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.