Overall, my prehistoric diorama pieces project as my final assignment for FMP was somewhat more enjoyable compared to other projects during my second year of this course. I was able to somewhat learn about animal anatomy during my creative process to help me to create the base figures of the prehistoric animals that I selected and completed to showcase for my FMP to not only help educate people about the geological eras that animals existed but, to demonstrate my current skills of 3D sculptor/modeller that I have experienced and learned throughout the two years of doing the CGI and Animation course. However, I have faced many challenges when confronting this project during my Post-production phase to complete the figures for my diorama pieces while making sure that it meets the project meets the deadline. I will talk about the strengths/positives and weaknesses/struggles that I have faced during the project and how I was able to complete my final assignment for this course.
In this project, I was able to demonstrate on how to create the forms and shapes of the meshes to make the specific features of the prehistoric animals that I want to present in my geological era diorama pieces through the use of different 3D sculpting/modelling tools and techniques. For example, I originally wanted to make organic meshes of the prehistoric animals that I wanted to showcase for my diorama pieces as, I wanted to showcase on how these ancient animals looked in the flesh with their skin impressions, fur/feathers and their unique anatomical features to show on how they were able to adapt to their environment and showcasing their evolutionary history that are shared with modern animals that are live today. I tried to make these organic meshes through the use of 3D poly modelling where I use poly meshes to match the references images of character/creature outline of their anatomy to create full 3D models, I originally used Maya and then shifted to Blender to do the process to create the base 3D models before adding detail and skin impressions to create full sculpted 3D creature mesh before positioning their poses for my diorama pieces. However, I was struggling on how to structure the low poly forms of the figures because I wasn't really great or had experience on doing 3D poly modelling since I always doubt myself on how the polys looked before smoother is added which caused me to redo them again or fix the mistakes that I made during the modelling process which caused me lot of time wasting in my production phase. Luckily, I was able to solve this issue by instead creating the prehistoric animals in their skeletal forms instead as it is more quicker and easier to sculpt than organic as I need to worry about muscle/tissue, unique display features that are unique to each animal and their anatomical form to create life-like animal sculpture. Skeletons are more easier to do in terms of sculpting as bones are usually simple and distinctive in shapes and forms that are usually designed to help the animals to have an structure to help them move, breathe and support their weight, making skeleton sculptures also helped me to understand about shape language so I can understand on how I can make each individual bones by thinking of the shapes to sculpt out to create the form of the bones. This demonstrates that I was able to find and make creative decisions through problem solving to help me get the result that I want to create for this project while thinking about creating realistic decisions on how I can create the work that I want to produce in an strict deadline.
During the Post-Production, I was struggling on creature anatomy on the prehistoric animals that I choose for the project as the ones that I choose for this project had almost lack of references when it came to showcasing different angles/views of the prehistoric animals whether it be in skeletal or organic reconstructions so, I was really struggling on how to reconstruct these animals in the flesh which lead me to do their skeleton instead in Late Post-Production. In reflection, I should have chosen prehistoric animals that had tons of references, models and research already been produced so I didn't need to worry and extensively research to find the right reference to do my sculptures as it caused me to lose lot of time during my workflow of this project. I hope that I will choose wisely on what animal (whether it be prehistoric or modern) that has ton of material that I can use as references to help me do my organic animal sculptures in restrictive time so I can send over my work before the deadline. Although I wasn't able to given opportunity to create fully sculpted organic animal sculptures that I originally wanted to create for this project, it taught me on how to think about on how to decide the subject that would significantly benefit me during the workflow so I have enough information/references to help me to produce the work that I feel the most passion to help me express my interests and desires as an paleoartist so I can educate the public about the prehistoric life that existed throughout our earth history before modern humans appear. This experience help me better on how to think realistic goals and properly structure my plans on how I approach projects so I don't have to worry or stress about losing time because I already know the aims of the project and the knowledge that I gathered from research to showcase my finalized work for this assignment.
In conclusion, I hoped that this project can helped to educate the public while also helping me to improve in my 3D sculpting/modelling skills so I can use these new skills to help me apply to animation industry to get involved in video games, Television and movies.