Week Summary

On Monday, I went into the university and saw a specialist tutor for my dyslexia in the session we went over my dissertation looking at different ideas going over sources that I have already found, we   correctly picked out different parts which may be beneficial to me. In this session, the focus was on the research side for my dissertation and picking out the most relevant for my idea. What I have found since going to these one hour sessions a week is that my ideas have been changing slightly but I do know that I want to look at narrative and environment collapse and how environmental story telling can be betrayed in fallout 4 and dishonoured 2. After this session, I went to the library as my specialised tutor recommended me to try and find the books that we discussed in the session, I could not find the books I was looking for but I did come across three that may be useful, and I will look into these books in more depth soon, I do hope to pick out some good information from them that would relate and help me on my way to start writing for my dissertation.

Also on Monday I went to the Castle Museum in Norwich and decided to look at some of the Roman costumes. I took a few photos of them as this may be good for my research for my sci-fi Roman character. I also went into a toy shop in Norwich and they happen to have some armour pieces that could be used as referencing, I got some photos of the glove pieces. 

On Tuesday, I had my anatomy session, in this session I continued with the big scale model and I added to the pelvis I made the pelvis slightly thicker and cleaned up the pelvis slightly but it still needs to be smoothed out later. I also added to the hip area of my model this now looks more realistic to an actual bone structure of a hip and the main aim for this week’s session was to add the knee joints, these two will need to be smoothed out later. Just adding the knees and the detail has given the model more form already and you can really see it coming together and looking more like a skeleton piece.

Also on Tuesday, in the afternoon I went into the media lab for my session and a friend of mine who is also doing a character model piece in ZBrush recommended me to watch the ZBrush character creation summits on YouTube, these videos are very useful, while I was watching these videos for the whole session I wrote down a lot of notes on tips that will help me when it comes to finally putting my model together in ZBrush. I should have watched the summit sooner as they were very useful I will continue to watch them in my own time. 

https://youtu.be/JL75R0K_j7g

On Thursday, I had my concept art session. In this session, we done more material cubes but we had less time to do these cubes as they had to be finished the next day but we only had to do two of them. We were told to do a pumpkin material cube and a candle. I did really struggle on the pumpkin in the session but I knew I would as I did the week before on these material cubes, this is a task that I’m not confident with that I would like to improve. We were told to look at how the light shows through the object like transparency, this was difficult. I use the same method as before in the previous week I got some reference imaging of pumpkins and candles that were lit so they would show the light passing through and how this can change the colours of the surface. I then created my own cube using a perspective technique that we were taught, from that I had my cube ready to be painted on, I put down solid basic colour first then from that I drew rough line on top to get the form of the pumpkin that I wanted and then I added the colour to gain more of a desired shape and form. I used a hard brush on the pumpkin built up colour and tones in areas that were necessary. Gradually it came together with difficulty. 

 

The candle I had to do at home as I ran out of time in session, I decided to go with a standard cream like colour as this I thought would show a nice representation of light coming through its surface. I think the candle was easier to do as I found it had less detail and it was easier to display light that is passing through using different brush techniques and colours. For the candle, I used a harder brush in some areas more at the bottom of the piece and I used a lighter softer brush for the top portion of the piece. Overall, I wasn’t too happy with the outcome but being the first time painting a transparent like surface it could have been worse, it will have to be something I would have to work on in the future.

After my concept art session, I went to the anatomy lecture which was looking at the head. I drew using a black pen and white pencil again as I found this gives the best effect on the slight brown paper I use. 

 Some of the drawings are incompete because the tutor was too quick on some slides.

On Friday, I had a group session in which we spoke about our dissertation ideas again and I got a chance to speak to my tutors about my dissertation idea, they both gave me some sources to look at one being ‘Henry Jenkins’ as he wrote a book on environmental storytelling, I think this will be one of my main sources for research I will try and get this book in the library or online. I was also given more sources to research especially ones based on film as this will be beneficial with the film ‘Stalker’ that I will be analysing. I may compare the film and Fallout 4 with its environmental storytelling and how they are similar in design, build narrative etc... It will come together in due cause I aim to start writing my draft next week. I also found out that the specialist tutor I see for my dyslexia has cancelled my next session they will not be in for a few weeks so I am now having to see someone else, hopefully I can pick up where I left off and it won’t be too confusing for me and the new tutor to carry on.

Week Summary

On Monday, I did not have any sessions at university, I did not get up too much with work related stuff on Monday but I did consider some more sources for my dissertation that I think may relate to my chosen topic.

On Tuesday, I had an anatomy session, the small model that I've been working on in the last few weeks has been completed, this week we continued with the bigger scale model as in the last session I only got some wax down for the legs and feet. In this session, I smoothed out the legs and added a pelvis to the model, in the next session I hope to continue with the pelvis and get it to the completed state then to be smoothed out and to carry on with the legs, as I believe the knees will be added in the next session. So far, the sessions have been very useful and I've learned a lot already on anatomy and differences in muscles and bone structures, my tutor is very thorough and helpful I do enjoy the session every week and am very glad that I decided to do the anatomy classes. The big scale model is using a wax that sets harder and dries quicker so a heat gun is needed at times to soften the wax and certain tools to model the softer wax. I like how I'm using different tools and learning a new skill in these sessions and look forward to having a fully completed human structure with muscles and all.

