3D Gargoyle Asset (BA2) Evaluation

BA2's project was to create a 3D gargoyle asset, with must be suitable for Current Gen game-engines.  Also I had to write a 1000 word essay about the roles in the games industry using primary (emailing a professional artist) and secondary research (online and books).  I have created my sculpt through a number of methods.

I believe that my research skills have improved since last term, I was able to do more research this term (defiantly more with CS work), which gave me lots of ideas for main design and optional creations that would lead towards my final design. A major problem with my research was deciding what I wanted to base my design on (influence wise), I had an idea but I wasn't sure which direction to take it in. I struggled in limiting myself into choosing where I wanted to take my design. I believe I can sort this problem out by focusing on a few different styles and talking more about them instead of taking loads of styles and talking a little bit about them. I also need to think about using primary work more in my next project.

When I finished drawing or sculpting a piece of work, I made a note to myself on how to make it better, and what to improve on. When I was in the planning stage, I had trouble deciding what time of sculpt I wanted to create due to all the different ideas I had. I also rushed a lot of my 2D work, I feel as though I could have put in a few more hours into the quality. I will aim to create better 2D examples, with more quality and experimentations. I’ll try to take better care of my designs.

I was able to create the model well enough with the skills I had picked up in lessons and online. I enjoyed using the different tools and options that ZBrush presented. I was able to pick up on my drawing skills quickly in life drawing. I wanted to use more tools that ZBrush had to offer, so I could show a better understanding of the software, and what I’d learnt. It took me a bit longer to understand the whole process of topology than most people. I’ll try experimenting with the different tools and alphas over the holidays to see if I can improve my 3D skills for the next project.

When I was creating my final design, I worked in the media lab which allowed me to do more work without many distractions. I was also able to get a one-to-one with the tutors, which helped a lot when it came to topologising my sculpt. I was able to speed up recording my work which allowed me to work on my design more. I didn't do very much work with my blog until the last week, which I regretted, because I could have spent that working on my sculpt more. I should have used the media lab computers more when creating my sculpt, after about 3 million polys, my computer started to lag a lot. Next Project, I plan to spend a lot more time in the Media lab, especially in the afternoon’s when there are computers free. Improve on updating my blog more frequently. Maybe consider getting a new computer for better speed and more memory space.

In conclusion, I know that my skills with 3D software aren't that good, but for a first attempt with this software I feel proud of what I have achieved.  I could have used more time at the beginning of the project to do more work, it may have had a different outcome altogether. I'm going to improve my skills with ZBrush, and see if I can get quicker at creating out better quality drawings in Photoshop, also I will aim to get an idea more quickly is this next project.

See you in BA3!!!

Presenting TERRABITE the Dinosaur!!

I have now finished my sculpt, I do need to get better as using the paint tool, I relied too heavily on the texture's brush.  The overall design is pretty good for my first official 3D project sculpt, there are some areas which I can improve upon, such as the tongue and the wall. 

I tried adding a little more shadow since finalising it, as well as playing with the lighting. I was worried that it was too dark and that people might not be able to see it too well.  At times I steered away from my 2D iterations, but most of the form stayed roughly the same. The idea of the gargoyle is that the water would flow into the back of the head and out of the mouth, I wish I could have added more to show that if I had more time.  

This is my rendered turntable video.

Final Thoughts:

Overall I'm quite happy because I was actually able to create a finished 3D model.  I feel as though I can get the grips of using this software effectively, though that will come with practise.  I do need to improve upon painting and using the tools more efficiently, i'll attempt to see what I can do over the holidays, and I'd better start fine tuning my skills for 3D Maya  and the next project.  

Creating my Dinosaur (Part 6)

Now that I had my dinosaur sculpted and painted, the only things left to do, where fix the wall, and bring the polycount down to as low a setting as possible.

I figured that the wall should have a little detail, so that my dinosaur looks like it's on a castle wall, I decided that the best way to do that would be to do some swirls and patterns.  The first design had too many patterns and would have probably drawn attention away from the model itself.

This second design was more suited, because it didn't have a lot of detail, and it also connects from the body to the tail.

After the detailing was complete, I added the same stone texture to the wall to give the sense of them being merged.  This is also the last shot of my model before I topologised it. 

These two show the design stage in which I topologised my model to get the polycount down.  The first screenshot, was where I used a technique called remesh all, this allowed me to merge all my subtools into one subtool, then Zremesher it.  The second one was when I had a low ploycount model and a high polycount model up at the same time,  It also gives the impression of a decaying sculpt. I also had to do some reshaping because my model wasn't straight, but that part was easily fixed once everything was one subtool.

