So after a great break I am back to the Gnomon life :) I visited San Francisco which was awesome! The city was amazing and it was really nice to get away from computers for a week or so, though I am back in the thick of it now. I also finished the new Phillip Pullman book over the break "The Book of Dust vol 1." Its a beautiful story but for me it ranks as probably my third favorite of the 4 main books he has written within that universe, still its a great set up and I can't wait for the next installment!! Also I got a little inspired over the break and I decided to write a short story myself. I am only a dozen or so pages in but I am using this story to inform my main demo reel project for the next few terms. There wont be much time to work on it over this term but I hope to have the majority of the story written before I start next term :)
So term 10... this is going to be really tough! I know I seem to say that every term but honestly there are no easy or even minor classes this term, I have: Rigging for Production, Houdini 1, Advanced Digital Sculpting, Game Creation 2, VFX for games and Character for Games. I am already 2 weeks in and I feel like the workload it getting a little tough to stay on top of. I may have to take some of the classes a little lighter than I usually like :(
This is the concept I want to model for my Advanced Zbrush final, though I also plan to change the concept to adapt it to the Horizon Zero Dawn universe.
I am really enjoying this class already. It still feels a little strange doing hard surface in Zbrush after becoming so comfortable in Maya but learning from Paul Gaboury is certainly clearing up a lot of Zbrushe's finer functions. Just a simple block in for now but I expect to make some real progress before next class!
This is the concept I have chosen for Character for Games. I am going to stick quite closely to this concept from Bloodborne but I will probably be changing a few things to keep the character in line with my own story.
I haven't decided on a name yet but this character is an immortal emissary from a secret society of people who worship ancient forgotten gods. Seventeen years ago she persuaded the steward of Bitteryarrow to bring up her son in exchange for great fortune and now she has returned to ensure her son succeeds his father by any means necessary.
For Rigging for Production we haven't moved far from last terms teaching but after only 2 weeks we have to have a complete skeleton and a completely skinned mesh! I like this pace since it looks like we will be getting into some more advanced stuff soon like corrective blend-shapes and facial rigging yay! Also we were given the choice of using one of Gnomon's characters to rig or choose our own. I really didn't like the free model so I dusted off my character from 2 terms ago, fixed some of the topology and got the go ahead to use her this term yay!!
VFX for games has started really well :) we have been spending the first couple of weeks working through basic particles to create fire works and rain. I've never really spent any time working on effects and its so nice to learn something completely new.
The first Game Creation 2 class was cancelled this term but I have an assignment for this week. Pretty much I am either just playing around in world machine or blocking in my own concept. I am hoping to do the exterior for my environment Bitteryarrow castle from last term. That means, water, cliff face, and a castle model (though the model can be simple since it will be viewed from far away). Still that's another big project for this term :*( wish me luck!
Houdini has been pretty disappointing so far. It's quite hard to follow in class since the teacher is dissecting existing projects rather than building stuff from scratch. I don't want to say anything yet because this might actually all come together in a week or so but I am feeling really lost at the moment. Nothing much to show for now.
Anyway tonnes of work to do so I better crack on.
