Lost World

[lostwdn]

Spider Project

The goal for this project is to make a spider out of workshop materials such as EVA foam, welding rods, and plastic spheres. In this project we were working mainly in the 3D workshop;

Research

Before I started work on certain aspects of the spider; I needed to understand their proportions, as well as how they work and move. The First thing I realised was that the legs taper down into little feet. The Cephalothorax (the middle part) is the only area that the legs sprout out of, and the abdomen's size fully depends on the kind of spider, for example orb weaver spiders have large abdomens, however house spiders usually have smaller ones. There are also 2 sets of pincers, one for grabbing and the other for eating.

The Legs

I made 4 sets of 2 legs, each in differing poses; for separate legs extend from the cephalothorax. I could use bearings for this, however we are making a nice little stop motion with set figures, so no full ranges of motion.

I spot-welded the 3 different diameters of welding rods, as well as a nail on each leg, the head of the nail becoming the small foot or the "pads" of the spider.

I really like this effect, as it makes the legs look like they have small "socks" on which leads to a neat effect that is given by real

The Cephalothorax and Abdomen

These were a more un in the air design, as you can see in the images above, my worksheet has a diagram of a spider with light bulbs as small bumps on the abdomen. Though, I decided against it as I didn't have enough lightbulbs.

I then decided to enlarge the cephalothorax, as with the current build, I would not have space to add all 8 legs. There are going to be a few holes as well, for design as well as style ability. I used a large plastic orb as the abdomen, I thought I could add something inside it; however I decided against it as I was already slightly behind.

The Joinery Process

I loathe plastic joinery.

With wood, you can do so much to wedge and hold things in place, but for some reason, there is something about plastic that makes me (and others I've seen) act sloppy, it is likely the smoothness of the plastic, and the glue's quick setting. Especially when using hot glue guns, these god forsaken tools, they are finicky, fiddly, and overly wide for no reason.

So I used hot glue for the legs... I could have used friction, but I was too heavy handed when installing them so they were a bit jittered and not correct as didn't measure so I could give it a handmade look. In hindsight, I could have measured, then just made it different on both sides. But I didn't think of that.

I then bent some nails and hot glued them on as pincers. This gives them a wide but thin effect, which I enjoy quite a bit as it makes it look more "intimidating" (as much as a heap of plastic and metal can). I then stuck on some black clay for eyes, and here is the finished piece.

The Animation

I loved this part of the process, animation is one of my favourite things; it genuinely makes me rethink a lot, and due to this I am likely going to research animation far more in the future. In this animation, we did something I have never done before, however I really enjoyed doing it. This being using a basic multistage storyboard made ON PAPER. This allows you to get a good idea of the animation, whilst also allowing you to think out the general story.

In this animation, I was in a group of about 5-6 people. Each of us had unique spiders we needed to add to the scene; and due to this, the story board had to include them all, and the basic idea we had was to have multiple spiders enter scene where only one did prior. This allowed for there to still be character, whilst still having a nice themes.

The story is that the wasp spider (the flying one) was harassing the low spider. Making it run off, then the friends of the low spider run onscreen and pull the wasp spider down, incapacitating it, then the low spider comes onscreen and gets revenge on the wasp spider and goes offscreen.

This is obviously rudimentary, however it works; if coding has taught me anything, its that you can make something look magnificent and amazing; however the process can be paved with hardship and shortcuts. If you are ever stuck in a position where, a tutorial has gone wrong or you cant remember something, just remember, these are separate circumstances from the last time, so give yourself some slack. You are doing great.

[lostwdn]

Submarine Project

In this project e were tasked with making a submarine, and so I tried, and tried; and despite my prior history with 3d modelling, tried once more. I was so disappointed in myself I didn't take screenshots of the models. Something I am tragically saddened by now.

Though, in a way, I am glad this happened as it made me realise, I really dislike Autodesk Maya. There are a few reasons for my distain, however I will list just a few;

The Price

I feel that this is hammered home by every "salty blender user" who hates on maya, but honestly it is way more annoying; The pricing is so inane for just an industry standard label; I get that I haven't used its primary call to fame, rigging, however how am I supposed to rig anything if I can't model it first.

The User Interface

The UI for maya is simply horrible. It is clunky and overly simplified. The buttons are labelled, but there is no may of understanding where buttons are without mindlessly flipping through sidebars.

The Selections

In maya, you can select multiple faces and there is no way of notifying you the face count, this is also an issue in blender; however, due to maya's odd extrusion settings, it just feels off and really unintuitive.

