Christmas Project: EXPOSE YOURSELF TO SOMETHING NEW...!!!

Dear readers,
We have got a LITTLE assignment to do for the holidays. As you can tell I'm not too enthusiastic about it coz I hate having to write, type... whatever...??? Luckily this project isn't obligatory but it still seems that it is, as it's for our own good to improve and succeed in our course.

Anyhow..

What we have to do is to expose our brains to absorb yet more stuff unknown & new to us...!!! It can be a film, an artist, a designer, an architect, a musician, a band, a sculpture, a painting a play, an album, a book, or a poem but NOT A GAME..!!We've been given loads of interesting people, films, books etc to browse through, so I had a quick glance at most artists & films to look out for which interested me more.

Having chosen a topic of the list or from any other person's suggestion of something unfamiliar to us need to write 3 short paragraphs about:
1. Who/what & why..???
2.What was good about it..??
3. What was bad about it..??

I have always been really interested in characters and all the different aspects of them (appearance, abilities, props etc) and this is why I chose Eiko Ishioka. She is a multi-talented lady who used to be a graphic designer and artistic director and is now an award winning costume designer. She caught my attention with one of her works for the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula (for which she won an Oscar)

but her other costume designs are also really impressive - like the ones below which she designed for Cirque du Soleil: Varekai.






Most of these costumes are fascinating for their simple yet striking effect. The costume for Icarus with its pure white innocence immediately recalls the Greek myth with the holes in his wings reminding us that he will eventually fall into the sea. I like her use of bright vibrant colours and the influences of other cultures, especially her own Japanese culture, which can be seen in the red robes above. I also like the way that many of her costume designs emphasise the form of the body, not just the figure hugging costumes of the Cirque du Soleil performers but also the very muscular design from Dracula which first impressed me. It looks as though she is also inspired by animals


What don't I like? Although I think her work in general is brilliant - the detail on some of the designs is incredible - sometimes some of her costumes strike me as too simple. Also a lot of people might be put off by the wild and weird side of some of her work but this could just be because she's designing for wild and weird characters. Whatever, costume is very important in helping to define characters and her work is really memorable from that angle.

Somehow Textured..=/

These are pictures of my final designs not to brilliant but for a first time I'm quite happy.=) I've taken it from all angels so you guys can view it better.

Expirimatation on Mudbox:

This is Autodesk's Mudbox for those who don't know I haven't used it much but I've had fun playing around with it on my Gorilla character as you can see from the images. I've add extra volume, carved into & out of him, smoothed him and off course builded up his mussels, so he looks even more wicked. Unfortunately being all stupid and not knowing I UV mapped then coloured and thought I could of textured wants I would have finish with it but I was to late now so I didn't get to textured the way I wanted cause of lack of time. But I at least experimented in Mudbox. I also did try using Zbrush but found the interface less friendly compared with Mudbox, so I experimented more on it then Zbrush. But I know the reason is that it's because Zbrush has more tools then Mudbox that's why it looks even more complicated but is far more superior!!

Maya Work:

My Zookeeper UV mapping: Too me a long time trying to put all the pieces together cause it was such a mess when I started, but yeah this the finished version. I must admit it was much easier the second time and I mange to do it all by myself, so I'm quite proud of what I've accomplish.


And of course final touch for my modeling was the kilt which I used a cylinder sided it to his waist and delleted the top and bottom faces of it and then attached it to his waist. I also created those 6 little objects that go in front of his sporran (which is his little pouch).











Finally we getting there.

His hair gave me a lot of trouble trying to decide on how it would look on the back and whether or not it was all symmetrically tidy



Attaching the head to the body.


Building up the head for me wasn't a easy task I had a lot of difficalty trying to get it the right shape. I use a cube and wasn't sure about my subdivitions as I was trying each time to get it right I even rotated it but it made it worse for me to model. I had to do the head about 5 time before I got it to look a right.. Aarr=@.. Maya!!!


Starting my Zookeeper.. Beginning: Luckly having practise on my gorilla first it wasn't as difficult for me to build up my second model and manged to do all of it myself which at the end of the day makes you feel good about yourself having accomplishing something that you fear.



Mapped Gorilla.. First time I UV mapped I found it so hard but with Farhan's help and guidance I manged to get it done as well as learn on how to actually do it. It really like a puzzle if you think about it's just knowing on where to put the right pieces in the right place. Also it could also be considered as dissecting because you also cut pieces and place them in with the right parts that suit the way you wanna map.



Feast upon his magnificent beastly structure...!!!!







Attach the hand (trying to get it in the right position)


Half of him almost done, now to attach the had that I made..



Starting my gorilla: first stages
I must say when I first started to model my Gorilla I found it very hard cause I wasn't sure about on the way I would model him would I be using different shapes attaching them together and then shaping them but then I remembered last year with Dan Dali showing as how to model half of the body and starting of with shaping and building the rest bit by bit.. Having Fahran & Steve on my side at the beginning really help me to understand modeling better and enjoy it more it wasn't very easy at first but later got the hang of it. Thanks guys..!!