Week 4 - Testing the Rig

I have a rough idea of what I want to do for my animation project. I am basing my animations off of a game character I designed for another module, so luckily I managed to find a rig (thanks to my tutor!) with roughly the same proportions.

In class I tried a few poses to get familiar with the rig. Below you can see the reference and then the pose I replicated. I found this more challenging than previous rigs because of the character proportions, but I tried to look at the main areas showing weight and movement when replicating the pose. There are a few areas I can see now that I have missed, mainly the hips, which I will try to keep in mind for future.

I found this second pose even more challenging due to the small proportions of the rig, but I tried to make it look as believable as possible for the character's size.

The rig I'm using is the great Lily and Snout rig for Maya.

Week 1 - Posing

This week was the first of my second semester at uni, and the first week of my animation class. Animation is the area I probably have the least experience in so far, and although I don't want to be an animator I think it will be useful to learn.

In class we were introduced to some of the animation controls in Maya, and then went on to try some character poses. It was a useful exercise as I am not used to thinking about anatomy in terms of movement. Looking back at it now, I can see that the legs should be at a wider angle with the front one facing more towards the ground. The arms also need tilted forward a little to show the proper movement and weight of the pose. I found it a useful exercise and I'm looking forward to the rest of this class.

Project - Finals

I was so relieved to finish my finals as I  wasn't totally prepared for how much work this stuff takes. I thoroughly enjoy the project even though it was challenging, but I felt it has helped me become a more well-rounded artist. Although I want to focus on 3D for future, going back to the fundamentals never hurts and this project made me push myself to think further about a lot of aspects of my art, such as form and perspective, which I had unknowingly been neglecting for a long time.

Here are a few pages from my final art book - I included my synopsis so the concept annotations make more sense!

Project - Creature Design

I had the most fun when creating the creature for my project, but I also found it the most challenging part. I knew from my theme and world that I would be designing a large insect, but I wasn't sure at first which route to go. I started by gathering references, taking note of particular shapes and ideas that I liked the look of.

I started by thumb nailing lots of different silhouettes, then I took the ones that stood out to me the most and filled in a design. At this stage, whilst drawing and looking at reference, I decided I liked the rounder, softer look I seen in a lot of cartoon insects and decided it would be a good fit for my world. I was also thinking more of how to make this design a character, and not just the standard pollinating insects in the world. I wanted it to be something that would be able to have some kind of relationship with others. This is why I decided  going forward that my design would be for a 'character pet'. 

I then chose the designs I liked best and made more iterations of them. At this stage I was still looking for a rounded design, but one that was interesting enough to stand out and be easily readable.

I then refined some of these iterations further. I was finding this stage difficult because of the amount of similar sketches I had been doing, most not even reaching the stages shown here. I was finding it hard to take a step back and look at them critically, so I decided to convert them back to silhouettes.

I again chose the silhouettes I felt worked best and asked others around me which ones they found easiest to read and most recognizable.

I ended up with two silhouettes that were very similar, and combining them together to use both of their strengths. I also experimented with some of the smaller details, mainly looking to personify the design at this point to make it seem more appealing and 'human'.

After my iterations I polished the design until I had something I was happy with. I chose to have long fur around the neck that looks like a scarf to make it seem more pet-like and domestic. I kept the wings small in comparison to the body to show it's small and cuter size. I made the 'bottom' large in contrast to the body as I found it made the silhouette more visually interesting.

I then looked back at my earlier references to work on the colour of the design. I wanted the colours to look warm, appealing, fun and communicate visually what the creature was. I chose a few of my favorites to compare below. I like the yellow and black, as they are associated with bees which are a well known pollinator, and works really well with the bee-like design of the creature. I also like the grey and white design, but I worried it was too colorless.

I tried out some colored eyes with the grey design, but I ultimately went with the black and yellow because I felt it communicated what the creature was more effectively than the others.

I then drew the creature from the side, front and back. This was so if it was theoretically given to a modeler they would be able to model from the character sheet. This was the last step before my final concept sheet which I will be posting soon.  

I had so much fun with this creature and I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I am not used to the world of concept design so it was hard to keep exploring new ideas and move past my initial concepts. This project has also highlighted to me a lot of the areas I need to work on, while also helping me improve in them. I want to learn a lot more about shape, colour and communicating visually. 

Project - Vehicle Design

Another part of my project I've been working on is a vehicle design. I started working on this part after working on my environment for a while, as I found it better to think about the vehicles purpose and function if I had a world to place it in. This led me to the decision to design a people-powered vehicle, as it was set in an eco-city and it wouldn't use any fuel. It would be use for transporting small amounts of cargo around the bio-domes that I would be designing in my environment. I wanted something that looked like it could be put together by hand, and that communicated its function through the design.

I began my research by looking at some bikes, focusing on finding interesting shapes and unconventional designs.

I then started scribbling some thumbnails, some of which are below. I quickly noticed that these all seemed rigid and alike. I think because I was telling myself, "draw a bike", I was struggling to break free from the idea I already had of a bike in my head.

Although I did like some of the ideas I decided to take a new approach. I started experimenting in an application called Alchemy, recommended by one of my tutors. Alchemy allowed me to scribble and sketch without worrying about what the bike should look like.

