My last Blog touched on this subject, as well as going on about doodling, so I wont be repeating myself too much.
Basically the theme today is "working smarter, not harder". That's is to say that I could spend 18 hours a day doing pictures of people in armour, but without any thought or process the work will be unfocused and simply lame.
So for part of my learning I'm taking a step back and thinking about the whole work process. For starters when I feel myself going on a random tangent I will stop. Last night I had my first go at Zbrush - Instead of just opening the program and clicking on everything (trial and error) I read quite a few tutorials and looked online. This hour or two spend slowly acquiring information is more productive than a hole day of clicking and hoping. Also I noticed after a point (I was watching a one hour tutorial) I was not absorbing further information, which indicated that I should put into practice what little I learned before that was lost too.
I was quit happy with the results for a first go, and it was actually a "doodle" as I used no reference. By reducing the workload/goals it freed up time to experiment with the fundamental tools and navigation. I spent a couple of hours "playing around", but sometimes there is no substitute for experience.
This was one of my own mini-projects - operation learn a bit of Zbrush. Goal was to make a detailed head and get the program going. The next step is to create & import meshes from 3DS Max - full body ones, and to learn to bake. I could see myself wasting loads of time using zbrush as it seems super intuative (compared to Autodesk) and easy really damn easy to get results I thought above me. I must resist however, and keep goals in mind.
The sculpting process in my eyes is exactly how it should be - a lot like moulding clay. To make the head you get a sphere, pull and push it. Here I started by making the bone frame then added on bits with a brush to make the muscles and features - Just like with traditional media, but much more flexible and accessible.
I read the article "Concept Art process" and attended a talk by a third year about the work pipeline within a functioning company. Even though the article is concerning the composing of an image for a magazine and Mike's talk was about Lockwood - a studio that makes assets for the virtual PlayStation universe they were about the same thing - work flow.
An important aspect of any workflow is planning and procedure. While the concept artist plans his work for a tutorial, ensuring that the content and composition are ideal the Lockwood have a meeting to plan what assets are needed.
The actual physical work is not the whole process. Here's a breakdown of Lockwood's work pipe-line
5% Reference
10% Concpet & Block out (thumbnails for 2D comparative)
10% Whitebox with place holders (refining favoured thumbnails)
40% Model and texture (Paint and details in 2D)
35% Refinement (going off feedback or analyzing personally, adjusting levels etc in 2D)
I think that's a very reasonable balance of time. As you can see, not even half of the time is spent on the main body of work, yet it is most efficient! Why? Well first off they aren't learning their trade, so it is a little different to an educational course, but the first quarter of the time is spent planning and acquiring the right tools for the job. The hardest part sometimes is not only formulating the best solution/desired outcome but also visualizing it before the work is even started. A bad idea will produce a bad outcome and ensuring you are working accurately towards the vision is essential.
I find I tend to use this kind of structure - Finishing work early leaves you time to fix any errors you that may have passed you by before. I tend to have a break and spend a while observing my work, normally making tweaks changing any parts I am unhappy with and gradually polishing off the work. This touches a point in the previous post about finishing work - Make sure you have a goal and set some standards otherwise you could get lost here.
As part of my learning I am trying to get into the concept art thing, I think I'm a fine artist at heart. So I have set myself a continuous task - To do a daily concept piece... Well not every day as it does take up time. My main goal is to emulate the concepty style and to get work out a nice process.
I roll a (virtual) dice...
Dice
|
Genre
|
Focus
|
1/2
|
Urban
|
Character
|
3/4
|
Sci-Fi
|
Environment
|
5/6
|
Fantasy
|
Vehicle
|
This will give me something different to do each time and removes part of thinking. I'm not sure where to focus yet - I like doing a bit of everything.
I want the process to be quick so for characters I used posemaniacs and painted over the figure. I know that most professional digital artists cheat in every way possible, it's just a matter of not making it obvious or hopefully apparent at all. Anyways, I missed a vital part here - I'm basically just drawing the costume and I made it up on the spot. It's a bit crap to be honest... I thought "sci-fi, she could have an astronaut's helm! Nothing really fits - The mini-skirt looks feminine but would she really have those two items together? It's a bit "comic book", I made her eye glow white just because. I does somehow work in a retro (Buck Rogers) way.
I could post rationalize all day and say she's this and that, but this should all be told in the image. So next time I need more reference and actually decide these things - the picture would be less fail as it actually achieves some visual goals. This would in turn help to draw the viewer in and add credibility and character to an actual character. Also on analysis I think the picture is "unfinished" - I would like to see more geometric shapes and hard lines to fit with the sci-fi theme, along with a bit of detail to explain and interconnect the clothing better. Needs to be added to the process earlier on
See it's a long process to draw a decent picture, and as I need to do more prep work I need to allocate more time to get good at that - Micro managing each piece of work. Any how, the next one should be interesting. I will spend a bit more time, up to an hour at the planning/reference process. That will be a four hour project if sticking to the "Lockwood formula"
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