Introduction to woodwork workshop and Photography

The year was given an induction to woodwork so we could build a stand for our maquette. I learned that what we built was not called a stand or pillar but is called an armature (which is a support structure for sculpture.)


Early on in the project the first thing the class had to attend was named simply on the timetable as “Photography”. It was assumed at the time that photography within a 3D modelling project would mean that we would learn the importance of photographing faces , learn the ins and outs of the camera and lighting techniques, focusing, how best to capture facial features etc.What actually happed was very different. The Photography aspect to the course was literally taking photographs of our partner’s faces. One picture head on, one picture of a side profile and others of different skin types, like under the eyes, the checks and forehead, the photos of the different skin types would later be the reference for a skin stamps.
I think it’s fair to say due to the number times “oh his face isn’t straight” and “it’s not symmetrical” has been heard in the 3D studio that had prior knowledge been there, everyone would have made sure they took the straightest pictures possible. If the chance was given to take the pictures again, I would have taken a picture of my partner, Oliver Hoff’s face from almost every angle, as it would have made the stamping technique easier to achieve. However I did enjoy trying to find different ways to blend stamped pictures together on a three dimensional model, ensuring there was a little stretching as possible. This was a difficult but satisfying task to achieve.

The difficulty in taking the photos and later using them as reference came in the curvature of the human head. It was very difficult to get the whole photograph in focus, many of the skin texture shots are only partly in focus, a fact that I hope to rectify when another human head modelling situation arises.

Straight on and profile shots.

Skin texture shots.

The photoshoped head and profile photo's below was used as a guide when creating the mesh shape on the 3D model.

Bought eggs and tools

I knew I had to make a 3D scale model (maquette) of a fellow student’s head, the first thing I did for my 3D concepts project was to go shopping for eggs, tools and clay.
We were told to get small polystyrene egg shapes as a base for our maquette, I assumed this was to get a rough idea of the shape of a head and to save using expensive clay for the inside of the head.
I had been watching a number of youtube videos on making maquettes and I saw a variety of techniques using many different tools. I was worried that to buy all these tools and use them effectively would be time consuming and expensive. After talking to Mark Wickham about 3D modelling tools, he suggested a wire loop sculpting tool.
The clay we were instructed to buy was any type of polymer, non quick drying clay.

Introduction

I must start off this blog by firstly apologising that this blog on not on the internet sooner and the blog posts aren’t posted on regular intervals but in one large post.

In this Blog I have been asked to explain my “journey” through the Introduction to 3D concepts course. I have interoperated this to mean I will be explaining my thoughts research and ideas about Topology as and when I learn/research it. I feel there is a good possibility my thoughts and feelings about 3D concepts and techniques will change as I have little understanding of it.