Fixing my Husky and project post mortem

After my formative feedback session, it has been pointed out to me that the roughness maps for the body and face are a bit too dark, so I took those into photoshop and increased the exposure ever so slightly. I have also fixed the lighting system, turning off the auto exposure and fixing the intensity.

After that, I added a lightbox in order to change the colour of the background, which I lit using a different lighting channel.

Unfortunately, in order for me to finish my group project character, I had to sacrifice making the flowers for this one. Even with that, I am really happy with how this turned out. I have grown so much at 3D while working on this project and I have acquired so many skills to use on my next projects.

Something that I will have to keep in mind for my next ones is adding a bit more detail to the normal map, feeling like it si a lacking slightly while looking at the fur. 

Placing my Superspy into Unreal and project post mortem

 After having the assets ready, It was time for me to place my character in Unreal. I have used the skeleton asset to pose it and saved it as an animation. 

The materials were quite easy to set up, taking a look at the tutorials provided on blackboard for the ones that required shaders, such as the eyes, hair, and the skin. 

At this stage, I have encountered a problem, which was that my ambient occlusion maps' values were flipped, having previously followed the tutorial by Magdalena Dadela. That was a quick fix though, inverting the specific channel in photoshop.

With this done it was time to light my character. I have used the same approach as for the husky, which was the 3 light setup. I did end up adding some more since some parts of the character looked too dark.

I ended up adding a lightbox as well and lighted it using the different lighting channels, which tied everything together in a very nice way. I am very happy with how this project turned out. There were some sacrifices that I had to make in order to bring it to a conclusion, which were the decals that I was supposed to add to the hair roots. 

Also, having everything in unreal made me realize that the face was lacking a bit of texture, and also the hair looked a bit stiff, lacking some detail on the normal map. This is something that I will keep in mind on my next projects, even though I am planning on learning hair cards.

After submitting my project I have also noticed that I forgot to give my Character bottom lashes, being so used to not drawing them in traditional art. This is something that definitely won't happen again.

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome, and I am very happy with the progress that I have made regarding this module, in comparison to the first term of this academic year.  

Battle arena and boss

 After some more final touches, I can finally say that these projects are finished.

It is important that at the end of every project to identify its strong and weak points, how you have improved, and what you can improve on in the future. 

Starting with the monster project, I really like the design that I have created. I think that it feels very balanced regarding the shape language, values, and textures. I also think that what I have created looks very unique and interesting, which was my goal from the get-go. 

Even with that being said, I do think it lacks some detail and polishing. The most evident area is the face and horns. If I had some additional time left I would have added some individual teeth, made the scales of the skin bigger around the features of the face, and also add some more surface detail to the horns. I think this area is also lacking some more diversity in the color palette. I also think that finger and toenails could have used some more work as well, ending up looking quite flat and underdeveloped. Also, on the back view, I think that tail is not blending in that well, and it could have definitely used some more work to make it feel like it was part of the whole thing...

 

As for the battle arena, the thing that stands out the most to me is that the level of detail and polishing does not match the one of my character. There are some areas with obvious seems, and some areas that lack texture. Also. it could have used some more work on the lighting, having the light from the crystals interact with the environment in a more believable matter. On top of that, I could have incorporated more gameplay elements, since this is supposed to be a dynamic environment. 

I think its strong point is also the shape language and the colour palettes. They do match my Character quite nicely, and I could definitely picture it living there, which is the most important thing. 

The biggest personal improvement in comparison with other projects from the past is the new workflow. Sculpting the character and environment in Zbrush spared me a lot of working time, but that also made me relax and not utilize the time that I had in a more productive matter. Also, I got too carried away with my Character, since that is one of my stronger points, resulting in me not having enough time left for the rendering of my battle arena. 

Week 25- Realism and Art Nouveau

For this drawing, we were required to make either a full-length portrait or a three-quarter-length portrait. I ended up choosing the three-quarter one since I thought it would look more interesting. I have also decided to use colored pencils since we were allowed and I had more experience with using them.

Doing the sketch was not hard at all. The practicing has really been showing off, now being able to get the proportions and placements quite quickly. 

Having in mind my past mistakes, I have carefully chosen my colour palette, using warmer colours for the skin in general, and colder ones for the shadowed areas. 

 

I have also ended up changing the position of the hands since I was not able to finish the drawing in class, and I needed further reference.

I am not fully satisfied with how this drawing ended up looking, having the clothes quite underdeveloped, They could have definitely used some more work and attention to detail. 

For this drawing, I have used a range of colored pencils.