Category: 3D Digital Literacy

There was plenty of enjoyment and awful pain involved in completing the second assignment. I’ve gained a lot of new knowledge and increased my Blender and Substance Painter practice. Although it takes a lot of time and effort, Blender’s sculpting mode now has a new component that allows me to experiment with different approaches to applying textures. I’m still working on strengthening my skills and becoming more comfortable using Substance Painter. Although I had a lot of flexibility in the beginning when it came to character development, I found it difficult to keep to Genndy Tartakovsky’s style. I’m still not entirely certain if my character suits his style till the very end. I don’t believe I made any mistakes that I couldn’t fix when constructing the character, which is, in my opinion, an improvement beyond the last task. There is room for improvement in this assignment, in my opinion. Since I feel like I haven’t done enough for this assignment character, I would like to add more sculpted texture and experiment more with the brush tools if I decide to complete this assignment or one like it again. To make the prop more appealing, I would also like to make some improvements in this area. Instead of using basic hues and boring textures like I did for this assignment, I should have sculpted it to make it appear more eerie and scary to add more atmosphere. I should have also uploaded it into Substance Painter to add a higher quality texture.

 It was fairly simple to add the armature to my character for posing, but I had to do it multiple times because the first time I forgot to extrude the armature to the hair, which caused the hair to perform in an odd shape when I was posing the character; the second time it happened to my dress, and the third time there wasn’t enough armature in the dress, which caused some corners of the dress to lose their shape. However, these were all simple fixes. One mistake was made. I tried to pair them up after I finished extruding one side of my character’s body at the beginning, but it didn’t work. I had to rotate my character so that it faced the negative Y-axis to solve the issue.

Export onto SketchFab was very successful and quickly.

3D models by Christine (@ChristineWeng) – Sketchfab

During the workshop we sculpted a provide elephant model and baked it by applying image texture. Then exported it to Substance Painter and applied texture on it.

Since almost all of my character’s body is smooth and I didn’t sculpt many obvious textures, I believe that she should have smooth skin as a doll. Her hair was the only area where I heavily applied the sculpted texture since I wanted to give it a more realistic look. Further, I smoothed her dress and leg and formed her face to highlight her chin. It didn’t work until I tried a few times and rewatched the tutorial after baking the maps for the areas I had sculpted. I discovered that I forgot to apply the multiresolution modifier. When the bake worked the first time, I made a mistake of having the UV unwrapped on top of each other, which resulted in all the maps being on top of each other. To resolve this issue, I baked each area independently and returned to UV unwrap.

 

 

Then I exported everything into Substance Painter and applied textures.

I started the homework during completing the workshop tasks. Following the tutorial video, I blocked the basics of the face, body, and leg; the building process was simple. I found it difficult to scale and shape them something like my character while blocking them out, rather than doing it exactly like the demonstration. particularly the face, because my character’s eyes and face are quite round, and I also had to extrude out the character’s chain, which was an extra piece.

After completing them during the workshop, as homework I’ve watched more of the tutorial videos and developed more of my character features in detail, referencing from my character design image at the back. One of the difficulties I faced when making the spring the arms, I had to research a tutorial video (http://xhslink.com/a/jn71yw0x1OZ1，复制本条信息，打开【小红书】App查看精彩内容). The waist and neck were other difficulties after making the spring arms. I can scale the entire spring because it was made with a Bezier curve, but I can’t scale just one section of it after it’s been converted to mesh. To solve it, I had several springs, scaled them to various sizes, then arranged them from large to small, then to large. To produce the big-to-small effect by having vertices are joined together. During modeling, the most difficult aspect was building the dress. I’ve spent the most time creating it for my character. During the process of correcting my mistakes, I also received help from lecturers on how to make the dress.

Apart from these difficulties, everything after was simple to make up to the sculpting stage. The prop I chose to make balloon, I simply made with spheres.

The workshop this week focused on using basic shapes to block out characters. It had started with a video instruction demonstrating how to block out a monster. I began making the monster after watching the video. When the moment at which I made a mistake that I was unable to correct. I made the decision to watch the entire video before moving forward to work on my character’s development. Based on the three drawings I made last week, I’ve drawn another one with additional concepts and features.

I got a few suggestions from Rachel, one of our lecturers, according to the design I had created. Rachel’s feedback, which I received after looking at more sketches Genndy Tartakovsky had done for Ashi, was that I could be more dramatic with the body shapes. Specifically, I could make the shoulder wider, the waist thinner in the middle and then wider, reaching out to the chest and lower body, the neck thinner in the middle and wider, reaching out to the top and bottom, the legs and arms longer and skinnier, etc. As part of my homework, I finished the character design and gave it a side view and turnaround. Furthermore, I began blocking my character.

This week’s workshop focused on Blender sculpting. To start the workshop, we were given a brief overview of how sculpt mode operates and how we can experiment with the tools and brushes. We began by sculpting a basic rock to introduce us to applying brushes in the process of creation. After watching an alien sculpting demonstration, we started using sculpting to make our own alien. I had no idea. what the alien would appear to be like when I was sculpting it. It ended up looking like a hybrid of a cow, pig, elephant, and reindeer since I kind of just played about with all the brush tools and preserved the areas that attracted my attention.

In our character design lecture, we were given a general overview of our second assignment, which focused on what we need and shouldn’t have. The lecturer also discussed the style he wanted us to maintain in our character designs. Genndy Tartakovsky’s work presented the inspiration for the suggested style, his most recent film; Hotel Transylvania, worked as an example. This week’s homework required researching Genndy Tartakovsky’s style and coming up with some character concepts.

