What 12 hours of self directed study really looks like

OK.. so the challenge was to see how much self directed study I could get done in 12 hours, the recommended sds time. This time it was visual design that I challenged myself to do.

I have taken photographs to prove a point, The point is that I can try harder.
Scanning them in would take hours, hours that could be spent getting good at 3ds max.
(They will be scanned at somepoint apoligies for the mediocre quality)

There not the best drawings in the world, I was more focused on speed than anything else. Saying that the minute sketches I have done,  are no different from the stuff that took me 30 minutes, the 15 minute sketches are no different that the drawings that took me an hour previously.

I have left a few hours spare for a final peice,
So.........This is what 12 hours self directed study looks like.

*I have now scanned these pictures in. I couldnt sleep so I thought that rather thana just lie awake for hours I would take the time. Whats the point doing all this work if the end results are not evident?

Point proven.......

I have made loads of mistakes here, but I will learn from them. My work is far from perfect and I know that.
Someone once said to me YOU CRAWL, YOU WALK, YOU RUN, IN THAT ORDER.
He was absolutley correct.
Learning anything else is no different. You have to start with baby steps before you can run a marathon.

2 point perspective - in progress

i chose this building for my 2 point persepective final because it seemed so simple to do.... just alot of rectangles of black and white... oh how wrong i was...

It turned out what i thought was black and white on the building were in fact lots of tones of grey, no black or white... and the rectangles.. getting them right and in correct perspective... also a pain....

If I want to really criticise my work.... Ill note that the perspective of the windows on theright is out, I am so glad i chose to do this digitally, it will be easier to rectify. Again the mistake i made was having THE VANISHING POINTS TOO CLOSE TOGETHER.

WATCH THIS SPACE for the finished version, with the correct perspective. I  will kep the front as it is flat and was easy to do. The worst thing is is that the building is not as straight as it appears to be in real life.

Making the building accurate and in perspective will be the real challenge, are there enough hours in the day?  me thinks not.

One step forward 5 steps back

The problems that I have had with 3ds max over the last week have really set me back, and its entirley my own doing. I made a few mistakes due to my lack of understanding of the software that led to me loosing the work I had done without realising. Progressing onto the next task and realising I had to go back a step is really frustrating.

Due to my inexperience with the software I thought that if you wanted to apply 3 uv maps to a model you had to create 3 uvmap modifiers.... I didnt realise however that when i saved all the unwrapping I had done was practically deleted. When  I tried to apply the sub obkect modifiers, thats when i knew something was wrong.

I managed to unwrap EVERYTHING again in an hour or so and arrange it (using 1 uvmap modifier) on top of the textures I had made already and this saved hours, if only id have known... I could have saved a whole week of work.

This was not the only problem I encountered during the creation of my wheelie bin, I did not uncheck the generate mapping co- ordinates box before moddelling, making unwrapping the first time a right pain. It was quicker for me just to start over and remodel the bin again. Im glad I re- modled my second bin was much better.

I got there today, I succeeded through the tears and pulling out of hair, I was determined to get it right and I did.

One good thing has come out of this liitle mishap and that is that I have 3 times more experience unwrapping than i would have if everything had gone right first time, I am also 3 times quicker at it now.

I am confident that I could do the whole thing again in a day or less because of the problems I had. I am proud of my finished outcome, Im glad I looked around for an interesting bin texture and didnt just settle for any old grey boring bin.

heres some pics... of the ordeal?

The first wheelie bin. In an attempt to make the parts at the front with the handles real I used too many tri's and ended up skimping in the handle at the back. The bin lid in this example was not as realistic as it could have been, there were more levels than this on the real wheelie bin (about 4 or 5) there are only 3 here.
Doing the bin again I took consideration into where the detail went and what was most important parts of the object, handles? wheels maybe... I did the wheels last so they were going to look like octagons with the last remaining tri's in the budget.

On my second attempt  I had learnt that well mad quads were better than tri's and could be processed more easily by the graphics card.

 I forgot to hide  the uv template layer in photoshop beore I saved it as a targa file, the lines are still visible on this model. The texture had not been applied at this point using the sub object modifier just a standard diffuse map, the texture had not been blended together properly so I went back and altered these things, I had spent so much time on this that I didnt want to just settle for that.
Another thing I found wrong with the above texture was that there were some highlights on the bin lid. I had tried my best to take pictures on a dull day to avoid this, but alas I am no photographer. I went back into photoshop again and adjusted the shadows/highlights and went over the very light parts with a small brush on a low opacity to rectify this.

Improvments are visible in the picture above. It may appear that i have stretched or not properly alligned the photograph to the uv template because the number 12 is slightly to the left. This is not the case,  the number had been painted on the bin slightly to the left. Looking back I think that I should have tried to align this number so that it appeared level, as it appears to be a mistake on my part. The whees have not been rendered in this example.

The above image is of the model as I was unwrapping, I am quite proud of the fact that I managed to make the squares even and not stretched even though I did have to do it again. Mistake learned from.


So I have come to the end of my first project, and I even applied smoothing groups (something I didnt know how to do with the dalek, so I have improved and thats the main thing. I have learnt that getting stressed over things does not help, nor does crying or pulling your hair out. Perseverance is the key keep going and keep trying and keep getting better, faster and becoming more efficent with the software. You cant say fairer than that can you?

Random textures - Animal textures from life,

I was looking at some pics I a while ago at tropical bird land in desford, and found some feather textures, I thought it would be interesting to try and find some other animals to photograph...... just to see what I could get. I have 3 texture folders, animal, vegetable and mineral. If tree goes in vegetable where does wood go? tell me that?

 Next doors bulldog, getting him to stay still was the hardest part.

owl,

owl 2

 Tabby cat

white parrot.

The vid - creepy building, survival horror style

added some creepy music to this vid to see if it would help create atmosphere, seemed to work but would the effect have been different if the music had changed?

Demolition site textures

I have a thing for textures, they thrill me the more than words can express. I always make sure I have a camera with me because you never know when something interesting will turn up. I took some shots from todays "demolition site" adventure.

Interesting environments exploration - demolition site

During todays visual studys task we went into the city centre to find buildings to draw applying the two pont perspective we had just learnt. We looked around, it was a very windy day, rained on and off, found some interesting buildings to draw.

At around 2 Oclock we decided to wander around and came to a demolition site with what looked like a half fallen, half burnt down building. Going into dangerous places is not something Id usually do for safety reasons but it looked interesting so I  managed to get in (climbed over a wall) and take some shots of the building, textures and a video of inside.

The main area reminded me of something out of a video game, there were more rooms but they were blocked off, I could have got into them at a push but there was broken glass and heroin needles lying around and i didnt want to risk getting stabbed by either.

 There were random odd objects here such as a pair of boots, beer cans it appeared as if someone was dossing here and the idea that there may be someone like that around any corner I ventured just added to the endorphin rush.

I almost expected to hear a groan and a zombie come out of this doorway...

Inside the building was dark and disgusting but bright sunlight was coming through the cracks in the walls where the roof was. It was blinding at times but lit areas of this building up. Sounds strange but the light actually made this building more creepy. 

Parts of this building were literally hanging off, although I wanted to spend more time here I was really worried that my feet would go through the floor or something would fall on me, the sense of fear added to the atmosphere here.

This freaky graphiti reflected the atmosphere in this building perfectly, which is why i included this shot, no points for technical skill, lots of points for artistic expression.

The temptation to venture down here and see what was here was almost unbearable, luckily I was not wearing the correct shoes.

the best of the rest..........

I actually videod my exploration of this building, I thought that may be more of a "blair witch style" way to show this place. Ill include that in another post.