As explained in a previous post Topology is a way of reducing your memory space while keeping the form of your model the same. Once I managed to Zremesh and project my sculpt down, I started to see the difference between a high polycount and a low polycount.

The first one has a high polycount of around 9 million and subdivision level 5, while the second one has a low polycount of around 100 thousand and subdivision level 2.  There isn't a major difference between the two, however there are a few changes. I believe that there is more shadow and detail in the high polycount version and it becomes a bit sharper. I repeated the process a couple of times, and found a number of poly's work well without destroying the image.  But I had to be careful not to go too far with my image, and 100,000 was the best I could get it down to.

Creating my Dinosaur (Part 5)

The next step was to choose a texture or polypaint for my dinosaur.  I started playing around with polypaint, and did a couple of iterations to get a colour that I liked, but in the end I went with textures as my final decision.

This texture was mainly a stone design I went with a lighter colour, but it didn't look very appealing so I continued my texturing.

The next one I did was in a golden colour for fun.

I started looking into different stone textures because that is what I wanted my final texture to be, I wasn't 100% sure about this texture, so I carried on searching.

This one was focusing on the wall texture, I first went for a stone hieroglyphic, but it didn't match well with my dinosaur, so I removed it. 

I decided on this stone texture for my final design.  It was a lot smoother than my previous stone textures, it also had a darker look to it, which made it perfect to go with the mood of my sculpt. 

Creating my Dinosaur (part 4)

During the group crit, some of the classmates suggested that I change the design of my dino by removing it's leg, due to the fact that at first glance they couldn't tell what it was. so I did just that.

Once I removed the leg, I decided to add more detail to the skin, I mainly focused on my rancor design with the main body, by creating wrinkles with the claybuildup. 

At one point during the build, I learned how to use the chain tool, however it was one of the most annoying things to use in Zbrush.  No matter how much I moved it, it wouldn't stay in the position I wanted it to, so I ended up abandoning the chain idea. 

I then moved on to the tail, I decided to create an overlapping scale on the outside, with horns coming out of the scales.  I made a claw subtool and put it on the end of my tail. I then added a scrappy texture over the top to see if I could get the reptilian skin feel to it.

Creating my Dinosaur (Part 3)

At this point, I have successfully created a head shape for my body, the next step was to create the body. So I started to mesh it out.

I dragged its of the body out to make it so that it matched the head scale wise, after that I had to start focusing on getting the whole position of the body right.

The biggest problem I faced when shaping the body was the leg, it kept ending up too thick or thin, I scaled out the feet, and decided to add a horn on the kneecap.  Once that was done like with the head, I Zremeshed the body and then began to work in detail on it.

I started with the head and worked on giving the scales and lump's around the mouth and eyes, I created separate subtools for the teeth and did those individually, then using the claybuildup to give it some swirls and curl's. I used extraction tool to give my dino armour pads on the shoulder and knee.   

When creating features for the arm, I was going to give it an armour pad, but then I was told to reconsider the position of the arm, if it was pushing out it would have needed to be the other way round. Once I had finished that I was able to continue working on detailing the skin texture.

Creating my Dinosaur (Part 2)

Once I was happy with the optimization for my dinosaur, I went on to unify the skin, and when I finished that, I made my zsphere sculpt into a 3D polymesh, so I could then start adding the detail to make it into the dinosaur I want.

Afterwards I moved the wall into the background to get an idea of how I wanted how my sculpture to look, I went for a half in the wall design. I managed to smooth things out, however in a group crit, I was told in would be better if I turned the head into a separate subtool. 

I decided to keep another save file of when I first polymeshed my design so if I had any troubles and couldn't undo them, I would start from here.

I used the head from my previous save file as a starting point, saved it as a subtool, then imported it onto my current file.  After that I chopped off the back of the neck, and then used the move tool to create the mouth. After that I used the claybuildup tool to get the basic shape and main features of the face, such as the horns, ears, and eyes.  Next up I Zremeshed the piece and subdivided it.

Creating my Dinosaur (Part 1)

When creating this model, I decided to start in Zspheres, using my 2D work to get a body shape before starting with a head, 

Looking at the anatomy of a T-Rex, I sculpted out my design, I had a problem where the arms attached to the body, but thanks to the manual, I was able to sort it out.

