I always expect to get more done in a day or week than I usually manage to. I suspect it to be a mind body disconnect somewhere. It’s probably related to the one where my brain hasn’t figured out that my body really isn’t as young as it once was. But for now I think I will go along happily ignoring or denying this disconnect and continue to try to get 3 months of art projects completed in 3 days, or more reasonably, a week.
That isn’t to say I didn’t get anything done. I did manage to create a character for animation following along with the Digital Tutors course ‘Modeling a Character for Animation in 3ds Max. I deviated a bit. I made a female character and chose not to add a gradient texture/material at the end. Still the whole process was a lot of fun. So much that I think I will be creating a few more characters like that. I have at least 2 in mind already. So here’s my character.
I also managed regular sketchbook entries again this week. Though I did miss a couple of days over the holiday weekend. Still I’m mostly pleased with the results. I started with a bumble bee. It is related to a short animation I have in mind. The same animation as the petunias from last week.
And some mornings there isn’t much available to work with, even after coffee. I had one of those days and so for some reason, probably thoughts of the flooding in Oklahoma and Texas, I chose to draw a snorkel.
I’m not entirely sure what inspired this one. Other than it must have come out of some thought regarding the alien emote I sent to a friend in a text. I thought she needed an alien to go along with her Minion. And as my brain works in ways that I choose not to question, that means and alien ends up in the sketchbook. I also posted it on Instagram earlier this week. He is too cute and fun not to have shared right away, so I did. And after conversation about this alien, with the friend that got the emote, he’s begun to take on a life of his own in my head so there is a better than good chance that he will become a full 3D model sooner rather than later.
Another one of those, who knows why sketches. I do a lot of my sketches in the morning before work and while I’ve had my coffee, usually, by the time I sit down to do them, that doesn’t mean the coffee has kicked in. So some mornings, we just get what we get. It’s a little along the lines of an ink bottle. I have started back to working on a dots on paper project that I started many years ago and so ink bottles were on my mind, I think.
Yesterday I was supposed to go to an event that involved billiards and bowling. I ended up not going. However, as I started my day, pool, or billiards was in my thoughts. I kind of like the way the billiard balls turned out.
I also managed to spend a little time working on that crane piece I started in ZBrush. I got one leg worked on as well as some additional work done on the tail. I hope to get the other leg worked on and the whole thing completed in the next week or so. It’s not like there is a lot to do to finish it. At least I don’t think there is. So it would be good to get it done. I don’t know if I will polypaint it yet. I will be putting together a turntable of it which I will post here and on YouTube.
Also on deck for this week is starting round two of the rigging tutorial, this time I will be following along using my new character. And I would like to start on another character using the same low poly modeling technique that I just learned. I think that is all do-able. Maybe check back for the next update and see how I do.