I have decided to
start fresh.
My previous blog(s)
were very rigid and academic, possibly too much so. I want to make this just a
little bit more freeform.
Don’t get me wrong,
with this blog I still want to keep my 3D work as the main focus, but sometimes
I also want to touch on related subjects just to keep things interesting, and
give a little more insight into different ways I am developing or applying my
skills. Now that I have graduated I have the freedom to be this flexible… We’ll
see if this is a mistake further down the line.
First thing to
mention before I get ahead of myself- I recently remade my portfolio on a
better site (i.e. the one everyone else uses) so please check it out if you
have the time to spare. Criticism is very welcome.
So, since I finished
University a couple of months ago a fair bit of my time has been spent playing
Wildstar, an MMO with stylised visuals that I first got into just over a year
ago. I’m making a point to mention this due to what has ended up being a slight
trend in theme with the two projects I’m about to talk about- consider this a
disclaimer!
3D Portfolio
Project- Wildstar Toaster Resonator
I chose to create an
object using this game’s art because I’d never before worked on something so
stylised. This is a piece of concept art that I knew was never used in the game
as it was part of a public vote and did not win, so I could practice working
from a concept without the ability to copy from an existing model.
In addition to all
this, the project also became my first foray into using hard-edge modelling
techniques in Zbrush, but I started by blocking out the different elements of
the design in Max to get the proportions right. Having knowledge of the game
presented me with an interesting predicament right off the bat- These kinds of
weapon are always taller than they are long, as they are based on shock
paddles. I didn’t want to stray from the concept too much though so I tried to
settle on a nice looking middle-ground. Another issue was what to do to fill in
areas I couldn’t work out from the concept or weren’t physically possible
without compromising symmetry. All I could do with this was use my artistic
license and improvise on the design. Once I was happy I chamfered the sharp
edges and threw it into Zbrush.
For this stage I
started with the handle since it needed a lot of work, splitting the piece off
to another subtool first. What I found worked best was to sculpt masked areas
and then retopologise and make adaptive skins to replace them with smoother
shapes. Using polygroups and creasing the edges helped in making curved
sections. For details such as the cross-hatched pattern on the handle I used
Projection Master, another tool new to me. I see myself using this tool a lot
in the future; it has been super handy for drawing in panel lines and embossing
shapes.
For some details
that were too small to bother with at the start or I’d just plain forgotten, I
had to append extra shapes. This included using ZSpheres to draw in the smaller
wire at the back of the gun. For this I smoothed out the resulting mesh to get
a slightly more blobby, cartoonish feel.
Now that I’m getting
comfortable I’ve started work on the front of the weapon. What I’m really
finding helpful is the ability to subtract one mesh from another using Dynamesh.
It’s much more simple than using the same thing in Max, though I have had some
issues cutting out concave shapes, none of which I couldn’t fix. I’ve just
recently sculpted the rings on (what I assume are supposed to be) the pancakes.
It’s been difficult working out how to deal with spherical shapes in this
style, as they theoretically should be blobby and irregular like the rest of
the art style but from observation of other hard-edge props from the game they
usually are normal. With this in mind the edges of the pancakes are perfectly
round but the rings (of sauce? Maple syrup?) I’ve kept irregular as it seemed
fitting.
I hope to be able to
give more updates on this project soon as I’m very keen to move on to the
texturing stage. That’ll be what’ll really make or break the piece.
Side Project- Making a Mechari Head Prop
It’s probably going
to seem like I’m writing an awful lot here for just a side project, but there’s
a lot to say since I actually started this project over a year ago, just as
something different to do in my free time. I was taking a lengthy break from
the aforementioned MMO to ensure I wasn’t distracted from my 3D work. I have a
particular love for the design of one of the playable races, the Mechari, so at
the start of this break I decided it would be fun to start making a wearable
version my character’s head as a more unusual fanart tribute and in the future
maybe even as part of a costume.
If I wanted the
piece to be wearable I had to make a lot of adjustments to the design. After
finding model rips of the characters the first step was to put together the
different facial elements to match my character, then make sure all the verts
were welded- it turned out there were a lot of holes so this step took a
surprisingly long time, and that’s without including having to cut and stitch
together intersecting pieces. The actual adjusting to fit my head was an
interesting process. Getting the shape right actually involved bringing in a
self-portrait piece from my second year of uni and then stretching out the back
plate of the head to try and fit around the head shape.
The next step was
importing the model into a program called Pepakura, making sure the settings
preserved the scale. It unwrapped automatically, but of course this was an
unusable mess so I had to cut the pieces to be easy to work with myself. Since
Pepakura is designed for papercrafts it adds tabs automatically, and is a very
simple program to use. It’s not very expensive either so I recommend it.
So with all the
pieces printed on thick card, I was all set. I worked on and off the project over
my final year at uni, and then rushed to finish the main piece once summer
rolled around.
The reason for this
is that to reinforce the model you need to use resin, which loses heat if
applied in thin coats and therefore needs a decent temperature to cure. From
what I’ve done already I’ve had problems with not getting the ratio of hardener
right which causes the same problem. It would be helpful if the packaging used
actual units so I didn’t have to guess- centimeters per milliliter? Is that
cubic centimeters? Centimeters up the container? Centimeters of the line
squeezed out of the tube?!
But that’s more or
less as far as I have gotten at this stage, I’ve just made the mandibles so I
can coat them too. The real challenge will be coating the inside with a mix of
resin and car body filler, and then doing the same to the outside to sand it
down. I’ll probably give more updates on this project at a later date, but
it’ll depend on how the impending cold weather impacts things. Bring back the
heatwaves, I wasn’t done with them.
--
This post turned into a bit of an essay but I thought it
would be good to start with everything up-to-date. I’m not estimating a
schedule for posting as living at home again has proven to slow things down
considerably, but I’ll be doing what I can. It’s all about staying positive and
continuing to improve!
