Gnomon_CharacterModeling_Week 02

So week 2 and we are starting on our characters for the next 8 weeks!! This week we are sculpting the head.  It was a pretty frustrating slog to be honest building the topology wasn't too tricky but pushing the verts to get the forms to work did get challenging at times especially since I had gotten so used to the zbrush workflow that I could have built a bust in an hour or so instead of the considerably longer time it took to get this one looking right.  But I have to say getting the topology to flow right makes the sculpting process go so smoothly!!! I am so happy I put the effort in to get it all just right (well as right as I could).  I am really happy with the outcome and I cant wait to try out some facial animation on this model at the end of the course!!
On a side note, the ear.... if any of you reading are poly modelers you may share my appreciation but Kevin's technique for building the ear was (to me) nothing short of some kind of magic trick!!  Somehow step by step he was able to create a looping piece of geometry that seamlessly grows out of the head and loops around the ear and back into the head and well its hard to explain but needless to say I really enjoyed learning the process!
So this week we are working on the rest of the body, focusing on the arms and legs for now till we move onto the torso.

Gnomon Environment Modeling _Week 01

So for my first homework I had to kitbash together a lamp from various references and then build it in 3D.  I went for a steampunk style lamp made of thrown together pieces one might find in a mysterious workshop.  I was imagining the character walking through this strange room and looking at all these moving objects and starting to become a little unnerved.  This meant I needed something that was human enough for the audience to get what it was but strange enough to be intriguing.
Now that I have it on screen and having had feedback on the design during the class I do see that it could be improved by changing the proportions of certain parts to change the overall silhouette to a slightly more dynamic look.  This will be something I keep in mind in the future when I kitbash my next reference.

Gnomon Character Modeling _ Week 01

My first weeks homework for character modeling.  I had a lot of fun with this model the only thing I really struggled with was the hair! It took me around 5 attempts using different methods to get the look I finished with and I still want to work on it more but I also have my Environment Modeling homework 2 do :)

Kevin did give me some good pointers though!  Modeling the ODM gear was just as fun as I was expecting and while I was looking for reference I found there is a very cool looking fan game being built for Attack on Titan! If I had more time I might have looked into it more :p

The last piece of the homework was to work on picking a concept for your final piece and I have settled on the pirate character on the below image.  She has some really cool props and costume but also just looks like a fun character to work on for the next 9 weeks.  Our homework for this week is to build a head for our final character.

Here is a link to the 3d model on Sketchfab:

 Mikasa on Sketchfab

All the images in the above photo are from Pintrest and not my own work

Next round of Gnomon yay!

So its the Gnomon Spring term yay! I am being a bit more ambitious for this term and taking both Character Modeling and Sculpting with Kevin Hudson and Environment Modeling and Sculpting with Devon Fay.  The first lessons were really fun, I got to meet my new peers and tutors and learn a little about all their backgrounds.
I am really looking forward to getting stuck into these two classes! both syllabuses look great and since they are not introduction courses we spend the last few weeks working on a single piece which will help my portfolio a lot :)

So week 1 homework for Character Modeling and Sculpting is to build a quick character using a polygon workflow.  Kevin built a stylized version of the monkey from Space Ghost during the tutorial from a cool reference so we will be using the same workflow to build our own characters.  I am attempting to build a chibi style version of Mikasa from Attack on Titan.  I recently binge watched the entire first season on Netflix while doing homework from last term and thought it was amazing!  I really like the ODM gear the characters use so obviously jumped at the first excuse to model it.

image taken from Pintrest (not my own work)

We also have to piece together some reference for our final project.  I scoured Pintrest for a few hours and I think I have settled on a cool looking Pirate character.  I will get some feedback next week as to whether I should proceed with this character or not.

Week 1 homework for Environment Modeling and Sculpting is to kitbash reference for a lamp prop and then model it.  The concept of kitbashing reference together is really cool and not something I had done before.  Overall back in my 1 model a day training I got quite experienced at modeling quick props from reference but taking multiple parts you like and modeling something unique should be a lot of fun.  I'm going with a Steampunk style lamp, already have quite a bit of reference from this morning and its gonna look awesome!

Digital Sculpting week 9_ Finals

So week 9 marks the end of my Intro to Digital Sculpting course at Gnomon.  It has been an amazing few weeks and I feel that I have improved massively in that time.  I want to say a big thank you to our tutor Madeleine Scott-Spencer and a shout out to all my classmates too, it was so fun to watch everyone develop their skills :)
So here is my final submission for the course :)

So here is my little goblin gang! Really happy how these guys turned out but I did have a little trouble getting the painted style to really work so that's my next goal :) Madeleine gave us all some good advice as to how to approach painting in this style so I will give that a shot next time!

Here is the technical breakdown showing the low poly versions of the models complete with their color, ambient occlusion and normal maps.  I might take these guys through rigging soon and try them out in Unreal!! but I have to brush up on my Maya rigging first.

So all in all if you had told me this was my work 10 weeks ago I would not have believed it :p I really recommend The Digital Sculpting course at Gnomon to anyone interested in learning the software it has been such a fun ride!

Digital Sculpting Week 08

 Week 08: This week we worked on rendering, lighting and post processing in PhotoShop.  I had actually sculpted the body for this goblin a few weeks back when we had a cancelled class. So this week I finished sculpting the head and built all the accessories.  I am honestly surprised at how nicely the rendering worked on this guy.  Once combined with the Ambient Occlusion and shadow passes the character really popped!

There were a few issues with posing him however since his little arms aren't quite big enough to hold his club up high and make a nice silhouette.

The brief for next week's (last week for the course) homework is literally "do something" :p So I think I'm going to keep working on these guys.  Our lesson was in exporting normal, texture and bump maps so I think I will build a series of goblin characters e.g warrior, mage, archer etc and then retopologise and UV them and if I have enough time put them into Unreal :D wish me luck!

Digital Sculpting Week 07_ Texture Projecting

Week 07.  Unlike last weeks painting style this type is done by projecting photos onto the 3D sculpt.  This means that you can paint a lot more in a much shorter time though its a little harder to get the same amount of control.  So long as your reference photos are well lit and high resolution the results are pretty good.  I got my reference pics from 3D.sk, its a good resource for all kinds of human reference photos.  I spent most of my time sculpting this character.  Rather than build her in a T-pose and then pose I decided to model the pose straight away.  This guaranteed I would get a good pose without having to fight Zbrush over rigging but it did make isolating areas like the face and hands a little tricky when it came to painting.
This was also my first time trying out Fibermesh for the hair.  I am quite happy with the result but Scott actually taught us some good techniques I will implement next time I try it out. Namely building up the hair in separate passes rather than building it all at once and struggling with the fiber brushes.
This weeks homework is all about lighting and rendering so I am revisiting a project I had worked on a few weeks back and really beefing it out to be rendered it's already looking real nice so I hope it will result in a good render!  I am also thinking of picking up a copy of Keyshot since one of my classmates has been submitting his work with Keyshot renders and they look sooooo nice! So it will probably be a good idea for portfolio pieces just to make the sculpts really pop!