I used blender instead of maya due to my higher understanding of the platform. Creating a rounded, neat angler fish esc design, however I switched the eyes and the bait light, making the bait light into a camera and the eyes into spotlights.

I then gave it a base texture and made a CGI light box in blender using nodes. Which allows the general idea of the ship to get across more; The Lights in the render show the frightening prospect that seeing this sub in the ocean could create.

Then I overlayed the model onto a design sheet, and gave it a base colour and finish; I decided it would make lots of sense if it travelled through the water like the fish that inspired it, then giving it slightly more vibrant colours would make it easier to see, but the orange is there as it would be easier to spot on scans etc.

[lostwdn]

Sculpey information and techniques.

Super Sculpey is a kind of oven dry clay that we have used many times; it is very nice for modelling, and due to its high bake temperature, it doesn't usually harden whilst modelling.

Here you can see that a roughly 500g block of beige sculpey was about 11 pounds. which is extremely expensive in terms of cost/gram

When sculpting with it, there are a number of techniques that you can use; for example, when using sculpey to make a mass, you should make it with tin foil and lay the sculpey over it. This allows for the mass to be mouldable, but it is still saving a large amount of sculpey, which is very well needed due to the price of the clay.

When modelling, push into the clay, do not scrape at it, as pushing in allows for smoother alterations; and overall less "particles" of clay that can mess up the texture of the piece.

After baking, the models whilst hot are still brittle and can break even if only touched. But the texture will change from a slightly tack, to a kind of smoothness that is clear and wont vary unless you make alterations in texture.

Sculpey Tools

These are metal tools that are made in odd shapes in order to perform different actions. Most sculpey tools are made of either stainless steel or "wood", I wish I could give more info on the kind of wood, it is likely ash, however I have no way of verifying this.

Some sculpey tools use a rubber / silicone head in order to smooth the sculpey, and remove tooling marks. These personally are very difficult to use in my opinion, as they are very fiddly.

[lostwdn]

The Caterpillar Project #4

My goal is to finish the project here, so the first thing I did was stain and dry brush my model, this helped both things look slightly metallic. The good thing about this is that I was modelling the bug as it was walking through leaves, meaning it was not afraid, so I didnt need to worry about green parts.

I really enjoy the finish dry brushing gives, It is subtle enough to come off as a trick of the light, but it allows for more permanence. The good thing about the model, is due to me doing it in multiple parts, it allowed me to paint undersides, which allowed the bug to have a nice shadow to it.

If I could Improve it, I would have researched dry brushing, as due to me messing it up the first time, it removed some of the good texture it had originally. As well as making the horns more stable. This due to the horns being simply attached to the head with rings of sculpey, this is weak and not bonded well.

Then, using a white light, some cotton leaves, as well as the lightbox in the ceramics room, to get studio quality final piece images.

So...

[lostwdn]

Game Graphics

The Graphics of a video game can change a lot about the way it is perceived, for example, a game with a low poly-low pixel count, would be seen as more retro / older due to newer games not having these hardware limitations that caused these sprites and models to be used.

Whereas a high poly count, AAA game is often (in my opinion) lacking in stylism and simplicity. They often don't even make much money due to the fact that they spend a lot on model depth and don't spend much on other, arguably more important game aspects like sound design.

You may be able to argue that higher poly games are often better for genre specificity, however I disagree. Lets look at a few genres and game titles and graphics so that we can fully understand design in terms of gameplay environment, for each genre I will pick one Low poly and one high poly example, the Low poly likely being from an indie studio, the high likely being from a AAA studio.

Horror -

Resident Evil 7 - Biohazard by Capcom

Mouthwashing by Wrong Organ

Here you can see a few things; the higher quality game has a higher sense of uncanny valley due to the characters looking human, but the models being slightly off in a way. Mouth washing on the other hand, uses its low poly art style in order to reinforce and improve the sense of dread given to the player. This Shift in definition between AAA and indie especially for horror, a genre that is built off of making a lasting impact, and sudden thrills, seems to have made a divide in the market of horror gaming; one side, gravitating towards the more realised, the higher poly count games, and the other gravitating toward the games that are more stylised, and more gut-wrenching in their story and message. By no means does this mean AAA horror has a lesser message, but due to personal experience, I have been impacted by indie horror far more.

