12.29.2009

Balder Updates



Some reposing work done in Zbrush....

12.27.2009

Progress over break....

Our family in NC got a new computer for Christmas. Ontop of being able to write a draft of my thesis, with Zbrush available as a trial download, a pen tablet here at home, and all of my 3D models stored on Mfile, I'll be able to work on getting my prototypes ready this week while at home!

My first goal is going to be to pose Balder for at least 4 of the dioramas, and the next goal will be to get the Sphinx and the Lady ready for prototyping. After that, I only have two more characters to build (an old robed man, and a shadowy figure for diorama #6).

After my IP midterm presentation (to which I received some great feedback) I'm considering the environment of the fourth diorama a little more and set in the back of my mind the possibility of upping the 'drama' in my first diorama (but that will only happen when I am in a comfortable position with the other 6 first). I sort of like the ambiguity of Balder's pose in the piece ("startled but unconsciously confident" being what I went for), but I think the Nightmare he's looking at could be a lot... scarier. We'll see....

12.21.2009

Quick Update

You can DYE celluclay with foodcoloring when you mix it. Why didn't I read Sheperd Payne's How to Build Dioramas more carefully before starting the forest?!

Oh well, lesson learned. I'm gonna try it with the cliffs/ doors combo that I'm making for #6.

No photo updates for awhile, since I'm back in NC for break. Instead, I'm going to try and learn some more Arduino programming and get my thesis written....

(Side note - I need to draw more.)

12.17.2009

Too embarrassed to post a photo update

Ok so usually when I'm working on a piece of art I go through a phase where I can't stand it/ hate it/ wonder why I even thought it was a good idea to try and make. This is usually when I'm about 2/3 through. I'm sure this happens to lots of people.

Well, I'm about ready to pitch the forest diorama in a bonfire.

I started painting the ground, I had this whole brilliant "fade to the edges" idea, but now it just looks like a bunch of oversaturated mud that blends into a lame attempt to mimic sand (which is not my intention). To make it worse, everytime I apply washes with acrylic on the celluclay, it kind of contracts and shrinks, lifting off the foam base. Sweet. The areas that should be filled in so that the creek can be poured without leaking have cracks all over the place, and it seems like everytime I patch it with celluclay, I just make more cracks.

I may have thought of a solution on the car ride home- for the color fiasco anyways. I think I just need to make the ground cool blues/ purples/ grays, like the staircase. Then I can leave the trees mostly white. I think that color range would serve the thing much better. It'll make the creatures in the scene look more organic as well.

I only have one more work session before I go home for break and too much that I want to do- redo this crappy forest base layer, start laying out diorama#6, making many miniatures doors for diorama 6, making a mould of the archway, posing Balder in Zbrush, doing edge tests with burlap/ cloth....

12.15.2009

Digital Updates




More work on the characters for dioramas 3 and 4....

12.13.2009

The Forest....



...Takes a long time. A really long time. I'm still not finished covering the foam after several 3 hour sessions. But it's a lot further along than it has been.

The good news is, this is probably the most labor intensive diorama of the set of 7, so I'm glad I am knocking this one out. Also, it's really, really fun, I just have to keep breaking that perfectionist barrier where I spend too much time contemplating on how I want to execute the piece, and just do it.

The bad news is there is still so much left to do: painting the base and trees, adding the moss, pouring the water, creating the "ceiling," and resolving the edges....

12.07.2009

Picture Dump








...In preparation for my presentation.

12.01.2009

Forest



Working on Fleshing out the trees, handling the edges, and getting celluclay (paper mache) on the base....


Forest photo update coming tomorrow

So I've bought some more stuff for the forest: fake foliage, moss, tree stuff, etc. We'll see how well it works (I'm optimistic). But to get to the point where I can Cellu-clay the whole base, I really need two things:

1- More wire... lot's more wire. I probably need at least 75-100 more background trees.

2- A Shop Vac... the foam residue from the knife carving/ sanding is getting obnoxious.