Category: 3D Digital Literacy

In last weeks class we were introduced to blender, and given a quick guide on how to start putting it to use. In class, Henry ran through how to model a little alien character with us for fun, and to get us used to the settings and short cuts:

Mine ended up looking like a wee frog, but I think it’s cute.

For our homework, we were tasked with creating sculpts of fruits. I was pretty happy with my apple, but it all falls short of my standards after that:

I have no idea how to sculpt a leaf, so I thought this ended up looking pretty sub-par. I like the shape of the fruit itself, though!

The same thing with my bell pepper, I like the shape of the pepper itself but its stalk is a little lacking. I’m not really sure how to make it drastically bend like that with sculpting tools, and I wanted to try and manipulate the shape but cylinders don’t seem to like being sculpted.

The questions I want to ask Henry in our next class are:

How do I get my cylinder to Dyntopo like his did on his walk through? Mine, for some reason, only seemed to alter the mesh at the edges of the cylinder rather than all over. This was really irritating, I couldn’t seem to find a solution either.

I also want to be shown how I can do a bell pepper stalk myself, as I hadn’t much of a clue.

Over all, not a bad week’s work in homework but definitely not where I’d like to be, either.

We were also asked to whip up some concepts for our cute characters for our first assignment. I had originally thought about doing a cute little fox with a big spiky weapon, however it wasn’t really gelling with me:

I could, and might, explore this idea a little more in the future, however I am pretty set and happy with what I concepted next. One of my favourite animals is an Axolotl; I’m pretty obsessed with them infact. I had the idea of having a little axolotl boy in Hobbit-like colours and clothes. I wanted to make him a little adventurer:

I drew up these little concepts to get an idea of what I wanted for him, as well as testing a few ideas of an axolotl wizard. I then went on to play with the colours a little:

I must admit, I also quite like the little blue and pink axolotl on the bottom left hand side. I finally had the idea of having my axolotl holding his lantern towards the edge of a cliff, as if he’s on an adventure at night time and wants to see what’s below him? I thought this would be such a sweet idea for this model, and if it’s something I can achieve I will be so pleased:

The references I used to generate these ideas and concepts were from the following Pinterest boards I created:

Overall, I’m really happy with my sculpting this week and am hoping to learn a lot more with it in future. I really hope that I am able to meet my expectations like I was in hard surface modelling: The process for sculpting feels a little more intuitive to me than hard surface modelling did, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t come with as much of a struggle.

I also looked at the following tutorial in an attempt to model the bell pepper stalk:

Semester 2 – First Project, Animated Cactus.

Introduction to 3D Literacy class.

Week 2 – 3D Digital Literacy Class, Homework.

Week 2 Digital Literacy Class, concept artwork for first model assignment.

Week 2 3D Literacy Class – Modelling

Week 3 Homework – Digital Literacy Homework

Week 3 Lecture Tasks – 3D Digital Literacy

Homework Week 4 – 3D Literacy

3D Literacy – Hard Surface Model – Progress for 3D Lit Deadline

3D Literacy – Necromancy Nature Staff, re-making and reimagining my hard surface model design.

3D Literacy – Learning to upload to Sketchfab – Week 5

3D Literacy – Learning to upload to Sketchfab – Week 5

3D Literacy – Additional changes to staff and a lil fanart!

3D Literacy – Final Touch-ups – Necromancy Staff

Linked above is the final piece uploaded to Sketchfab, and all of my 3D Literacy blogs linked in order. My lecturer, Mike, suggested that the original moss levels were a little too strong and that I should lower the height levels, which I did. I had originally had two layers of the moss, however I removed one, put the moss and colour into their own folder and was able to then go on and lower the height levels.

I also tried experimenting with making the crystal more see-through, and Henry showed me that by adding a different shader and playing with opacity, that I could effect the appearance – I have shown this above. I didn’t like the result as much, but it’s still great to know how to do these things!

Self reflection:

This module was a very steep learning curve for me; I had absolutely no previous experience of modelling, modelling programs or 3D workflow. As a result, I started the module incredibly nervous about my abilities and worried about how the overall experience might be. Some weeks felt like a success, where as others I felt completely out of my comfort zone. I think that the main issue that I had along the way is trying to give myself a break and stop being so hard on myself: I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I find it really hard not to feel in control of how something is progressing.