Action-Adventure -

Assassins Creed: Valhalla by Ubisoft

Death's Door by Acid Nerve

Here you can clearly see why adventure games usually cost more, and take more time, with adventure games mainly being open world, higher poly games need more time to make the maps, and polish them so that they are up to par. Whereas with lower poly stylised games, the map still takes time, but a lot less due to the simpler style of the game.

Puzzle -

Escape Simulator 2 by Pine Studio

Outer Wilds by Mobius Digital Games

Here you can see that I chose 2 reasonably high poly puzzle games, the difference here, is that Outer Wilds uses a far more intuitive gameplay loop and the characters look more stylised because 1. they aren't people, 2. they are in big puffy space suits. I personally love Outer Wilds as a game, and so I may be slightly bias, however I adore the way this game deals with celestial bodies. Making the surface of some planets entirely visible from the vacuum of space, and having some that have an atmosphere. Whereas, in escape simulator 2, the gameplay loop is less intuitive and more chosen, allowing the player to play in predetermined levels, leading to it being overshadowed in my eyes.

This part is entirely up to audience preference of puzzle.

Now that we have spoken about high or low poly for genre, I would like to bring up another graphical debate, Pixel art vs Cell shaded 3D. Pixel art came from the move from CRT screens to LCD screens, with a higher resolution, the old games on CRT had to be moved. And with that, they lost some of their charm.

Cell shading's name comes from animation cells (thin sheets of acetate used in animation) what it is in the current day however differs from this, currently it means to make a 3D model look hand drawn, this can lead to a flatter look, that is overall more appealing for certain games.

Fighting Games!

A large staple of the gaming world are fighting games, they are games in which you choose a character, and battle another player or CPU by using combinations of keypresses in order to perform special moves. Here there is a duality between 2D and 3D, but we will be talking about the duality of Cel Shaded and Pixel.

Guilty Gear Strive by Arc System Works

Rivals of Aether by Aether Studios

I should begin by saying that rivals of aether's sequel did switch to cell shaded vfx, as well as the older guilty gear games being (adapted from console) pixel art.

I personally love pixel art being used in media, and I think it belongs in fighting games, however I cannot say I dislike the cell shaded art style. It gives the fights more feeling, and due to the ability to shift perspective for overdrives or supers is overall a good decision, as it means you can just animate a rig instead of a frame by frame pixel animation.

You will notice that guilty gear strive goes the extra mile of adding smear frames and large impact effects, this allows for each hit to be felt far more, especially in 3 dimensions. The pixel art in rivals of aether is quite good, I personally haven't played it much due to my dislike of platform fighters; however, the reviews I've heard from my platform fighter friends have all been positive in response to the art direction and style as well as gameplay.

[lostwdn]

What is UV mapping?

UV mapping is basically the net of a 3D shape that allows you to lay a texture onto a 3d model inside of software, this can allow you to edit the appearance of a model whilst not editing its shader nodes. You can see a rudimentary understanding of UV maps my unwrapping a box, or removing a can wrap and noticing that it is a rectangle.

This is often used to make products for small one of items in games in order to flesh out their story, for example;

Nukacola - Fallout

The Whole Meat... Company? - Oddworld

Jolly Jack's Tabacco - Red dead

Here you can see that, as oppose to other choices, this isn't even stylistic, it isn't a medium either, its more like, painting on canvas over paper. It's what the content creates at the end that the entire project hinges around.

UV mapping can help games and films immerse an audience by making differing logos and companies, this is a common choice made by Hollywood and Warner Bros. as well as other amazing film and media companies.

[lostwdn]

What is Autodesk Maya?

Maya is a complex 3D modelling platform, for use in film and media, it varies from other software as it can handle a decent load, as well as being made for rigging and animations, plus it has become the industry standard due to this.

Whilst it is nice, I personally dislike it, it feels far too clunky and off to use, I cant seem to wrap my head around the UI or the controls, blender and its sculpting features simply suit my tastes better, however I do fully understand that people may feel the opposite due to blenders scary UI and shader system.

Due to maya being the industry standard it has been used in many places, for many movies, series and games using 3 dimensions as an art style. For example...

Uncharted 4

Arcane

Shrek

Here you can see that even between styles, Maya is used well for fluid animation by studios. This shows maya's versatility throughout media.

[lostwdn]

Arcane Season 2 Trailer Study

Here I will be studying the Arcane season 2 teaser trailer, so that I can get a good idea of what to use and how to structure and script my trailer.

To start off with, it is short, only about a minute and a half. Second it has no breaks for credits other than the end, this I really enjoy as it allows for good immersion in the world for returning viewers and audiences.