 The images above are diagrams of what my tutor drew in our session.

Also on Tuesday, I started the character sheet for my sci-fi Roman character, I plan to do a front, side and back view of the character in full, I plan to get this completed this week. But I know that when I model the character in Zbrush it will change in design but I aim to go by the character sheet as accurate as I can, but I no higher detail will be added in the final model piece. After the model is completed I aim if I have time, is to do a full final character concept piece of my character that is based from my model. I would like to do this as it would give the project a final touch and would be good to fill my portfolio.

On Wednesday, I did not do any university work as I recommended a trip to Kings Lynn with my housemates to a museum, as one of them is studying fashion and I knew the museum has work or a theme that was related to her project.

On Thursday, I had my one hour session with my specialist tutor for my dyslexia. In this session, we went over my dissertation again and went through different sources that I have found that could be beneficial for my dissertation subject, my subject has changed slightly as I was going to compare the differences between games such as fallout 4 to games that have less of a story such as FIFA or certain shooters that are more competitive in their gameplay and looking at how the environment collapse seen in Fallout 4 can affect it's characters. This has changed as I am now thinking of looking at environments such as the one in Fallout 4 and how this frames narrative in it's storytelling. This idea is still an early concept but I believe this to be a stronger topic to discuss and analyse, in the next coming weeks I will look more into this subject, gain more resources and research in which I will then start and hopefully begin my dissertation very soon now that I have a more solid topic. Also in the session with my tutor we went over the sources that I have gathered already and went over a few which were more relevant to some others that where not. In the next coming weeks with my specialist tutor I will continue to look at my sources and structure of the dissertation.

Also on Thursday, I had a concept art session in the afternoon in which we were told to create material cubes one of Slate and another rock of our choosing, we had to create at least 2 cubes but could do 3 if we wanted, I chose to do 2 material cubes. With the slate cube, That I did in the session was quite difficult. I first started with a basic cube shape which I got an image online and drew over to get my cube shape, from there I put down basic block colours, the colours I went with were more of a grey coloured slate. We were told to look at how slate forms such as layers and look at how light hits the slate. This task was more difficult than I would ever imagine and it's not something that I've ever had to do before I was quite surprised at how difficult it was. It made me realise that I should do a lot more studies of textures and materials such as rocks and other surfaces. I did not get to finish the piece in the session and I did not like what I did in the session so when I got home I started the slate again in more detail. 

This was my first attempt but I did not like it, I found that the slate pieces where to flat and brush strokes were not consistent enough. 

I decided to go with a different colour slate, one with more of a blue tint and used a different brush which was rougher than my previous brush that I used at university. I found some good reference imaging and went from there. First, I drew out a white rough line of the layers of slate and from there I coloured in the slate and gave it more form in which then developed to a more ideal design. Overall, I was happier with the second piece as I didn't find it to be as flat as the first piece. I still need to learn a lot from this task, work more with different shading and light sources as this is something that I am not that confident with, the more I do this task the better I will become and the more confident. My second material cube I decided to do a marble piece I used the same methods as I did with the slate piece, I gathered reference imaging, drew a rough outline and detail of the stone then added in the colour and light sources and detail. The second material cube of the marble was done a lot quicker than the slate piece. Overall the pieces did not come out as bad as I thought they would do but there is definitely an improvement that needs to be made I will have to start looking more into different materials and do more studies in my own time as this would benefit me in the future.

Also on Thursday, late afternoon I had an anatomy lecture which was looking at the abdomen and the curvature of the spine and so on. I did a few sketches in this session using black ink and white pencil. I enjoy going to these lectures as I do like to just sit there and do some quick sketches using pen and paper as I have not done traditional drawing in some time. It also keeps me in the flow of drawing and learning more about the human body and it's form this also is good for my development work.

On Friday, I went to a talk about china internships. The presentation was by a student who gained experience in China with a mobile gaming app company for a few months. She spoke about her experience there, the way they lived, she told us what she had to do at this company and the trips they all went on as a group when she worked there. It seemed to of been an enjoyable experience for her and she gained a lot of knowledge while there as well. It was nice to hear someone else's view on an internship in a different country as it is not something that I have considered but now it may be a possibility. Also after this presentation I stayed behind to talk to my tutor in my group as I had put my name down to help in the independent study week on 22nd November for the women in games to help my tutor with designing a woman character (collaboration task) with younger students in a high school just for the day. I wanted to do this as it would give me experience of working with others in a team and teaching others my skills that may benefit them and in which it may give them a clear understanding of how creative ideas come together and this maybe something they would like to do but not sure where to go with it. I also wanted to be helpful, and I wanted to do this as it was working with character design as it is a specialism that I enjoy.

