Creating The Portfolio

Taking into consideration everything that I had found through my research, I wanted to create a site that showcased myself and my enthusiasm for the subject as well as showing off my work. Because of this I decided to add a brief about me section to the top of the home page. Using a Parallax theme I could add this section and it would not interfere so much with the rest of the site. Using a darkened version of one of my 2D concepts as a background, I feel this shows off my work in a subtle way whilst letting the user know a little more about me and my abilities.

Using the mid section of the homepage to showcase my work, I could include the animations I have made to back up the claims in the About me section. Having these videos embedded in the site allows for easy viewing and quick analysis.

The same applies with my 3D environment model. Having the video embedded just below the character model shows the two distinct creations in their own right whilst allowing them to be viewed as two very different entities.

Below this I decided to use two separate tiles for a link to my gallery. This way the character artwork could be separated from the environment artwork when viewing them. Having this click through to two separate galleries helps distinguish the different type of artwork for potential employers. As the jobs I would be applying for may not necessarily be for both things, having these separate spaces allows for a potential employer to view these things independently.

Below this I have included a short Animation Showreel. Although all the work has been combined in this one space, I think having it this way on the homepage echoes the research I have taken before in showcasing my work early on.

Although I would loved to have replicated the themes from the sites I have analysed, using this theme in the short space of time I had to create the site has restricted me somewhat. In the future, I will progress my site further using these sites as more of a rigid template for my own.

Moving through to the specific gallery page on my site, I have included an easy gallery plug in that allows me to lay out my images in a similar way to those seen in my research. Having the ability to click on and flick through images became a very integral part of my research, because of this I felt it was most important to include this in both the environment and character work I would be plaving on the site.

At the bottom of every page I have included a contact form with social media links at the bottom right. This became a staple section of all the portfolio sites I analysed and I believe it should be a very easy and integral part of my own.

Having the contact section to the right hand side and more specific info to the left, it gives the user options as to how to contact me. Seeing a range of different ways in other portfolios, I wanted to make it easy and approachable making steps to contact me.

I opted to use Dreamhost for my site hosting, and in the short time I have used them, they have provided a very slow server for my site to run on. Because of this, I will be moving my site as soon as possible to another host, but for now I have managed to create the entire site and make it like and useable for both my degree and for my movement into the world of work.

Project Evaluation

With the project completely finished, I can reflect on my time working on the independent project.

Firstly, the biggest thing I have realised doing this project is that I have never experienced such an incredibly steep learning curve in anything I have ever done. Going from working primarily in 2D to 3D in a matter of 8 weeks has completely thrown me in at the deep end and I have never experienced anything quite like this. I have loved every second of the creation in this project, from the conceptualisation of ideas to actually creating them. I have never loved the struggle as much as I have done whilst doing this project.

Secondly, I feel by doing this project I have truly found my creative outlet. This is something I am extremely passionate about and would love to go further in this field. Having only spent a few weeks in this medium, I know there is much more to learn, but I feel this is really the right direction for me.

The project as a whole has pushed me more than ever before and in the process I have managed to create many things I am proud of.

If I had the time again, I would not have set myself the task of going into the game engine Unity. This only piled on the pressure for me and gave me the unnecessary of constraining my time further. Although I did not go into the game engine in the end, I think leaving it off of my brief would have been advisable.

I also think I would have spent a little more time on the presentation of the character model. Through my time working with it, I did want to get it 3D printed. Unfortunately due to time commitments and knowledge of the exportation to 3D modelling, this did not happen, but moving forward to the end of year show I will definitely be trying to make this a reality.

In regards to the environment, I am incredibly proud of my achievement. Although some have said that I bit off more than I could chew with this project, I like to think my achievements stand up on their own. Yes, the environment is not finessed to gaming standard. Yes, the props in the environment aren't too greatly done, but my task was to create an environment. My task was to create somewhere a game could be set. I have conceptualised and created an environment that can be further built into something better. Having this base, I will continue to work on this in the future and create something magnificent. But for now, with the brief I have written; this fits very well with my initial goal.

Overall, I have loved this process and I have loved my 3 years studying. Moving from where I was in the first year, just finding my feet, to creating a character of over 11 million polygons and a 3D Gaming environment, I could not be more proud of my achievements and grateful to those that helped me get there. This project has been tough, but has really shown me who I am as a creative force and in which direction I should be heading.

I am hopeful that this experience will lead me to a career within this industry.



Final Character Images

Final Character Video

Final Concept Artwork

Final 3D Environment

Finishing Off The Environment

To completely finish off the environment, I wanted to animate a video panning through it that would completely showcase everything I'd made. This doesn't mean only the individual props, but I wanted to include shots that would show the entire scene in the way I wanted to show it.

Having a basic idea of the things I wanted to include and the wide shots I wanted in the animation (such as the one below) I began researching ways to animate the camera.

Animating a camera in Maya is very similar to that of After Effects. As I have a lot of experience with After Effects, the transition itself was not all that difficult. Within Maya, setting up a camera is very easy as once the camera is set, it can become the primary viewport and animated from there. The image below shows the view from the camera.

Having this freedom allowed me to pick all the shots I wanted with ease, from the wide open shots to the very small and intricate ones.

One of the most important shots I wanted to include was the one of the drain and grate I created earlier on. As it was a rather prominent feature of my concept work, I felt it needed time in the animation to show what it had become. I decided to use it as the final prop shot before the final overview at the end of the animation for this purpose.

