Finalised Proposal
Overview
When trying to decide upon my chosen subject, I wanted to continue down the lines of what I believe are my strong points as well as doing what I enjoy the most. Therefore I decided to focus on concept art and 3D modelling of characters and entities. As I will be doing both concept art and modelling, I can make my models from scratch and show the process in which I produce them.
With this topic, I felt like I could go in multiple directions however the main two that I looked at the most were medieval and/or futuristic settings. I chose medieval as I am very familiar with it after mostly playing games based within that era and from my love of history, and futuristic as I feel like I can be very creative with it.
Although these themes don’t really sound compatible, I can either choose between them or I have the chance I can mix them together, for example, a medieval clothed robot like a mechanical knight. Combining the two themes will let me be very creative with the subject and I will be able to design a lot of truly unique characters from this. I could even go as far as creating a scene with robots that may have been made to recreate a historical scene. It will allow me to do more than just focus on bipedal characters as well. I can also then create other designs and models that can follow actual animals transforming them using robotics.
I will endeavour to create multiple characters, with each one increasingly becoming more mechanical. The first will be focused on the character of “King Arthur”. This one will have the more prominent robot appearance as he will be clad in armour which in itself is already relatively mechanical looking. I am hoping to place this character on a mechanical horse as well. The next will be “Merlin” which will be the one in the middle. He will have elements of a robotic appearance but will also have a more natural side. The last will be “Guinevere” who will be the most natural looking. The key inspiration for her design will be the robots in the movie “I, Robot”. She will still seem robotic however will be more human-like.
Along with robot shapes and sizes, I will also look at male and female variants which will add diversity to my work. This can be done through the types of clothes and accessories for the two genders. For example, females might have more jewellery so I can use that idea and implement it into my designs. Whereas for the mechanical knight idea, I can look into different weapons that it might have like swords or lances. Following with the idea of making real life animals as robots can also allow me to make the more humanoid robots have companions like a robotic horse for the knight to sit on.
The other option for my specialised project would have been landscape or level design. During my first year, I really enjoyed creating my own game level and designing each asset and where each one was placed. I felt like I could create a really detailed level, however I felt that because I already did this in my first year, I wanted to challenge myself with creating characters and doing something different.
For my concept art and planning stages, I will be doing it both by hand and digitally. I will be using multiple methods and mediums when doing my hand-drawn pieces. I will try to experiment as much as I can when at this stage.
For my digital art, I will be focusing on using Krita, IbisPaint and Photoshop as they are the programs that I am most comfortable and experienced with. Krita is my primary drawing software for PC and IbisPaint for iPad. Photoshop will be used for creating textures and any needed editing.
Methodology
First I will begin by doing research within the two themes that I will be looking at; medieval and futuristic. This will mostly be focusing on clothing styles and appearances of people and environments. Studying environments will help me understand different ways people can change their clothes based on surroundings.
I will also include research on different body types (or, if I’m looking at robot characters, I will look at the different components that they would have), poses and different races/species if needed. (scrapbook and document)
I will look for references for both settings and get ideas for designing my characters. This will be for character shapes, poses, sizes. Also clothing, styles, environments and components. With the reference images, I will create a mood board.
I will begin gathering ideas on what I can create. I will create a detailed mind map of all the possibilities that I can do for my final piece/s. (scrapbook)
After I have my references and mind map, I will begin working on rough sketches of my characters. This will include the character’s bodies, different pieces of clothing and styles. (scrapbook)
Using the rough sketches, I will take the pieces that I like and will work on putting them together into more detailed drawings. I will also be experimenting more with textures, drawing styles and colours during this stage. I will also begin to create a portfolio of textures that I can use for my final piece. (scrapbook and single images)
With finalised detailed drawings, I will begin to work on creating model sheets for them. These will be made into T-pose to make it easier for me to model.
I will start work on my models using 3D Max or Mudbox.
Using the models, I will unwrap them and add a texture map.
With the complete models, I will produce fully rendered images of them in multiple perspectives.
I will go through what I have produced for the project and create an evaluation.
Diserables
With this project, I wish to improve upon my drawing and modelling skills. I also want to be able to experiment more with different materials and techniques.
As I decided to work on character and entity creation, I want to try to challenge myself with concept art and modelling. Because, so far, I have only really focused on level and asset creation. I am hoping that by going a bit more out of my comfort zone that this will be more of a challenge for improving my creative skills. I am also hoping to expand my knowledge of modelling by the use of Mudbox.
Time Management
When it comes to organising my time with this project, I plan to spend the majority of my time on the production stage. My research and planning will be 60% to 70% of what I want to do, meaning more than half my time will be focused on those sections. This will include research, looking for references, mind map, moodboard, rough sketches, detailed designs and texture portfolio.
Once I have finalised my model sheets and think that they are as good as I can get them, I will then focus on the final piece/s and texture maps, as well as rendering images. This will take up the rest of the year.
If I have time left over, I think it would also be interesting to create 3D prints of the model/s. I currently don’t know how to do this so I would have to learn.
Deliverables
Proposal
Gantt chart
Blog
Research (body types/sizes, poses, different races/species, clothing)
Reference moodboard
Mind map
Rough drawings (body types/sizes, poses, different races/species, body parts)
Detailed drawings
Texture portfolio
Model sheets (drawn and photoshop)
3D models on 3D Max and mudbox
Exported files eg FBX, 3DS, OBJ
Textured models
Model renders of all sides (front, back, quarter, top)
Turntable movies for showreel
Evaluation
3D prints (if I have extra time)
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