Week 2

Week 2 went roughly the same as the first regarding the production of my asset, only it was a lot more focused on the Butterfly aspect. 

The first thing I did was open up my Pureref and get started on modelling the butterfly. I did this by using the Poly-Poly function in Maya and then extruding, before cleaning up the resulting Mesh, all using the below image as a rough reference.

I wanted to give the butterfly my own twist -- the only prerequisite being that it would have to be blue in the final renders (in--keeping with the Life Is Strange theme). I decided, for ease of animation, to make the wings in two halves (the left and the right), as I am not very experienced in animation or rigging. 

I then built the body of the butterfly, once again not focusing much on the accuracy of the anatomy (something my lecturer advised i research some more when I showed her later on). 

From there, I Unwrapped the mesh and laid out the UVs with the priority being placed on the flat of the wings, as these will be the focal point of the model. 

Most of the tutorials I looked up advised texturing before you even attempt to rig anything, so that's exactly what I did by using Substance Painter and my drawing tablet, opting for a hand-drawn style to try and showcase my ability and willing to progress further in this style. 

I started with a base colour of blue -- the most recognisable characteristic of a Life is Strange game. After that, I went in and hand-drew black outlines on the wings, giving the illusion of a split where it was all one mesh, and then finally added in another layer where I put two-toned veins in the wings and the white wing highlights.

Of course, I am not a traditional artist so I'm sure improvements could be made. However, I am particularly proud of the outcome for now. If amendments need to be made, I can make them easily enough. 

I also started looking into animating rigs, primarily using tutorials by Mike Hermes on Youtube to help me get a base rig.

 

 Next week I plan to finish building the build of my Polaroid camera and as a stretch goal possibly get the asset near to completion in regards to textures. At the very least, it will have a working high-to-low poly bake.