Week 24 Summary

On Monday I came in and managed to have the pillar finished off completely, with the textures applied in Unreal 4 and edited to give it a more rocky appearance, which I have since taken screenshots of. I'm very happy with it, although there was a couple of things I wanted to add to it such as some red to the damaged parts and a tear on his face, although I really don't think I have the time to worry about minute details since I have the time machine to work on. The lecture in the afternoon was another live workshop one.

On Wednesday I had a Photoshop session and we was shown more about masking which was quite fun, as well as layer styles. I'm enjoying these little Photoshop sessions as I'm learning more things I didn't know, and I know these will all be helpful for the future, in anything I do within the program.

The session on Thursday I started creating my time machine, which is a robotic woman. I have created most of the torso and head in ZBrush, and later on on Thursday I managed to finish the arms and begin working on the cables coming out of her back as well. The afternoon lecture was about phenomenology and thinking through senses, which was another great and interesting lecture. I also discussed some ideas for my essay with the lecturer and received some input on my ideas, to the point where I think I have a solid idea on what I want to do for my essay, so I shall be working on that during our 2 week break.

In my free time I've simply just done some more written work and finished off a couple of bits here and there, but I am slowly getting everything complete now, so hopefully over the course of the holidays, I can get a good chunk of things finished.

Week 23 Summary

During our lecture this week (which was another live workshop) we was told we ideally should have this pillar done by this Friday, which would of been nice to have known earlier but I guess it did kickstart me into doing more work. We was also told that we needed it to be imported into Unreal Engine, even though this was initially stated as a goal and not an actual requirement.

On Thursday we had another simple drop-in-like session but we was shown about a coding script that allowed us to harden UV edges easily, which was very useful. The afternoon lecture focused on game mechanics and how they could be used as a metaphor or have some meaning to them, which was incredibly interesting and I really liked this lecture once again.

In my free time, I managed to get my pillar from being in the initial stages of the low poly, to having it finished, UV mapped, baked and the model imported into Unreal itself, with the only thing left to do is apply the texture map to it. I did this mostly by coming in on Tuesday and staying behind until late into the evening on Monday and Thursday in order to properly concentrate on it with no distractions and so I could use all the programs I needed. I also managed to do some more of the written aspects of the work, and overall I think this week has been hugely successful, I just wish I spent more of my weeks working as hard as this.

Week 22 Summary

On Monday we had a lecture similar to the last one, where it was another live workshop and I feel the same about it as I did last week: a few useful parts that made it useful overall.

On Wednesday I had a life drawing session focusing on fantasy, so the models dressed up in medieval style clothes with weaponry, which was pretty good and very different from the usual, but once again my drawings were not finished, but it was still very enjoyable.

Thursday was just another simple drop-in-like session similar to last week, but we was given a slight recap on how to bake a model. This was very helpful with re-jogging my memory on it, and I managed to get notes written up on anything I did not already know. In the afternoon we had a lecture about gender and intersectionality, which was incredibly interesting and I really liked it. It was very informative and has really gotten me into the idea of writing this essay which we have to write, although I'm not sure what to actually write about at the moment.

In my own time I've UV mapped the Hydra Splatling model I made and have continued working on my pillar to the point where I have decimated the model and am ready to take it into Maya and begin turning it into the low poly model.

Week 21 Summary

I attended the drop-in session this week in the hope I could get some help with UV mapping, only for a year 2 to not only assist me with my problem, but to also show me much easier ways to UV, allowing me to quickly UV map the Klefki and Bronzong models. I also had a lecture on this day, which was a live workshop where our tutor made a pillar whilst answering any questions we had. Whilst not greatly helpful, I did learn a couple of new things about ZBrush, so overall it was worth it in the end.

On Wednesday I had a Photoshop tutorial, where we painted a portrait of someone. This was pretty fun, although my drawing was disastrous, but nether-less this is just my inexperience with this way of working, but I do want to give it another shot when I can.

Thursday was simply a session for us to come in, get feedback and help, and to work on our pillars. I managed to get it mostly finished in Zbrush, with only attaching the arms and adding damage to them remaining. The afternoon lecture brought up our essay and what we really need to do for it, which was definitely helpful for us to know.

In my free time I textured the Klefki and Bronzong models which came out with really nice results. I also made my pillar before my Wednesday session so that I could simply import it to ZBrush and immediately begin working on it.

Week 20 Summary

I was ill on the Wednesday so I could not attend that day's session, but Thursday's session was a ZBrush tutorial and it was actually quite fun, we was shown how to apply damage to objects and then tasked with creating a pillar in 4 weeks, which in turn has motivated me to do more work since I have a time to aim to get it all done for. The idea of the pillar has also grasped my attention a lot more since we actually design it ourselves instead of just creating something from an image, like with the phone.

