In late March I finished Dynamic Sketching 2 and Intro to Production Modeling. During DS2, I combined basic forms to depict insects, fossils, cars, tanks and airplanes. In Production Modeling, I learned how to translate 2d concept art into a production ready 3d model.
One of the challenges I faced in DS2 was dealing with preciousness: I fell into a pattern of planning each page and trying to make perfect underdrawings instead of just going for it (I managed to break out of this in the second last week). Perfectionism has been a companion throughout my life and I’m sure I’ll be working on it for the foreseeable future. On a recent Draftsmen podcast, Stan Prokopenko extolled the virtues of failing faster. Failure is a loaded word, but I like the idea of embracing an exploratory and non-judgmental attitude. Giving yourself permission to make a mess and allowing for growth and learning.
For the final project in DS2, we were tasked with designing a vehicle for clearing Kaiju remains (Kaiju are giant monsters that attack cities).
For my design I found inspiration in 19th century whalers, Chinese junks, and steampunk airships. Putting the concept in 3/4 perspective was a serious challenge for me. For spring 2021, I’ll be taking a perspective course to build some of these skills.
During the break between semesters, I decided to take some of Patrick’s feedback and make a cleaned up drawing.
Trying to fill in the ship details took me down a rabbit hole and I ended up doing a lot of noodling. Upon completion, I realized that the design felt fundamentally implausible: the volume of the balloons aren’t big enough to support the ship’s mass. There are also some construction issues (problems of perspective), but I’ve decided it’s time to abandon this ship (although I might put some work into a cleaned up Guppy).
Intro to Production Modeling was a different kind of challenge. For IPM I chose to translate Alisa Hanes’ cute concept art into 3D.
Initially, I wanted to model multiple props but that idea was dashed when I ran into the constraint of good topology: trying to keep everything as quads, trying to maintain good edge flow, trying to consolidate edges, etc. Several times I found myself having to walk away from my monitor after my brain had been reduced to mush. Thankfully Hunton was great at answering my questions and setting me on the right path.
In the end, I modeled, UV’d and textured the clock radio and produced a turn table animation.
With the class done, the challenge is to practice and retain what I’ve learned. As a personal project, I’ve decided to model a Faberge elephant which has a nice mixture of forms (organic and hard surface) and also taps into my interest in automata.
For Spring 2021, I’ve enrolled in Perspective and ZBrush for Concept and Iteration. It looks like workload will be heavy, but I’m excited for the growth and learning.