Week 2: The Pitch

Continuing on from last week, I put a lot of effort into my Art Bible and I was happy with the work I did, but unfortunately it cost me too much time. I didn't get around the finalising my concept by the time we had to pitch our idea to the rest of the class. Regardless, my concept was approved.

Here is the the final result:

The model will be able to split into two 'axes' with blades running down the centreline on each. The 'veins' will glow. As the asset is for a theoretical kids TV show, it's more important that it's visually appealing rather than being realistically functional.

I didn't want to waste any more time completing the top/back view so I moved onto modelling. The top/back view of a guitar will not be too complex anyways. One of the audio lecturers kept a variety of guitars on campus and was kind enough to let me borrow one for a few days. It was a huge help when it came to finessing the basic form and funtionality of an electric guitar.

I thought ahead to when it would come time to animate this; not only do I need to record footage for an animation reference, but if I can find a girl who can actually play an electric guitar, I can record the audio as well! Part of our overall mark will include collaboration with others, so this is a good opportunity to collaborate with some audio students. I used some of my concept art to create a promotional poster that I put up around campus and on social media.

This week in class we explored MudBox. The interface is straightforward and a great resource to get all your texture maps done in one place. I personally love the projection tool - you can 'paint' photorealistic textures onto your mesh! Like so:

It's also great for sculpting small/fine mechanical & organic features (e.g. dints in used metal, buttons, moles on skin, tops of screwdrivers, veins in a tree). It's also great for for re-topology and adding 3D/colour detail through layers & subdivisions.

Check out this promotional video from Autodesk's website:

Image taken from https://www.autodesk.com/products/mudbox/overview 16.2.18

I feel like up till now I have been texturing the long way in Photoshop. Moving forward, I had to think carefully about what could model in Maya and what finer details I can wait to do in Mudbox. The tricky thing with Maya is you have to get your method of modelling right from the start, otherwise it will either not work down the track or cost you a lot of time cleaning it up.

I started with the hardest part of my hard-edge model, the body. Using my technical drawing as a reference was extremely helpful:

I am happy with the quality of my work so far, but I do feel a bit behind schedule. See you next week.