I've also made a couple more models in my free time, which are of Pokemon, since I wanted to try something other then a weapon, and felt like some of the more robotic Pokemon could work quite well in Maya. In the end I made Bronzong and Klefki, to which I am incredibly happy with Klefki and in fact, I think it's probably one of the best models I've made so far.

Week 19 Summary

This week was our week off, but I did create a model of the Hydra Splatling weapon from Splatoon which I'm very happy with the outcome of it, all I need to do is UV map it and texture it which I will do when I have a stronger grasp of UV mapping. I did a little bit of drawing in Photoshop but beyond that I have not done too much. I think the reason I have not done much lately is because we are not really being given any deadlines beyond getting the task done by April, so I'm not really rushing to finish things, even though I really should.

Week 18 Summary

This week there were no sessions, with the only thing I had to do was come in and present my presentation with my small group, which went incredibly well. I was expecting a fairly large group of people to be watching, but it was in fact just two of our tutors, and they both had a lot of positive things to say about my group' work which I am pleased about.

My own time consisted of some random bits of work here and there, my phone is pretty much finished and I keep trying UV mapping out although I am struggling somewhat to actually do it because I am unsure where to start and unsure how to fix some of the problems that arise.

Week 17 Summary

This week we did not have a presentation on Monday so my first 'in uni' session, as such, was on Wednesday as a life drawing session, focusing on lighting and the usage of charcoal. The session was pretty good as I haven't really done any drawings with charcoal apart from the odd drawing here and there during one of these sessions. Some of the drawings were pretty enjoyable to make, especially with the limitations set to us such as only drawing with vertical lines.

On Thursday we had another Maya session, but this session was simply just more of a drop in with a couple of reminders about some things shown off before, but was more of a drop-in session. I never spoke to the tutor so I probably could of done this work as home, especially given the fact that a lot of the things shown to us I already knew, so I didn't really take anything from this session beyond just a couple of reminders.

We also had a lecture on Thursday where our course leader showed us some of his work, similar to the last couple of Thursday lectures, as well as learning about women in the gaming industry and was also given a recap on what we need to be doing for our presentations since no one really understood what we were supposed to be doing, but after this lecture everyone seems to have a solid idea (at least me and my group do) of what we should be doing, or rather what we can do. The lecture was definitely worth going to as we got more information and ideas about the gaming industry as well as actually getting a proper understanding of what we need to do.

In my free time, I've worked on my models at a couple of points, but have mostly focused on my presentation for next week with my group, to the point where we actually finished it on Saturday. I also wanted to spend a lot of time this weekend just doing some digital drawing since I haven't done any in a long time, even though I really do need to crack on with some of this 3D modelling.

Week 16 Summary

This week our Monday lecture focused on baking and introduced us to things such as cages, raycasting and X-normals, and then recapped on Normal maps and various other maps. It was a pretty useful and informative lecture, but it was another one of those lectures where we was not shown a lot since it's something that's better to explain when actually doing it.

The Wednesday session was a Photoshop tutorial which I was excited for (and enjoyed in the end) which focused on masking and how it can be useful in certain situations. The session was pretty calm and there wasn't really a lot for us to do in it so we could go at a slow pace which I liked. I ended up creating the image below, and I am surprisingly happy with how it turned out to be honest.

Our Maya session on Thursday was incredibly fast paced and somewhat aggravating as I could not keep up with the tutor whilst also taking notes, but even when taking notes I would end up missing a part which then meant I could not keep up with him. The session took what we was told about baking on Monday and progressed through us doing it practically. We baked a cube, created a normal map and then messed around in Unreal Engine 4 for a little while, which is pretty interesting, but overall the session just ended up annoying me more then it should of because of how fast the tutor was going through everything, and I feel like if I didn't keep falling behind then I would of really enjoyed the session.

The afternoon lecture was presented by Scott Grandison, where he discussed programming and what he has worked on within the industry. The lecture started of fairly plain, as he just showed us some basic programming, but then once he started showing off some of the more technical and advanced bits, especially the use of the Xbox Kinect camera, then it became a lot more exciting. Afterwards he showed off some of the games and other bits he has worked on, which was also pretty interesting. Overall the lecture was actually pretty good and I did quite enjoy it to be honest, it was both very informative and fun!

In my time outside of uni I have continued working on some of my models a bit, but honestly I haven't done a lot, which I should really reconsider as I feel like I am getting behind now, and should do more models in general really.

