How's it Bin?

I've just dried off. I'm relishing the feeling of dry feet. Kettles boiled so I figure it's a good time to post an update. I've just returned from the infamous Bradgate Park Game Art trip. It wasn't as horrifying as I was led to expect but more on that next week when I have some finished, accompanying drawings to upload.

Highlight of the week was finishing my Wheelie Bin. It was definitely a challenge but I'm really happy with the result. When the project was set, I had no clue how to go about it and this 3D malarkey was still pretty alien to me. 

So I spent many many hours playing around with various buttons in 3ds Max and learning things just for the sake of it. I wrote pages upon pages of notes so I retained as much as possible and then took what I'd learned and applied it to the bin.

When hand in day rolled round I felt like I really had done my best in the time that was given to us. My understanding of 3ds Max improved ten fold and for the first time I feel like I'm not fighting the program anymore. At least until the next project and I'm exposed to a whole new set of tools...

In Visual Design, we moved on from one point perspective to two point perspective. Our task was the usual body of thumbnails and a final piece, however depicting a scene of a building with two point perspective. I opted to draw the campus center students union building because those thumbnails were the most interesting.

Figuring out the perspective so it looked believable was really enjoyable. I was really happy with the base sketch. I felt the shape was well established and it sat nicely on the paper. However when it came to shading I began to regret my choice of building. Shading the front in particular was very time consuming. I felt like I was destroying a lot of the detail I'd worked hard to establish in the line work and it quickly became frustrating.

Overall I was content with the outcome but mainly because I felt like I learned a lot. After completing it, I received some extremely helpful critiques from tutors and class mates. In particular it was suggested to me that I look at the atmospheric perspective and contrast so now I have something to take away and brush up on. Really, this is of greater benefit to me than if I drew a perfect image. 

I remain ever determined to continuously improve but most importantly, I'm still enjoying myself. Next time I'll have some sodden sketchbook scans for you so stay tuned.