Final Evaluation

Since starting my 3rd year last September/October my main focus has been my main project which was a project of our choosing. As my specialisms is in character development I wanted to continue this and create a Roman Sci-fi sculpture piece. I chose the theme of sci-fi because it is a theme that I enjoy, I like the visuals that go into sci-fi design. It is also a popular theme through most medias especially in films and games, This theme would look good in my portfolio. At first I was going to focus the model on a dystopian era through a human character which themed well with my dissertation subject. I decided to change the theme of my idea as I may do a dystopian character for my final major project at the end of the course instead and I like the idea of forming roman (ancient) with new such sci-fi. I thought it would cool as I have not seen many designs like this before. I knew I wanted to do a roman theme character but at first wasn't sure on what type and era of roman history. By doing research on types of gladiators the Murmillo gladiators caught my attention the most. I thought I could implement the sci-fi element well in the helmet design. Throughout my university degree so far I have stuck to concept art as a safe place and haven't really branched out of my comfort zone, this is why I wanted to do a Zbrush model of a character and I have always wanted to gain more knowledge of the programme and produce a high detailed character. It is beneficial if I develop 3D skills also.

The other focus of this term was to write my 5000 word dissertation. At first the thought of the dissertation worried me, I'm not the strongest at academic writing due to my dyslexia but I have not let this hold me back. To be honest, at the start the though of writing it was daunting and analysing the relevant resources, but once it was all organised and had the guidance on how to structure the report it became clearer to me and I found to actually enjoy writing about how narrative is framed within the environments of Fallout 4 and Dishonored 1/2 and comparing the two to the film Stalker by 'Andrei Tarkovsky which hold similarities within its environment and events to my chosen games. I believe by using the support given such as attending tutorials, lectures and seeing my specialist tutor I have gain the knowledge and developed a better understanding of writing a piece like this which I'm pleased about. 

Throughout the term there have been other projects such as tasks each week from my concept piece sessions and my anatomy sessions which I have to produce a wax model of the human anatomy showing muscles and all. Within the anatomy sessions it has been great to physically create a model piece by hand. I have learnt a lot already and hope to continue this project soon and to get back on track. By studying the anatomy of the human body this will help me improve my anatomy drawing. This will help in my next project. By doing the weekly tasks in my concept art sessions I have seen improvement in my photo bashing techniques. In first year I attempted to do a photo bash once for the first project and its did not come out too bad for a first attempt, but since doing them on a more regular basis I can see a definite improvement since my first attempt in first year and my second attempt a few months ago. It has been rewarding to be given tasks such as the environment pieces to develop which also had to be completed in a short time period. By doing this I have learnt new skills in Photoshop through its elements, I did not understand areas such as the layer masks. With this I will continue to enhance these skills to develop stronger pieces of work in the future. 

Overall by producing my roman sci- fi character in ZBrush, I have learnt so much already and still have so much more to learn. By doing this project it has given me the confidence to carry on these skills and to develop another model in the near future. Not all was successful, there where times when the model would not go to plan such as the posing method of the model due to not understanding the fundamentals of posing on a high poly model. With help from tutors I overcame these problems, though not perfect it worked. I was still able to pose my model but not to the ability I would of liked. This is something I will remember in my next model piece. Overall I think the model was still a success and for my first attempt at a character piece it came out better than I hoped. I believe the theme flows well within my model which has had good feedback from other in how detailed my model is. 

Throughout doing these projects I have notice the lack of digital artwork produced especially in my main character project. I would of liked to of developed higher quality drawings for my character piece but found that it became difficult due to the time spent on the 3D aspect of this project. I am glad that I had the concept sessions each week as this gave me something different to focus on even if it was for a day or two. In my next project I would like to go back and improve my drawing skills as I feel I have lacked in my ability slightly. Overall I feel this has been a successful few months and learnt a lot from it all from developing a 3d model to writing a 5000 word academic piece, I look forward to my next project. 

  

Week Summary

This is the first week back from the Christmas break, and its hand in week this Friday.

Christmas term

During the actual Christmas break my focus was on completing my dissertation. I also did download a Key shot 7 trial just to play around with the rendering programme. As it was a trial only I could not get fully rendered shots without having watermarks over the images, this is understandable as it is only a trial version. I wanted to try Key shot as it was mentioned on the Z brush website and they seem to connect. I would like to gain some knowledge on how to use such rendering software in the near future as it would be nice to use a better quality render. I did import my model into Marmoset which I have used in past projects, I thought I could maybe produce some renders but my poly paint texture did not appear on the model. I did give it ago to research this but was not to lucky. I will have to learn this method in my next project maybe. While I was in Key shot with my model imported I did experiment with some of the materials within the programme.  I added a marble like texture to my model by using the marble image that I had preciously shown before. This did work quite well, I then edited the settings as well to give the model different effects. I did manage to get some renders from the programme, I then when into Photoshop and edited them and adding a light effect to one.

This is the image used to texture the model, I wanted to use this material to try different effects and styles for my model. Even though my poly paint texture is the original I still thought it would be beneficial to explore.

The material gives the model a realistic element within its details. This gives a different perspective to the model by changing the texture.

This render was edited in more depth with a added lighting effect from Photoshop, I think it works quite well.

This is the same render as the one above but with the watermarks showing, I could not get the best of quality unfortunately with these renders.

With my dissertation it did take sometime to get fully into it because of my difficulties with writing. By seeing my specialist tutor and going to tutorials I have noticed a difference in my academic writing.Throughout the research report I learnt about how narrative is framed within such media as games, films etc...learning the elements and its structures. Also I have done my researcher differently this time, as I used some physical copies of books and used the library a lot more this term. I could highlight in the books I bought and make notes, this helped so much. I usually always use online resources which I find is sometimes overwhelming without being able to correctly highlight the information I need.

Back at university


On Monday, there where no sessions only signing in for this term. During this time I finished my bibliography for my dissertation.

On Tuesday,  I did have a anatomy session but unfortunately I did not attend as I wanted to focus on my hand in preparation. During Christmas one of my aims for the project was too do a concept piece of my finalised character in full colour showing what the character would of looked like in reality instead of in sculpture form. I did not managed to do this during the Christmas break due to being dedicated to my dissertation. I still wanted to do this piece even though I would not be able to fully polish the painting to my liking due to the time. I spend most of Tuesday producing the painting. It was also a practice piece for me as well, as I have stated before I would like to gain knowledge of painting without relying on line work. There are few pieces that I have done which don't use line due to lack of confidence. The painting is a paint over of a rendered piece, I would have liked to of spend more time on it and posing the character in full shot would of been nice, so overall I went with a close up shot and worked with that. I added colours that I though represented the roman era using such colours as reds and browns. The attempt at not relying on line shows as I think some areas seems a little muddy, which may not form the details well. Overall I don't think it is a bad attempt and it is something I will work on.

On Wednesday, I did go in to see my specialist tutor who I see a hour a week. I went over my research report with them, there was some small minor changes I needed to make, more to do with the layout and presention more than anything which I was pleased about. They seemed pleased with my report. Once getting home I changed what was needed and added in the details I missed before. By doing this it seems my dissertation is finished.

On Thursday I did have a concept art session but no task was given as it is hand in week. I did ask my tutor about how to present the tasks within the specialism/tasks folder for hand in on Friday. I did not stay long as I wanted to finalise everything for Friday.