I saved anything I made that had an interesting shape, then took any of the ones I thought could make a potential vehicle and drew on top of them.

 

I then combine the shapes I like into designs. At this stage I thought about how I could communicate the functions of the bike through it's design. I wanted a canopy, as it hinted at its use in several different 'climates', therefore in the world it would be used between bio-domes. I added a back trunk to show that it would be used for cargo. I used bent poles and chunky wheels that wouldn't normally be used for bikes to show that it may have been put together from materials left over from other vehicles. I went with the design below as I felt it covered those points, and I also felt it had a strong and easily recognizable silhouette.

I then done a quick 3D mock-up of the bike, mainly to help with my perspective when it came to my final drawing. I also wanted to check that the forms translated well to a 3D object. As someone who is new to the world of concept art I actually found this step really valuable.

I then traced the main forms to capture the proportion and perspective I wanted.

I then used this image to develop my final line work which would later be rendered for my final concept sheet. I aimed to keep it clean and simple, with small amounts of detail to hint at the surface texture. I chose a 3/4 perspective view of the front and back as these gave a good image of the vehicle. I also included a close-up of the back to show some of the forms that were missing from the other two perspectives. Overall I was satisfied with the design and felt like I got what I had aimed to achieve.

Project - Environmental Design

Throughout my weeks at university I have also been working on our end of semester project. So far I've been having a lot of fun with it, and now that I'm finished with classwork I'm going to share my progress here.This project has offered a lot of flexibility as we were able to come up with our own worlds to base our concepts in.

When world building I drew inspiration from various media around me when creating the idea. I love the aesthetic of futuristic eco cities and biospheres, but I wanted to combine them with a more dystopian feel. I was also reading the original Jurassic Park novel at the time, and I enjoyed the more scientific focus the book had compared to the movie - even if the 'science' was all just fiction and guesswork.


I decided to concept an eco city, based in the future after an economic and environmental collapse, where people rely on biospheres to live in and grow crops. Biospheres are utilized for crops, and there are also giant bio-engineered pollinators used for pollinating. This was the starting point for figuring out what three things I would be concepting. I like to use pinterest to keep track of ideas and inspiration, and below is the starting point for my environmental design

I then looked at smaller scale builds, especially interiors, to start thinking more about the functionality of the environment. I also came across some photos of mushrooms that inspired me. I liked the contrast of the organic growth around the geometric containers. I find looking at things like use and structure helps me when thinking about how the biospheres in the city may actually be used.




I began with some initial sketches below, taking the parts I liked most from my references and trying them out in certain ways. I played about with both exteriors and interiors, as at this stage I wasn't yet sure what was more useful to portray.

I tried out some quick environmental thumbnails, focusing on the outdoor environment. I then chose one of these to refine a little, to get a feel of where it was going. This is ultimately where I decided to instead go for concepting an indoor environment. I wanted to explore more the functionality of the environment and its place within the world, but this early development still helped me get the ideas needed for this down on paper (or screen!).

I wasn't too happy with my thumbnails, and decided to take a different approach to my environment. I thought an interior piece would be better for me, as I would be able to explore the functionality of the environment more. I started by listing and concepting lots of features that would make the environment unique, and detailed some of them which can be seen below. I liked the idea of a hospital/surgery/vet area for treating the pollinators.

Some ideas for 'insect pods', where some of the pollinators would rest when in the environment.

Some of the table ideas that I explored further. I liked the table around the tree as a centerpiece for the room, as I felt it could tie it all together, but I also like the more traditional 'surgery table'.

I quickly put down a lot of the things I would like included in the room above, and started mixing and matching them together below to get a feel for how I would like the room to be.

I then explored some of the key features of the room a but further, as I wanted them to look unique. I added honey to the pods to hint at their use and looked more at the shape design for the table.

I brought these together in my final line drawing, using an earlier thumbnail to help me with layout. This was the final design that I was least happy with, and looking back now there are a lot of areas I would changed. Although I still like the overall idea, the room looks to plain and polished for the what I was going for. I can see that I need a lot more things in there to hint at the story, concept and functions of the environment. This was the first concept piece I worked on, and I tried my best to correct this in my vehicle and character designs.

Weekly Task - 9

Continuing on from class, we had to design an interior environment that followed a brief we were given. It was to be an apartment set in the future, owned bv a busy worker who uses the apartment to recover from a busy life. The design had to make sure you could still 'feel' the city inside the apartment.

I used skills built up in the last few weeks whilst designing this. I do find some perspective drawing quick tricky, and I found myself going over some areas again and again. You can see that I 'borrowed' a photo of a boxing glove to help speed up my process. I used some references found on google when designing this, but I am aware it did end up looking a bit bare. Although it needs a good injection of personality, I liked the direction I was going with.

I chose a large window looking out onto the city to help bring the feel of the city in to the room. I [;aced furniture quite wide apart in unusual areas - for example, the coffee table far from the couch - to hint at the fact the apartment doesn't get much use. I left coffee mugs around the room to show she hasn't been keeping up on dishes, and included the punch bag and boxing gloves to show what some of her time in the apartment might be spent on doing. We were told she works as part of a detective unit and likes to keep healthy, and I thought boxing could be a good sport for doing so. I chose minimalist furniture as it is often associated with futuristic, sci-fi themes.