Common Art HW #5 - Use of Basic Composition

 This week, we were tasked with using all of the techniques we'd learned so far in order to make a scene with a specific composition, and emulate a certain artist in the mean time.  I chose the "Golden Rule" composition format for my image, and I chose to emulate Brian Froud.  I blocked out this scene using 3D objects in Maya, before transferring the template into photoshop to reference the shapes and lighting.  The starring element, the sea hag, is actually referenced from a ZBrush project I created in undergrad and decided was perfect for this assignment.  The design of the hag helped me settle on Brian Froud as my artist, since she already looked like something he would have drawn, anyway.

3D Art Homework #5 (Simple) - Proxy and Game Resolution Model Creation

 This week, we were asked to follow a series of videos detailing the creation of game-ready 3D assets using a proper pipeline method.  I chose to do the simple version of the assignment.  I went a bit beyond the "crate" theme by making a treasure chest - still using a lot of the same aspects and principles, but adding in some new stuff and pushing my creativity and skills further.  Below are the final rendered shots of the chest, as well as the proxy model I created and some reference images that were the main inspiration for the object.

Common Art HW #4 - Use of Basic Lighting

 For this homework, we were required to create a scene with three-point lighting in UE5, and then use photoshop to recreate that scene by painting in the lighting and color values.  Here are the results of that exercise - much cleaner looking than my previous experiment with this technique (HW3) due to more experience and learning from past mistakes.

3D Art Homework #4 - Blueprints and Sequencer Rendering in UE5

 This week, we were required to take the abstract scene we created last week, animate it in UE5, and render out some video of it in action using a camera sequence.  So, that's what I did.  Here is the result of that: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp9X0vJuc8c

We were also required to take pictures of the various blueprints we created as we followed along with the instructional video, so here are those, too.

Rotating Movement:

Add Local Rotation:

Add starting Location, Rotation, and Scale using the Construction Script:

Random Values using Random Float in Range:

Material Array and Material Index:

Complex Hierarchies/Set World Transform:

Timeline with Lerp Node:

Common Art HW #3 - Use of Value and Contrast

 Here's what I created for the third homework for common art.  As you can see, I've taken the provided image of a little space-suited alien, and given him some dimensionality using the techniques demonstrated in the video.  Shortly into my experimenting with the techniques, I realized I had a bit of a hard time making my shading as smooth and realistic as the professor's.  I decided to lean into it a bit, going intentionally for a little rougher style, almost reminiscent of painting, or maybe charcoal drawing.  In any case, here's what the end result wound up as:

Here is the layer setup:

3D Art Homework #3 - Hierarchy, Unreal, and other things

Here are the various tasks I needed to complete for this homework.  First, here's an image of the crane, featuring the hierarchy in Maya.

Next, here's a video of the crane going through the animations I set it up to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33sSecu7oE

Now, here are some high resolution screenshots of the scene I created with my crane in unreal, featuring new materials on the crane and emissive materials in the background.

Finally, here's the abstract scene I created in Maya, including an image of the hierarchy I created.  There's also an image of the PureRef board I created, which helped provide inspiration for the abstract scene.

Common Art Homework #2 - Use of Silhouettes

 For homework #2, I decided to create a few thumbnail re-designs of the Jersey Devil.  Being a folkloric creature, the Jersey Devil is completely public domain.  I briefly considered doing Mothman or the Flatwoods Monster, but I felt like the Jersey Devil's explicitly supernatural nature let me do more fun things with it's anatomy.  My biggest inspiration was an old illustration of the Jersey Devil, posted below - a remarkably uncanny little thing that looks equally dangerous, pitiful, and wretched.  That was design ethos I took into account when I created the rest of the drawings, and it outlined some of the features that the designs would share - goat horns, horse-like head, hoofed legs, bat wings, "demon" tail.  I also drew some inspiration from things like medieval bestiary drawings, and Hieronymus Bosch paintings when I made some of the bizarre, unnatural designs of the creature.

3D Art Homework #2 - Basics of Topology

 Here are the various objects and images I created as I went through the demonstration videos:

Basics of Topology Part 1:

Basics of Topology Part 2:

Basics of Topology Part 3:

Tiny Robot Modifications:

Finally, we have the changes I made to the Tiny Robot model.  I decided to give the robot a comedic pair of glasses, since I figured I might as well do something no-one else was doing.