Experimental Design Reflective Blog
Week One – Week Three
At the beginning of this module, we were instructed to form pairs and discuss our favourite Irish folktales, or alternatively, the folktales from Irish culture that we found the most interesting or visually compelling. This exercise was a useful way of easing us into the project, as it encouraged both collaboration and reflection on our own cultural backgrounds. Being from the Ring of Gullion area in South Armagh, I naturally suggested the legend of the Cailleach Bearra. This story has been deeply embedded in my upbringing, as Slieve Gullion—the mountain at the centre of the legend—is not only a well-known landmark but also the area in which I live. The legend tells of the Cailleach Bearra, a witch-like figure who tricks the hero Finn McCool into diving into a lake at the summit of Slieve Gullion to retrieve her missing ring. When Finn emerges from the water, he is transformed into a withered old man, stripped of his strength and youth. This transformation element has always fascinated me, as it reflects recurring themes in Irish folklore such as deception, supernatural punishment, and the fragility of power. I felt that this story would translate well visually (should the students at Lu Xun choose to develop this folktale when pitched to them), particularly due to the dramatic natural landscape surrounding the mountain.
One advantage I had while developing early visual research was my proximity to the environment itself. Because I live near Slieve Gullion, I was able to take first-hand photographs of the surrounding terrain, vegetation, and atmosphere. This allowed me to construct mood boards rooted in lived experience rather than relying solely on secondary image sources. I found this particularly valuable, as it helped ground my research in realism while still leaving room for interpretation and stylisation.
After the first week or two of gathering research on our chosen folktales, we took part in a video call with MA Animation students from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, China. This cross-cultural exchange was one of the most engaging aspects of the module so far. Each group presented their chosen folktales, explaining their narrative structure, cultural significance, and visual motifs. I felt that my presentation went smoothly, largely because I had been familiar with the story of the Cailleach Bearra for most of my life. Explaining it felt natural, and in many ways, it reminded me of similar projects I had completed in primary school, which reinforced how early folklore is introduced into Irish education.
Listening to the Chinese students present their folktales was particularly interesting, as it highlighted both differences and similarities between Irish and Chinese storytelling traditions. Many of the Chinese folktales shared moral undertones similar to Irish stories, such as lessons about loyalty, honesty, and respect for nature. One story that stood out to me in particular was The Nine-Coloured Deer, which immediately captured my attention due to its striking imagery and emotional weight.
Week Four – Week Six
The Nine-Coloured Deer folktale centres around a mystical deer with a beautiful, otherworldly coat of fur. The deer saves a man who has become lost in the woods during a storm and is close to drowning. After rescuing him, the deer asks only one thing in return: that the man promise never to reveal its location, as it would be hunted for its fur if discovered. The man agrees and returns safely to his village.
Later, the queen of the region expresses a desire for bedsheets made from the coat of the mythical deer. Motivated by her request, the king offers a substantial reward to anyone who can reveal the creature’s whereabouts. Despite the promise he made, the man who was saved by the deer ultimately betrays it and leads a search party into the forest. When the deer is finally found, it speaks to the king and explains how it saved the man’s life and wished only to live peacefully. The king is moved by the deer’s honesty and kindness and immediately forbids anyone from harming it. As punishment for his betrayal, the man is struck down, his body suddenly covered in scars, boils, and welts, serving as a physical manifestation of the consequences of his dishonesty.
What interested me most about this story was its moral complexity. Despite performing a good deed, the deer is still betrayed, which adds a layer of realism and emotional impact to the narrative. However, the story ultimately delivers a sense of justice, as the betrayer faces consequences for his actions while the innocent creature is spared. After careful consideration, I decided to pursue The Nine-Coloured Deer for my experimental design project. I also wanted to use this opportunity to challenge myself technically by expanding my skills in 3D modelling—specifically character sculpting. Over the past year, I have largely focused on 2D work, which is where I feel most comfortable. However, as I progressed into the second year of my course, I began to feel that I was limiting myself by avoiding 3D. Seeing an increasing number of Blender tutorials online, alongside work produced by other students, I felt it would be best to revisit the software and push myself outside my comfort zone. Initially, returning to Blender felt daunting. During my undergraduate degree, I had worked primarily in Maya, and the change in interface and keyboard shortcuts was frustrating at first. However, after spending some time familiarising myself with Blender’s UI and sculpting tools, I found that I adapted more quickly than I expected.
