Week 1

This week was, for me, extremely productive. The first port of call was to attend a lecture where we would be given our Assignment Brief for the module. 

Depending on our specialism, we were given the task to create a new piece to present in our portfolio. As artists, we are given the option of creating:

Two Highly-Detailed Props

OR 

One Highly-detailed Vehicle or Machine

From there we were instructed to start researching possible ideas and to start thinking about what we could create in order to discuss with our academic supervisors. 

Almost immediately, I was drawn to Life is Strange (2015). It is a game series that I hold dear and I feel if I could make a piece inspired by it I would be invested enough to make a high-quality yet simple display piece for my portfolio. 

After thinking over my options for a few days I finally discussed my ideas with Helen, my lecturer, who greenlit my idea and set me to gathering reference for making moodboards / Inspiration sheets, which I did that night. 

From there I actually started making the camera -- the main focus point of my scene. And to start I struggled to figure out how exactly to get the distinguishable shape of the rear part of the camera. However, using booleans I was able to combine two shapes and get a good start to build from. 

After creating the back, I hid it and moved onto the main body of the camera. I was aware that, as a Low-To-High Poly bake, it wasn't very important for me to get all details in right away. Instead I left it blocky to allow me freedom to bake in unnecessary details such as the joint between the film slot and the camera body. 

The main trouble I had was deciding which camera style I wanted to go for. At first I was going to opt for a Polaroid OneStep 2 with a round, jutting-out lens that is more of a traditional camera lens, or a Polaroid Spirit 600 which would lend itself better to the source content. In the end though I chose to go for the Spirit 600, when I realised that the shutter containing the flash wouldn't close properly if I used the round lens. And while I know the hinge isn't going to work in the final piece I wanted to keep it as grounded in reality as I could. 

Low-Poly before minor details

 

After adding minor details

From there it was simply a matter of adding in details that can't be baked in, such as where the front juts out, where the camera indents so the film can print, and of course the holes for the view finer and lens. Then, once I'd done as much as I could while keeping the Tri-count in an optimal range, I moved onto the High Poly.  

I tend to use a separate material on my High-Poly meshes, so I am able to keep track while in Maya's Viewport of how the meshes intersect, and if any padding will be needed to bake. Most often, this is a dark Blinn so I am able to pick up on any pinching. 

 

 Finally, I test baked out the component, and found it to have baked perfectly in Substance Painter, which I tested using a striped material to show off any inconsistencies with UVing (of which there was one minor flaw that was easily fixable.