I finished the body and started the textures a while ago. Today I started messing around with the shading networks that maya can do. Currently the textured renders are done in Mental ray with the fast_skin shading network. It definitely added some depth to the skin, though I feel as though my normal map is a little lost...




Still have to do the hair and the transparent clothing assets on the character and then I will pose it.

New Character Model

Started working on a new model as of yesterday. Another female, but the character I made a concept for is fairly exposed, so it allows me to focus on modelling the anatomy (I'll do a male next, I promise!).

I normally do the block out method, but this time I did the plane-extrude one. So far I find it working quite well, especially when getting the finer details in the muscles before I take ZBrush to it. It also allows me to do each muscle group separately, i.e: I was extruding the neck out to start, but when I tried to define the neck I wasn't liking the result, so I did planes and extruded and ended up with a better result (as seen in image 2).

I worked on the head yesterday, and today I did half of the body. Tomorrow I will most likely finish the arm and leg and mirror the body (yes, the head and neck aren't connected yet).

Thus Far

Here's what I know thus far (generally) as an artist:

Practice, practice, and more practice!: Art is a constantly changing life form. We've seen many styles, eras, movements, counter-movements, revivals, and technology of art from being blood and clay to computers and 3D. To keep up with it is to always practice, even if you just stay in one kind of style.

Go back to basics: Some times, when you don't know what to do with a piece, how to start one or finish, look back to the simple, basic things that make up art. Often times I refer back to the fundamentals and elements, even after years of it being stuffed into my head through all the years of various art classes.

Always get your reference!:Many times I thought I knew a subject well enough to draw or paint it without reference, only later to find images to work from and do better. No matter how much you think you know always draw what you see.

Don't be afraid of mistakes: People learn more from their mistakes then they ever could from their achievements. Which also means don't be afraid of getting critiqued. Having someone else look at your work and being constructive will help an artist improve.

There's more that I could write, like draw various subjects and not just one, focus on values, shape and depth before colours and details. Oh, and when you get tutorials, actually try it out, don't just read/watch it!

So, for my final few words: Art is definitely a thing of discovery that can be done anywhere. Go out and explore the creative, imaginative world that is art!

4th week in.

Nearly half way through my internship. Whoing a statue asset from my environment. I have to model very low-poly, so I need the normals and textures to do all the work.




-Unreadered vs Rendered.

Week 1 of Internship

Just some rough sketches for my current work on a project.

Pretty Much Done.

I'm pretty much done the character I am/was currently working on. Learned quite a bit, so my next model will look even better. Now I will set up images for my website of this character, and then I will work on concept art next.






And the face.

Final Stages

Finishing up some stuff. Still need to mess around with the sword textures. I haven't textured a sword before so its a new experience. Texturing models definately gives me painting practice for when I do concept art.

Currently fiddling around to pose the character as well (image below). Rigged just enough to pose the character easily, though not looking forward to skinning. x__X