The Clay House is supposed to be Bread

Whilst re reading the story of Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, I realised the house is completely made of bread! How do you show that, how would u make something solid enough to be believable as a house, whilst still being made of soft edible bread. Well it was by chance when looking at 18th century German Cottages I found The Clay House in Leshten, Bulgaria. I've also discovered there is a virtual tour of the building. It is made of Flintstone/Clay well to me that does have a few of the qualities I imagine the Witch's Bread House would have, this below is the interior:

Excuse the TV, but it is that dusty brown and the shaped of the bench and house is nearly perfect as a reference to the house. Also it helps seeing the whole thing in 3d so here is the link to the Virtual Tour; http://www.rentbyownerbg.com/offer/1918/

Also found these as extra elements that I want to just keep till I make up a mood board:

Well this is officially the beginning of the research for this Visualisation project.

FINALLY

Well Hagatha is finally back in 3ds Max, taken weeks to figure out what was happening with the seams, anyway, after a lot of trial and plenty of error, this is officially the best outcome of all my hard work. There are elements of course I'd like to improve but for animation and progression purposes I am happy with this. It does do something weird when rendered though, but I think that is mainly to do with materials. I can sort that later. I no longer have the patience to faff around. I just want to move forward!

Facial Expressions

I've been watching these clips, trying to learn the range of facial expressions. I can't wait to kick Hagatha into action, well as soon as i get the modelling thing sorted. Really frustrating as she is not working the way I want her too, every time I model her and add a few more sub division layers to her in Mudbox, she goes weird when I export it. So annoying, but hopefully Andy can save whats left of my hair.



Anyway these little guys have definitely brightened up my day, some very funny quick sketcghes. Something I would really love to get into.

Painting

learning to paint properly in Photoshop, here is the first stage of my concept for the Graphi Novel/film I have in mind. Its called 'Pods'.

I DID I DID see a putty cat

Still practicing my drawing skills and photoshop. It's simple stuff like this that builds a portfoilio. Especially as I know exactly how I'm going to digitalise my sketchbooks properly for the real portfolio I'd hand to potential employers as a concept artist. If I keep doing stuff like this by the end of the summer I'll have quite a collection. Anyway this is me and emma as Cats, I took the the previouse images I drew and changed us into cats.

I taat I saw a Putty Cat

Just a recent character design I've started fixing up. Just thought i'd share before I finsih up here.

2012 Showreel

So here it is, my first ever go at making a showreel, theres a lot that could be improved, but there is plenty there that shows the hardwork. The most important thing is how much I have come along in such a short space of time, and this really shows that. From having nothing for two years to suddenly being able to pull together a 2minute showreel, I wish I could add more into it showing my knowledge of all the programs I know, like after effects and Maya, but this will do for now. It can only get better as my own skills improve, i also think that my next one will be more conceptual based this one is all about what I've learnt my next one will be me not having to rely on that but show all the things I can accomplish. I have added my sketches onto the DVD just not into the Showreel, I have a good idea of what I'm going to do for that too when I get there. One step at a time though.
Anyway as promised here is my baby, can't wait to watch it grow:



Also want to apologise for the flickering I uploaded the wrong version to Vimeo, but u get the jist.

Showreel Menus

So here are the Title menus I have made for my Showreel DVD, I'm quite impressed with myself as I learnt Adobe Encore quite quickly, thank goodness!  Anyway I will be shortly sharing my actual showreel with u shortly, just though I would add my menus. I like how I've incorporated my work onto the pages in a non too evasive way, they're there subtly in the glass baubles. Again another thing I taught myself. I am getting there, I have almost begun to conquere 3ds max. After this I will also add the turntable video of Hagatha in Mudbox.

 Above is the main page, simple stylistic, straight to the point. And below is my extras page which has the full length film 'The Chess player' and also a slideshow of my sketches, as I feel that is very important to show if I'm slowly heading into the direction of concept artist.

I have also included a contact page, for further info. Being in Digital Multimedia I thought it was very important to use just digital forms of contact. Eventually I will change the Hotmail account into a web address, but for the time being it will do.

Tweaking and Playing

So I've re done the UVW Map to Hagatha, along with re doing her model in Mudbox. It was very flat and bland and I couldn't figure out why, but after a few discussions I realised that I hadn't been using my original design as a reference but just doing it from memory. Anyway by doing this it looked flat and dull, so I've gone back into Mudbox and started from scratch. So here is the difference now from the original image:

Original above, Below the Tweaked.

She is getting some real shape now in her torso, the "shelf" is more obvious and so is her stomache and bulge. The tweaking has just begun, this may put me back a little bit but there is no point in doing things in half measures.

Pflow Test

I created this yesterday while learning about particle flow, with the effects of wind and drag too. This was created from a tutorial by Chandan Kumar. It was really helpful. I still need to play around a lot more, but I have realised that it is the wind that really determines the whole thing. Anyway this weekend I'll be drawing, keeping on top of and improving my skills. Will upload the sketches I do as soon as I can promise.

Morning Play

Just been playing around with a tutorial by Andrew Kramer, it taught me about subtle ligthing and shadows.Still in the playing stage of the producion logo. Mini projects keep me learning new things. Especially the shadows I can use within a scene. Anyway I might do another. Will keep you updated

A helpful bit of Visualization of Hagatha

Just did a quick video of Hagatha, just to help me visualise her better. There are some flaws, but I'm going to leave her alone this week, before I start over workign her and lose interest. Bad I know, but I have to move and progress otherwise it gets stale quick. Anyway I'm currently working on a mini project for myself using 3ds Max. Its going to be my production logo, Kvasir Productions. Anyway its going ok modelling wise I'm about to start animating.

here is the title....

