Sketching Sessions

Daily Brief: Moving it around – to avoid the burn!

Again, due to work commitments – I have a smaller window with which to get work out today.

I am not sure if I am in the mood for extended substance sessions as planned – and the luxury of being my own boss – means I can pick a more appealing area for today and then return to the original plans.

This is where keeping my blog up to date – taking to time to record reflections and planning ahead pays off.

Due to my independent nature and fact that I am researching and developing all of the skills required as I go – I have to be able to move around freely when I hit walls.

Without my master documents, asset lists, skill development exercises planned in advance – I would get lost and lack motivation due to a lack of progress.

That was my number one concern when I started & I am now confidently able to answer that weakness.

I know what to do when I encounter difficulty – take a break, find the fun – work on whatever is enjoyable and return to the harder more challenging work later with fresh eyes.

With that said – I really had fun developing anatomical sketches and studies – and can already see a noted improvement in my ability to sketch out ideas more accurately.

I would like to continue some of my anatomical forms and freehand practice exercises today – and I’ll spend maybe an hour practicing some simplified forms and constructive anatomy.

I have one eye on modular character / creature anatomy model sets and an updated collection of character models.

I-Balls and Creature Concepts are next up for a preliminary study – with the idea of returning and updating everything once more as I work through the cinematics build.

The logic here – is that my skills are improving but not quite where they need to be to match my intent and briefs.

So I continue the daily practice and study – reading and research – work on other areas – by the time I complete all outstanding kits, exercises and character updates – my confidence with Maya and Substance should have increased.

I will then really spend extended time deatialing – as I will stop creating new assets and just iterate on what I have at this stage.

I complete the concept art bible – updated character models first – create a new unreal project and master scene – update all my model and asset lists – then make a properly scheduled plan of attack and roadmap with set milestones, development windows and required outputs.

I will actively move away from experimention, education and cocenptual work – and start to push the quality.

When the quality level and models are clean enough – I enter rigging, animation and cinematic development phases – working in Audio as I go.

Simplified Forms: Repeated Sketches

Practicing drawing out the basic forms again – will then use these new simple sketches for a speed modelling model pass – on modular anatomical meshes.

Simplified forms set.

Then a constructive / anatomy – detail pieces set.

Updated Pogo Mesh

New I-Balls Mesh

Creature, Character, Cast & NPC Updates

Moby Model

Will all benefit from this set of practice sessions and skill development exercises.

Also taking time to update master reference illustration sheets – with latest sketches.

Current Concept Forms Master Sheet

Current Creature Forms Master Sheet

Creature Concept: Orb Man

Creature Concept: Sadbot

Creature Concept: Skeleton Fella

Creature Concept: Leg Monster

Creature Concept: Arm of Agony

Creature Concept: Limbitless

Creature Concept: Clueless Duo

Creature Concept: Smoothhead

Simplified Forms: Speedmodels

Working from my recent sketches and forms – I’m quickly rendering out some very basic model pieces in a new Maya Master Scene.

Just to have a play around with ideas and practice the modelling step-by-steps.

I will then look at constructive anatomy and some more detailed sketches for specific areas of focus: e.g the hands.

I’ll make a few quick sketches – then work up some more detailed models for key character / creature and anatomical pieces.

The Head: Speedmodels

/End of Anatomy Session

Ran out of time – so will quickly use what I have to render out a concept for

the orb man creature – set up a rapid substance sheet and call it a day!

Testing it: Orb Man Concept

/End of Day

Daily Brief: Reflections / Planning

Slightly longer window to work today – still a few days until I am free from work and can sit down and get to the meat of some of my outstanding tasks, exercises and briefs.

Happy with continuing to practice form studies, simplified forms and constructive anatomy for now.

To this end – I will conduct a quick sketching exercise (literally 5-15 minutes) – to inform some more speed modelling challenges.

My next area of focus will be the Upper Body and arms.

With the current head simple form master scene – I can work up some detailed shoulder and arm muscles – then bridge between that piece and a body piece and clean it up.

I will continue to find my own style and forms as I go – but my initial target output from the list of modular studies – is a relatively accurate and anatomically correct human master model.

From here I can then start to generate my desired forms – once I have a nice clean mesh to work from.

I also want a separate set of ‘core forms’ at the end of these studies – that I will use to update and refine ideas and concepts for my creature and character collections.

I should end up with about 10-30 forms per modelling challenge – plus one half-decent master form for each major body piece.

I can then move into even more detail and variation – by looking more at constructive anatomy and my anatomy for 3d artists reference books.

Notes on Managing yourself & your time

What I am finding so far – is that my ability to draw from imagination and capture the ‘base’ of what I am after is much faster and easier now. I am moving away from discussing concepts and ideas and theories and proposals – and starting to show solutions and worked examples.

This is key for me – If I was looking to make a quick-buck – I could push out some bullshit promotional trailers and snakey fake builds.

I am not interested in that – it is one thing I absolutely despise about early access – it’s hard to find the true passion projects from creators that care for their work – in the sea of quick cash-grabs.

I don’t know if I will ever find an audience for my work – and honestly, I don’t mind if it doesn’t grow because I am having so much fun and learning so many new things!

I would like to think that if people can see my passion – my drive and my commitment to improve myself, my art and deliver on my vision – without compromise – they may give me a chance.

