Thursday, May 25, 2017

Common Art Project Proposal

This semester for the common art class we are creating pieces that can be displayed in a VR gallery.  We can work in teams or on solo projects.  I am choosing to work alone on a personal project.

After getting approval from the faculty to work on a project that does not directly relate to my specialty, I have decided to move forward with my idea to work in ZBrush and create a character bust sculpture.  Although I am studying animation, I come from a traditional sculpture background and I want to learn how to sculpt digitally.  My personal goal for this project is to have a finished and polished piece that I could 3D print and put in my portfolio.  I think that 3D printing might be out of the realm of what I can accomplish during this semester though, so my end goal for this class is to have both a high res and game res character bust that is textured and can be displayed in VR. 

As far as my subject matter is concerned, I am choosing to base my sculpt off of the illustrations by Chiara Bautista.  Bautista’s work features stylized women with horns and tentacles and themes of love and heartbreak.  I want to capture this stylized look as it borders on realism but isn’t quite there which is similar to my own style.  I had considered going for full realism but as this is my first digital sculpt and we don’t have that much time, I think it is wise to go with a familiar style.  One thing I’d really like to capture is Bautista’s textures and shading which seems to me like a mix of watercolor and cell shading. 


While there are a lot of Bautista works that I really enjoy, I couldn’t find any that I really wanted to sculpt.  None of them really spoke to me so I decided to move forward and create my own concept drawing based on a few specific images by Bautista but adding my own emotions and themes.  Right now my concept features a girl with antlers with little models of the solar system hanging off of them.  The girl looks up at the stars smiling slightly but she has a heart shaped hole through her chest with the Earth suspended in it.  I’ve always been fascinated by space and to me this piece represents dreaming big but remembering where you came from and where home is.  



Schedule:

I don’t really know much about ZBrush so my plan is to dive in head first and learn as I go.  Nick and my peers have graciously offered to teach me and give advice whenever I need it so I’m confident that I’ll be able to pull this off.  My plan is to go to all the 3D classes and work and I’d also like to devote at least 8-10 hours per week on this project. 

May 25: Project Proposal Due, get feedback on concept and schedule from faculty and peers
June 1: Block in ZBrush
June 8: Focus on Face
June 15: Small Details
Midterm Jun 22: High Poly Sculpt Finished
June 29: Fix any issues on High Poly Sculpt, begin on Game Res
July 6: Finish Game Res
July 13: Textures
July 20: Textures
July 27: Get into Engine, last minute adjustments
Final Aug 1: High and Game Res model, Game Res model in UE4 with Textures

Reference

I will be basing my sculpture off of the illustrations by Chiara Bautista but I will be using other artworks as reference too.  I have created a Pinterest board where I have saved a number of Bautista’s works as well as traditional and digital portrait sculptures, illustrations by other artists, and tutorials that I think could help me. 

Here are a few images from my Pinterest board as well as some of Bautista works that I’ve drawn from the most: