CDDA - Prop beauty shot edit

After showing my previous version of this beauty shot to my lecturer she showed me a few parts of the beauty shot that could use improving which I hadn't really noticed until after having them pointed out for me. The most major change was the gold shading.There wasn't enough contrast between light and dark to give a real 3D feel for the image. I've gone through and added much heavier shadow on the left side using a mix of brown and a mustardy green colour. The other change was only minor being that the hammer and pickaxe were more or less grey scale. I have added hints of blue, mainly to the darker areas to make the shapes more interesting to the eye and more realistic. I intend to leave this image alone now unless I happen to have spare time once all my work is finished (which is unlikely). 

CDDA - Environment 3D mockup

I just finished work on a 3D model of a previous environment design I did a while back. I did this because it will help tremendously with the perspective of the scene as there are a lot of objects and many of them are round too which would further complicate drawing them. I also took the opportunity to make some plans for the lighting of the scene. My final scene may look a little different composition wise but it will be pretty similar. I also want to darken some areas as the scene is too bright, I wish to darken the back wall quite a bit and make lots of shadows in the scene too. This didn't take long either so I think making it will pay off in the long run.

CDDA - Hammerpick beauty shot

Today I finished my beauty shot of my prop, the hammer pick. It was quite fun to do and taught me a lit about metal textures, specifically gold, and photo overlays. I ended up making the gold quite dirty because I didn't really like how it looked when it was clean. 

CDDA - Prop final angle

Today I started work on my prop beauty shot. After struggling to get the spheres and head of the prop right on my line work I decided to restart and use a 3D model render to help me. Essentially I modeled my hammer pick and then chose an angle and rendered it. After this I took it into Photoshop and traced the edges making a few small changes here and there. Tomorrow I will colour the design.

CDDA - Photo Manipulation

So today I did a photo manipulation to give an example of some of the things that might go in my environment. It was quite a new experience to me which I found tricky at first, taking me a long time to put my first item into the environment and feeling that it didn't really fit. Once I started adding light and shadows to the objects they began to sit a lot better in the environment. Also changing the hue to a more orange colour helped them fit in too. I think that I may do something along this line of track when drawing my final environment to sketch over as it could be really useful for getting perspective and shapes right. Overall I enjoyed making this and think it's a viable way of developing ideas for environments. 

CDDA - Prop final design

Today I finished off my final war hammer/pickaxe design. I worked from my previous design created from a mash up of thumbnails based off my original designs. Whilst this isn't a detailed picture below, it does not all the details that will go on the hammer. It has some runes coming out of the gold near the top. The red gems are rubies which all come out of the prop a bit. The gold circles are all spherical too. I like the design and hope I will be able to make a great beauty shot of it for my prop development board. 

CDDA - Prop thumbnail development

I further developed my thumbnail artwork that I did earlier. I mixed the thumbnails that I said I was going to mix and came up with 3 similar designs that I really like. All 3 have the same handle, pick and bottom on them as this was something I liked. I kept the handle similar to my initial design for a war hammer but changed the middle decoration to circles like my first thumbnail sketch as I preferred this look because it makes the weapon appear more attractive and interesting to the eye. The first hammer has a large round head as in my first thumbnail drawing. Whilst interesting, the shape would not be efficient and that is something I believe Dwarfs to be. 

On my second design I changed the hammers head to being completely square. I also changed the head of the staff to be completely square on the top. Whilst more practical I just found the design unattractive and was unhappy with it.

My last design is my favorite. It's a compromise between the two previous designs. It is more efficient yet still an interesting round shape. The curve is even on the hammers head which I believe would lead to it being easier to use. The top of the handle is extended a little too as I felt it looked better. This is the design I wish to pursue and will come up with a more detailed sketch soon before moving on the beauty shots of it. 

CDDA - Prop thumbnails

Today I started further development on my prop. Out of my three previous hammer picks the one I preferred the most was the war hammer design yet I wanted to change it slightly as it was a quite boring design. I took the design and made some thumbnail sketches messing with different shapes and sizes whilst keeping the idea reasonably similar and two handed. Out of the designs I like the top left thumbnail and the 3rd from the the left on the top row most. I think I will mix my initial design with these two thumbnails to make a hammer pick out of these.  

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 - Dwarf reference images

Having chosen to design a dwarf, I have collected some initial research images into what people think of when hearing dwarf. Common links between the images are of their small size and round build, that they live underground in caves and they have an affinity for mining and smithing.