We were assigned the project by our lecturers towards the end of the previous sentry gun project. In which we instructed to create a pair of characters are almost polar opposites and yet work together well in their environment. Good examples of this, to which I used as reference are Mike and Sully from Monsters ink and ‘Walle and Eve’ from Disney’s Walle.
At first I was slightly apprehensive about the project as I wasn’t finished with my sentry gun project and new that I would not be ready to move onto the next project so soon. As time passed my feelings towards the project definitely changed and I became more excited about what I could create. However, when I began the project I felt in no way prepared for the 1st presentation.
[Mind maps, mood boards and pins]
The look of the character would be heavily influenced by John Everett Millais ‘Joan of arc’ and William Merritt Chase’ ‘Keying up- the court Jester’. I decided that the duo would be an adaption of the relationship that Brynne of Tarth and Podrick from Game of Thrones share. With a very serious and stoic character paired with an impractical and unprofessional archetypal character. The knight would be female and the Jester would be a skinny male character.
[Show paintings and references]
[Silhouettes]
I took on board what the lecturers had advised during the presentation and that weekend I visited Warrick Castle with my course mate Max Bostock, in order to get more relevant reference images and to gain a better understanding of medieval attire. The trip was very beneficial in my understanding of the characters I had chosen not to mention a fun day out with a friend.
Show [Warrick Castle images]
I eventually created orthographic profiles for the characters to begin the 3d part of the project. When it came to modelling I had been more enthusiastic about and could tell that I would work faster and more efficiently. This was only partly true- simply as I hadn’t planned properly how long I would take and additionally been eating or sleeping well.
[Initial orthographic]
As I found out that some of my concepts were not as well developed and I found it hard to represent some of the elements of my concepts in 3d I chose to re-design some elements of my initial design. I changed the armour shape of the knight and the mask idea for the jester. To be honest this was a good decision that I made, however as I could not relay on my 2d designs I had to rely on constant editing and rearranging in 3d which hampered my progress. Modelling the sword wasn’t too hard either, as I knew what I wanted it too look like.
The biggest hamper in the modelling phase was obsessing over topology and quading the mesh. I worried about these elements because I wanted to rig and sculpt the characters. However I underestimated the amount of time it would take to do all of these things, it was an inefficient use of my time, which could be spent perfecting other things.
To my fortune we were given and extension to the project- this was a Godsend (Thank you Jonah- my hero). With this extra time I was able to complete both characters and think about potentially completing some of the stretch goals.
[Character unwraps]
Another obstacle I faced was texturing the face of the models. I simply had no understanding of the anatomical structure of the face, leading me to use my research on face zones as reference for the project.
The major issue I ran into this project was Poor Time management. I did not calculate the amount of time each phase of the project would take and also ended up spending excess time getting bogged down by detail. Throughout the project I I was way too ambitious- creating unrealistic goals with no structure of how I would complete them. If I had taken the time to estimate how long each part of the project would take I would have had a more efficient understanding of what I would be capable of completing for the deadline- and perhaps my work would not have suffered because of it.
Additionally, I had not maintained a good balance of living. My work suffered as a result of my lack of sleep and unbalanced eating diet. I worked 14 hour days for 2 weeks which spiked a growing hatred of my project and my artistic abilities. Essentially I lost my confidence and enthusiasm.
This fatigue and lack of confidence especially at the start of the project meant that I made inefficient decisions which cost a significant amount of time- such as creating a pinteret board of 596 images of which only using 10 of these images.
Next to Poor Time management the most fatal decision that I made in the project was my lack of understanding of what we were assigned to do. If I had decided to “Read the F**king brief” as Mike had advised in his lecturers, I would have been able to understand exactly what I was supposed to do and what I would be capable of completed for the deadline. As a result of my failure to read the brief I ended up following my peer’s workflow’s, leading me to make inefficient decisions and yet again obsess over details and lose confidence in ability- leading me to slow progress (the endless cycle).
Taking on board of the errors that I had made during the project I took the time over the Christmas break to evaluate what I could do in upcoming projects to resolve the issues. I created a new plan that I would follow for every upcoming project.
From now one I would spend the first day of every project reading the project brief and assessing:
· what do I need to do/ what is expected of me for the deadline
· How long do I have in the project.
· What goals can I reach in the time frame
Afterwards I will create a project to do list of what I will do, when I will do it and how long it should take. This will be frequently updated showing what I have done and what is incomplete.
I will then ask my lecturers to review my plans and provide feedback, to ensure that I am on the write path.
Another thing that hampered my progress in the project was going for the first Idea that came in mind. In the future I will explore different ideas through shape differentiation, in order to find a cool idea instead of trying to create one.
Despite all the above the most important lesson I have learnt that I will take into every project is to MAINTAIN A BALANCED LIFESTYLE AND TRUST IN MY SKILLS. In this project I thought that I could work a ridiculous amount of hours and still believe that I could maintain the same level of work. I began to lose confidence in my abilities and detest my ideas due to the paranoia of being fatigued and malnourished. I followed others workflows which had not beneficial effects.
Due to the fact that I had low confidence I spent longer trying to perfect every aspect of the project, which isn’t unreasonable- but it is big consumer of valuable time, which I could not get back.
Therefore to conclude, I had made many stupid errors in this project, mainly due to my poor preparation and low self-esteem. However, I through my errors I have been able to learn so much from the project. I have learnt how to maintain good body topology, and efficient light-mapping, how to texture skin using PBR and most importantly, how to better prepare myself during a project. I am glad that I completed this project and even more so that the lecturer’s seemed pleased with my progress- despite my trials and tribulations. I am also pleased that I was able to get a better understanding of anatomical structure especially as I want to be a character artist.
This project has been a roller coaster of an experience and I am looking forward to the next project.