Creating a Scene - Part 1 - Inspiration

There are a ton of tutorials out there. How to model, texture, light, render. A lot of them are just a single piece in a giant puzzle that is 3d art. This blog series I will go through how I go from an empty scene to a final render. This isn’t step by step tutorial, but I encourage you to follow along with your own scene and ideas. I predominantly use Blender for my 3d work, but this series it doesn’t matter what software is used, the ideas, concepts and execution will roughly be the same. Without further ado let’s get started with the hardest part of all.

Inspiration – What do I do?!?!

There are millions of scenes that can be done. From single objects to vast vistas. The first thing to set before starting is what the goal is. Ask yourself, am I going for photo realistic, cartoon, painting, etc… Next is the focus of crafting the piece. Is one of the goals to learn new things, like hard surface modeling, attempting organic modeling, a mixture? Am I just going to practice something I’ve already done.

One of the best sources for inspiration is the internet, from Google image search, Flickr, photography sites, Youtube, it is easy to find tons of art and pictures. Don’t disregard playing, drawing stuff on paper. Because my drawing skills lack I just hop into Blender and randomly model objects, sometimes these turn into something, sometimes they get trashed. I may start modeling something that I like and slowly a scene will build around it.

The world around us also holds a lot of inspiration. Observer your surrounding and something may pop out. If you don’t have a good memory carry a notepad to write down or sketch out ideas, before they get lost.

What will I be doing for this series? Well while doing a Google image search for reference images of a “dark forest” I found this…

Credit for the picture goes to whoever created it, I could not find a name or company.

Queue light bulb and inspiration to create my own version of this scene in 3d. I decide what I need for the scene. Scarecrow, tree, barn, ground. These are my main objects. My method of work will make all of my art teachers cringe, I don’t sketch thumbs, I don’t lay out my objects, I do zero planning. Why? I like the idea of free flow. I’m not locked into a concept or construct. I can change things on a whim and not worry about things down the road. Some of the best things I’ve done have been unintended mistakes and screw ups that just worked. If I put rules out there those might not happen as often or well. This, of course, goes for personal projects. Projects that have a chain of command, may have a different criteria. A client may want to see thumbs before any modeling is done.

Most important of all though! Don’t get discouraged! Psychologists say it takes about 10 years for someone to master their craft. A good reference to this is Marek Denko at http://marekdenko.net/ he shows his early works, from 1999, 12 years ago. They are very amateurish, but his art now, is incredible!

Find your inspiration. Next blog will be the start of modeling.

Reality Series! - Creating a scene.

I want to blog. I've wanted to blog. I didn't know what to blog, and didn't want to do random crap. I came up with a plan of making a series about how I do an art piece from start to finish. I want to share the trials and tribulations of the process. It should be fun and I hope both of us will learn something new.

A little about the series. Its going to start basically from nothing and be about how I start, what I do first and proceed all the way to the finished product. I'll write about what I've done and post the occasional screenshot of the work in progress. I'll post things that went right, and things that go horribly wrong. 

It not really a tutorial series in how to model, texture, animate and all that. There is a lot of information out there about those. This is about process. A lot of the tutorials are splintered and fragmented from the big picture of a final scene, and how to fit something like that into your work.  However, feel free to email me 

Should be a fun ride and I'll attempt to be as entertaining as I can.

You can find me on twitter @morokiane and Google+ as Geoff P

Animation

Using the rig from Big Buck Bunny...this is a playblast just a simple output to see how timing is before final animation which I will do this weekend.

Animation

These videos are from my Acting and Movement class. It was a fun class and I learned a ton about achieving good animation.

Death Knight

This was done for my character modeling class. I had started it early and we were suppose to turn in a concept sketch of what we were going to do. I had most of this completed by that time, I just rendered out a front, side and 3 quarter view, put those in Inkscape and had it convert those into vector, printed it and done...stylized concept art.






This is the "concept"

Where I've come from

While waiting for my creek scene to render with better grass I was cruising through all of the stuff I've done at the Art Institute over the past three years. I love looking at the old models I did when I first started and to see the vast improvement I've made. I think its good to look back and reflect on what has transpired because then I know I've come from somewhere.

KFC Raptor

Final project for hard surface and organic modeling is to make a dinosaur. I decided on a raptor. On the suggestion of my friend Joe I added in a chicken leg and a KFC bucket.

Chess

I was working on this for awhile but its been put behind due to other projects. I'll revisit it sometime and fix up the lighting. This is another piece that will go into my demo reel.

I Love You Bear

Latest project is this bear for my Hard Surfaces and Organic modeling class. Still a work in progress...but so far I like it.