GAMA_2004_Kieran_Timms_Critical_Statement
This module has challenged me in a way that I had yet to be, yet I have enjoyed it more than I could have initially believed. In this module we students were tasked with designing and then sculpting a character in Zbrush with the only stipulation being that they had to be bipedal and somewhat humanoid. With so few limits, this module was the perfect setting for me to make use of my imagination to produce a truly unique piece of work. With that in mind I took to it with a great deal of enthusiasm.
I rather enjoyed the research I did for this project. I had decided early on that I wanted to do some variety of creature and so searching through the libraries of mythos, both popular and obscure was something that I was required to do to find the best template I could. After bouncing around ideas with different creatures as templates I was able to settle on one that was both obscure and provided me with allot of possibilities for my own creatures design.
Redesigning the monster I had chosen was a process I also found I greatly enjoyed. The process of reworking and bending an existing myth of my choice was something that other modules had not yet allowed me to do. The creative freedom afforded to me by this module is most certainly the thing about it that I enjoyed most and the thing that stood out to establish it as my favourite module of the year.
During the design process I had made some mistakes, those being that even at the design stage I was already overcomplicating my design. My initial ideas and designs were all too elaborate and needlessly complex so that when it came time to model them, I would be biting off more than I could chew. This mistake meant I had to simplify my design, the result being much more agreeable. I was able to maintain the key elements of my design but by simplifying it as well as making several adjustments, I found I liked the redesign more. This had taught me the importance in the design process as well as to not try too hard to have a complex character, it only leads to more problems than it solves.
The design process allowed me to experiment with ideas and as I started finalising my ideas, my characters story became more concrete. I found during this that developing the characters background and story as well as how those elements would mesh into the characters design, were in fact my favourite part of the entire design process. I enjoyed imagining the possible pasts my character could have had and then experimenting with how those experiences could influence the characters design.
When it came to the actual modelling process I found it a little more difficult. I had never before even heard of Zbrush before I started this module and so I had to do a lot of work to get to grips with the program. Most of this consisted of watching tutorials and some trial and error, though now I have reached the end I feel that I am confident enough to dive back into a new project and am likely to get through the modelling process quicker with the next character.
Zbrush itself I found to be a very agreeable program. I found the entire modelling process to be so much easier than it was for any previous character I have done in Maya, though I do understand that Maya is preferable in some areas such as environments or lower poly models.
I think that Zbrush’s ease is comparison to Maya is what lead me to making another mistake early on into the modelling process. As with my concept designs, I again managed to overcomplicate my character whilst modelling it in Zbrush. This as I said was likely due to my finding Zbrush so much easier to use than anything I had used before and so I did too much too soon. This I feel is just another part of the process to mastering the proper ways to use Zbrush. It takes some more foolish mistakes to drill into a user’s head the correct way to go about modelling a character in Zbrush. This being said I will not say I am anywhere close to mastering Zbrush yet, I can say that I am on my way. At this point I can only try to create more models and so hone my skills as I do.
Aside from the minor hiccup that caused me to start my model over, the modelling process after that mostly went well. There were one or two things that didn’t quite work out how I wanted but the vast majority did. One of the more notable minor issues I had was a bit of difficulty with some bits of topology. Whilst they are not really noticeable in my renders, there were still a few areas that did not turn out well. This is something I feel I will be able to do better in my next project however.
Texturing and rendering in Zbrush was allot easier to do compared to other programs, though I found that it took quite some trial and error before I could properly understand what it was I needed to do to achieve the results I wanted for my model.
The end result of my modelling and texturing left me with a character that I feel I can take pride in as the result of my first Zbrush project. I hold no illusion that it could have been better and in my next project I intend to at the very least surpass what I did in this project. Now that I have some idea how Zbrush works I have no excuse not to produce better work and I hope that in my future profession I will be making use of the skills I’ve developed in this module.