During the First semester of Senior year, a lot of things occurred. Both good and bad. I learned how to use 3D animation softwares and through this made lots of cool animations. I wrote a bunch of college essays for college applications in English. I learned how to use a bunch of new adobe applications and also do a bit of code in Digital Media. But, I also got covid and had extreme senioritis. I realized a lot of things about myself during the “Who am I” unit. I realized I don’t really know how to manage my time, I don’t know how to study (or at least study that works for me). I feel like although I have been working on it, I still have ways to improve.
MANDALA
Mandala Project
The mandala project was assigned to us at the beginning of the year in Digital Media, we were told to make a unique design so it could be laser cut onto a material of our choice. I decided to go for a more humorous aspect, adding the Elmo in front of flames meme. I also added a Totoro and Soot Sprites. In the center I knew I wanted to add something more meaningful so I added a child’s hand with my name and the year I transitioned from female to male.
Doing this assignment was extremely challenging, trying to find things that would look good symmetrically was the biggest issue. Overall I do like how it turned out.
I do wish I had more time to add more details, in the end I had to make the center piece take up a lot of space because I didn’t have time to draw much more.
PHOTOSHOP CREATIONS
Watercolour Painting
In this project we were instructed to make art pieces in Photoshop that look as if they were created on watercolour paper and pastel paper. I absolutely love how each of these came out. I learned a lot about painting in photoshop as it was something that I hadn’t tried before. Adding different brushes, messing around with opacity and just regular colour theory.
For this piece I decided to do a portrait. Choosing a portrait was easy as I looked for a person who had nearly a symmetrical face and really nice features, as it would be easier to tell which parts I messed up on. I decided on a young woman with a yellow background. The original portrait had a similar background so I used the portrait’s lighting as reference. I ended up having to resize the neck and shoulders multiple times but it was worth it.
Overall, I really love how it turned out, it had been a while since I did a full portrait as currently I am more interested in cartoon styles, but revisiting portraits and realism was a really nice exercise. Obviously I couldn’t get it to look exactly like the original photo since I free handed everything, however I am very happy with how it turned out.
Pastel Painting
This was the first photoshop painting I did, and although I don’t think its as good as the watercolour one, I do think I did pretty well for my first attempt.
For this piece I decided to recreate two ducks cuddling together. Not only because it is extremely adorable but because the kind of relationship these two ducks have is what we are all looking for. I feel I did a good job representing this through my painting.
I really like how it turned out, the colours i chose, the pattern and shading technique which is more blocky is really nice and adds a cool effect. If I had more time of course I would have added more colours and better shading.
Surreal Composition
This project was connected with our English class, in English we were working on world building and so in Digital Media we were composing something that was connected to that.
Me and my group decided to do a world on the effects of water pollution and how damaging that potentially could be. Through that I decided to make my surreal piece a bus on the road split between two worlds, one looking like a desert and the other with more grass and trees. I added a darker tone over the whole piece as it is a more serious topic. I additionally added the words “something isn’t the same.” above the bus.
I do some what like how it turned out, however it was very rushed and I know I can do a lot better. Right now it kind of looks like an accidental movie poster or PSA, which is not what I was going for but I am not opposed to it.
ANIMATION PROJECTS
Walk, Run and Jump
Don’t get me wrong, I love animation, but 3D is a whole new ballpark. I have never really been into sculpting, however when I was finished with the sculpt and I was able to get my hands on rigging and actually animating, I was so hyped. If I was given an amazing looking model so I could animate it, that would be the dream.
When sculpting we first created basic shapes in Maya and then transferred that over to Zbrush to add more intricate details to our character. Then we transferred that into Substance 3D painter to add colour and bring our characters to life. After all of that we transferred the Zbrush file and added the Substance 3D painter file into Maya so we could rig and animate it.
