As always, a tricky start learning with new tools and shortcuts was inevitable, but by now I could already understand how to set up from the basic shapes by myself. By this week I have started sketching objects from shapes to develop my observational skills needed for the 3d module on my free time, an activity that ended up connecting to some of the Animation Studio homework.
When finishing the milkshake cup’s inner cylinder I ended up filing in the top cylinder without giving it any more loops. Necessary to editing it into liquid wave-like textures using proportional editing, this made my version look very still. I then used cut loop to give it just one subtle undulation so I at least knew how to use it in the future.
The flower vase I built, for some reason bevelled strangely at the extremities and I could not move them lower to match the video visually. That made the vase have clear lines where the bevelling starts and ends, even with the addition of auto smooth.
In general it was an interesting object to create, I was able to use the Bezier curve just fine after practicing before with the straw but I could not figure out how to make it vary in thickness along the way, in retrospect I should have rewatched the help videos explaining curves. The petals and leaves were fine to make but the inside details for the flower’s centre were hard to do even following the video, I later realised my difficulties came from the area affected by the proportional editing being set too large.
I did change my models from the one in the video by placing a few extra flowers and leaves, based on simple ikebana arrangements I had looked up for reference. I had a great time placing the lighting and camera to compliment the object’s colours and contrast to the background. Its was helpful to me to imagine all the aspects in this phase as if I were shooting a physical object and how the lighting would affect it in real life.
This project was a turning point in the way the classes were progressing so far as most modelling tools are now intuitive but still, if managed careless, small mistakes might hide in plain sight. The most interesting part was to initiate it by adding the reference into the file and the ability to follow it for help with proportions. The mirror modifier playing a big part on the final image, I failed o consider the placing of the extrusions for both the ears and legs, making them look too close compared to the reference. The sliding of edges when preparing for the extrusion of the legs also contributed to a few visible creases at the bottom of the form, only becoming more noticeable after the application of the modifier and merging of the halves.
Even though had had plenty of practice when playing with the Bezier curve tools I still spent a long time trying to make the areas contouring the wings as smooth as possible, making sure to join the loops where creases formed. Later on I also decided to use proportional editing to give the wings some depth and a bit more sharpness to the extremities.
