3D Modelling - Wild West Town

As part of our Design for Animation module this term, we had to create a 3D environment set in a Wild Western town. So far I have modeled 5 buildings and 4 set props in Autodesk Maya that I will show you here. These models have yet to be textured but hopefully that will soon be remedied.

Building 1: General Store

 Building 2: Bathhouse

Building 3: Bank

Building 4: Lawhouse

Building 5: Gallows

Prop 1: Barrel

Prop 2: Milkchurn

Prop 3: Hitch

Prop 4: Cart Wheel

I have very much enjoyed modelling various objects in Maya, and I am very pleased with my work. The most interesting challenge I found was creating the gallows - the stairs proved to be a surprisingly difficult thing to model, and I found experimenting with different methods to create the ropes and nooses interesting whilst working within the constrains of the polygon primitive mesh tools. I am very pleased with the look of my final result for this object.

Gesture Sketches / Sketchbook Update

I got pretty down about my art a couple months ago and decided, against all odds, to actually do something about it. For 21 days I did 7 gesture sketches in my sketchbook before bed: small, loose drawings to capture a pose.

I started off a little shaky and unsure, but soon got into the swing of things.

 

 Things became smoother once again when I started referencing poses found online.

There's a notable difference between my start and end pages, and I've found it very helpful in my art - not just for sketching out poses, but getting me back into the habit of using my sketchbook again.
I've produced some bigger pieces based on some of the gesture sketches I completed during this time, and I can see its helped my characters look much more natural and relaxed:

Sorry for dropping the (bouncing) ball slightly!

Argh! I haven't updated since January because I've been so overrun with other things!
Lets catch you up-
I finished my first term of university with a decent pass - I'm not great at storyboards but I got the highest mark in the year on my essay! I also produced a showreel of all the best animation work I produced last term, including the stop motion and 3D work that I hadn't managed to show you yet:

This term has seemed both much more rushed and much more loose - we have a lot to hand in but a lot more freedom in what we produce.

We've been working on a few different projects, including producing sound for short animated film (and getting to play with Foley equipment!):

We've also been working in teams to produce a tea-themed short film. My team's film focuses on the found stories of people's experiences with tea, from those who grew up with it, to those who can't get enough of it, to those who hate it. I produced four pieces of rotoscoped animation in a stencil-like style for this project:

I'm pleased with my work on these, but if I had a little more time I would like to clean them up a little more to reduce the boil in some of the shading. My team mates, on the other hand, tell me they prefer the rough and energetic look of it as is.

To save from one ridiculously long post, I'll end out here, but I'll try and keep you up to date with my other modules, and even some non university-mandated work if you're really lucky!