Week 8: why does Fmp hate me!

Hello again folks!

This week has certainly been a hectic week for me, especially as I’m coming up to the end of the eagle warrior project and I don’t feel satisfied with the final result. Why does FMP HATE ME So Much!

I started the week by applying for a model designer position at the games workshop! I haven’t heard back from them yet but I am glad that I had the courage to apply.

Following this, I continued my FMP by baking all my Eagle warriors’ assets. This was a tedious task due to the amount of objects I had to bake. This also included editing the cages for the assets so that the outcome would be great.

Afterwards, I unwrapped my assets and sent my UV texture sheets over to Del for feedback.

He gave me some great advice on how it is best for me to straighten all the edges in the unwrap sheet, in order to have the best texture results. [He mentioned how…] with this complete I began to bake my textures, and voila.

There are still minor baking errors, but I’m glad with the final result. Arigato sensei!

I’ll be honest I didn’t necessarily enjoy unwrapping or baking but this experience has shown that I have improved in my skill of unwrapping, packing and baking.

When completed, I began to polypaint the body of the eagle warrior. I watched this video in order to help me start!

After checking my results with Del, I realised that I t was ‘too blotchy’ and that I wasn’t thinking about proper human skin tones. In order for me to capture true human skin I would need to look at human reference images under sterile lighting, but more importantly look at albedo textures of characters in video games to help me. Del suggested these references.

I moved onto putting all assets together in a marmoset scene and then blocked out the base colours afterwards.

After taking a step back from my work, I didn’t really like the colours, I felt that they weren’t harmonious, but more importantly, I wasn’t too happy with the silhouette of the character, I felt that he did not capture the intimidating ruling personality that I wanted to convey.

I went back through my references and came across this character art pieces of ‘Hawkman’ by Catherine…. I loved the way she captures the characters bold and strong personality whilst also depicting his magnificence through the gold plating .As in a number of accounts Mesoamericans rulers were seen as divine includeing 'Atahualpa' and 'Montezuma',I wanted my character to portray this same characteristic

Thus, so I worked to making the necessary changes to my mesh on Friday. Having to go back a few steps sucks, but I’m happy that I have more direction with this character.

Over the weekend, I went back home to London for mother’s day. Upon my travel I was able to visit the London Zoo to collect reference images for my next character, the shaman.

I want my shaman character to be priestess/ follower of the Aztec God ‘Cipactli’, the crocodile/ caiman God.

Therefore I visited the ‘Reptile House’ in London Zoo. Through my visit, I gained very useful reference images of crocodiles and their skin, which will be very handy through the detailing and texturing of my

character.

It was great to take real reference images, but more importantly it was great to see and learn about

incredible rare species of animals that I had never came across before.

I was even able to have a further look around the zoo and take even more images of the fantastic animals. I learnt on that day that gorillas had longer arms than man- isn’t that ape-mazing!

Upon my visit to the zoo I had the chance to reflect upon my project experience, and I came to the conclusion that in the past weeks I have need working hard but not smart. I work ridiculous hours just to prove to everyone that I am hard working, however the results of my work show a lack of focus. I think I need to stop torturing myself with ‘should have’s’ and ‘could have’s’ and just remember to treat my body right, sleep well, work from 8-7pm, eat well exercise and socialize, but most importantly, remember to have fun!

So there you have it folks, my week, I will be moving onto my next character, and hopefully, I can show

better signs of improvement, if I remember to withhold a healthy life balance, maybe then I can start kicking my fmp’s butt instead of the other way round.

Thanks for reading

Too-da-loo for now!