Monday, July 30, 2012

Tank modelling

Finally got back to my panzer IV modelling. I'm taking my time about figuring out the main shapes, because if those are wrong, nothing else will be right. It's still hard to figure out which components I should make separate, and which I should build as a single mesh, because in the manufacturing process, the tank started as many many separate pieces, but of course they were welded together, which is difficult to do cleanly digitally. So I'm trying to plan ahead, but that's also difficult to do without much hard surface modelling experience.

And I started on the drive sprocket (the powered wheel), because it was a little more fun.



Later,
Stuart

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The "Bad Sketch" Series #3-4/1000

It's been a while since I posted any "bad sketches", my self-imposed discipline to keep practicing without fear of failure (semi-successful). I tried putting together zspheres to create a little creature I had in my head, but when I created the adaptive skin, I just couldn't put any form in it that I liked. So here is just the zsketch, and the lesson learned is to at least create a pencil sketch to work from.

I also painted a goose from one of my many photos that are not presentable as photographs, but work alright as reference. These are just half an hour to an hour.



There's been a couple of reasons why it's been so long since I last posted. I took a trip to Quebec city to visit the Centre for Neurophotonics and the researchers for whom I will be creating my Masters Research Project. It was an incredible experience, and it really restructured my focus for how I imagine the final product. Definitely need to keep on with the Unity tutorials.

I also attended the 67th Annual Meeting of the Association for Medical Illustrators. It was also very interesting and educational, and I enjoyed hearing from the speakers their perspectives, backgrounds, and ideas. E. O. Wilson and James Gurney were among the talented presenters, and I ended up buying James Gurney's latest book "Color and Light" which I hope will be helpful for my experimentation in digital painting.

I also acquired a record player and some very nice speakers, so I've been having great fun with that. I felt all cool as I laid out speaker wire and connected everything up. Looking forward to doing more sketches and some work on my egg scene and tank, and I hope you are too.

Later,
Stuart

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The "Bad Sketch" series: #2/1000

Here's another sketch from ZBrush, just a few hours invested. Another alien creature (bullsquid) from half-life and this time I experimented with ZSpheres and polypainting on the mesh.




Later,
Stuart