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.