Week 9: It’s a bird, It’s a plane, no it’s a crocodile!

Hey Guys

This week, I began my next character, the Aztec Shaman- ‘Priestess of Cipatali’. I based her design on ‘Occepa’ miniature from the Warhammer universe as I felt her silhouette was very unique furthermore creation of this character would allow me to demonstrate that I can create creature features, which was task that Kevin Mcdowell was looking for.

Taking this break has allowed me to refresh my mind towards the Eagle warrior, instead of seeing only errors as I did last week.

As stated last week, I visited the London Zoo to gather reference images which I could use to help me throughout the development of the project. So far the reference photos have been very helpful, especially when working on the crocodile features.

As well as my research from the zoo, I also looked through the book'Shaman: the wounded healer' by Joan Halifax, for inspiration for the character:

I began the week writing down an asset list of things that I need to do for this project, in detail so at all stages I will know where I am with the project.

I began the character firstly, by working from a female 3d body scanned mesh, I found it challenging to work from this reference as I had been so used to working from picture reference.

When the main features of the body were laid down, I began modelling the base models for her clothing in 3ds max. This wasn’t too difficult as I had my reference ‘Occepa’ to work from so I knew exactly what I needed to do.

In the meantime, I was able to visualize a game idea for my project which I would title as ‘Conquest’. It was quite exciting to create story for my characters and the world they inhabited. The game is based around the idea that the Aztecs and Mayans stand must defend against the invading Conquistador’s, however, the conquistadors are only invading to prevent the famine and disease of their motherland ‘Holy Spain’. In this world, the Aztec’s rely on the power of their gods to give them the strength to take on the Conquistadors who rely on their advanced technology. The game will be a 3rd person action game, were players fighting on either the Mesoamericans or Spanish must wage war in 7 different playable levels.

The thought of having a game idea for my fmp is very fulfilling, especially as I wasn’t quite sure of the direction of my project up until now.

On Tuesday morning, I began working on the start screen for my game, I really enjoyed using Unreal Engine 4 to work on this, and although I haven’t finished it yet, it gives me hope that my project can be bigger than just a uni project.

Whilst continuing to work on the backstory for my project, I kept sculpting the basic forms into the shaman character. This was quite enjoyable, especially as I was able to brush up on my anatomical sculpting.

Nonetheless sculpting the crocodile head was quite a challenge, especially as I had never modelled a shape like it before; furthermore, finding solid profile photos of a crocodile was not an easy task. I had to rely heavily on my photos from the London Zoo.

However, it was fun to find references for the shoulder pad, from which I will be using the shells of the spider and blue crab.

I got feedback from Del on Thursday, he pointed out that the base mesh of my character is ‘super blotchy’ since I had been using dynamesh, instead of working up subdivisions as he usually recommends. As a result I went back a few steps to remodel a base mesh for my character that I can import back into Zbrush and begin working into.

This was a set back to my original plans, and I must say it did pain me to go back a step however, I have faith in Del’s judgment and I know that It will pay off in the end.

So with this done, I continued to work on the base of the body, I feel as though I am starting to get too fixed on it again and it would be best if I work quicker across the mesh instead of detailing so soon( in order to prevent the same mistakes I made with the last character). Next week, I will aim at the start of the week, to move across the character and not get too bogged down by detail just yet.

Over the weekend, I was able to work on the narrative side of my character, working on the concepts for the character and furthermore, the environment design.

For next week I will need to:

• Detail the face

• Model the hair

• Add detail to the tortoise shell

• Block out the crocodile mouth

• Add detail to the crocodile head and jaw

• Think about the placement of the shoulder pad

• Complete the block out for the shoulder and arm guard

• Add the ties to the staff and more detail

• Leg wraps

• Add the necklaces and waist pieces.

This week we had life drawing and I tried to use the donkey for once. This session was a lot more casual than last, and I noticed how much I was enjoying it. I certainly need to work on my blocking out of the character, as I feel as though I spend too much time on this area and thus I never finish a drawing. Next week I want to try to use shapes to start instead.

So there you have it, my crazy week A lot less manic than the last 4 weeks, but still stressful. Next week I will have to pick up the pace with my work if I want to stick to my plans but furthermore, I will need to have and set clear goals to work to, in order to maintain workflow and morale.

Thanks for reading

See you later Aligator