My Final Update

This is my final project for the semester in Life Drawing II. The main goal when I started this project was to model a finished 3D model piece and take a snap shot of it. Though I wanted to model organic creatures and other non-human related stuff, I wanted to stay close to human anatomy so I can improve my anatomy more hence is why I took life drawing II to re-focus a little on human anatomy. I also wanted to find a composition in the model that would at least be decent to look at. In the this final piece I believe I achieved my goal. Although the piece is not perfect in anatomy, I learned a lot throughout the the process of making it and I mean alot. This includes human anatomy, digital sculpting, texturing, lighting, and rendering. Also the more I worked on the project, the more I came to realize I was putting a lot more weight in learning the software and digital sculpting then learning how the actual anatomy human is.

In the process of leading up to the final, I had to learn my way into zBrush using it's digital sculpting tools. I needed to first learn the interface and where things were at and also other things such as saving tools and documents. Then I had to explore the brushes and how you can pull and push shapes in zbrush.

One of the difficulties I had was how to start the model. I read some online forums and the best tip I got from it was to either sketch some samples and model from a backdrop picture or model from scratch without anything. I chose the method of just sculpting from scratch and see what I would get. This is where I got the idea of a man hanging onto a log. As soon as I was able to detect the shape of what I wanted to model I began from there.

Texturing was pretty fun. At first I had no clue how to texture with Zbrush, though I did have some experience texturing using maya. After I got the hang of it, I can see how powerful zbrush can be when it comes to texturing. After learning how to texture I was able to apply my own painted skin texture and add a tatoo to the arms of the man.

And finally when rendering came I explore rendering a little different from what I am used to from other 3D applications. I had to render out each pass (color map, shadow map, lighting maps, etc) and composite all the layers together in photoshop using blending tools such as multiply and overlay and such. Rendering a complete composited piece took about the same about as time duration as texturing and modeling in my case.

Over all I wanted a piece to be in my portfolio related to 3D contents and I got what I what I wanted. I believe this piece will fit well into my portfolio for a 3D digital related job. I wanted to show my strengths in modeling, texturing, and rendering. Although really in the real world I should only focus on what I am good at most, I enjoyed learning the other process of making a 3D character or model.

However, I hope to continue making more models but this time speed up the process more. I understand that in the business world, it's about balancing speed and skills. I don't want to do a good job but have the time spent on a piece to be very long.