Week summary

On Monday, I did not have any sessions at university. During the Day, I went over my slideshow for Tuesday, I was happy with the final outcomes of my slideshow and felt confident in what I wanted to portray. On Tuesday morning, I had my first model making waxwork session in which I put together a copper wire frame of a figure that will then be added with wax to mould a human structure. In this first session, we built all the frame and added a rib cage to the piece. This session was mainly shown by a demonstration of what we needed to complete then we had to try it for ourselves.  I find that these sessions will be very helpful in understanding in more detail of the human body and I look forward to building a full structure of the human body. It was nice to do a task that was hands-on in a session it made a change.

 This image shows my final model from the first session, I will continue with this model next session.

 This image shows the final outcomes of my tutors wax models.

In the afternoon, I presented my pitch in front of my group, the pitch went well and I did not have really any negative feedback I look forward to starting my project in more depth as I’ve got the go-ahead. I still feel unconfident slightly in the 3D aspect of this project and how the best method would be to achieve the final model piece but it would be good to do something out of my comfort zone and learn new skills. The tutors found my idea of a sci-fi Roman a cool idea but I was told to consider which part of Roman history I wanted to do, I gave this much thought when I got home and have decided that I will base the theme on a Roman gladiator character that will be posed and textured as if it looks like stone, not coloured. The characters story is that he is a hero/legend and this a statue of the character in all glory. I found that doing this pitch put into perspective on what I wanted to achieve for this project, it was also interesting to see what other people’s ideas were for their project.

 Above are images of my 2 minute slideshow pitch.

These characters images above are examples of the type of Roman theme I would like to aim for in my design.

On Wednesday, I started to do my character silhouettes at this moment of time I have not yet found any finalised silhouettes that I like. I will continue to do silhouettes till next week hopefully by then I will find more of a solid idea. For my dissertation, I wrote down notes and words that relate to my theme on sticky notes, I am still stuck on an actual question for my dissertation I will need to do further research. I have been told in feedback before I finished second year to look for a film called ‘Stalker’ which is a 1979 film this should relate somewhat to my dissertation theme, I will look in the library for this DVD. In the evening, I watched some video tutorials on 3D modelling in Z brush and Maya this was to give me a clearer idea on how to achieve my model and to give me tips on the best methods, I will continue this throughout my project.

These are some very rough silhouettes the first ones I have attempted, I am still not sure where I am going with the whole form yet.

 

These are the same silhouettes but worked into a little more to give me more of a idea for a design.

 This was a form I quite liked I have added to each one.

I wanted to get some line work down to see if that would give a clearer idea on what I want to achieve, i'm not there yet with the design.

I added some silhouettes ideas for a weapon for the character, like the idea of a mace like weapon to mix it up instead of a sword, but I will come back to this later when I have found a form I like for my character.

 This is a image of the sticky notes that I did for my dissertation. Still have to add to this.

On Thursday, I had a photoshop session in which I had a task to complete. In this session, we learnt how to use clipping masks to achieve a finalised photo bash concept piece. At first, we used a software piece called ‘Alchemy’ which I have used in year one this was good get a rough base for an environment piece, I then put this into photoshop and work from the Alchemy piece.  This was a very useful session as I learnt how to correctly use clipping masks as I had not known this before.

This is my photo bash piece I decided to go with a beach scene.

This image shows my final photo bash piece. For a first attempt, I don’t think this is too bad but I still need a lot of improvement. I will continue to learn photo bashing as it will be useful in my project as I would like to attempt a character photo bashing piece I think this may produce quicker results in some areas of the project. 

On Friday, I had a group afternoon meet session, the session consisted of talking about our dissertation theme to the person sitting next to us. With the person sitting next to us we had to discuss what our theme for our dissertation was and to tell them what we enjoyed about the theme that is chosen. This was a useful session as I got a different perspective about my dissertation theme from somebody else and what they thought could help me in finding a question etc… It was also good to hear about someone else’s idea in depth and where they are going with their dissertation. I am still not fully sure on my question for this dissertation I will do further research and watch the film ‘Stalker’ that I’ve been recommended to watch.