Life Drawing

For the first year of this course every Wednesday I have a life drawing class, which is what you can expect. I have written about it before on this blog. Nonetheless it is a very important part of drawing and learning things like anatomy and how the human body moves in general. These are just a selection of drawings I have done throughout the term for my life drawing classes.

I'm now going to write what I normally write at the bottom of my posts, which is how much I enjoyed doing said thing. All in all I really enjoyed life drawing and I do think it has helped improve my understanding of human anatomy and allowed me to experiment with different media, even some I don't really enjoy using (charcoal). I think it's a shame it isn't continued after the first year as life drawing is almost a necessity for character and concept art.  

Bi-Planes, get this, right? IN SPACE!

For our Spring submission our group, Dancing Queen Studios, game up with the idea of of a space shooter involving bi-planes, essentially WW1 dogfights in space, kinda. Here are pieces of concept art and modelling I did for the game:

Bad guys. Not everything made it in the game, only really the first two at the top were kept to be the enemies faced by the player. I like the heavier ships' faces though.

Early designs of the protagonists plane. The original designs were quite sci-fi and sort of deviated from actual bi-plane design. 

Rough designs fot the guns that were to be put on the planes. I had more detailed ones but it appears that they were either lost or saved over. The lower design is seen in the large guns of the tank-plane.

Model of the Prussian machine gun. This model was never actually used in the game but a similar one is mounted on the helmet of one of the enemy ships. 

Concepts for the tank-plane.

Tank-plane model.

More TP and it's hat.

Rear-view.

Edge-loops. 

Perhaps if I do any more concept art for future projects it'd be better to also include some colour images as well as just sketches. Ultimately I had fun making something as old-fashioned as a bi-plane become some sort of space-fairing weapons platform.

Finn Model

Here we have the finished and textured model of Finn.

Front view. His wonky belt is cause by a criss-cross of edge-loops which appears flat when unfolded but warp when wrapped around a 3D model.

Side view.

Back view.

Back 3/4 showing the edge-loops.

Forward 3/4 showing the edge-loops.

I still find that I have difficulty with making edge-loops neat when it comes to modelling most things. Over all it was fun to make and texture although frustrating at times, I had to completely re-colour the UV maps but luckily things are usually easier the second time. If I was to do this again I'd definitely try and make the edge-loops tidier and less fiddly. 

The UV map.

Assessment Model

For our Spring submission due on the 27th of March we have to model a character with given concept art and make him as accurate as possible to the art given.

Maya model with the weeb-y concept art.

All of the edge-loops. Flawless.

UV map of the model. Needs to coloured and then put back on the model.

That's the progress I've made so far. I know I'm not the best at modelling and seem to have particular problems when it comes to edge-loops and texturing, but, hopefully, I shall over come those.

Maximus the Frog

From our anthropomorphic class the previous week I decided to continue with it a draw more of a finished piece for it. I came up with an design for a frog in a fantasy style suit of armour, as is what happens when look to the art of Dragon Age: Inquisition for inspiration.

A WIP, showing some of the reference I used.

The finished piece. Chief of the Dragon Guard, Maximus Dodlus Verlices, Purveyor of Fine Silks.

I had a lot of fun with this design, although I do sometime find painting a bit bit tedious, but I'll get over it.

Last week in class we were doing anthropomorphic designs for characters. We used frogs as base for the designs of our characters.

Blow dart Frog, Hammer Frog, Mystic Frog and One-eyed Marcus Schtebberstein, King of the Night.

I went with fairly basic fantasy designs with my frogs as I find that fantasy is more of my strong point when it comes to character design. 

Muscle frogs. Because why not.

I also came up anthropomorphic frog bodybuilders a messed around with the colours I had from numerous frogs. 

I always have fun when it comes to anything with character design that allows me to come up with my own design characters. 

Today in class we unwrapped the T-rex model. You could either use your own or one supplied, I used the one supplied as my own models edgeloops were all over the place.

Dinosaur model in Maya.

Unwrapped textures and the dino.

I think it went well although some of my un-wrappings might need slight corrections.

We were given the assignment of designing a Steampunk thing, I say thing as it could be either a person or something like a vehicle or machine. I had quite a bit of fun doing this assignment as I find character design to be the most enjoyable form of game art.

First set of sketches. All of these sketches were done in the free version of Mishchief.

More Sketches. You can see one of the first sketches I did and how the style took a crazy-sharp turn.

More Sketches. I'm proud of the Neckbeard in the hat.

More more sketches. That's a penny-farthing with an engine. 

More sketches with free steam-robot.

A very displeased looking person.

The moodboard. The art and costumes are good but the cat makes it.

The finished character. I wanted him to look Steampunk-y without an abuse of cogs and gears.

I found this to be one of the more enjoyable assignments but I find that, for me, coming up with quick designs and sketches is a lot more fulfilling and enjoyable that having to do a fully worked piece. Although this may change as I get better with Photoshop.