Weekly Report – 2013-12-01

Been easier to keep up with the assignment this week, basically refining what we started with at the first week. We were to choose one of the thumbnail samples to further develop into an almost full-fledged model while showing the process it underwent to completion. I like aiming high, so I made a close-up on the character’s face for the improved grades. Not that I expect to make it, but practice’s practice! It’s not like I have anything to lose by trying.

In fact, at the moment of writing I’ve spent the last ten hours doing sketches. All of it is on paper so I am unfortunately unable to show anything today, not that it was very show-worthy. Tried to get a consistent humanoid form with mixed results, I always get confused with what lines to overreach or cut short. It’s a matter of intuition and memorisation I suppose.  I’ve had a bit more progress with the face and its components, getting a feel for the eyes and nose in particular. While knowing the structure of them, I was trying to take them outside the uncanny valley so that you could believe that you were looking at something resembling a person. Another area of difficulty was the task of portraying a face in the front. It’s probably not the best way to go when you want to make something look alive, but I just wanted to get a sense of perspective. I had to abandon the established face concept as it just kept getting in the way of my perception when all of the head’s corners are equally exposed. I’ve also gotten down the main structure of hands and feet… more or less. I know how to do the toes, but I still need a lot of training. And whenever I try to make a hand that has anything but all of its fingers hugging each other it looks disastrous. They certainly weren’t kidding when they said the hands required as much attention as the entire rest of the body.

As of now I’ve been able to pick up the pace on my course literature, now I just need to keep at it until the books’ contents become second nature to me. One day at a time, that’s all you need to get through. One day at a time. Which is easier said than done when darkness covers most of the hours. Sometimes I just feel like sleeping through the winter and wait till summer, but that won’t get me anywhere.     

That’s all of note I had to say about this week. Tomorrow we’ll start with 3D volumes, wish me luck!

Björn Erik Berndtsson. Graphics and Game Design.