NEXT-GEN Nescot week 6-7 - Drawing objects

During week 6-7 we were tasked with creating five drawings of three separate objects at different angles. For my drawings I chose to draw a phone (my phone), a notepad, a Fanta can, and I added a drawing of a computer mouse and a water bottle.

My first handful of drawings were experimenting with different objects to see what objects I would keep and draw at different angles later, these drawings went well but I had to cut and glue them onto another page after I spilt tea on the original page.

After drawing my objects onto my first page, concluded as to which objects I would carry-on drawing and first started by drawing the Fanta can.
Before I started drawing I segmented a page into four segments to indicate where the four drawings would go (this changed overtime).

Firstly, I drew the can from a birds-eye-view (bottom left), this was the easiest to draw as it was mainly multiple circles. However, despite also detailing the top of the can and shading appropriately, I believe I could have improved it more by shading it better and adding more emphasis onto the centre of the drawing.

Secondly, I drew a slanted birds-eye-view (top left) of the can to show more detail on the side of the can and I added detail to the top and side with slanted writing and shading. On the other hand, I could have improved this drawing by refining the lines better, as well as improving the consistanty of the slanted writing's direction.

The third and fourth drawings were side-views of the can at different ends. I believe that the drawing in the top right was good but could be improved with added detail and removing the draft drawings shown underneath some outlined areas, meanwhile, the drawing in the bottom right is also ok but could have been more consistent in size and the bottom of the drawing could have been drawn more accurately than shown.


After finishing my drawings of the cans I began drawing my phone. Firstly I segmented the pages again (which again changed over time) and began drawing.

I first drew a (slightly slanted) birds-eye-view for the top right and bottom right, these were the easiest of the four because it was the simplest to draw and it had
relatively little detail needed, however (top right), despite adding lots of detail, it could have been improved by making the lines of symmetry more even (this can be seen on the phone screen). As well as this the bottom right drawing was also good but was uneven and lacked consistent line directions.

For the top left and bottom left I drew angled-views of the phone, these were also easy to draw as they had very little detail needed. Again I could have improved the top left by putting more effort into shading and I could have improved the bottom left by increasing detail and removing the rough sketching underneath.

Once again after finishing the drawings of my phone I segmented another page into four parts (which again changed over time) and began drawing the notepad.

I first drew a birds-eye-view of one of the sides of the notepad (bottom right) which was the easiest to draw as it took the least effort despite having lots of detail. However, if I could improve this I would have made it more slanted in order to see more of the notepad.

Secondly, I drew a slanted view of the notepad while it was open (bottom left). This drawing turned out well but could have had more detail put into it by adding lines on the paper.

Finally, I drew at a slanted angle in the shape of a diamond in the top left and slanted on its side, slightly open, in the top right. I believe that the top left was good but could have been improved by adding better shading while the top right was also good but could have been improved by adding more detail (for example lines on the pages).

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 6 - Rigging

During week six at Nescot we were introduced to the process of Rigging (Skeletal animation) in which a charater is moved with a skeleton or rig that has linked joints to the mesh, this is used to animate and pose. Therefore we were tasked with posing the mesh in two stances, we did this by first getting given a pre-set model which we used to create poses by changing the positions and rotations of areas of the skeletal rig set to contract and be altered.

An example of this can be shown during the creation of my first rig which was positioned to appear as a flying kick. I did this by firstly getting the imported model into Maya and began to move the arms and legs out to the sides to make it easier to see the positions I would have to put them in, then I contracted the left knee of the character and moved the position and rotation of the foot to match this change. I also rotated the head to appear as if it is looking in the direction of the way they are moving/ attacking.

Next, I began to change the rotation of the joints in the hands to create a realistic-looking clenched fists before then rotating the position of the left elbow, to change the position of the hand. Also, I changed the rotation of the right foot to make it more stretched out as well as straightening the right arm too.

Finally, I decided to pose the left knee so that it appeared more outward-facing to improve the appearance from multiple angles and give the image more of a eye catching look.

I believe that my first rig is very good but is not my favourite of the two because I was mainly experimenting and didn't add as much detail into it as I did with my second rig.

For my second rig I decided to a pose that was inspired by Spiderman and other superheroes, this is because it is used often to show a hero after they have landed (this is mostly used by Marvel heroes).


I did this by, once again, importing the model to Maya and then moving the mesh into a lower position before then re-arranging the arms to be straighter and then moving the positions and rotations of both feet (the left being much more pointed and outward facing with the right being flatter). Then I moved and rotated the knees into better positions to make the legs correctly placed.


After this I lowered the middle of the body by rotating and moving the rig. Once I had done that I re-positioned the arms and head using rotation before editing the fingers to appear as if they were being lent on.

I believe my second rig is better than my first rig, but if I could change anything, then I would add more smaller details such as changing the hair slightly and adding more detail to the feet and hands.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 5 - Umbrella drawing

During my fifth week at Nescot we were tasked with bringing in an item to draw, for this task i decided to draw an umbrella. First, we were told to draw a main drawing of the object from whatever view point we wanted and to ad shading to the image created.

For this, I drew the umbrella on a slanted side view in order to make a shadow beneath it and to show the inside and outside of the umbrella.

The result of my first drawing I believe to be good, however, I would have changed the scaling of the top of the umbrella if given more time. The reason for this is because, to me, the inner side is too outward compared to how I would have preferred it would have looked.


Afterwards we were given the task of making four smaller drawings of our objects from separate angles to add to a more perspective drawing and to help show angling if it were to be modeled.

