Week 5

This week I haven't gotten a lot done because I hurt my back and have been unable to work on it. I put a hard edge on my pot as Frank requested. I also started to redo the head of the plant. Now, I will be able to work on it in symmetry and then put it into place when I'm finished.

Week 4

This week I have been working on sculpting the carnivorous plant in zBrush. It has been a fairly slow process because I am still getting used to zBrush. Before I started working, I reset the settings on my Wacom tablet for better navigation in zBrush. The default navigation in zBrush is not very intuitive so I set it closer to Maya navigation while using my tablet. I also watched more videos about various zBrush tools and techniques as needed throughout the process.

I first started working on the pot, since that is the base of my mesh. I started with a basic sphere with Dynamesh turned on and, with radial symmetry on, I shaped the sphere into a pot shape. From there, I sculpted a lot of damage and cracks into the pot to make it look very old and crumbling. Once I finished the pot, I used zSpheres to block out the form of the main stem and head of the plant. Then I continued to refine the shape and used the masking and extract tools to create two parts of the head. I am considering redoing the head, however, so that I can work on it with symmetry turned on and then move it into place later. This would help a lot since the head will be primarily symmetrical and at the moment the head is at an odd angle that would prevent symmetry (unless there is a way to set my own axis for symmetry---I will research that when I get the chance). Below is a time-lapse video of the sculpt and some screenshots of what I have so far. I am planning on finishing sculpting early next week and then spending some time texturing it in substance painter. Hopefully, I will have it all finished by the week 5 post so I can start on my next project during week 6.

Timelapse Video

The pot:

The entire mesh so far:

Week 3

I don't have a lot to show this week because I have been working on learning zBrush and getting more comfortable using it. I had been creating a base mesh for my carnivorous plant but I decided that I would prefer to start from scratch in zBrush. This way, I can work on learning spheres, zsketch, dynamic mesh and the sculpting tools. I have thus been watching tutorials and am trying to get comfortable with zBrush's interface. zBrush is very different from Maya in a number of ways so getting used to the interface and being able to navigate quickly within it has been a bit of a challenge. I have just started working on blocking out the model with zspheres and am hoping to be mostly finished with that and the sculpting by the end of the weekend. I am planning on finishing the sculpting, getting it into Maya and texturing it during next week. Hopefully, I'll have the project done by my Week 4 presentation but, if not, I have an additional week allocated to work on it.

(It isn't much yet, but it's a start)

I have also started brainstorming ideas for my next project (it's a big project so I want to get ahead). I want to spend about two months modeling, texturing and rigging a creature so I have begun to think about what kind of creature I will be working on. I came across a very nice concept art of a Therizinosaurus (an herbivore dinosaur with the largest claws in recorded history) that I am seriously considering doing. It would work very nicely because there is a decent amount of anatomy and small detailing for me to sculpt into the model (which was one of my goals for this project). The problem I see with this, however, is that I was looking forward to rigging a quadruped and this dinosaur was a biped. There is also very little reference on how it would have moved as well as the anatomy of it so I would have to do a lot of reference into similar creatures. This isn't too much of a problem but it does make it more challenging.

I am also thinking about designing my own concept art for the creature project. I was considering doing a dog-like creature of some kind, similar to Evolve's trapjaw design. This could be more fun to rig, however, whether or not this is a practical project idea depends on whether or not I can design a good enough concept for it within the next two to three weeks or so.

Week 2

For my first project I have decided to do a carnivorous plant. I plan to be working on this project for the next two weeks, however I have 3 weeks allowed for this project if I need that time to finish up. So far I have come up with some concept art and have just started building the base mesh for the pot.

This a piece of concept I found and used as inspiration.

 This is my own concept art that I created for this project.

The base mesh for the pot that I have just started.

Job Research

I looked at a few different company's websites and found the career page for Dreamworks Animation. They don't have a lot of relevant job openings at the moment but they provide a very extensive list of what skills people seeking the job should have and what they are expecting for the jobs they do list. I am not expecting to work somewhere like Dreamworks immediately but that it the career type I am aiming for. It seems that several of the jobs require experience with rigging so I am glad that I have some rigging experience and I think it would be a good idea to develop those skills since rigging is a highly desired skill in industry.

http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/jobs/


Blue Sky Studios also has a few job openings.

http://blueskystudios.com/working-here/jobs/