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| Female figure |
Intention Definition & Exploration of Ideas: I
had developed various ideas for projects before school started and was fairly
eager to test them out. That being said, the blog post about themes that we
wanted to explore gave me a new perspective on what exactly I could do as the
year goes on. I first modeled and 3D printed the hindu god Ganapati for Ganapati Chathurti. Then I decided to finish modeling the human female that I had
started in the summer. Once I was satisfied with the results, I wanted to model
and ultimately animate a phoenix, as I had been planning to do for a while. As I
progressed with the model, the idea developed into a series of mythical
creatures, which resulted in the idea of creating a hippocampus and a wolf to
go along with it. The medium I stuck to, of course, was 3D modeling and
animating. However, due to time constraints, I mostly modeled and then ultimately
rendered out the phoenix in cycles.
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| Curve-Modeled Phoenix |
Planning: As stated earlier, I first modeled the
female and then proceeded with the phoenix. With the phoenix, I had two courses
of actions: I could either create a model from scratch or I could rig and
animate the curve model that I had made in digital modeling. I decided to try
out rigging the curve
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| Low-Poly Phoenix |
Producing: The production took longer than
expected. Rigging and animating the curve model was fairly easy, but the
phoenix took a lot of small tweaks. The body from neck down was did not require
much time to create, however, the tail and the head took up the most time. I
kept second guessing what looked best, and each small change would result in me
re-creating the entire portion. With the head, the parts that took the most
time were the eyes and the beak. I had to keep readjusting the beak, and the
eyes resulted in shifting various vertices around entirely too many times.
Ultimately, I created the eyes from a tutorial Mr. Bomboy had sent me, and
while they looked a little weird, it was fine. Of course, it was not until
Vivian realized that the eyes were supposed to be on the sides of the phoenix’s
head and not the front that it stopped looking odd (thank you). The tail gave
me quite a bit of trouble. I first made them weird tendrils, then switched them
to two curving strands, and then straightened them out on the z-axis after
realizing that the curves would cause problems while rigging. For the color
scheme in cycles render, I made a base terracotta color and then added
highlights with emission materials on them. I tried to keep the highlights the
colors of flame as the phoenix has such a symbolic connection with that particular
element. While rendering, I chose a few different shaders for the base skin,
and eventually settled on a hair shader and a velvet shader.
Evaluating: The animation of the curve model
turned out entirely too flat for it to provide a dynamic video, and so I
switched to creating a model. I was a bit lacking on time management skills and
was not able to finish as much as I would have liked to. However, I still have
an adequate model of a phoenix; one that I can easily translate into an
animation. Cycles rendering truly provides another look and feel to a model,
and it was the first time I felt like a model that I was going to animate fit
in with industry standard models. One of the more ardent problems I faces was
the lack of a good reference, which, while expected with a mythical creature,
hindered the process quite a bit. Regardless, the phoenix looks good, the beak
could be a bit more curved and I could try making the wings a bit more dynamic,
but all critiques aside, I am truly excited to animate it.
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| Phoenix with Hair shader |
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| Phoenix with Velvet shader |
Integrating: I learned quite a bit from this
marking period’s work in the way of time management and overall preparation.
Going forward, I will try to have a good reference for each model and have an
idea of what exactly I want it to look like beforehand. As for the final
products, I’m going to render at least one still of each animal for this
particular project out in cycles. It provides me with more finished pieces and
two different takes on the same model. As to integrating prior knowledge into
this project, I’m considering adding an element of fire into the phoenix cycles
render and water into the hippocampus. I had gone into the project wanting to
include an animal of flight, one of the sea, and one of the land; I would be
remiss to not include those elements in the stills and maybe even the
animations if I can. Furthermore, I am definitely going to utilize the method of making eyes that I was introduced to and use box-modeling. I used box-modeling for each of the models I made this marking period and I've found that it works best for me.
This Week:
10/15: Worked on phoenix
10/16: Worked on phoenix
10/17: Worked on phoenix, started researching
color schemes
10/18: Started assigning materials in cycles
10/19: Finished phoenix in cycles
Next Marking Period: I’m going to continue working
on the mythical creatures project, probably starting with rigging the phoenix.
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