Everybody's Nekkid

So its been a while since I posted anything that I have worked on, so I guess its about time I do.  At the beginning of this term, we started focusing heavily on the study of human anatomy.  Although we did look at bones, the main course of study was muscles and muscle structures within the human body.

I am so glad that we started studying this because I have never really studied anatomy on my own and knowing where muscles are and how they connect within the body is very useful.  I feel that what I have learned over the past few weeks has greatly helped me understand how the body functions and has made me a better artist.

We looked at anatomy in my Modeling class and in my Life Drawing class.  In modeling we began to model the male figure in 3D.  And as I have said before reference is key when it comes to doing anything.  On the school network there are tons of folders with reference - i.e. naked people.  We picked a model to go off of, in different poses and from different angles - Front, Side, 3/4 and close-ups of various parts of the body.

It was kind of humorous to look around and see that on everyone's monitor there was a picture of a naked dude.  Here is my 3D model of my male anatomy study. We were told not to worry about hands or feet, so my model doesn't have any hands. We did take a brief look at hands but only after this project was finished. (click for full size)

As you can see, our assignment was to focus on the muscles. So we basically modeled the body as if it had no skin so we can only see the muscle.  I think I did a pretty good job for my first time dealing with anatomy.  Some of my classmates were surprised to find out I never studied anatomy so I took that as a good thing.

I already received my marks for this assignment, and I did really well. The comments I received from my instructors were that overall proportions of the body is correct and that most of my muscle groups were fairly accurate. Only thing wrong is that some of my muscles weren't the right size (though they were in the right place). 

I usually post up pictures of my reference (as I did with my Still Life) so you guys can compare what I did to the real thing, but I assume that you guys don't really want to see a bunch of pictures of a naked dude.

Unfortunately, we did not do a female anatomy study.  A lot of people  in my program (including myself) felted cheated since the class before us got to do both male and female studies.  There are a lot of differences between the male and female body - different proportions in body size and muscle size, difference in fat deposits, etc.  Although I didn't get to do this study in class, now that I know how to go about studying muscles and anatomy, I can study on my own. Although now I won't have an instructor telling me what I'm doing right or what I'm doing wrong.


Although we didn't do the female study in Modeling, we are getting some study in Life Drawing.  Life Drawing is a class that specifically is about the study of the body.  In this class (which meets once a week) we have a model (male or female) come in and pose for us in different positions in the nude.  The instructor gives us a certain amount of time to draw each pose. Usually we get a several 30 second poses, then we work up to 2 minute poses, a couple 5 minute poses, and at the end a couple 10 minute poses.

We are lectured in how to approach drawing the body, looking for lines of actions and curves the body naturally makes.  We are also lectured in how muscles connect to the different bones in the body.  I have learned so much in this class. 

I would post up some of my work from this class but at this stage in my learning it's not super impressive (plus I leave my Life Drawing notepad at school and am too lazy to get it).  Since most of our drawings are of poses with a very small time frame, a lot of the drawings consist of lines and curves that give the feeling of the pose. As our instructor taught us, the dangers most new students face is that they will try to workout details of the body even with such a small time frame that they get a really crappy drawing. What we are to do first is to get the pose down, nice and loose, and then if we have the time (such as in longer poses of 10+ min) work in the details.

I will try to post more of my other works for you guys when I get the chance.  I get pretty busy sometimes and don't have time to update this blog. But I will try harder.

Donnie

So throughout most of my life I have never really been called anything else that wasn't "Donald".  No cool nicknames really. One of my buddies in high school used to call me Trump and as a joke another one of my friends now calls me D-man. But for the most part it's "Donald". Which I guess is how I have preferred it.  Never really been into derivatives of my name such as Don or Donnie.  But ever since I have started school this is what I am mostly called, and I have gotten used to it.

It started with my friend Jeremy who on one of the first days of class decided to call me Donnie because he thought that the name made more sense for a guy who came from LA.  He also usually yells it and elongates it when he says it. So that name stuck.  Also, people just shortened it to Don.  So now I'm either Donnie or Don, and rarely Donald.  Which is cool.  It was a bit strange to respond to those names since no one has ever called me by those names (with any frequency).

Also, the newest nickname that has been bestowed upon me has been Wahlberg.  My friend Connor (by calling me Donnie) was reminded of Donnie Wahlberg - former member of New Kids on the Block and older brother to Mark Wahlberg.   So now he refers to me as Donnie Wahlberg or just Wahlberg.  This name is probably the one I like best because I found it clever - like when I was called Trump (because of Donald Trump and I played trumpet in high school).