To begin sculpting the deer, I sourced reference images of real deer to ensure anatomical accuracy. I traced over these images to block out the basic form, focusing on simple shapes before adding detail. I found it particularly helpful to use ovals to build the neck and leg joints, as this helped create a sense of volume and weight. For the main body and face, I relied more on trapezoidal and polygonal shapes to establish structure. This method of building from simple forms allowed me to maintain control over proportions and prevented me from becoming overwhelmed too early in the process.
As I progressed, I challenged myself further by sculpting fur details directly into the mesh rather than relying solely on textures. My intention was to improve my retopology skills later on, as detailed sculpting would require a cleaner, more organised low-poly mesh. Using a Wacom Cintiq Pro made this process much more intuitive, as it allowed for precise and natural brushstrokes, and felt similar to traditional drawing techniques.
At this stage, my mesh exceeded one million polygons, which meant it was time to begin manual retopology. In the past, I had found retopology to be one of the most tedious aspects of 3D modelling, often resulting in uneven or messy topology. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible the process felt in Blender. By using a simple plane to extrude new faces with the polybuild tool and applying a shrink-wrap modifier, I was able to create a clean, efficient mesh that retained much of the original sculpt’s detail. This significantly boosted my confidence, as retopology had previously been something I avoided whenever possible and I worried that I may never be able to manage it.
When it came to UV unwrapping, I chose to export the low-poly mesh to Maya, as I am more familiar with its UV layout tools. I anticipated that this stage would be difficult, as I often struggle with deciding where to place seams so that the mesh unfolds correctly. However, the process went more smoothly than expected. That said, upon reflection, I recognise that I could have spent more time refining the UV layout. Using a checker shader more thoroughly would have helped ensure consistent texture resolution across the model. I believe my excitement at successfully completing the retopology stage caused me to rush this part of the process slightly.
Week Seven – Submission Week
In Substance Painter, I applied the main textures to the deer’s body, and I also applied a leather grain effect to the nose to differentiate it from the rest of the body, with a gold metallic material to the antlers to enhance the deer’s mystical quality. In traditional Chinese depictions of the Nine-Coloured Deer, the creature often features five or six differently coloured moon-like shapes on its side. While the name suggests nine colours, I felt it was important to remain faithful to established representations rather than overinterpreting the design (despite my issues with the semantics of there not being nine colours).
Once textured, the deer appeared quite stiff in its default pose. To address this, I returned to Blender and created a basic armature to pose the model. Rigging proved challenging, as excessive movement caused noticeable mesh distortion. To avoid this, I opted for a subtle, natural pose, angling the deer’s body slightly and having it look upwards towards the camera. This pose helped convey a sense of calm awareness, aligning with the deer’s gentle nature in the folktale.
When exporting the model to Sketchfab, I encountered some technical issues. Initially, the model appeared as though it had a broken leg, which I later discovered was due to exporting the mesh without applying the armature modifier. Once corrected, the issue was resolved. I also noticed that the UVs had unintentionally split into two map sets at some point during the modelling process. While this did not significantly affect the final appearance, it is something I aim to be more vigilant about in future projects as it was frustrating to get to the end of the project having missed this.
If I had more time, I would have loved to build a full environment for the deer in Unreal Engine and create a short animated clip. However, despite this, I am proud of what I achieved. The primary goal of this project was to experiment with Blender’s sculpting tools, and I successfully completed a detailed character sculpt, textured it in Substance Painter, and presented it effectively online.
One of the highlights of this module was a guest workshop with Ruxandra Popescu, who introduced us to using Meta Quest headsets to paint and animate environments in VR using Quill. This workshop was really inspiring, as it demonstrated how quickly ideas could be translated into 3D space without the troubleshooting involved with traditional modelling. The immediacy of drawing directly in VR made the creative process feel more intuitive. This was my favourite guest workshop by far, and I would love to explore this workflow further in future projects.
Overall, I am very proud of how my model turned out. While it may not be fully rendered in Unreal Engine, it represents a significant step forward for me in 3D character modelling. Compared to my previous attempts, I feel far more confident in my abilities and much more willing to experiment with Blender moving forward.
Here’s the link to my model in Sketchfab; https://skfb.ly/pFoyu
