Thursday 27 March 2014

Judge a book by its cover

Never under estimate the power of a good sketch book. 
The time was upon me when I needed to buy my new sketch book and since I was in Korea, the land of cuteness and invocation I thought I would have no problem. When it comes to seats in a restaurant, I'll sit anywhere, put it in front of me and I'll eat it but unfortunately when It comes to choosing a sketch book I am fussier than a Persian cat on a 5 star cruise.
It needs to be exactly right which means a lot of searching but in the end ultimate satisfaction. Before I rant about why these tiny needs are important let me explain what they are:
. Size: a5 perfect size to fit in any bag I may carry and the right size for coffee tables/airplane seats/laps
. Not hard back but not soft back. It needs to feel slightly weighted so I have a hard surface to lean on but it still needs to be able to bend as I get into weird positions when I draw.
. Thickish slick paper, not recycled paper that feels like leaves (sorry world) and not bumpy like water colour paper.
. No SPIRAL!
. Quite chunky - I like the book to be just under an inch in thickness if possible as I don't want to go through it in a week.
. Quirky if possible. Obviously it's what's inside that counts , don't judge a book.... And all those life lessons but I am an artist and I do like an element of my personality on the cover if possible. I could add it myself but then we have the pressure put in a design. I realise that the fact I have tattoos but can't commit to drawing on a sketch cover is a psychologist dream but I'm just odd like that.

So anyway those are my factors so you can imagine I search for quite a while before the perfect book is found. This time it was about  two months.
'Thats crazy' you might say and I'd be inclined to agree with you except that when the perfect book is put in front of me, when I've written my name on the inside cover like a geeky school girl and I've got pages upon pages of what could be beautiful art, it's all worth it.
I'm not a 2D-ear by nature . I love drawing but I'm a cg animator so finding a sketch book that inspires me to think I can achieve something instead of excepting defeat, it makes these pre- carpal tunnel wrists very happy.

So far the new sketch book is turning out better than expected. I got over the first page fear and have drawn more than a few times every day. It's nothing special but it was enough to inspire.

Now let's get drawing!

What inspires you to be creative. Any mind games you play on yourself that you'd like to share?  Good luck and happy sketching  x

Monday 3 March 2014

Learning to model (attempt 2)

Well last attempt was more than a learning curve and more of a steep fall but it is done and dusted. I definitley won't be using it to animate but its sparked the creative fire in me and i'm still gonna keep on trying.
So the next part of the project will be Doodlezilla before returning to King Konglish once again. Fingers crossed i've learnt enough to make an animatable model this time :)

Sunday 2 March 2014

Learning to Model: Day 9 FINISHED



Day 9
I created my blend shapes but then hit a brick wall. 2011 Maya has a bug that doesn’t allow you to go into the input > input all settings. On the mesh so I haven’t been able to change the topology. When you make blends they need to be below the skin cluster otherwise you will have your model jumping back to the bind pose every time you push a slider.
I found a way around this by deleting all of my layers, resaving my file and opening it. It worked a charm. I also entered the blend shapes by choosing the advanced settings when setting up the blends and changed the option to ‘front of chain’ which should set it under the skin cluster. This all sounds very complicated and should be very simple but the bug in 2011 made it awkward. The answer is probably getting a newer Maya (Santa?)
So now his is rigged, skinned, textured and have expressions.
Basically he is finished. How has the end result ended up? Well as you can see it’s not perfect but it’s functional.I won't be using this as anything else but a learning tool as there is no way this guy will be in my short (sorry fella) but he was a good start.
I have learnt so much over the last 9 days and I am really happy to have gotten back into this. I’m going to build the next character in my short and then probably revisit King Konglish and do it again.
I realise my babblings probably not very insightful for anyone building a rig but I have written it to keep my sanity and to remember the little problems I ran into for when I try again.
King Konglish v.1

Welcome King Konglish…even if you are just the practice model