Assignment 5.1: Self-Critique Part 2

As far as proportions goes this is the only character model I have. This was the first and only organic model I have. Anyways, I think the head size and proportion to the body is good because it was modeled off of pictures. Bohdan is about five heads tall and his shoulders span around two heads wide. These were the proportions provided to us through the reference images. The areas that need work is the form. You can see his head is still squared off and not very round. I need to really concentrate and grasp the human form. The art style this model was based off was realistic. Most models really exaggerate muscle form in the arms and legs. That doesn't make them out of proportion. It's just their style. Though you do have to compensate in other areas when you exaggerate the model.

I would say that my proportions are a little off. Take a look at the lights. To me they appear to be as tall as the couch which is almost as tall as the wooden shelf. If you "pinched" the lights between for thumb and index finger to measure them and move over to the couch, you can see what I'm talking about. I could also have modeled a person to really show the proportion in relation to a character. That would really help set the scene and show the height of the cough more accurately.  How big are my walls? Were they 10', or 8' tall. If you take the couch and do the finger pinch trick again you can rotate your hand and place it as though you were pinching the wall. If you turned the couch upright, it would crash into the roof. Thats a pretty tall couch if you ask me. So I feel that the proportions are all wrong in this image.

The tree was modeled for UDK and its proportions is to follow the UDK game engine. An Unreal character stands 96uu tall. This tree was told to be modeled at a certain height with a certain poly limit.  I should have included an unreal character or a box the same height as an unreal character. It would have helped shown the art style behind the image.

This Trashcan was also modeled for Unreal UDK. The style of the unreal engine is a little exaggerated. Again I should have included an Unreal model to help showcase the proportions better. You can't really judge how tall the can actually is. There is no form of scale. In reality the can was roughly 3 feet tall. This put the lid of the trashcan at the pelvic region on a model. This too was modeled off of a reference images.

I think I need to model more characters to really dip into this discussion topic better. I mean how to you show the proportions of a car like this? The car is about two wheels tall from the base to the top of the roof. It's also about 5 wheels long. Its four from back to front and then half on each end totaling in 5. I think thats the best way I can describe the proportions it. It was meant to be modeled after a real car and not in a cartoon art style. I can't really tell how wide the car is, it almost looks like 4 wheels wide but its hard to tell as I stated with this render angle. I would need to have something else next to it showing the scale. Thats when you can really grasp the proportion and size.

Assignment 4.1 Researching Resources

http://cg-cars.com - This website happens to be my favorite website when it comes to hard surface modeling. I love looking at all the cars in the member gallery. I'm always blown away by how well the models are and how presentable the composition looks. I feel that the members on the site will be really helpful with suppling me the feedback I need to improve my composition and modeling skills. CG-Cars provides users with several tutorials and textures to get you started. Here is one submitted by Dave_3d, http://www.cg-cars.com/showthread.php/199-Featured-Creating-Alloy-Wheels-in-MAX-by-Dave3D
This guy is really good when it comes to modeling. He is well known for Mental Ray rendering and offering advice using 3DS Max. Dave3D (http://www.dmmultimedia.com)

One of the other sites I tend to frequent is 3D Buzz (http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php)
This site offers a vast amount of information. They have a little bit of something for everyone. Starting with 2d Art to Programming. I go here mainly for the 3d forums and tutorials. I just recently started watching the UDK tutorials that they have to offer also. The members have been around for years along with myself and are very friendly and knowledgeable. I bet you could ask a question on how to do something and you'd see at least 2 different ways that you could tackle the task.

I highly recommend that you guys become familiar with 3d buzz and everything it has to offer. I can't wait to see what websites you guys talk about as there are many out there.