WEEK 6 UPDATE

Lately i've been doing a lot of zbrush practicing. I've been meeting with my technical supervisor, Gordon Brown, every Friday to discuss zBrush and learn new techniques that can help me in the creation of my characters. We were talking about how a character with both hard surfaces and organic modelling can make a nice contrast, and that this is something that would visualise and transfer very well into zbrush.

The biggest problem I can see my having when creating these characters is trying to make their clothing. Since folds can be drawn so easily at random, its very easy to get carried away and because theyre so organic it can be hard to create the illusion of cloth upon a model. I've been researching different folds and looking into how cloth should interact with a model properly; I feel that this is very important toward the project as it will really help make my final models stronger. Designing my characters with strong attention to methodologies is one thing, but creating the illusion of realism in a 3D character is something completely different altogether.

I made Gandalf the Grey on zbrush in university to practice long flowing cloth, i'll try and get a picture up as soon as I can.

WEEK 5 UPDATE

I'm still meeting with Gordon Brown on Fridays to talk about Zbrush, and learn about techniques in sculpting. It seems i'm going to have to do a lot of jumping between packages, and since its a process I am as of yet unfamiliar with, I really need to get some practice before I start sculpting my final characters. I've been doing some practice on a Jedi-like character, trying to get nice detailing from both hard surfaces and flowing cloth, to try and give my model a nice appeal.



The feedback was very constructive - there's a lot of small details I didn't realise that were so wrong, and rectifying them would make the model look so much better. My hard surface work was looking fairly pleasant, but in regards to cloth I need to learn a lot about how cloth folds and sits on a person. When you sculpt, you don't create something, you want to create the illusion of something. Artistic freedom wins again!

Gordon told me a lot about cloth and how to create the illusion of it sitting well. Cloth usually always has a tension point, and always obeys gravity. If nothing is holding on to it, it will hang completely vertically, unless influenced by wind or environment. For example, on the Jedi's waist, the cloth follows the contours of his body - this would not happen in reality, as the fabric would just hang.

I was also taught that painting or creating cloth without reference can just lead to bas sculpting; since cloth is so dynamic and organic, it's really good practice just to look at yourself or find reference for when you sculpt. It can make your sculpts look so much better.

In any case, I am still practicing sculpting before I go onto designing my characters, and also looking into other areas of research, whilst typing parts of my dissertation.

WEEK 4 UPDATE

Long time no speak, blog! Recently, and again, I've been focusing much more on the written side of my project. I hope im not offputting my actual honours project by doing this, but I feel it's justified since my project is quite research heavy in the sense that I'm trying to pay attention to both archetypes and storytelling in character relationships, AND heavy use of character design. As such, I've kept my head in the books and been typing away since I last updated.

I've developed the base mesh for my project, and from that made a little sculpt of Harvey Dent, or Two Face, from Batman as a bit of more practice before doing my actual characters. Hopefully I'll get this writing and research out the way and start doing my own characters soon.






Male Base Mesh, which I'm using for tesla and I used to make Harvey Dent



Gale Base Mesh

WEEK 3 UPDATE

Another update. Although I have a lot of my actual concept work done for my honours project from last semester, I really need to dig into the books and research before I begin designing. This is why I'm looking into typing parts of my dissertation before I actually go ahead and design my characters.

Why?

I feel my honours project is quite research heavy. Not only am I looking into the contextual elements that make good characters and villains, but I'm scouring for what makes a good character design too. I really feel I need to get more comfortable in these domains and have a wealth of knowledge in them before I go ahead and finalise my characters altogether. That way I can rest comfortably knowing that I've not rushed ahead trying to design characters, and instead thought carefully of the process in which they have been created and their relationships between one another.

Therefore, not a lot of artwork done recently, I'm still mainly writing. I'm practicing with Zbrush and meeting with Gordon and Gregor, keeping them up to date. I'm also toying with the idea of hopefully creating more than two character designs if I have the time, as I feel that this would bode me well especially when giving people questionairres and asking for feedback - having a wider array of villains or "rogue gallery" will allow my research to be fairer by allowing people to gauge which kind of villain they prefer.

WEEK 2 UPDATE

My honours project is officially underway, and I guess my social life on hold for the next little while! I'm still developing two strong character designs and high detailed sculpts in zBrush, and I plan to get started on the characters as soon as I can; I'd really like to get more research done for my dissertation first. I was talking to Gregor and he said that throughout researching I should just plug in any relevant quotes or material so that I can compile it at a later date and don't have to go looking for it again. This slowly turned into me actually typing parts of my dissertation, from case studies to analysis and back and forth. However getting a head start on this is as good as anything really. I know it'll just overwhelm me if i leave it way too late.

I should be looking into finding out how I want to display my models, and as such i've done a bit of looking. The character artists from the Sony game Uncharted 2 presented their sculpts beautifully, decamating the mesh (which basically means reducing the poly count drastically whilst still preserving detail) and taking it into maya or max so they can render it with mental ray. The results are breathtaking.

In any case, i'll keep on writing and designing. Another update to come soon!

Week 1 Update and Honours Project Details

Title: A Study In Villainy

Question: What considerations in terms of context and design are required to create a successful antagonist for the contemporary audience?

Abstract:

Ever since the human race conceived the art of storytelling, we forever immortalised the concept of an antagonist; a villain, a hurdle, a plot device, whose malice would bring a hero’s subsistence to fruition; a never-ending tale illustrating the importance of virtue over vice. However, in today’s contemporary story telling mediums an antagonist has great scope; they no longer need to be as two dimensional as a serpent tempting a naive woman to eat a forbidden piece of fruit. The best villains in literature, movies and games are arguably the most complex and compelling; there is more sustenance to their existence rather than posing a stereotypical peril. A villain has the promise to be more than merely just a lesson in morality to impede us against doing ill; in what ways can we deviate from virtue over vice, and how can a villain’s success as a character affect the quality of a story?

Character’s success can be determined by a multitude of factors. Researching story, relationships, design and audience are all very important, but to what extent can we use these and deviate from them, and what are the underlying determining methodologies behind creating a strong character? This project proposal and subsequent dissertation aim to identify key factors that should be considered in the conceptualisation of a villain, and how an effective, strong antagonist can be produced for a contemporary audience.

Details:

As part of my honours project, I will be creating character designs and high quality zBrush models of these designs. The conceptual stage will be derived from research appropriate to my dissertation, whilst the origin and profile of the characters will be justified through choices appropriate to my research in order to strengthen them characteristically.

Tesla revisited