• Face off Overview
Face off is a competition based tv program that pits professional prosthetics artists against each other in various different tasks in order to create the best prosthetics that can bring a specific character to life. This consist of many stages of development that includes the following:
• Design/Concept
The design phase evolves a lot of drawing and brainstorming about the basis for the ideal character. It then also involves refining the initial idea, thinking about what potential issues may arise and potential work arounds that could be implemented if that happens. Typically speaking they all designed at least one concept art piece known as a "character sheet", no actual work on the final product id carried out in this stage.
• Sculpting
The sculpting is part that the main part of creating the character, they get three days in order to do this section (moulding included). It involves creating any part of the character that needs a prosthetic out of clay so it can be later covered in silicone to produce the prosthetic(s). There where also some characters that made supplementary props during this stage to add more personality to their builds. During this stage it shows that it is not only vital to make sure you can complete the project on time, it can also be necessary to alter plans from the initial concept in order to archive a result by the deadline.
• Moulding
The moulding stage is the part where the prosthetic actually takes form using the clay models from the sculpting stage. This stage is apparently made more difficult by how complex the detail of the sculpting was. Once the prosthetics where made they where also painted during this stage, as well as making sure all parts fit together in a convincing way.
• Final Touches
Final touches is where they complete anything that was left over from the other stages. This stage also includes applying all the prosthetics to the actor along with getting them dressed into their props and costumes. During this stage only minor changes can be made as there isn't enough time available to do any serious changes.
• Relevance to 3D Modelling
Prosthetic artists and 3d Modellers are very similar in the way that both are essentially creating a character out of various "materials". the only difference being that Prosthetic Artists create real world assets to be worn by actors and 3d Modellers create the entire character on software. There are similar stages in 3d modelling to the stages described above, in my opinion they are as follows:
• Design/concept (exactly the same in both)
This phase is almost identical in both 3D modelling and Prosthetic artist, as concepting very early involves using anything more than research and creating drawing called "concept art" that are used as a reference for the other phases of creation.
• Blocking Out (Similar to Prosthetic artists Sculpting)
Blocking out for a 3d artist is similar to how Prosthetic artists create there sculpts. Blocking out is a term used for creating the rough idea of the model using very basic shapes without much thought to details. This is important to 3d Modelling as it allows for the modeller to get a rough gauge of scale and shape of the overall proportions of the model before details are added. This also allows for the alteration of the base of a model without having to worry about negatively impacting detail in other areas.
• Detailing (Similar to Prosthetic artists Moulding)
This phase is probably the most different from Prosthetic artists as they have already created the main detail in the Sculpting stage and the moulding stage is mainly to get that detail transferred to a usable prosthetic. Where as the "Detailing" phase of 3d modelling is there to take the result of the "blocking out" phase along with the concept art to create the a mesh that will then be textured, this will usually be used as the end product provided there are no errors.
• Rendering/Post production (Similar to Prosthetic artists Final Touches)
Both these stages are similar in the fact that they both focus on finishing the creation rather then adding to it. Where Prosthetic artists ii there "Final Touches" are "dressing" there actors and touching up any overlooked paint and/or oversights in design. the 3D modeller does something similar in the fact that Rendering/Post production are used to both create and alter the final model so that they get the desired results. I have provided a more detailed explanations of both below:
• Rendering
Rendering is the act of taking your current model/scene from and creating a image or animation that can be used other stand alone r part of a larger project. There are several factor that can be taken into account when rendering, such as lighting, angles of the camera, exposure times ext. When doing this unintended issues can arise with models that can require mild alterations as to provide a better end result.
• Post Production
As mention in Rendering issues can arise when finishing a project, anything from the mesh and/or texture deformation to lighting issues and animation errors. Post production is essentially trying to fix any errors that occurred during rendering and making the end result as close to intended as possible.
• Personal thoughts
In watching this video a couple times, it has reinforced the idea that creating my models in stages rather then focusing in one individual aspect of a model can create an overall more cohesive end result. It also showed the importance of creating a rough idea of what you want to do before you start production, also that its ok to make changes to what was concepted in order to "meet deadlines" and/or because the original concept was "too ambitious". It also showed that very complex characters can actually be achieved with simpler parts.