Week 15 Summary

Our lecture on Monday focused on materials, showing us the Lambert, Blinn and Phong materials in Maya, as well as materials in Unreal Engine 4, material instancing and then a recap on things like physically based rendering, albedo, normal, roughness, metallic and emissive maps, combining textures, ambient occlusion and realistic and hand painted materials. Whilst it was nice to get a recap on a lot of previous topics, we had also been shown these before as the Unreal Engine 4 stuff was the only brand new stuff really shown to us (since the Maya materials were briefly discussed with us during our Maya tutorials last week).

My Wednesday session was another critique session and this time everyone had a lot more work done so it was easier to get feedback from people. The feedback I got was very helpful and I shall be taking all of it into account. It was suggested that I re-consider how I go about making my 3D models because I have a tendency to overlap objects so polygons are being wasted, which makes sense so I will be going through my models and finding all the points where polygons overlap, as well as extruding shapes to create some parts of my model instead of creating a new shape and just hashing it to pieces. It was also suggested that I do more UV mapping since I haven't done any for any of my models I have made so far, which I do agree that I have to do some UV mapping, but I was then accused of wanting the UV mapping session re-taught to me because I stated that I would like to discuss with another tutor a couple of things about UV mapping, such as a reminder on how to align the checker grid with the faces of my objects. Finally, it was also suggested that with one of my barrel textures that I apply a lighter gradient to parts of it in order to make it look a bit more wood-like, which I agree with entirely.

On Thursday I had another Maya tutorial, although this time we was just shown how to make the cable for the vintage phone and then was left to do whatever we desired. Having the cable shown to us was a huge help and will definitely be an aid in the future because it was the final thing we really needed to be taught in order to create the phone.
The lecture in the afternoon consisted of a lecture from games developer Steven Huckle, who had worked on Sims 3, Tomb Raider, Transformers Universe and various other games. He spoke to us about his experience in the industry, his work and his website sharkinfestedcustard.net, which helps people set up development studios for making games. His lecture was both entertaining and very informative which both kept me listening whilst also informing us all about various facts and intriguing information. This will also be a great aid in my group's presentation which is due within a couple of weeks (although we still don't know what we are supposed to be doing really beyond the research task assigned to everyone).

In my free time I have managed to continue working on the vintage phone, to the point where it is almost complete now, as well as starting to create a weapon for a character of mine. I plan to have the models for the phone and the weapon completed by the end of next week, as well as hopefully tweaking the lamps and the character, so that I can begin working on unwrapping them all and possibly even texturing them in the future.

Week 14 Summary

This is the first week back after the Christmas break and things seem to be get steadily back up to pace already. Monday consisted of a lecture about advance modelling, showing us some more advanced techniques such as subdivisions, topology, floaters and kit bashing. Wednesday consisted of a life modelling session that focused on hands and perspective, where we did a series of short hand sketches followed by short full figure drawing. On Thursday I had a Maya session in the morning that allowed us to practice most of the techniques shown to us in the lecture on Monday, followed by another lecture in the afternoon briefly explaining our contextual studies topics for this project.

In my free time I managed to finish off my character that I started making in Maya a long time ago, and also managed to continue working on this blog and did a little bit of 3D modelling. The character I am semi-happy with, although I feel it could of gone better, although this latest Maya session allowed me to finally finish it after being taught about bridging and combining. The new techniques shown to us are fairly easy to remember and I can already see them being incredibly useful for me. I also took notes on these so that I could remember them in the future should I forget them (which is very likely). I do feel like I am going to get behind because of how slowly I am doing things lately so I will crack on with doing a lot more work next week.

Week 13 Summary

This is the final week before Christmas but things have not really slowed down. On Monday we had a lecture discussing how to texture an object and different types and ways of texturing, although like last week this was a very short lecture as it is more something that we have to do ourselves to fully understand, so we will be continuing it during our Maya tutorial on Thursday. Not much happened on Tuesday but Wednesday consisted of a Photoshop tutorial about texture brushes which was incredibly interesting and helpful, so I will definitely be practicing those and acquiring more of them in the future. On Thursday we continued developing our skills in Maya by learning how to apply textures to a 3D. We did this by using a barrel already created by our tutor, setting it up to texture, and then simply using the UV map as a net to design a texture within in Photoshop. Obviously the main texture idea is wood but I am not particularly good at creating textures from scratch, although this will be a good way to practice, as well as to try out the texture brushes. In my spare time I have been working on the model for my character a little more although I am still struggling to get things done for it, let alone actually getting time to do 3D modelling with some recent events.

Over Christmas we have been tasked with texturing the barrel again but with a different texture, which I want to further develop some wood textures or create some sort of pixel, cel shaded or metal barrel texture.