Hagatha has Colour

So here is Hagatha finally painted, she's not as detailed as I like..BUT I have to hold back as much as I can and keep her quite simple otherwise she'll look od in her surroundings. I do feel I might have over done the detail and lost that Looney Tune simplicity but she is my design and in my image, I don't want to copy.

Below is a close up of her face, warts and all I'm keeping her bald, witch's should be creepy.

UVW map

This is the UVW map, i spent all yesterday un wrapping. I had to do each fcae section seperate, there are some flaws in the way I did. Yet for this being the first one I didnt do too bad, and I'm now painting (after plenty of false starts) in Mudbox. Today is an extremely slow day, I'm struggling to get my head into it. I don't think I will be staying late tonight, will go home in a few hours, least I've started painting the base. Also want to share the amazing book I've been reading by Richard Williams, really appreciate the work Disney and Warner Bros did, so much so I've been watching all the old Disney films like Snow White Jungle Book etc. I have a whole new respect for the films, like Bagera in Jungle Book, the way he moves, and shifts his weight, its so believable (the key to a good animation). Awesome book, I think I need to limit my reading to one book at a time though, currently have 3 on the go. starting to forget sections of each.

Into Mudbox we Go

Here she is transferred into Mudbox, I've added a few warts, but for tonight I think I'm going to leave it there. Will carry on tomorrow, like spiking the nose and curling the toes more. I will also see if I can mould in hairs, perhaps. Well at least I get to start painting Hagatha tomorrow, all the unwrapping i finally complete, it took forever, she is very detailed!! Anyway I am done for this evening, time to go home and get some food and sleep. Night

Saint Jerome in his Study - Model

I have begun modelling a replica of the painting 'Saint Jerome in his Study' by Antonello da Messina. This is just the doorway, I've built most of it by just extruding and Chamfering sections. Once you get the basics down its quite simple, just a puzzle. The awkward bit was modelling the inner doorway detail towads the top. I havent taken a good enough screen image for it to be really visible though. Anyway, this project I will be slowly getting on with along with all the other ones, hopefully will be another small thing to add to the portfolio.

 

The Tutorials are up and working

YAY!! I can progress again, so with Andy's tutorials I've not added eye sockets and a mouth. Not only this but I have smoothed Hagatha out, and she looks awesome, I was a little worried about smoothing her as naughtily i hadnt tested it throughout, but it works beautifully. For my 1st ever 3d character model, I love her. She looks like a witch, she has all the witch features, and I've barely had to tweak my original design, apart from giving her a neck and taking away the hair. Today is much better, I'm so glad to have the tutorials again, it does make the difference. Also just spoke to Andy, i'm now going to seperate the Hat from her head, so it almost becomes a seperate character, I have made life difficult for myself with her chin so much on her chest so I'm also going to lift head more, so this will probably be the last time you see her in a nice position, till i begin anaimtion.

Little ol' me

Yes this is what I used to look like as a kid, always wore tshirts that were way to big for me, along with my my scraggly hair my poor mother used to have to try and tackle every morning. I was a rough and tumble kind of kid, I think this quick sketch somes me up quite nicely.
Could do with some tweaking, but I started to take too long on it, took me an hour as I kept getting distracted.

Practice practice

This was another sketch I did and just finished off, yep this is what I looked like as a kid. I was a scraggly little thing at 5yr

Morning practice

Just some mid morning practice, 30mins from that poor photographed sketch below. I'm practicing to speed paint basically, and half an hour to have it sketched out in photoshop and coloured isnt too bad. Just trying to build up my portfolio I guess.

Drawing skills

Just a quick sketch I did of my fiancee as a 5yr old, just doing little things to improve my drawing skill. Going to upload it into photoshop, and tweak elements of it , like the mouth and tidy it up. I'm quite happy with the sketch as I drew her from memory, taking elements that stick out most to me and making her into a child.

Basic Backdrop

After a lot of thought about my scene, and studying the backdrops in other cartoons. I realised how important it was to keep it simple, in a lot of them they're almost abstract, and impression of the scene around main  characters. I have made the moon seperate as I might be using that in another scene, with her flying over it or something. I'm still working on how to best to create the forest scene around  her house, but most attempts have failed either lokks to shabby or there is too much in the scene to render so it crashes.
Anyway I will be working on the scene for the time being as nothing has been sorted with NOW, so I can not really progress further without the tutorials Andy has given us, which is a big shame as its been over a week now.

Wile Coyote

I love how it still keeps in theme with the classic cartoons. It is a mordern version, fitting in with the times today, but seeing as my own piece is going to be very similar to Looney Tunes I had o show their own 3d work too. It brightens up my working day while working on this project

The Witch and the Broom

So I've now added her hat to her head, and modelled the broomstick, I'm hoping that in both these models to increase the level of depth with Mudbox. Just need to figure out how to do it. Unfortunately I can not progress further with these two models at the minute because the basic tutorials on how to rig etc. have been deleted accidently on the University website, infact my entire years tutorials and briefs have all gone. Hopefully will be uplaoded soon, I really want to see my podgy witch move. The brrom I've decided wont walk in my animation but I may make a seperate one just for my own little personal challenge.