Monday, 29 November 2010

More Visual Research

Pokemon






Human Anatomy





Tron Evolution Game





Online Log 3

For this week, I will try to type up some rough essay drafts on Learning Contract for Jim's class, Project Proposal for Colin's class, and also the Pre-Production Document for Gregor's class and hopefully to get some feedbacks on each one before the christmas break. I'm still working on thumbnail sketches for different characters before choosing 4 characters for the project to develop further concepts and 3D work.
Also I'm planning on having another meeting with my technical supervisor (Gordon Brown) on this Friday if hopefully the weather settles down in Dundee as there has been heavy snow in Scotland and causes huge problems for traveling.

29/11/10 - Check on Aims, Objectives, and Activities for writing up the Learning Contract draft for Professional Practice (Jim's class), and gather some references/quotes to support research proposal essay.

30/11/10 - Learning Contract and Production Document drafts, and if possible, work on thumbnail sketches for other characters in Sketchbook #2.

1/12/10 - Start on 1st Proposal draft for Research Methods and Dissertation (Colin's class).

2/12/10 - Continue with thumbnail sketches on characters in Sketchbook #2, and gather research/quotes to add on Proposal draft.

3/12/10 - Meeting with Gordon Brown (Technical Supervisor), or concept work in Sketchbook #2.

5/12/10 - Finish up on writing the Proposal draft and forward it to Colin via email or on online Blackboard.

Thursday, 25 November 2010

Meetings with Supervisors

Over the last few days from Monday to this afternoon (Thursday), I've managed to have my meetings with my project supervisors about the discussions on my progress, planning, and the approaches of my practical work stage (in semester 2) for my honours project:

Academic Supervisor - Lynn Love
Technical Supervisor - Gordon Brown

At the moment, I'm waiting on an email from Lynn as she is planning to send me a "To Do List" for me to work on some certain tasks for next few weeks before the Christmas Break on the academic term and also some of her feedbacks on my work so far (including my sketchbook work).

As for this afternoon's meeting with Gordon Brown, he wrote down and explainedn about the "Project Pipeline" that would be useful for me to explore and work on for the pratical work towards my project.

Project Pipeline

1. Concept
2. Thumbnails (rough sketches/doodles)
3. Neater Concepts (sketches with details)
4. Board (orthographic view of chosen character with colour pallets and surface details)
5. Basemesh (basic 3D model of the character)
6. High Poly Models - ZBrush/Mudbox (organic and sub-d models)
7. Retopology (details of character's skin, clothing, props, and ect)
8. Low Poly Models - Games and Animation types
9. UV/Normal Mapping
10. Baking (normal, base colour, cavity)
11. Shaders (using mental ray, UDK game engine)
12. Final Render

Monday, 22 November 2010

Visual Research on Turtoise/Turtles, Tanks, and Command and Conquer Series

Turtoise/Turtles







Tanks






Command and Conquer Series (Tiberium and Red Alert Universe)



















Sunday, 21 November 2010

Sculptris Trials

These are some experimental sculpt heads from Sculptris that I've been working on as I was exploring the sculpting software (using my mouse as hardware to sculpt the heads).

Head 1

Head 2

Gantt Chart

My planned Gantt chart layout for my Honours Project below.

Friday, 19 November 2010

Visual Research for Robot Character











Refined Aims, Objectives, and Activities

After having a tutorial session with Jim's class for Professional Practice, he strongly advises that I should refine my aims, objectives, and also my activities to make them more clearer and understanding towards my honours project.

Aims

To learn and practice the techniques used on developing unique concept art in 3D space.

Objectives

Objective 1: Discuss the changes of concept art developments in the creative industries.

Objective 2: Compare any existing 3D Artists who uses the 3D concept art methode towards their own artwork in the industries.

Objective 3: Explore the stages of creating 3D concept art

Objective 4: Create and develop a range of 3D character models with their own genre based on the creative 3D concept art methods learned from the research.

Activities

1.1 The evolution of concept art in the industry.
1.2 The changes of creative methods from traditional to digital form.

2.1 Research influences on existing 3D artist's work in Sketchbook #1.
2.2 Create a topic as a general discussion on an online forum to gain other artist's thoughts about this type of creative method.
2.3 Dissertation, to answer the research question while looking at examples and techniques of creating 3D concept art from existing artists.

3.1 Investigation on 3D concept art stages in context.
3.2 Taking notes of this investigation in Dairy/Log towards Dissertation.

4.1 Rough sketches of character concepts in Sketchbook #2.
4.2 Create each 3D model concepts for each character based on the rough sketches.
4.3 Apply final development work on the chosen 3D concepts of each character, and apply them with appropriate textures.
4.4 Put together a turnaround showreel with audio for each finished character model in their own appropriate pose.

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Iconic Creature Design with Neville Page

This was an interview with the tallented creature designer Nevill Page, who talks about his views on the changes and evolution of concept art developments, and also how he approaches developing his creature concepts on major projects including Star Trek, Avatar, and also the upcoming Tron Legacy movie.

Nevill Page Interview Video:
http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/03/iconic-creature-design-with-neville-page/

A 3D Concept Process by Artem Volchik

There was an article that describes about Artem Volchik's process on 3D concept art such as his 3D environment model. Artem also quoted about this creative theory towards his own modeling work as he says:

"These are conceptual ideas, and the process is to help visualize ideas. These aren’t real-time environments so there are extra freedoms that you can flex but also go back and re-use the scene to elaborate with different angles. This shouldn’t be looked at as in-game art but more game-art ideas."

Although it mostly describes about his process of the sci-fi environment for games, the descriptions and his visuals of his modeling and concepting process were useful towards my research for my honours project on the 3D concept art theory.

http://www.polycount.com/2010/07/19/a-3d-concept-process/

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Existing 3D Artist who works on 3D Concept Art

These are the 3 existed 3D artists that I've looked up on as they've worked on concept art in 3D form from Maya to ZBrush as their primary tool (they also used Photoshop for texture work).

Josh Nizzi





Scott Patton





Vitaly Bulgarov