Week 12 Summary

This week was also pretty quiet as we still haven't been set any large tasks to do. Our lecture on Monday covered UV mapping and various terms for it such as Seams, UV Space, packing, UV Shells/Islands and Texel Density, as well as the reasons checker patterns are used for UV mapping, those reasons being:
-UV scale issues.
-Easy to identify distortion,
-Flipping UVs (facing the wrong way).
-Identify seams.

On Wednesday we had a critical session where we got feedback on what we had done so far. Whilst any feedback is good, this session felt a bit underwhelming due to small amount of work done by everyone because there hasn't really been a specific task set for us beyond making a lamp or two in Maya, so our feedbacks only lasted a couple of minutes each. I also did not really get much feedback about the work I had produced beyond some new techniques and keyboard shortcuts, which will be helpful in the future.

Thursday was another Maya tutorial session where we was taught UV mapping and essentially showed how to make what we was shown on Monday, with the session continuing into next week for more UV mapping practice. Honestly UV mapping is pretty complicated and it has started putting me off 3D modelling again, although I'm certain this is just another thing that I could learn and get the hang of in the future. A problem I had with the session itself was that I was easily getting lost or missing something that our tutor was telling us so I frequently had to stop and ask our tutor for assistance in order to get me back on track, which although he was happy to do, was bugging me a little bit, but it is more that I just don't understand the program as opposed to any fault by the tutor, program etc.

We was tasked with just continuing to practice with Maya and 3D modelling in general in our own time so I decided to start working on creating a character of mine in Maya that I felt could be simple enough to make within the program, although I have started to struggle creating his fingers, which is something much easier to create within ZBrush since Maya is better for more artificial objects.

Week 11 Summary

This week has been pretty quiet to be honest, with the lecture on Monday I learnt about some of the techniques to do with 3D modelling and what our new project is about, but we wasn't informed about any specifics so I could not really do anything until Thursday when I had my first session with our new project leader, where he introduced us to Maya and what we need to do this week, which is to create lamps in Maya. At first Maya seemed as complicated as ZBrush and I was almost immediately put off by using it. However, upon using it a bit more, as well as downloading it in my spare time, I found out that this program isn't as complicated as ZBrush and I am actually starting to enjoy it.

Between the lecture and the Maya session, I had a life drawing session on Tuesday which went well, in fact probably better then my previous life drawing sessions. Outside of these sessions and the lecture though I really did not do a lot because there hasn't been much set for us, I just created the lamps I had to create in my spare time, which I ended up creating a third lamp because I felt the one I made might be a bit boring (as well as wanting to mess around with the program a bit more), and worked on this blog. Overall this week has been quite quiet and easy, but I'm sure the weeks will get busier just like before.

Week 7 Summary

This week was a lot more practical based for me as I decided to work almost completely on my design work, getting to the point that my model sheet is now complete and my character sheet is almost finished as well, although I have continued to work on this blog occasionally. I did encounter a few problems when it came to the model sheet as because I was using my first drawing of my character as a reference for the proportions (which is drawn at a slight angle), it resulted in some parts of my characters body changing in terms of size or shape, which is not too much of a problem, but that then resulted in the shoulders being ridiculously short and the head being far too large, so I had to make some adjustments as I was going, but overall I feel that the model sheet has turned out very well. The character sheet, whilst not finished yet, is going better then the model sheet in my opinion and is virtually completed beyond just drawing some ways of my character attacking.

On Thursday I had another critical with my project leader and managed to get some feedback on my character sheet, since this is what I was working on at the time, and he suggested creating some hand studies since this is a unique trait to my character, such as showing off how she grabs things and how she uses her hands, but apart from this my character sheet is pretty much finished. Since then most of the hand studies have been completed, although I do wish to create a couple more with her actually holding something.

Week 6 Summary

I am starting to get back into the flow of things now as I have done more work this week then previous weeks, similar to the situation last week. This week I have mainly worked on blog stuff again, although I have finished the iteration part of my character design for 'The Tinderbox' project and have managed to get a final concept for my character created as well, which is hopefully strong enough that I can begin working on the character and model sheets next week. Although I have not done as much practical work, I feel that the work I have done on my blog makes up for it and am now getting back on track.

On Wednesday we had a second ZBrush sessions which just focused on more tools and us experimenting with them more, and although I feel that I am starting to get the hang of some parts of the program, I still am not keen on it.