The cold open of this trailer is the starting line "Your Council is dead." which allows for returning viewers to wonder. Then after some cinematic shots and quotes from known characters, we get to the part that shows a large plot twist, but no context. In this case, Vi in a guard's uniform.

You have the second third of the trailer, which is where Caitlyn explains the general story beats of the season, as it shows some old characters and some new.

The Final part of this trailer is very well made, as the music cuts for about half a second, allowing the audience to have a sense of unease, then allowing that silence to be broken by a very piercing exposition.

Now what I took from this trailer is that when you need to bring an audience back to a series, you need to pick and choose what to give them; give them too little, and they won't watch, give them too much and they will predict the series, due to this, there seems to be a kind of understanding of showing the general plot for the first two thirds, and then in the last, vaguely showing the future (last half of the season.) The effect that this has is it allows the audience to see if they will enjoy the shows premise and uniqueness to other things on the market, as well as giving them a nice sense of foreboding and ability to speculate.

[lostwdn]

Filter Tests

Here I am testing some Photoshop filters both for my own understanding as well as for a possibility for a rare card. First we are going to start using colour halftones. Halftones were used in comic books in order to save ink, the way this works is by making dots of colour making colours.

I then began testing on my card, this is because for the rare card variant, I wanted to make a nice difference, that was still readable. To start off with, I used the same halftone filter on the card, and decreased the point count so it was visible. I realised when I did this, that it muted the pixelization of the pixel art, I also tried the same with the border, and decided I didn't really enjoy the effect that the halftones gave the art.

I then tried out the Mezzotint option, where it gives your image a noise pattern and overlays it. And I personally could see this used in stylised darkness or the like. But for a rarer card, it can be very off putting and harsh to the eyes.

I then tried out the crystalise filter, and I really enjoy this filter, it is really understandable and nice, especially if its fine enough to still make shapes out. Plus it can be used to make amazing underwater textures due to the wavy nature of the crystallisation.

I then wanted to test a filter gallery style, and after flicking through filters I found the "Chalk and Charcoal" filter, which I loved. It has a neat old effect, with an amazing depth. In the end I decided to use this filter as the rare card type, as it not only retained the pixel art, but also looked old and unique.

[lostwdn]

The Caterpillar Project #3

The main base of this post is adding the purposeful imperfections to the model. This is in order to make the caterpillar look as if it was taken from reality. I started by adding dimpling and some small cuts all over.

I then added some scar tissue, these are based off of hypertrophic scars, or scars with raised skin, with a smoother texture than the rest of the skin, this is due to the increased production of collagen.

These are a few kinds of scars, each are unique and can be used in storytelling for amazing story beats, for example, a contracture scar around the back of the hand, hindering a rock climber from gaining holds

[lostwdn]

Caterpillar Sculpey Project #2

In this part I will be making the general shape of the "Armoured Willemite" bug out of super sculpey. I plan to use this for an underground area at some point, which will be done in a kind of stop motion, so having a bug prop made out of clay as a reference for the armature is a good idea from what I can tell.

I started out by covering some foil with a thin layer of super sculpey. This is so that I can pad out the creatures form, without wasting a high amount of material, as it is both expensive and wasteful to do otherwise.

I then curved it for a few reasons; first to show the difference between the stretched and clumped areas of the caterpillar, as well as adding a kind of form that is pleasing to the eye. You can see here, I was using a bad technique of scraping the clay away, instead of pressing it in, this made a very ugly kind of burr on the creases.

I then cleaned up the burr, and added some legs, now, you may realise I didn't have a specific amount in mind. This was not done specifically, but I did overlook it.

Next I made the titular armour, where I made several leaf shaped clay fragments, and then shaped them so that they can lay over each other. Then added a kind of underplate so that I could meld the plates together to make them removable in one slab. I also added small leaf "veins" as dents in the armour.

[lostwdn]

Caterpillar Project #1

Here I was making the work sheet for the project of making a small pupal or larval insect, some examples are below. Now, due to the fact of the prompt not being set in stone, we can have some wiggle room of things like age, style, and type.

for my series I wanted to have at least 5 insects in each area that is shown on screen, that way if people want to, they can study and find the small hints and cool bugs. So I started with 2 insects, for 2 of the 4 primary areas.

I present to you,

The Armoured Willemite and The Trebluna Moth Caterpillar!!

The Armoured Willemite

Named after its external armour and the green stone Willemite, which is a really nice green colour, and glows! And the word mite.

