Week 11: All the better to eat you with....
Howdy folks
Besides week 8 this week has been the hardest week of the final major project. Not simply because of the obstacles I encountered but also due to the hard decisions that I had to make. Very thought provoking.
I wanted to make the hand creepy and decrepit as possible without going too overboard. As well as using my own hand I used the Mega monster Brush Pack from Badking to influence my sculpting:
After showing Del my work, he questioned whether it would fit in the realistic world that my characters were based in. He commented that it would be a poor artist judgment to have elements of a character design displaced from different universes. He suggested that I make the character’s stuff more real-world, using believable objects that exist in our world. All his advise was very true and helpful, I cannot believed that I hadn't thought about this.
This took a while to sink in as I had gotten used to the design of my staff, nonetheless I had faith in Del’s advice and got to work on concepting staff designs for the shaman in 3d.
He particularly liked this one.
Afterwards, I went to work on creating the leg wraps, admittedly I had been putting this off for a while but it was time to bite the bullet. I began modelling a single strip in 3ds max and duplicated it up the leg.
Once complete, I imported it into Zbrush as separate elements and then went to work on moving them in the right positions and ironing out any unnecessary gaps.
With this complete, I finished off with sculpting the details on the leg wraps, and voila:
I am really proud with how this turned out, I feel that it looks believable.
Moving on, I worked on the rest of the detail for this character, including, modelling the handle bar for the tortoise shell shield and sculpting extra detail into the shell itself. Furthermore, Del wanted me to reduce the size of the shell as Del Felt this would make it more practical in combat.
Afterwards I focused on the small details such as modelling the eyelashes, adjusting the hair and sculpting under the crocodile’s jaw.
Upon further glance of my work, Del commented that there was still a lot of clutter in the design of the character. He suggested that I consider removing the crocodile jaw, not only to reduce the clutter but to allow the character more head movement and give her improve her peripheral vision: valuable in combat situations.
Admittedly after following his advice (which was quite rightly said), I didn't think the new look, was as interesting as before and it was a shame to put aside the work on the jaw.
However, after taking a step back I realised that I was too emotionally attached to my work and this was affecting my ability to make the right design choices to improve the look of the character.
For me to improve I will have to let go.
After taking some time to consider Del’s advice, I got to work on concepting ideas that would look interesting and meet Del’s suggestion.
He commented both ideas were valid and so it will be up to me to decide which works best. I will aim to try both ideas and send the results to Del to see which one he likes the most.
Although, I had accomplished a lot this week in terms of detail, I was certainly disappointed that I was not able to finish sculpting this week, this meant that I was behind schedule again.
I went back home for the Easter weekend and it was great to be back, especially eating Mum’s cooking again. The combination of good sleep, eating healthy, exercise and family time is a great remedy for burning out and I would recommend it to anyone going through work-related stres
The break from the project was much needed and it gave my brain some time to refresh and recover from straining nature of the FMP. I was able to think of all the tasks that I would need to accomplish and listed them down so I will be able to track my progress through this last stretch of the project.
So there you have it, my hard week, yes it is a disappointment that I wasn’t able to meet my goals, however, In this next phase of the project I will be make sure to have adaptive and flexible plans and double my efforts to create the awesome characters I know I can.
Thanks for Reading
In a while Crocodile