Week Summary

On Monday, I did not have any sessions. I did carry on with some of my character concept project on Monday. I drew three line drawings of a character that could become the finalised 3D design of my Roman character, yet I still haven’t got a finalized design that I like. Also on the same day I went back into the Z brush with the model of the human sculpt that I did previous, I attempted to add detail onto the model such as a rough helmet design and chest piece. I made the model which was done using Z spheres into an adaptive skin so that I could sculpt onto the model with no problems. I wanted to do this as I felt this would give me a clearer understanding of the programme and how to use certain tools when it comes to my final design. Even though this piece is still very rough I think it’s good to do development work that can show I am trying to keep on top of learning different skills in Z brush. 

This image shows some of the quick line designs of what my final design for my character could be. I use the final silhouette design from last week and did a quick draw over on top. I will do more deigns.

Zsphere used to create the human body. (Rough)

 This is the zspheres as a adaptive skin ready to model on.

This is a rough sculpt on top of adaptive skin model to get a faint idea of what I will attempt with my final model. I used the move brush tool and clay build up brush for this sculpt with smoothing in some areas.

On Tuesday, I had my waxwork anatomy session. In the session, we had to finish off our smaller models which was completed early in the session this consisted of completing the hands of the model, arms and legs. We then we moved on to the bigger scale model that we will now carry on to completion. With the bigger model, we will use a different type of wax which sets quicker and is much more resistant, in the next few weeks I hope to have a completed model with all muscle structures, bone and ligaments. I’m enjoying the sessions so far and looking forward to finally having a completed model of a human body. It has been nice to do something practical in a session. In this session, On the bigger scale model I only got the first base of the leg wax on and pelvis completed but next week I will have to tidy up and smooth the wax in which I can then move on and add to the pelvis structure. Also on Wednesday I went to the university library and managed to get a copy of the DVD ‘Stalker’. Which may be of some use for my dissertation.

On Wednesday, I went to see a specialised tutor for my dyslexia as I am entitled to one hour sessions a week. In this one hour session I went over my dissertation idea with them, they wrote down a way of how to structure my dissertation in the correct way in which parts needed to go where. I still haven’t got a solid idea of where my dissertation will go and this is staring to worry me a little, but it just needs to be put together in more contexts but they did give me some good ideas and advice and we went through my theme in more detail thoroughly. In the next coming weeks, I can see that these sessions will be very useful which will finally lead to a concluded dissertation. I will go to these one-hour sessions once a week from now on. 

The above images show what my specialised tutor went over with me, this shows my ideas and a way of structuring my dissertation.

On Thursday, I had a concept art session in which another task was issued. In this task (3), we were told to do a draw over of a character female or male that had certain requirements that needed to be added. 

 Brief C.

 Brief D.

This is the image that we were given to draw over.

I went with the male character which is brief D, it consists of the male character to be a zombie and in the era of Zhou dynasty. The character needed to have clothing elements that fitted the theme. The focus of the project was how the material folds or creases. This is a skill that I need to learn in more depth as my style consists of line, I find that materials don’t have much realism in some of my drawings. Even though I’m a character artist I did find this task a little difficult in some areas especially with the clothing. I used a photo bash method for the clothing part of this drawing and in which I used different tools and brushes to darken areas and to light areas to give it the effect of creases. I don’t think this is one of my strongest pieces I found it quite hard to get involved 100% into this project which I found odd as it is a project that I should have enjoyed more as it is character themed, I think I could have done better on this project but overall, I do like the design of the character and clothing theme that I have picked and put together and its colours. After the character was drawn and finalised I added a background piece. This was done by using a photograph and doing a paint over on areas and using different blending modes to give this piece a more atmospheric touch.  

Also on Thursday, late afternoon I had an anatomy session that I decided to go to. I attended all the anatomy sessions in year two but I would like to continue these sessions to get familiar again with the anatomy of the body. Also in these sessions, it is a good time to do some quick sketches, I will continue to do this in each session every week. 

On Friday, I had a group meeting in contextual studies going over the dissertation once again with the group and with the person sitting next to me. In this session, we were asked to talk over our theme once more and to produce a spider diagram of some kind from my dissertation idea which the person next to me had to complete. I had to give them my theme and games that I will be using and from that they produced the spider diagram. I did find that this task puts my ideas into perspective. I will keep this piece with me and to look over it for ideas. Also in the session, I spoke to a tutor about the idea for my dissertation and what I went over with earlier this week with my one-hour session with a specialised tutor and they told me to make the subject less broad, in which they gave me a new title/idea for my dissertation which is ‘How does environment collapse frame narrative in fallout 4 and dishonoured 2’. I will go over this title with some research and find some sources that may help me, I may have to change slightly my idea and look more at the narrative of both these games. I will see my specialist tutor next week and go over this with them.