Something resembling an army mermaid was the idea I had in mind for my character. I then used my character concept with a round face and eyes focused on Mavis Dracula, the character from Hotel Transylvania. Regarding the body shape, I’ve focused on Ashi, a character from Samurai Jack Season 5 that was also designed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Investigating several of Genndy’s Tartakovsky’s designs of different characters also inspired other ideas. As I’ve seen more of his character, I’ve come to an understanding that his style in Hotel Transylvania contrasts slightly from his style in other television series and animated films. The reason, in my opinion, is that Hotel Transylvania is more of a 3D animation than the others, which are 2D; without its sharp edges and straight lines, it has conveyed a completely different impression of his style. His other work included simple forms and lines and was blockier. I changed my character’s design from an army mermaid to a broken, cute, and eerie doll as I was making progress on it. This concept was inspired by another project I’m working on according to the Animation Studio module. After changing my idea, I have concentrated more on Genny Tartakovsky’s 2D characters to develop my own character employing his methods of applying basic forms and edges.

This few simple designs that I’ve thought of when creating the character.

As a first-year animation student, the first few weeks of the 3D digital literacy module were challenging, but they were also very enjoyable and entertaining. Learning new Blender and Substance Painter skills and techniques from the beginning up to the point where I can use what I’ve learned from completing workshop exercises and assignments to produce simple models and apply textures. Although I can’t claim to know everything about the blender just yet, I gradually got familiar with using it. I do need guidance to continue working on the projects because I make a lot of mistakes throughout workshop and assignment practices. I had difficulties modelling the skateboard in week two, which is when this issue occurred. I received help and considered ways to fix the mistakes. I tried building the skateboard myself a second time to make sure I remembered this and encountered the identical mistake again. I believe the pull kart is comparable to the skateboard, which I built quite successfully.

The third week’s tasks were when I began to feel more comfortable and inspired to include small details of my concept and changed the assignment rather than making the same model as the demonstration. The flower vase exercise and the milkshake straw presented the success.

The next two assignments I was able to construct models on my own using reference images. I did a great job on the 3D modelling, but as a result, my Blender skills are still inadequate. I found errors that I should have avoided. For instance, making an extremely detailed piece on a single object or having too many triangles and Ngons are examples of aspects that I really need to be careful not to employ again and be more focused on the next time to improve my work.

To apply texture to 3D objects, Substance Painter was introduced. As part of the workshop, I had to use Substance Painter to add texture to a Warhammer that had already been built in Blender. The only difficulty I encountered was adjusting to the mouse control, as it was slightly different from Blender. Other than that, it’s simple to follow the tutorial video.

I built a level 3 helmet from Pubg for the assignment. Although I think it’s an appealing modern battle helmet with a few unique details, I kind of regret picking the original skin over other designed skins because it would have made the creation process a little more enjoyable.

I switched between selecting seams and unwrapping the helmet as UV mapping it, making sure every unwrapped face was flat so that textures could be applied. I watched the tutorial video again to refresh my memory on how to make the blood effect and export the helmet from Blender to Substance Painter, also exporting it from the Substance Painter to Blender.

When I was checking the helmet, making sure everything was right, I realized that I made the same mistake as creating the sword, which was having some Ngons and triangles, but just a little I could see.

UV mapping the dice and the Coke can were the workshop tasks. After watching the demonstration, I completed them rapidly. UV mapping a hammer was another workshop exercise. It had more details for me to complete, after making simple mistakes by forgetting a few processes, I had decided to count on the tutorial video’s guidance.

The assignment involved modelling a sword in 3D and applying UV map textures to it. I chose a Genshin Impact sword as the template. I’ve been experimenting with various techniques during the process to create the sword, developing the most simple and effective way to build the sword as well. Before UV mapping the sword’s texture, I coloured it to determine which design would appear best once it was constructed.

 

      

     

After UV mapping the textures, I discovered that I made a mistake in the sword’s structure. Making the most complicated area of the sword with just one plane was a mistake that caused me plenty of regret because I had to mark out seams and add textures. I chose to add just one texture because it’s quite difficult to correct the problem.

Having too many Ngons was another mistake I noticed would affect the sword’s animation. I believe I will have to start over to fix all the Ngon, but it’s too late. I chose to keep what I have and work on the ones that I could fix.

The workshop activities for this week included making a flower vase and building a milkshake cup. The milkshake engagement began the day, and using a cylinder to extrude and scale the cup and lid was a simple process. The elements that I found most challenging were creating the straw using the Bezier curve and the milkshake liquid within the cup. The liquid was difficult because it should have been a separate component from the cup, but I kept picking the incorrect cup edges to create the liquid’s shape, which I had to do several times to finish. To make it more realistic, I also had to struggle moving the vertex on top of the liquid. It was challenging for me to manage the curves in the straw, so it took me quite a while to get it going in the direction I wanted.

I had to use the Bezier curve to create the flower stem for the flower vase, which encountered the same challenges as building the milkshake. I believe that’s because I haven’t settled into using it. The leaf was another place where I had trouble. After applying the solidify modifier, I spent a lot of effort changing the vertices and edges to make it perform more naturally on the stem. I felt that using a sphere to make the flower was the easiest part. I experimented with the vase’s edges and came up with a zigzag pattern that evoked a crystal effect, so I decided to continue with it.

After watching the tutorial video, making a Zubat for the homework assignment appeared to be straightforward. Up until the wing section, which was the bone part of the wing as well as the area I found most challenging completing the Zubat. After asking Mike for help I had repeated the procedures a few times for each part, scaling it to the size I wanted.