I think that these drawings also turned out well as I had added a decent amount of shading and scaling. But on the other hand I could have added more detail to these drawings.

For example; the bottom right drawing could have had an inner circle to make the image appear more 3rd dimensional and the bottom left could have used more shading and scaling on the right side.;

Over all this creation was a successful task despite the flaws in the design, this is because of the outlining and texture/ shading which I added to make the umbrellas more detailed.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 4-5 - Off task experimentation

During my free time in between tasks, I have been experimenting with different tools and designs in order to help me understand the mechanics of Maya and to help me discover how to use different functions to improve my creations.

For example: Throughout my fourth and fifth weeks at Nescot I have been building a castle in Maya through experimenting with the extrude tool, rotate tool, helix polygon and smart copy/paste tool.

Shown in my created castle is a central building surrounded by walls with a small hole in one side, a portcullis (drawbridge seemingly held by helix-es) and a moat. The way I created the castle was by first creating an outer wall before then adding cylinders to the corners of each wall and then extruding them to have pointed tops, after this; I used the smart paste tool to copy and paste a line of squares (that were beveled on the inner side) around the edges to give a pointed effect to the walls.

In order to create the inner building I first made a cube and added cylinders to the corners of it before then using the extrude tool to make the tops of the cylinders pointed. Then using the before mentioned smart paste tool, I re-pasted the half beveled squares to make the cylinders around both the wall corners and the cube corners, to have a circular shape of cubes on top of each of the cylinders and a line of cubes on the edges of the inner cube.

Finally I created another smaller wall which I slanted to make a drawbridge and added helix-es to appear as if they are holding it up.

If I had spent more time on this project I would have added textures and possibly more detail, especially to the inner cube.

Update

I have improved this project by adding textures to the water, grass and castle, I believe this improves the project because it increases the detail of the model exponentially, and its overall appearance.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 5 - Crate (shape and texture)

At week 5 we were tasked with creating a crate with textures, using the Lambert or Blin texture tools. I first created two simple cubes; one cube was used for the flooring of the scene while the other was used to create the crate, I did this by cutting new segments into the cube to make a centered face which I then extruded inward to show the edges as pointing outward as if they were added on top.

After doing the base design of the cube I then added textures using the Lambert tool, in order to do this I had to paste each side of the cube's texture into a map of a cube in Photoshop before exporting the file as a PNG (picture) and importing it into Maya, the effect is shown in the image below as well as the template I used for Maya.

Thirdly I decided to copy the existing cube and paste them at different angles using the rotate tool, I put them in different positions and angles to give the effect of them being lazily stacked on top of each other.

Lastly I added a stone pathway texture using photoshop in the same method as before and imported it using the Lambert tool again, this gave the effect of a background scenery to the cube(s) and removed the misplaced look of the cubes on a purely grey surface.

If I had more time to improve this project I would have added extruded or added segments to emphasise the nails in the crates and to make them look more realistic.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 4 - Osmic Hammer

Beginning the forth week at Nescot Collage we were assigned the task of creating a model/replica of Thor's osmic hammer "Mjölnir" by using the Maya modeling software we had used for the previous task. I did this by using tools that I had independently, such as the helix tool, learned as well as ways of editing that were shown in class, such as the extrude tool.

I believe that I did well in my design, despite lacking the engraved symbols on the sides and pommel of the hammer, I used a extruded square for the pommel and head of the hammer and I used a helix for the pattern on the hilt, adding a spiral effect, I then used a hollow cylinder for the strap, hilt and the connection of the head of the hammer to the hilt.

Unfortunately, while the rest of the hammer looks ok, the strap didn't appear as good as I hoped it would; however I could not change this due to there being very little time to finish the task. This led to me leaving the strap as it was, because I had no time to change it.

If I could have had more time I would have added engravings to the head and pommel of the hammer and I would have re-created the strap in order to make it look thinner and more loose, rather than looking more fixated in one position.

NEXT-GEN week 1 - week 2: Introduction to Maya

During the first and second week at Nescot Collage I have worked on multiple projects already, for example; my first solo assignment consisted of the task of creating a modeled chair by using Maya (a modeling and rigging/animation software).
my first draft design was entirely created from squares at different sizes and angles to make the shape of a dining room chair with small details including supports in-between the legs of the chair.
(screenshots below)

Despite this I didn't like the original design of my chair and instead decided to change the look and type of chair altogether, this led to me creating a swivel chair/office chair in a form of replacement, with these changes i believed that the chair looked better and slightly better detailed due to the addition of wheels and a cushion on the back of the chair.
(screenshots below)

If I could have had more time I would have changed the back support of the chair to a more square yet rounded shape using the bevel and extrude tools, this would have been used in order to make a more smoother connection between the seat and support and to make it look less like a mix between a block-like structure turned over-dramatically round.

Induction Project

Hello my name is Toby and I am a NEXT-GEN student at Nescot College.

During the first two weeks at Nescot, we were given a task with the name "Game Over". This task was used to give us the knowledge of the production process as well as give us an understanding of the different job roles, experience on the equipment and to observe how well we performed in groups.
The task's briefing for "Game Over" was to create a video news report for the aftermath of a law to ban all video-games and we were to discus the hypothetical effects and reactions set in motion by this law.

Unfortunately my group did not complete the task on time due to the dis-coordination of timing and confusion of roles within our group, this set us back but we still managed to meet some of the tasks requirements.
While'st my group never completely finished the entire task we still managed to complete the first scene, including adjustments and editing, and a small segment of the second scene ,without adjustments or editing.

As reference here are some screenshots of the first scene of our project, before and after changes and completion.

Before:



After: