will be to redesign the handle similarly to the second designs handle. Following that I will move on to detailing colours and engravings on the hammers head. 

CDDA - Prop - The Hammerpick V2

After researching areas of my previous weapon today I was ready to make a new design that featured the same key idea of a hammer and a pickaxe. I want to try and get a variety of shapes for the weapon on my initial designs before I choose a shape to define in more detail. My previous weapon was shaped very much like a pickaxe apart from the head of the weapon. This is much more like a 2 handed warhammer in looks. I like how the head of the weapon came out, more so than my first weapon, yet I am not sure about the handle. If I choose to further this design I will most likely change the handle and add more decoration to the center of the weapon's head. 

CDDA - Prop reference images

Having come up with an idea for my prop design yesterday, I decided to research the prop by collecting images today. I looked up different kinds of weapon grips, the sizes of hammers and their shapes, pickaxes and what people believe Dwarf writing to look like. 

CDDA - Prop idea - The Hammerpick

I came up with an idea for the prop that I would design today. I wanted something that would be appropriate for a Dwarf who lived in a cave and was a blacksmith and came up with this. It is essentially half hammer half pickaxe. I like the design and think that I would like to develop it and use as my final prop. 

CDDA - Character Face/Hair

Today I did some work regarding my characters face. Not having a lot of experience with drawing faces, this is the area of my character I am most worried about getting correct and so I want to know exactly what I am creating before I start work on it. I already had some ideas as to what I wanted beforehand regarding his face, I wanted a quite hard and square face, and I wanted facial hair which was to be brown, red or a blend of them. First I decided to create a basic profile of his face to work off of. This was quite easy surprisingly, only really needing to use references regarding nose and eyes. I made the face quite square and hard with a large nose. 

I then took this face and made very rough sketches showing hairstyles that I consider to be 'Dwarfish'. It was my 7th design that I liked most (Larger, at the bottom). It is swept back hair which is kept under control using some kind of metal hair band loop. The facial hair is thick but short. I think this suits my character well, being a blacksmith where hair that gets in the way could be a danger.

CDDA - Environment progression

Today I came up with a few more ideas for what I would like to do for my environment design. This time I used Photoshop, mainly because I was looking at perspective artwork for inspiration on the internet. Both pictures feature large shaped caves which use one perspective. Neither are particularly detailed either as they are just focusing on the perspective and what the idea would look like. The first is a very vast cave which isn't a very full environment. I like the idea of the perspective going off to one side but I didn't like how low the vanishing point was as I want to be able to see more of the surfaces that the Dwarfs would be working on.  

In my second design I kept things similar to the first but changed several things. I raised the vanishing point allowing me to look down on the environment more and see work surfaces (as I complained of in the first picture). I also made the environment more full of items, specifically the foreground. The environment would show a Dwarfs work area with forges, mining carts and other items towards the back. It shared the same cave type as the previous image but is more like how I imagined my Dwarf smith to look like.

Intro to 3D - 3D Model

Today I finished my 3D model for my vending machine concept. We had a polygon limit of 4500 triangles which I kept to. I'm quite happy with the model but I found the main body quite hard to keep within the poly limit without losing quality. As you can see in the render below the body has areas which don't appear curved towards the back of the image. I would have liked more polygons to add to the plug yet I don't feel I had any polygons which weren't necessary in the model. Overall I am happy with the model though and look forward to adding textures to it. 

CDDA - Life Drawing Session 3

This week in life drawing we had a focus on perspective and short poses. The first piece of art we were directed to do was a drawing focusing on perspective. We were allowed to choose any kind of perspective we wanted so I went with a simple one point as I'm not very confident with perspective artwork. We were told to populate the page with simple blocks at first and then draw the model at the forefront of the picture. We then had to draw the same pose in the middle of the picture, still in the same proportions as the front picture using the lines from the vanishing point. We then drew him in a new pose standing up at the background of the picture, still to scale. I managed this quite well I think even though I struggled to add the detail because of the size of my drawings.

Next we went onto doing very short poses showing a set of movement using weaponry. The first set used nun-chucks and we were given only 2 minutes to draw each pose. This meant getting in the basic look of the body, focusing on angles of limbs and where the joints were. I enjoyed this and I like what I came out with.  

The next set of drawings we were given 3 minutes to draw and the weapons featured were small short swords. This time through I had a minute to sort out the actual body lines after blocking in the skeletons angles and joints so they look quite a lot better this time. I really enjoyed this exercise and could definitely see the benefit of it. 

The last 30 minutes was spent on a longer pose focusing on our perspective of the room. I am a bit mixed about this picture. I really like the full body image of our model, I feel I got the material of his robe and his pose down well (yet the legs are a little short sadly). But I got bogged down in that and had to rush to get any other parts of the image in before we finished.

CDDA - Environment Ideas

 I came up with a few environment design ideas today, revolving around the idea of Dwarfs. My first idea is just a simple hallway showcasing Dwarf architecture and patterns. If I was to use this idea I would further populate the scene using jewels and weaponry, two items associated with Dwarfs.

My second idea is that of a more basic Dwarf kingdom. This would be more relevant when put together with my character history and ideas as the Dwarf is a smith and they are not that technologically advanced. It shows a curve within a cave tunnel with a forge and random items littered about leaving only a small path for Dwarfs to walk on. If chosen, the design's forge would be larger and more elaborate, more populated with random items and the walls would be very rough and quite natural.

Below is a sheet showing different tools and machines that could feature in a Dwarf forge. It shows ways of transporting items, crushing metal, heating a furnace, metal work surface, anvil and small mortar. These would populate the scene and help give it a busy atmosphere which is what I believe a Dwarf's forge would have.

Out of the 2 environment ideas I drew, the second one appeals more to me but is still not what I am looking for. I think that I will choose to draw a forge for my environment. I want it to be big but with a busy atmosphere. I want it to be cramped, full of machines, weaponry and lots of things happening at once. These designs have helped me make a step in the right direction. 

CDDA - Environment Research

Today I started work on my environment design. I already had my character idea so I decided to keep it all related. This meant doing an environment similar to Dwarfs, such as caves, forges or some sort of Dwarf architecture. I started by collecting some research material to help with the creation of my environment. These are my research images.