Thursday was another critical session and at this point in time I was still working on iteration. My project leader pointed out that the legs I was trying to create (digitigrade) biologically do not make sense, so he explained to me how these work and then discussed with me how a demon aspect of my chosen character (the princess) could work. The feedback I received has allowed me to correct the mistakes I was making with my design and has greatly improved both the visuals of my character and my understanding of how these kinds of legs work.

Week 5 Summary

I did more work this week then I have done in the last couple of weeks, and although I am behind a little bit, I did manage to finish the final piece of the timepiece project which I am proud of, although I feel it is weaker then my insect project simply because I did not enjoy the project as much. I've also begun creating some silhouettes for the new project, which revolves around choosing a character from the fairy tale "The Tinderbox", and designing them to fit into a time period which was allocated to us. I was allocated the Georgian Europe era, and although initially I really disliked this, it has grown on me overtime and I am looking forward to taking these further.

On Wednesday we had a different session to usual, and that was a group critical, where we each presented our timepiece work to the rest of the people in our group. When it came to mine, I sadly did not get much criticism, but I did get a few suggestions on how I could develop the floor plan layout of the snakes, which I took into consideration, especially when I was creating the final piece.

Thursday was simply another critical session with our project leader, although I did not get a chance to get feedback from our project leader. I did however manage to create my silhouettes for the character project which I am pleased about and I can now work solely on this project now that the timepiece has been finished apart from some blog parts.

This new project, despite me initially hating some parts of it, has easily become my favourite of three and I think I can create a much better outcome from this project as a result, providing I can catch up and not rush parts of this project.

Week 4 Summary

This week I have admittedly done very little work, mainly because I just haven't got any strong ideas that I want to work with or really stand out to me, so have been struggling to get any further with the project. The beginning of the week ended up with me doing nothing, but then on Wednesday we had a life drawing session, and it gave me some motivation to begin creating some more concept art, although I still struggled to think of anything that really grasped my attention. The life drawing session was alright however, it followed a similar path to my previous session, but starting with the 16 short drawings and then going into some chalk drawings, where we was tasked to work on lighting instead of drawing lines to create the shape of the body.

On Thursday I had another review session with our project leader, and I was discussing this project with him and my ideas about the Apocalypse snakes and the woman with an hourglass body, and although he said to do the one that I wanted to do more/felt right, which was the hourglass woman, that this project is more about an object. He eventually told me that I should do the hourglass woman one if that is what will make me happier, but to just keep it more timepiece then human. Whilst I did want to go with the woman, I decided to stick with the snakes, as I had a more object design for them and I felt as though I would not be following the project properly if I was to stick with the hourglass idea. After speaking to him, my project leader showed me a few shortcuts on Photoshop and some ways that I could generate ideas, such as using squares, circles and triangles to create silhouettes. When I practiced this though, I could not see anything in what I was making so I stopped doing it and continued to draw some sketches and designs. When I got home, and for the rest of the week, I continued designing some snakes and eventually settled on some designs that I will use for my final piece, getting to the point that the model sheet is almost complete and the designs are pretty much settled upon now.

I haven't been enjoying this project as much as the previous one because I cannot think of anything I like, but I should have the project finished soon so that I can begin working on the new one, which we will receive the brief for tomorrow.

Week 2 Summary

The second week has been a bit calmer compared to the first week. We had a lecture on Monday with our tutor explaining different terms for lighting in imagery and various different compositional styles, which will be incredibly helpful for when I work on the final piece for this part of the project. We also had another lecture with another tutor on Thursday, who spoke to us more about the written and research parts of our work, which was very informative and will be of great help in both how I go about research and what sort of things I should research. The work I have done however is a lot less then compared to last week, and whilst I have almost finished my final piece for this insect work, it is still not finished, which ideally should have been finished this week so that we can move onto the next mini project, so from here on I will have to work a lot harder in order to catch up.

Week 1 Summary

My first week at the NUA, like when you start anything new, was kind of scary and a little bit daunting, but it went pretty well in the long run. Our lecture on Tuesday focused on just introducing us to the course and to higher education, as well as covering our first project and what we should create in terms of how character sheets and model sheets should look. Throughout the week I also had a life drawing session and a tutorial on Photoshop and Alchemy which should all aid me in developing my skills, although the life drawing will not aid me on this project, at least for now. In my spare time in the week I started developing my insect design to the point that I am almost at the final design, although I still do have a fair amount to do, but am pleased with my progress so far. I wanted to make my insect odd in order to try and create something unique from other designs, so I began thinking of what sort of things I could incorporate into an insect's design, and ended up making a list in a small journal:

-Hats, as shells/'homes'
-Foods, as shells/general body shapes
-Insect fusions

Whilst not a lot here, these three ideas alone have such a wide range of options that I could easily find something in at least one of them that works well.