Because I wanted to have my body sticking out of the wall, I thought that maybe I should have two left arms, so I moved his right arm over to his left side, I also decided to do ears.

The next part, was to optimize it, it was difficult at times, because I had to keep changing it when the preview kept messing it up.  I ended up restarting this whole process about three times before I was happy with the end result.  At the time I was considering whether or not to leave the second arm in the sculpt, in the end I decided to scrap that idea.

Life Drawing (WARNING: The following post contains Nudity)

As with the last project, this project also involved life drawing classes, which gave me a chance to see if my observational skills had improved over the year.  Most of these sessions where a mixture of quick 5 minute drawing's and a 45 minute drawing.  Lets see how I got on, shall we:

These two where done on my first week back, they where done with chalk, the main object was to focus on drawing the highlight's of the body rather than the body itself.

Unfortunately when because I was ill I misheard and drew the first one with body lines, however the second one I did in highlights, both took 30 minutes, so this was a chance to see how quick I could draw an entire body shape with detail.

 These next sixteen mini drawing's where done in the second week, each one taking around five minutes to create, this was different facial expressions at different angles.  This was a good for me because it shows how fast I can work with a timer, areas that I could improve upon are finishing the face before moving on to the shadows and highlights.

The next drawing where done in separate lessons, the first one was actually the first life drawing I did when term started, each hand was given 5 minutes to create.  I am awful at drawing hands and feet, so this was great practise for me to see how quickly I can draw a hand, my favourites are no. 3 and 5.  The second drawing was my final life drawing before submission, this was unlike any of the previous lessons, I was given 3 hours to draw my model, this was the first time ever that I'd draw a person this long. Areas I could have improved on was the right leg, and the stool, getting the anatomy of his head to match the body was the hardest part of the piece.

This is my favourite piece altogether, because I tried to really work on the face as much as possible, the time limit was 45 minutes.  I prefer working with shading pencils because of my traditional background, so I didn't have to step outside my comfort zone.  I really tried to get as many facial details in as possible but I could have done better with the nose.  Things I could improve upon, if I had more time I would have been able to finish the arms, I also feel as though the hair could have some more work to it.  But other than that I am happy with what I produced.

Overall, I feel as though my drawing skills have improved, though I do need to be able to draw quicker to get basic anatomy and then add detail to it.  I also feel as though I could work with more chalk and other drawing material other than pencil, but nevertheless I am happy with my results.

Contextual Studies Essay

Why is Concept Art important in the Games Industry?

This essay will look at the ways in which Concept Art is important for the Gaming industry. Before we answer this question, we have to understand the context in which concept art is implemented into the gaming industry. Concept art has been around since video games first began, and is one of the most important aspects needed in creating a successful video game. An online article ‘Concept Art: what is concept art and why is it important?’, states “The world of video games that we all love so much would not be possible without concept art”. (Raymond, 2014).

The main role of a concept artist is to create characters and environments that will go into a game being developed or updated; (it is also used in films) the process begins when the creative director comes up with an idea of how the characters should look in a game, they give a couple of descriptions of their ideas to the concept artist, he/she will then create a portfolio with hundreds of images based on that idea. The initial ideas will mostly be rough sketched (sometimes writing a list of attributes and emotions helps) either traditionally or digitally, and then painted in more detail in 2D, before being creating as a 3D model. For example, if the artist was doing a fast character, they would draw them with less armour and clothing to move about fast. Whereas a heavy character would have more armour and weapons to defend themselves. Between these stages the artists will make suggestions on iterations. As well as characters, concept artists will also be asked to create various props that the character may use during the gameplay. The artist will also provide a colour palette, lighting, shading, texture techniques and materials best suited for the character and worlds; also be able to pay close attention to detail and have great observational skills, this process is repeated until a final outcome has been decided upon. “Everything that can possibly be seen (before the development stage of a games production) is designed”, Hutchinson (2010).

The main skill required is artistic talent; when going for a job interview, a concept artist must show a portfolio that shows their ability to draw, paint and create 3D models with the software provided to them (e.g. Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush). Having an education and good communications will also improve their chances of a getting a job, as well as having access and knowledge about the software used at these companies. Most gaming companies use 3D graphics, so understanding the basic mathematical skills will also boost your chance, some studios will provide lessons if you are willing to learn them. A concept artist must also be able to communicate their ideas clearly and efficiently, and be able to take constructive criticism and apply it to their designs.