I was pleasantly surprised, in the end, at how much I enjoyed this module: I decided going in that I was going to do my best to do all of the homework and weekly tasks to the very best of my ability, and follow guides and walkthrough videos where I struggled. Overall, I wanted to try and remain positive and open to feedback, and was sure to give my full attention to lessons. This approach really helped build my confidence, jumping in with both feet and learning from the content provided by Mike and by looking at Youtube guides to supplement that knowledge where I needed to. Through maintaining a determined attitude, I began to get more and more comfortable with Maya and Substance Painter – I actually ended up really enjoying myself. I hope this comes across in my submission.

I really like that my finished piece is true to my style, my interests and my reference boards: I think that I lost the original concept when I was designing my staff in the beginning – I really wanted to stick to my childhood favourites in terms of modelling and textures, and I realised after re-reading my concept post that I went directly to an incredibly smoothed out, realistic design which was absolutely not what I had envisaged. As such, I think this is why I had such a hard time in my initial modelling process – I feel that the stumble of that original model was the necessary failure needed to bring me back to what I had originally intended, and whilst it made me feel very down at the time I’m so glad it happened. One of my friends said that the necromancy staff looked like it was made by me, and that was a huge relief – I know I’ve really given something my all when I’ve poured myself into it.

Whilst I am very exited about the successes of this model, there are some things that I think I need to improve on. I need to practice much more with UV mapping: Alec’s lesson demonstrating the unwrapping process was hugely helpful, and after a lot of time not really quite grasping how I needed to see the models, I feel like I finally understand it after that. My model is quite simple in terms of its base, though, and I would like to start progressing to things that are more difficult; I know UV mapping will become more challenging and therefore more reflective of what it is like to UV map in industry if I do.

I believe that overall I could have tried a few more daring modelling techniques; even if it hadn’t been on the full model itself, I could have tried to introduce more complicated modelling elements through the staff talismans and trinkets that are tied to the horns. This would have shown a little more understanding of more complicated forms, but it wouldn’t have overtaken the piece as a whole and, therefore, still kept it simple and doable for me.

To conclude, I am so very happy and in disbelief that I’ve achieved this. The class was excellent, the feedback and the assistance that I received throughout was great and I honestly think I’ve done the absolute best that I can – there’s no better indication of a happy student than that I think!

I added a little more touch ups in preparation for my 1-2-1 meeting tomorrow, as stated in my previous post I just wanted to extend my hand-painted elements to the overall model. I added some shadow into the textures of the skull and the staff main body, and I added highlights to the staff:

I really do think I’ve done as much to my staff as I possibly can. I really love these little finishing touches, I think that they finish off the piece! I’m really nervous for my feedback tomorrow, I really hope that my model is OK – I think it’s because I like it so much that I am worrying. 🙂 No matter the feedback, I feel like I have truly done myself proud – this is the best that I can do and I am content with it!

 

I played around a little more with the model, I figured out through this youtube guide how to create the glowing effect in the eyes of my staff; I wanted it to look as though the owner of the staff maybe painted the eyes themselves, that the neon paint had splattered and spilled a little during this process. I also went around the crystal edges to add a little glow to them. I added a lighter colour to the edges of all of the bones on my staff; I thought it added a little definition and looked good, as I stated in my previous post I noticed in a lot of my favourite video games they also seem to take this approach. I added a little dirt to the bandage holding the crystal to the staff at the bottom, and I cleaned up the little white spot between the wood and the bandage – I thought it was odd to look at a bandage on a dirty staff and for it to be completely clean. I think I might revisit it a bit and add some ‘highlights’ to the horns too, and maybe work a deeper green/brown into the textures on the skull and bones just to make them pop more.

I also, in true Caity fashion, drew some fanart of a character design holding the staff!

This is the work I’ve done so far for texturing. Before I take this back into Maya and start playing around with it in Sketchfab, I want to take it into my 1-2-1 this week for some critique. However, I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking so far! I would still like to try and incorporate the moss layer into the textures that I painted on to the model. I would like to make the eyes glow, and I plan on looking for a guide on how to do this. I would like to fix the bottom of the staff where the wood meets the bandages, as there’s a little white spot that I need to fix. Finally, I want to take a final pass at the full model to just add some definition to it’s edges – I realised when looking at assets from my favourite video games such as WoW or Spyro reignited, there seems the be a slight variation in colour at the edges of the assets. I think this just adds a little definition to the models, and I want to apply the same thing to mine.

Hopefully it’s fit for the assignment! I’m really really really proud of it, I really can’t believe that I made this! Honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it at the start – especially with the set back I had on Wednesday realising that my first pass was a dud. ^^

Moss Free Download Material.

Additional Tree Knots and Lines texture.