Year: 2017

Intended Outcome:

• Begin modelling the limbs of my creature.
• Complete the upper arm.
• Alter the objects to make them as close to the shape of the piece I am modelling before sculpting.

Problems I encountered and how I overcame them:

• When modelling the arms of my creature, it became clear that simply duplicating the left and using it as the right would make them look obviously identical. In any other situation where I would be modelling a character, having identical left and right sides would be fine, however I am hoping to create a creature that looks to have been created by natural material, helping him to blend into his environments. His body would most likely be effected by the places he finds himself in, therefore it would seem unrealistic to have him look too ‘perfect’. To correct this, I did duplicate each part of his arm, but made sure to slightly alter them with the sculpt tool.

• As I chose to leave sculpting the torso until later, It was rather hard to estimate what size to make my arms, so I decided to make them proportional to each other, making sure to resize them once I have completed the rest of my creature.
• I also had some difficulty with the detail size when using the sculpt tool, making the upper arm noticeable different in texture to the lower arm. This will not effect my final outcome, as when smoothed out and rendered, the differences aren’t noticeable. It did, however, make if difficult to predict how much I would take away with each stroke.

Where to go from here:

• In the next modelling session, I hope to complete the arms, including the hands and fingers.
• Try to stay consistent with detail size.

As an attempt to be ambiguous, I chose to try camera map my animated scene. This idea could have been conducted had I take more time to reflect on the tutorial I had originally used to camera map a scene in my research, however I failed to do so and quickly scrapped this idea. Had I chosen to do this earlier in my development process, I believe I would have been able to complete the scene, however my lack of knowledge on UV unwrapping at the time of me attempting this process lead me to leaving this out of my final piece.

Intended Outcome:

• Create a pelvis for my creature.
• Create the torso for my creature.
• Use other techniques past the sculpt tool to define the torso.

Problems I encountered and how I overcame them:

• During this modelling session, I chose to try and use the Boolean modifier to create divots in the pelvis where the legs are going to go. Whilst the end result proves this was a good decision, I found it difficult to use the modifier, despite being comfortable with the way it worked. I was originally tempted to try making this part by creating loop cuts in the side of the initial cube, splitting the mesh in half, then extruding the top part as I saw fit, but thought this would create a more complicated mesh, something that can be avoided completely with the Boolean modifier. The difficulty i found with this modifier was choosing which operation to apply, as well as which object to apply that operation to. Once I overcame this confusion and became familiar with the tool, however, I was able to create the result I had hoped.

• When I began on the Torso, I realised I needed more practice in the basic functions Blender has to offer. I attempted to create the correct shape a few times, firstly trying the indent function, but I failed to make a mesh that was easy to work with, therefore I chose to leave this until I had experimented more with the functions I needed to use to make the process easier and more efficient. Once I had decided this, I experimented more with the boolean tool again, choosing to use the union option to create the shoulders and see what happened. Because I was not accurately scaling and sizing the objects, the result was very warped, however it did help me to understand the Boolean.

Where to go from here:

• Begin on the smaller and simpler components to my creature.
• Revise the basics of Blender again.

After finalising my 2D designs, It was time to begin modelling my character in Blender. My instinct was to begin with the head, here is my evidence and what I encountered during the modelling process.

Intended Outcome:

• Have a completed head for my creature.
• Become familiar with the ‘Sculpt’ mode in Blender.
• Use the ‘Boolean’ modifier to create eye sockets.
• Apply tools and tips I have learnt in previous experiments and tutorials.

First attempt:

I tried to begin modelling my character before I had done any detailed research and experimenting within Blender, and I was only familiar with basic tools. Because of this, my first attempt at modelling the head failed, as I could not gain the look I was hoping for. It was after this I decided to look into creating natural elements in Blender, and conducted the research shown in my ‘Creating Rocks in Blender’ research post. Here is a time-lapse of my first attempt, showing the struggles I faced.

Final Attempt:

After conducting research I became slightly more confident in when modelling. I was introduced to the sculpt tool which really helped me to create a natural looking form. Here is a time-lapse of my process.

Problems I encountered and how I overcame them:

• Shaping the head proved harder than I had anticipated. Although my character is made of natural elements such as rock and/or sand and therefore gave me an excuse not to be uniform, creating a surface on which the creatures face would look equal took a few different sculpting tools to perfect.
• I struggled to use the ‘Boolean’ tool to create natural looking eye sockets. To counteract this, I searched through the different sculpting tools and tested one called ‘Inflate/Deflate’. This left the effect I was struggling to get from a Boolean, allowing me to manipulate the sockets into similar yet non-identical eyes.

Where to go from here:

• Begin modelling the torso and pelvis of my creature.
• Seek further advice on using the sculpt tool to ease modelling.
• Experiment past the sculpt tool, so not to limit what I work with within Blender.

As I am hoping to apply my final 3D model to different backgrounds and environments, I began to think about how I wanted to create an appropriate output. One main output I shall be creating is still images, however along side this, it would benefit both me and my project to have a slight animation to my final piece to bring the model to life.

On Youtube, Blender Guru uploaded a tutorial on how to camera map a still image in Blender and create a moving picture as opposed to having a still image. I followed this tutorial to learn the basics.

My Time-lapse

The image we camera mapped in this tutorial was a simple example, with structure and elements that made creating realism rather easy. Because my model will be based in outdoor environments, ones with less symmetry, I may need to consider other tutorials and means of learning how to effectively create the scene I hope to.

I followed the main instructions in the tutorial, but refrained from adding too much detail. I was confident in the skills I had learnt throughout this tutorial that when I come to creating my own scene in Blender, I will be able to include more detail where needed to make the scene seem more realistic. Although the tutorial was helpful in the most part, he assumed this watching were more advanced than I was, so it took me longer than I expected to finish it. I relied heavily on google searches for things I couldn’t quite fix, such as having some material Nodes greyed out because I was not in the Cycles render engine, and when I missed parts of the tutorial I would have to rewind and watch again.

In the tutorial, Blender Guru mentions adding particles in his scene to add to the realism. I have not yet experimented with this function within Blender, and aim to experiment with adding things like this in the near future.
The Final Product

My final product was not as clear and precise as the tutorials, however I am rather satisfied with the result having come from a place of complete lack of knowledge with this tool. When I experiment further with this function, I will be sure to include a lot more detail.

Sources:

Guru, B. (2017). Available at: https://youtu.be/B9r9tKX5olY [Accessed 13 Nov. 2017].