Final Documentation

The final product of this class has amounted to two models, edited and refined in 3D programs such as Maya and Mudbox.

From what started out as some minor sketches and drawings ended up becoming more 3-Dimensional as the semester went on, and I'm really happy to see the growth. Originally I thought my drawing skills were rather bad, but after the sketching period I realized I was a lot better than I thought! Not as much as some others, but I felt a real improvement in it.

Four weeks drawing models was a bit of a surprise for me. And modeling with clay was something I never thought I'd do before as well. Even if some of my models fell apart right before I could scan them, the ones that did get turned into 3D prints were 100% accurate to the scans! Even though one of the character's tail was kinda split and floating on it's own, I tethered it pretty quick in Maya and Mudbox.

This class helped me see how artistic I could be outside of a computer screen, and gave me the start of making my own world of characters expand myself, with a pencil and a sketchpad.

Final Week of Class

This class' models have been done in both Mudbox and Maya, and look good, in addition to the fact that I asked Dickie to use the 3D Printer to make models of them!

Both my dog head and full dog character have been created, and are spot on from the model after chipping away all of the supports.

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It took the better part of an hour or two, but they look amazing!

3D Modeling Week 2

Yesterday was another work day, as well as a show of how the 3D printer works! I decided that no matter what, I wanted my model to be red so at least I had that figured out.

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But the best thing about the models is that I finally figured out how to fix the tail by tweaking it in Maya so it closes off as its own tail still attached to the model.

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Originally I tried to connect the two tail parts but it didn't transfer over to Mudbox correctly and still had holes that leaked into the model.

3D Modeling Week 1

Since last class last week was a work session, it gave us time to fix up our models for show and make them look more presentable. I took the scans from MakerBot and put them into Mudbox and Maya to see if I could edit them any.

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The two I made, the dog head and the full dog character, each looked better in one program compared to the other. The full dog body needed additional editing because the tail was cut in half and part of it was floating in the air after MakerBot scanned it.

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The head however looked basically the same and little was changed to that once pulled into one of the other programs. For my final, I do want to fix the full dog model, though the tail will be an issue. I've tried sculpting over it in Mudbox but no luck just yet.

Clay Modeling: Week 4

This week was all about the MakerBot and creating digital versions of our clay models for later editing on Mudbox or Maya.

Wasn't able to take any pictures of the digital models myself, but the files are saved on the class folder. Unfortunately, most of my clay models from the previous post ended up breaking before I could model them, but I did use the head I made from the first week of clay. It was probably the most solid, so this is great.

Clay Modeling: Week 3

Today, we continued our work with clay modeling by having a free class to sculpt anything we wanted, preferably characters of ours.

Just this class I managed to make about 5 different characters and items that I really wanted to make! One I've been working on for a long time, and the rest I made to try and test out proportions.

This first character, who I named "Domino", is a humanoid canine with a hat and a collar. He's the only character here that I worked on prior to this class in other mediums and programs. His main weapon is a hammer, which I also made as a model.

The next model I made was this "Darkball" with an angry expression. This is what the main antagonist will look like for the story, or at least a rough version of what he'd look like. Very simplistic.

The third model is me experimenting with a frog character. I think I was initially confused with a frog's anatomy with a humanoid structure, so I tried to make the eyes bigger on the head as opposed to making them more human-like in placement and size. His weapon would be a staff, which isn't all that impressive as a clay model since its just a stick.

And finally, I have the last model which is a winged snake. I like how the head came out as well as the wings placed on the body, and how the head was supported on the body itself. I think there's a specific name for a winged snake in ancient myths: a Quetzalcoatl I think.

As a whole though, I think the models came out beautifully and I'm very proud of how well made I made them, considering I never made many clay models.

Clay Modeling: Week 2

This time instead of making characters, we had to make a clay bust of our model's head. It was a bit harder than the character model because I had to make it look more realistic instead of cartoony.

Early on I tried to focus on how each of his parts looked, like the ears and the nose in addition to his wrinkles and lines on his face. The hair all along the back came out really well; I just used one of my tools to make it seem like a hair-like texture, mashing it against the back of the clay head.

Besides all that though, I decided to give the head glasses since the model had them on for a spell. He took them off before I could fully check out how they looked but I think it still looks good regardless.

This coming class is all about either finishing our character model or this bust and use the scanner to make it digital into Mudbox. I think I'll stick with my character, and made the rest of his body.

Clay Modeling: Week 1

For my first time making models out of clay, I was surprised with how the head turned out! It was really different from what I'm used to with modeling, though I know never to directly wet my clay…it gets really slimy and it feels gross.

