Weekly Summary

This is the first week back from our Christmas break. Our first session this week we had a lecture on colour theory and how to use colours correctly. It was good to go over this again as the last time I did was a few years ago back in college.

This painting is using the Analogous colour harmony, the middle colour of the wheel shown here is very much more dominating than the other two, you can see this is the featured back area of this painting this is the portion pulling the eye to the back of the painting to the higher value of the blue hue. The other two hues on this wheel are much more saturated than the other middle hue on the wheel. The painting is giving off a cool temperature, but the skin tone here can bring a sense of warmth to the upper part of the painting.

 This painting is using Monochromatic colour harmony, this painting is using just one hue to give this painting it's atmosphere. The hue in this painting is being altered by different saturation and value adjustments. The painting is a lot darker in the foreground and going into lighter a hue the further the distance. The painting in itself has a cool temperature all round, With the added mist to this painting it does not give this painting a warmth feel at all.

This painting is using a complementary colour harmony. These two colours can work well together in a painting but if not used correctly they can conflict each other. The painting has a warm temperature because of the orange tones nearer the front and middle then changing into cooler tones at the back. The painting become quite saturated at the far back with the two tones mixing. This painting is very busy even though I think the painter has not done a bad job with mixing the two tones together.

In Z brush this week I continued with my Swamp creature. I did manage to add a bit more detail in this session. I was mainly spending most my time in this session getting a more solid shape and definition.

In contextual studies this week we looked at games as learning tools. I found this lecture quite interesting especially the part were we where told that the game 'Minecraft' is being used in some schools to teach children certain subjects like science. I think this is a brilliant way or teaching children. Most children nowadays who know the game and associate Minecraft as a fun past time, so when the children play this in schools they will be learning the subject as well as having fun. This is a great way to keep children's attention and I believe it will be used more in the coming years.

Also this week we had a VFX guest speaker come in called Lorene Bettker, she has worked on Fantastic Beast and Where To Find Them, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the new live action Beauty and the Beast. Her job in the industry is a lighting technical director. Although she does film this was still a lecture that I did take notes on and her experiences with employment,portfolios and the interview process was still good to know.

Also this week I was busy finishing my two final development pieces.

Development project


The focus this week for my development project was to get my snow soldier and samurai warrior characters completed to their final stages.

The second final piece that I completed was the snow solider, I found this to be the most difficult painting to complete because I was unsure on the design. Overall with the second piece when I was finishing up and adding the detail to the characters clothing etc...I started to get more into the painting and finally ended up with my final outcome. I added a snow mountain background with added characters and space craft for a added touch. I think the background for my second piece is stronger than my final tribal painting one, although I have a long way to go with learning how to paint backgrounds.

My final piece that I finished this week was the samurai warrior. I wanted this character to be very sci fi like, by doing this I added the glow lighting to his Armour and weapon. I added a dead persons hand to the painting to give the impression that the warrior has killed his enemy. I placed my character in a forest environment as I felt this to be the right setting, maybe I was influenced by a Tekken character called 'Yoshimitsu' as he is seen in a scene like a forest in the games. I added a lot of detail to this character with added blood and dirt for example, I did this because I wanted the viewer to gain a sense of story to the painting by adding such details. Overall I believe this is my strongest development final piece out of the others. I enjoyed the project and felt I had learnt a lot by doing this project. 

Weekly Summary

This week we did not have a lecture on the Monday so on Tuesday we had a Z brush session. Last week I had trouble with mirroring the Z sphere because my first Z sphere that I placed down was not centered, this then cause the symmetry method to not work properly as it did not mirror and cause deformations in my model. This week I did managed to add Zspheres without any problems. I did get my base model down and started to create form to my creature model in the session, which I was happy with, as I do not feel like I am behind from last week now.

The design is getting there slowly, I would like to change a few things such as the neck area it will need to be a lot longer and the upper front legs look to chunky, this I will need to change in the next session. To achieved the detail that I have put down so far I used the clay build up brush and the move brush.

In contextual studies this week we looked at games as social spaces. The lecture was very useful as it was a topic that would relate to my essay. The lecture consisted of using online gaming as a social place. Because my essay will be themed on AR I did notice that the lecture did mention a game called 'Majestic' which was one of the first AR games to be released by EA in 2000/2001, This will be really good to use as one of my games in my essay as it will relate well to my AR topic.

The seminar was about last week contextual studies lecture that I could not attend on narrative in video games, Even though I did not deliver much in the conversion this week in the seminar because I could not attend last week contextual studies session I did not fully understand the topic as well as the group but I did listen to the groups discussions about narrative.

Also this week we had guest speakers,  Dan and Greg from the popular YouTube channel Did you know gaming? they spoke about networking and what they did in the past before Youtube. They used there skills in pixel art and editing that they learnt in university and spoke about how that help them with the success of their Youtube channel. It was a fun talk.

In anatomy this week we looked at the arm, elbow, wrist and fingers. I was very happy about learning this part of the body as it is an area of the body that I do struggle with drawing the hands.

At the end of the week in my session I drew some studies on hands, noses and mouths, as I felt I need to improve in this area, this was part of my development project.

The Christmas break begins.

Development project

 These are some hand studies that I have done in the week, hands are something that I really struggle with I hope to get better at them. I will plan to do more studies from now on. (The dark lined sketches are mine on the right side).

 These are some sketches of lips with expressions as I never really do expressions sketches. I really enjoyed doing these.

Another area of the body I don't draw often as I am not very confidence in drawing noses. (The dark lined are mine). Overall I think I did well with this study.

These are some rough mask designs for my tribal character.

The two above images are very rough silhouettes designs for the tribal warrior and samurai warrior.

 These are more detailed designs of what my 3 characters designs could include, or gather information on, to bring a final design to light.

I wanted to do some quick composition studies also to familiarize myself again.

This is my final design for my tribal warrior, I wanted to give her a sci fi look with the mask but the rest of her I wanted her to look like she hasn't got the technology like other warriors would have in a sci fi setting, and from being in a tribal area she would not have the luxury of advance technology or weapons. For my first final piece for this project I think it went well. As I am now starting to use Photoshop more regularly now because of this project I don't think I did too bad. I like that in Photoshop I could add different brush effects to the drawings, the tattoos for example, giving this painting a added finish. I'm still inexperienced with adding backgrounds, I hope to improve in this area.