Concept artist is one of the most important parts of games design; it is a difficult job to obtain, due to the limited openings and tough competition. An artist will need a top notch, up to date portfolio, amazing drawing skills, “Quality not quantity” (Bow, 2015) and complementary skills. Their designs will have to be imaginative and creative showing that they can experiment outside their comfort zone. Interviewers also look for an artist’s personal art style, being able to use range and flexibility in their work. When applying for a job most of the time it’s good to get your foot in the front door, however that also means you’ll be dealing with all of the other candidates who managed to get their foot in the front door. So sometimes try the back door, you might run into a games director in the elevator, so slip him/her your portfolio and start a friendly conversation and give the interviewer a good impression of yourself before the interview. It also helps to have connections to people from the industry for references through social media, handing out business cards is also good way to get closer to your dream job “make them remember you” (Silcock, 2015). It will take a few jobs before you reach your dream job, in an email from senior concept artist said that “Ubisoft hired me in 2007 to do matte paintings…. In 2008, I had the opportunity to join Assassins Creed 2 art team to help them during a crunch time. I now work full time as a concept artist for Ubisoft Montreal”. (Beloeil, 2015)

Concept art has evolved into having a massive online community with hundreds of websites, having millions of users that are fans of the subject. “A quick google search for ‘concept art’ will employ over 265 million web pages related to this keyword”, (Raymond, 2014). When looking up concept art in google, you find that there are amazing finished pieces of work done by a professional, this is where some people will get confused, these are actually finished illustrations created by illustrators (AAA games) or games artist’s (Indie). While concept artists use iteration sketches to explore ideas and decide the outcome, these illustrations are taken from a few of those sketches, re-draw them, detail and give them an elegant look, before being ‘leaked’ by gaming companies to get gamers excited about an upcoming game. During the overall development process a variable number of final illustrations are made, say a quick sketch might take 10 minutes, and a full illustration would take 3-5 days to complete. Playful concept art can also be found these sites, this type of concept art focuses more on what professional’s draw in their spare time, whether it’s drawing a favourite character from a game, or creating their own characters and world’s in which to show what kind of art style they like. “I paint with oil and watercolours for fun, at home”, (Beloeil, 2015) “It shows how the area of visual development is an integral part of video games and how much fans respect the craft”. (Raymond, 2014)

These elements, like Raymond’s (2014) statement show us how important the role of concept art is, and how it shows the public the skills and requirements needed for just one small role which has a huge effect on the gaming industry, for the production of a game cannot move forward without its initial designs. Whether it’s a terrifying enemy alien with hydra heads or a friendly purple dinosaur, the actions, moods, or emotions, are what concept artists strive to produce with their hundreds of iterations.

Bibliography

Beloeil, G., (2015) Concept Art Questions. Feb 2nd 2015 Email to Gilles Beloeil from Nick Thomas

Bow, S., (2015) Junior 3D Artist NUA Lecture 15 Jan 2015

Concept Artist, (2015) Concept Artist [Internet] available at http://getinmedia.com/careers/concept-artist (Accessed 15 Feb 2015)

Games Artist, (2015) Games Artist Role [Internet] available at http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles_and_stories/job_roles/330_games_artist (Accessed 15 Feb 2015)

Hutchinson, D., (2010) The Importance of Concept Art for Video Games Available from: https://mediahammer.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/the-purpose-for-concept-art-in-video-games/ (Accessed 15 Feb 2015)

Raymond, J., (2014) Concept Art: what is concept art and why is it important? Available from: http://artistryingames.com/concept-art-concept-art-important/ (Accessed 15 Feb 2015)

Silcock, R., (2015) Community Manager and Games Developer NUA Lecture 29 Jan 2015

3D Dinosaur's Iterations (Please put on your 3D glasses now)

This part is where I spent creating some of my 2D drawing's and sculpting them into the heads of my dinosaur.

I sculpted out a basic dinosaur shaped head as a base model, then added some more work onto it with further iterations:

The first one was the stegosaurus drawing that I did, I took it a little further than the original drawing and took some bits out.  I added eyes underneath the mouth, an extra nose of the back horn, and the beard thing didn't work out as well as i'd hoped it would. This was also the first sculpt with a successful sub tool in it (tongue).  The Second design was taken from my first T-Rex drawing except for the teeth, in this one, I focused more on what else I could add to it to make it my dinosaur, so I added a pig nose and bat ears, but at that point, I seriously wanted to start my final design, so I left this as it was.