I will only ask for help, support and feedback – and take people’s time – when I feel I have something worth talking about.

I am close and I am very excited to share what I have – when it is ready!

Notes on improving my 2d skills:

For my first set of sketches I spent the entire day producing various forms, repeating and practicing.

Literally 24 hours later – I repeated the same tasks – and noticed that the time to render and the accuracy of the final output were much improved.

As with my other known weaknesses and deficiencies – I try to work out what the most pressing issue is by browsing over reflections and blogs.

I identify the most pressing bottle neck and I pursue knowledge to gain confidence approaching my briefs.

It often seems very dense up-front – but I find just getting into it – not worrying about the end result – and focusing on form and practice – can lead to noteworthy skill development in a short period of time.

It is CRUCIAL that the tasks and exercises arranged – are both FUN to explore and at the CORRECT DIFFICULTY for my current skill-level.

As my fun wains or the difficulty decreases – I vary the exercise – picking a new focus or increasingly difficulty challenge.

Benchmarking my skill development as I go – and constantly reading over and refereeing back to my blog and bibles.

Without the strong pre-production research and master documents – I think it would be much much harder for me to even identify my weaknesses properly on my own – let along set-up exercises and studies to close the gaps.

I have zero support or guidance here – partly by choice – I want to be ready to listen to feedback and not get defensive – so I must be confident with the quality of my work and the depth of my research.

I am still framing for a pitch style presentation – that covers my work to date and my next steps. As much as I can probably blag it – I want to do it right – I want to make sure what I put out is my best work.

I know that there’s a chance even my best work – will not stand up to criticism – but if I have committed fully to my development and really pushed myself – I wont be left wondering – well, but what if? I will know where I am – and how I can move ahead.

I cannot stress the importance of a decent plan – a specific output in mind – and a proposed timeframe for each exercise – without these elements – you will progress at a slower pace in my experience.

I also feel that my key to success here – is that I am working on something that genuinely excites me and more importantly challenges me!

I find fun in the difficulty and the development – as much as the end result!

It is a constant uphill battle – to keep my ambitions in check - as soon as I learn a new skill – I want to learn a whole host of skills around it.

I retain focus – by coming back to Pogo and pushing all of my personal development through that lens first.

I must admit I do find it frustrating that I have to constantly stop-start and rescope what I am working on and how fast I am developing – based around external factors and very limited time to work on my true passion.

I work 40ish hours per week and I am probably spend a little too much time planning and practicing at this point – I am confident that when the demo is ready – I will be ready.

Then I can really start the grand adventure I have in mind!

Plan of attack

I will rapidly move through these studies and repeat them again when

time allows.

I want a set of base forms by session end – that I can rapidly stitch together

to create a basic character form.

I will then quickly recreate some of my reference shots and images – using

my own stylized and abstracted forms – but working from a roughly

anatomically correct set of master forms.

The Torso: Speed Models

The Upper Limb

Upper Limb & Basic Arm

The Hands

For this exercise – I’m adjusting it a little – I will work back to a proper

anatomically correct form later.

For now I want to explore my concept sketches and stylized versions first.

Fixing The Fingers

Running low on time – so moving very fast through the lower limb, leg and foot studies – so I can chuck together a couple render / master meshes for a quick paint-over before I call it a day.

Hopefully can finish with a decent preliminary set of simplified forms –setting me up for detail passes – extended forms and new anatomical and constructional anatomy studies.

Moving into concept matching and creature art bible after the skeleton / anatomy and organ sets.

Updated detail models for each master set – and some extended forms as well.

The Lower Limb

The Leg

The Foot

Model Jams

Updated Form Master

Now I will quickly stitch the pieces together to create a new master form reference.

Rapidly paint it and call it a day!

Completed Simple Form Set

Next Steps – Detail Passes – Constructive Anatomy & Anatomy for 3D Artists study for individual elements and layers of detail.

Before I proceed to detail studies – including skeleton and organ jar sets – I will take a detour to update my current art bible.

I will recreate my concept sketches – using the current templates – in a loose form.

I may even chose a few focal meshes – and recreate them from scratch – to practice technique and try different modelling approaches.

I will then update my master references for the following items:

PogoI-BallsPreliminary Creature & Cast References

I will then either move ahead to detailed anatomy, or pivot for inspiration – and explore creature concepts, form studies and sketches first.

I am already generating some preliminary ideas – from the simplified forms – I intend to push this further and develop my own style in line with my vision – by adding more ‘tools’ to my library.

Studying creature illustrations – from my drawing from the imagination reference book.

Also looking through more reference sketches across all sources for detail studies – and I will generate updated sketches – to practice and develop my 2d skillset – whilst actively iterating on ideas, forms and detail.

Having conducted and updated creature concept and character / cast concepts – I’ll finalize my master models – and move ahead to animation and rigging exercises next.

The complete creature master bible – should cover core creature types, various shapes, forms, sizes and inspirations – fish, flying, worms, etc – different ideas – different forms –shapes – oddities and abstractions. Really push my otherworldly and abstract layers here – and start to blend layers together.

Updated foliage studies may benefit the creature sets – to help inform habitats, colouring, themes, features, form, etc.

I can even work from pick-up, collectible, kits and lore objects – to help develop creature forms further.

/End of Day