Next week should be all about the body, so I'm excited for it~

Midterm Portfolio

For my midterm, I'm picking up 12 of my favorite or most well-drawn sketches to showcase. This includes drawings from my sketchpad and my larger canvas.

This one I'm proud of because of how I got the legs to look, more canine-like and good with positioning with the back and front parts of the dog anatomy.

This one I feel has a lot of character in the expression, and the first character sketch I did.

This one started as a character sketch, but extended into some expression tests. Probably my favorite.

Another favorite, was a basic character sketch, just to try my luck from something out of my head as opposed to a reference or a model. Very happy with how it came out, and very careful as well.

Some practice with lighting and shadows when I drew this pill bottle. I tried to draw all the little shadow lines I saw but I should have used less thick pencils. I feel it went good.

This was another character model, with a good look of the eyes and mouth for expression.

In an exercise to try and help hand-eye coordination, I tried to draw things by looking at them and not my paper. After drawing about 4 or so objects, the whole page looked like it made some kind of archway!

This was my first attempt at using shadows on a model.

This was a little practice with my new sketching approach to drawing, as opposed to my last method of using thick lines for everything. I particularly like how Pikachu and Kirby came out to the bottom right.

And finally, my headshot skull work. I think it came out pretty well for a focused work such as this.

Sketching Models: Week 4

The last week of model sketching went very well, with more focus on making characters from the model's poses.

I tried to pay extra attention to perspective and the way the model was positioned, so I can make things more proportionate with things in the background and foreground.

I also realize most of my drawings are too down the middle in their poses, so I've been improving on that as well.

Sketching Models: Week 3

I hadn't realized how much paper I was using the past few classes, I'm almost out of sheets in the pad. Might need to pick up a new one before class, or at least be more careful with how many sheets I use.

I like how a lot of my character work came out, I feel very confident with how I draw him! Of course I still need practice but still, it's looking very good.

Did some practice with my sketching with a friend over the week too! Drawing things without looking at the paper is good practice for hand-eye movement.

I can feel myself getting better every week, slowly but surely.

Sketching Models: Week 2

Second time drawing a live model, and I think I'm slowly improving in the overall shape of my sketches. They look a little more realistic I think, compared to last week.

I'm especially proud with how the shadows ended up looking. They look better when they're more subtle.

And even just keeping with my "sketching" technique instead of just "line drawing", my drawings look even better than ever! More round, more proportionate.

Gotta love that Kirby though.

I drew one of my friend's heads so I can better understand its shape and whatnot. I think its easier on people who have less hair because I can see their shape a lot easier. But I did do some character work, thinking about what or who I wanted to use for my sketches next class.

Still on the fence, but I'm confident about it.

Sketching Models: Week 1

For my first time sketching a live model, I think I did pretty decent. There was a lot I tried for the first time that ended up working out or helping me evolve my drawing skills.

Personally I think my drawings are near chicken scratch, just drawing lines and constantly erasing because things look wrong. But then I tried to "sketch" lines instead of drawing them, just making marks with my pencil in the general shape that I want to make, it actually looked really good!

For expensive pencils, they actually worked really great. I used an average one to sketch out figures, the thickest pencil to outline their shape, and the one in between to do shadow. Light and shadow in my drawings wasn't something I did because it looked out of place, but on my drawings it really helped bring it together with the proper pressure on the pencils.

I'm looking forward for next class so I can do some more drawings. I feel really confident about them, and hope it improves more as I draw.

Eggcellent Texturing!

For the second day in Mudbox, we learned how to make an egg using different layers and textures so it looked as realistic as possible. It was really cool, especially when I held "control" during one of the brushes or stencils and turned parts of the egg blue!

I forget how exactly I did it, like what tool, but it was really awesome! It ended up looking like a dinosaur egg thanks to the coloration and textures, and I'm really psyched with how it came out!

First Time in Mudbox!

I know I've heard of Mudbox before, but I never really knew what it was till last week. I've seen Mudbox get used for character models for one of my favorite games, the online MOBA League of Legends.

Just by messing around with it, I kinda liked what the interface was; kinda simple but with a lot of possibility for making stuff. I tried to make a duck bill on the model head, but it looked more like a muzzle. So I kinda turned it into a dog-version of Mr. T.

The pepper model took me two tries, one to get used to modeling something on purpose. It messed around with the stencils, so it ended up being a spiky pepper like it was covered in mold or something.

The second model went a lot smoother, having found out I can actually mirror my edits on any of the axis. I'm really happy with how it came out! Really smooth and realistic.

I wonder what I'll make next in Mudbox.