This is seen in the Armoured Willemite when it is afraid (usually in the dark) it will begin to shake and glow similar to a shaker glow stick. Its underside when not afraid is not green, and is it's usual flesh tone.

A group of Willemites are called a Troop (e.g. a troop of willemites, like a conspiracy of lemurs.)

Its armour is used by locals as small throwing weapons, after being sharpened. The flesh of the Willemite is used for polish in the area, making all armour on that continent commonly blue due to polish staining.

The Armoured Willemite can grow from as small as 2 inches in length, up to 3 feet long, scaling in width accordingly.

The Trebluna Moth Caterpillar

Coming from both the Treble clef and the Luna Moth Caterpillar. both pictured below, the Luna moth aspect is very minor, however it is mainly due to 2 cases.

The markings are very intricate and unique

I couldn't think of another caterpillar that started with L

The Trebluna Moth Caterpillar is, unlike The Armoured Willemite is a larval form of an adult moth. The metamorphosis stage, however, is not triggered by the usual hormones of ecdysone and juvenile hormone; instead, it is triggered by another hormone, which is generated by the bug when it is in a large "orchestra".

(Evidence below in the web page here)

As each bug has a unique note that it lets out when it is either:

prodded in the large orb-like organ at its backside

when it is in a group of 4 or more others of its species

A group of 4 or more (2 is a duet and 3 is a tri) these creatures are called an orchestra as such (e.g. and orchestra of Treblunas, similar to a murder of crows)

These creatures are used in the nation of music where they live, and they are loved like citizens. They handle melodies and harmony of pieces, and the humans of the nation handle the rhythm, timbre, and dynamics.

Each of these are done through a different processes. For example: Dynamics are controlled by pressure given to the orb organ. And the timbre changed through placing different materials in front of the bugs.

[lostwdn]

Failed Costume Project #2

Here I printed of an attachment for a light bulb, so that I could begin work, however in the future, I would prefer to use something like a hat rack, but we do not have one of those. So I had to make do. I then hung up the rings I had made before with some duct tape.

However, due to the rings not being equidistant, as I didn't have a set scaler, the second ring and all subsequent rings were uneven, and obtuse.

I decided to remove all of the rings and start over. so I began cutting the tape off, and as I tried to cut the catgut from the ratan, and accidentally ended up cutting 1.5 cm into my thumb, as a reminder to everyone.

Cut Away From Yourself

We dressed the wound, and at the current moment, it has scarred over very well!

[lostwdn]

Rabbit Ear Project #2

from the baseplate of muslin I made in #1, I added some wadding. And glued it down with some spray adhesive. This was mainly so that I could add some bulk to the ears.

I then added a length of white fur fabric, and overturned it. This was to draw around the ear's main body, and give a seam allowance.

I then did the same with the black fur fabric, and added a rectangle overlay, this allowed me to sew a pocket around the ear.

I then repeated this with the second ear, they are not exactly similar, however they are well enough to be paired together.

I then added a lining using some spare fabric, I made the top seam through overlapping the turned out fabric, and sewing a seam

There was the issue of the outer seam needed for the other end of the pocket, however, I used a black thread so that it was more conspicuous.

I then wrapped the ears around a small porcelain rabbit, and then wrapped the ears in a blanket, and fashioned a simple ribbon to tie the gift together.

[lostwdn]

Failed Costume Project #1

Here Is a failed attempt to do the costume project I am now redoing, this was my first time experimenting with ratan, and its stiffness, to visualise this, here is me holding it with only one hand.

I also used artificial catgut (a twine that is waxed and is unable to stretch) here to fasten sides, using a lashing knot.

I then tied a few more rings, this was in order for me to test the full structure.

[lostwdn]

Catgut + All-Purpose Glue Experiment

This was an experiment with all purpose glue, to assure that it can be used on artificial catgut to harden it in order to stop knots from untying.

I started with only testing the ends, making a kind of crescent. This dried, and making the edges apart allowed me to test what happened when the very viscous glue was left to set in the open air, and concluded that as it set, it would turn clear, without need for much contact.

I then tested it with butt joints, and found that it worked also. This was different, due to the fact of 3 inputs, if there was much strain, or pull in either direction, the joint would break.

What I found out in this experiment, is that as oppose to regular water, when artificial catgut breaks apart, the glue actively supports the joinery and the knot.

[lostwdn]

Character Suit Project #3 : The Links

Here I made some links in blender, then 3D printed them, this was in order to make the bars equidistant. I added hooks in order to make it able to attach to the rings.