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.

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 2

During my life drawing session this week we focused on learning new ways to get the correct proportions in an average human body. During the last sketch we focused more on shadows and putting someone in a scene but still focused on correct proportions. The first method we looked at was to simply draw a stickman of the model, showing lengths and angles of the limbs and locations of important body parts such as the hips. I used to use this method when I first started doing any artwork so it was very familiar to me and I still found it helpful during this session.

The other method we looked at was using 8 spaces to help create the body. These spaces were each the size of the human head as 8 heads is the same height as the whole body. Whilst helpful, I found that I didn't really enjoy this method as much as the stickman. Not that it didn't help me create the correct proportions, I just find other methods easier. 

The next picture shows 2 drawings of my model with incorrect proportions. This is because we did an exercise where we had to make certain spaces different sizes using the 8 heads method. This meant that certain areas of the body were stretched longer whilst some had less room. This was fun and shows how it could be used to create creatures or humans who are not perfectly average size.

My last picture was focusing on light and dark whilst putting someone in a scene. The lighting within the life drawing room could not be controlled this week so the lighting changed with the sky outside, sadly making realistic shading all over difficult. I enjoyed this exercise and found that putting someone in a scene can make it look better overall. It was also a good exercise in that I learnt a bit of how the human bodies structure looks between light and dark. 

This session did help me a lot even though we did not practice drawing with my preferred method of getting correct perspective (using a skeleton with joints, similar to the stickman). Putting the model in the scene was the most useful part of the session as it is something I have always struggled with and I now feel more confident towards future work.