The Beginning; Week One

So, here we are at the end of Week One! I have to say in retrospect it was awesome being thrown straight into the subject, I’m beginning to immerse myself more and more into the 3D Environmental aspect of this course, and finding myself appreciating the beauty and craftsmanship of established 3D artists more as I’m learning the programmes.

Different materials rendered on spheres in Photoshop - In Class "Stretch Goal"
Rendered by me

Most of my time this week has been spent exploring the city of Leicester and finding the most interesting areas for potential inspiration in my art work; however the task at hand – thumbnail sketches in single point perspective – which gravitated me towards exploring about a mile radius of the river Soar, using water colour and pencil as a media in recording my discoveries.

As for the Games Production module of my course, I, like many others, after being introduced to the bare bones of the program 3DS Max, decided to use some free time to get some hands on experience with the tool and trying to probe the limits of my understanding. After some tribulation, I did succeed in creating a stylised sword, taking inspiration from Cloud’s “Buster Sword” (Final Fantasy 7) as it proved an easier shape and style for me to do some exploratory work with. The challenge was creating a low poly weapon with definitive silhouette without using “Ngons”, however I am happy with the outcome of my first self-made mesh.

My Self Directed Study end result, Low-Poly mesh of Sword with inspiration from "The Buster Sword" - Final Fantasy 7
Next thing is to texture, screenshot provided by myself

A zoomed in screenshot of the detail on the hilt
screenshot provided by myself

As for what I’ve been doing when I haven’t been drawing or wandering around the city of Leicester, I’ve been looking at various blogs of 3D Environment artists (mostly of current and former DMU students and how their work has improved has been amazing to watch) and the Autodesk tutorials of how to use 3DS Max.