Also, during the ending of last term I was helping out a lot of my classmates helping get their textures and shaders for their still lifes working.  Since I was able to understand how it worked and was teaching so many others about it one of my friends said I was the Godfather of Texturing.  And so instead he decided to call me the Donfather. So every now and again he'll call me that.  Again another clever one. 

Well I have to head out to class. Until next time.

Decisions Decisions

So a couple of days ago we (my class) was informed about the newest edition to our curriculum.  If I have not stated this before, my class is getting a new curriculum from the previous classes in hopes of giving us a better education.  The biggest (and I think the most useful) change to our curriculum is that they implemented a Major/Minor set up for our program.  Usually what would happen is at the end of Term 3 you decided what stream (Modeling, Animation, VFX) you wanted to go into and from Terms 4 to 6 you work on your final demo reel. Now they have changed it so that at the end of Term 2 (so in a couple of months for me) we must decide two fields of interest - one to major and minor in.   You'd specialize in these two streams in Term 3 and then at the end of the term pick one to actually stream into for the final terms.

They implemented this change because in Term 3 what would normally happen is that students must take courses in all 3 fields regardless of they wanted to do at the end. For instance some students going into animation could care less about VFX, so instead of actually taking those courses they could focus on animation and modeling. 

It's good that we can now focus our energies into what we want to do.  And with the class divided in this way we could get more personalized instruction since the classes would be smaller.  The only problem for me is that I don't know which two to pick.

Going in I knew I wanted to take visual effects or animation. So the logical choice would be to do a major and minor in those two fields. BUT now that I have had a taste for modeling I am quite confused.  They told us to focus on fields that would be useful in your final demo reel. So if you are doing VFX, and its a heavy animation based scene then do animation for a minor. If it requires complex models (and not much animation) then do modeling as the minor.  Problem is that I don't know now what will benefit me more because I intend to implement animation and modeling in my VFX reel - be it a robot, monster, etc.

I think my biggest problem in making a concrete decision is that I love everything about what I'm doing here and I thirst for knowledge. I want to know how to do EVERYTHING. I know this is impossible but the more information I can gather and more I can do the better (at least for my own satisfaction).

As of now I am leaning towards VFX and animation.  I am thinking that when I graduate I probably will not go seeking a modeling job, nor do I think I would like to be modeling for a living (even though I enjoy doing it).  So it might be better to focus my attentions towards the other two streams.  We'll see what happens.

Final Still Life

In case you don't already know, my final project for 3 of my classes (Modeling, Surfacing, Rendering) was to produce 5 objects for a Still Life image.  This is my final rendered still life image (click to see full size)

The 5 items that I modeled, shaded, surfaced, and textured were the mitten, the Superman toy, the Flash doll, the camera and the desk lamp.  The rest of the scene was given to me (although I did slightly alter the texture of the desk to make it look better) and it was up to me to pick the composition of the shot and light it however I chose. As you can see I chose a night time shot where some light comes in through the window but the main light source is the desk lamp.

I am very happy with how this came out. I put in a ton of time and effort and I think it looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

So now I would like to show you guys close up pictures of each item so you can see the details that I put on them a bit better. One of the things that killed me was that my final submission was this single image and some of the details that I spent so much time on aren't 100% visible in the image (especially on the camera since I put it towards the back of my composition). So here are the close-ups, plus a reference photo of the real one (again, click for full size image)

Camera

The Flash

Desk Lamp

Mitten

Superman

 

My favorite parts of the models are probably the small details that I put into them that you may have not noticed at first. Like the scratches on the camera, or the scuffs on the back of the camera or the fading of some of the writing on the buttons.  Also, on Superman the paint job isn't perfect (like on the toy itself). Some of the red mashes into the yellow of the belt, or the red paint from the boot comes onto the blue of his pants.  And I don't know if you can see it in these images but on the side of Superman's arms there is a small plastic seam that comes from the neck, down the arm, and around the hands.  This I assume is comes from the mold the toy was built with.

So I spent a ton of time working on small details that I knew would never actually be in the final image. For instance, there are only two sides of the camera that are visible in this shot, yet I spent HOURS working on the other 4 sides.  Some of this could be justified by saying that I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to composite my shot so it was good to cover all my basis.  But I knew for a fact that I wasn't going to show the bottom of this camera (which is  4th/final picture I am showing you guys) in my shot, so I didn't really have to work on it. But I did.

I guess I spent that much time on the sides that weren't going to be shown to practice. But the main reason is that I'm a perfectionist. There was no way I was not going to do it. It would have drove me insane leaving a side not finished, not to mention untouched.  However, later on in my schooling (and when I get a job) I will have to learn to just let things go. You always work for the shot that will be shown.  There is no point in actually doing something that no one will ever see. But since this was my first exercise I wanted to go all out.  I hope you guys like it.  This is why I didn't sleep much the last week and a half of last term.