From the drain shot we pan out to here. I felt this was the best shot to end on as it really shows the scene as a whole and gives the viewer a very definite end after going through the entire environment.

Working with the interface itself to create the animation is very similar to After Effects. As the viewport becomes the camera, setting keyframes (red lines in the time slider) becomes very easy. Using the "S" key to set a new one on the timeline (shown at the bottom) they can be moved very easily. Because of this, animating the entire scene became one of the easiest and most enjoyable parts of this creative process.

The red bounding boxes on the right hand side show a keyed transformation. Maya does have it's own "autokey" feature where it will key the scene for you, but wanting to do everything in the scene myself, I opted to go for the manual method.

After exporting the entire sequence out as images, I was able to combine them in Premiere Pro and export them as a video. This process was very easy as it just meant importing the images into Premiere as their exported sequence.

My final environment submission is shown in this video below;

After around 4 weeks solid working with 3D objects, 3 hours exporting from Maya and another 2 from Premiere Pro I think I can finally say I have finished my environment.

Portfolio Research

Going into the creation of my portfolio site, I knew from my lack of knowledge of CSS and HTML that the best thing for me to do to create my site would be to work in Wordpress. Having struggled through the basics in the first project this year, I think I know enough to be able to go into making my own site.

When looking into my Career Pathways, many of the careers of those I find inspiring in my work helped me to find a niche within the industry that I wish to follow. Because of this, I spent a lot of time looking into peoples personal portfolios in the hope of finding my direction. Through this searching, I have come across some similarities with many of the sites. Analysing each one will allow me to go into the creation of my own site with a solid foundation to work from.

The first site I chose to analyse further is the portfolio of Andrew Leung. Leung is a 2D concept artist and 3D modeller, working on such big names as Iron Man 3, Captain America Winter Soldier and the Avengers. As much of his work inspired me personally, from including him in my Wordpress project as a lead speaker and having his career as something I aspire to to follow, his site is something that really stands out to me.

Right from the get go, we can see two main things with the site; The large header, and the image gallery at the front. Having these two things in the forefront really push the idea that the work is the most important part of a portfolio site and rest can be established later. Having this image gallery places here allows anyone coming to the site to really see what his creations are like before moving on.

Below this, he has a short quote about his work and a live twitter feed. Through looking at his site, it is quite obvious he is not very vocal on twitter, but having this so obviously on the first page gives everybody a chance to find out how to interact with him.

Moving onto his gallery, we can see a similar theme to the front page, in that a majority of the space is taken up with the images. Having a consistent header with his job title and role really reinforces a consistent style throughout.

Moving further down the page, the rest of the gallery is laid out as thumbnails, giving the entire page dedication to the work he has created. I think this is a very important factor when creating my own site and having an individual gallery section is something I feel I would like to include.

The final page is a contact page, laid out very simply with large font. The top most line being his email address, with a link to his facebook and twitter below. Having something this simple does help to get information across quickly and easily.

The next artists portfolio I looked into was Andy Park. Park is somebody I have followed throughout my time at university and is someone the initially inspired me to go into concept work and illustration. With his site changing drastically over the time I have been following, it will give me a clearer understanding of what is working and what is not.

Park is a very sought after concept artist, creating work for most of the Marvel movies; including Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. With his work being exclusively made up of 2D images, it will give me an interesting look at how this can be laid out.

Initially, the site opens on an image he has created for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy sequel with a click through link containing only his name and job title.

Form here we are presented with an image gallery and nothing else. The navigation bar only gives up titles of films he has worked on with small icons to his social media links underneath.

The bottom of the page only houses more links to social media and an email address. Although this site is very minimalistic, obviously it is working. Much like Andrew Leung's site, this portfolio showcases only the work and from that, we can see how successful he has become.

Looking again at another 2D artist, Bob Cheshire. Similarly to Andy Park, he was commissioned by Marvel to create many Environmental Concepts for Guardians of The galaxy.

Looking at the site initially, we see a theme starting to emerge. Having the graphic the main focus of the site is the primary selling point. With a limited number of links at the top leading only to the gallery and contact, it shows again the importance of the work over other small bits of information.

On tis site, the social media links sit statically at the bottom.

As with the other sites, we see yet another thumbnail image gallery showcasing a majority of the work, being able to click through to see enlarged images.

The bottom of every page housed a contact form directly built into the website. Although no web address was included on the site, their remained persistent social media links on each page.

Moving onto another 3D modeller, Sarah Zaher, I noticed even more similarities to the other sites I had analysed previously. On the front page, once again, we can see an image gallery showcasing her work. Although the navigation housed a few more links, the basic layout was very much the same as the portfolios I had been looking at before.

With the front page just housing this image gallery, it again becomes clear that the work is the driving force behind the site as a whole. Having clear images and direction for the site makes it easy and fluid to use.

This site in contrast to the others I have looked as has an About section. Although this hasn't been present before, Zaher is not an artist that is too well known. As in my case I will be beginning my job hunting after I graduate, I will not have any prior experience. To me, having this About section on my portfolio site seems like a good idea. As with Zaher's site, she has laid out her experience with 3D software, her skillset and her resume, I think having a short biography about me would help to put across a professional attitude.

As with many of the other sites i've looked at, there is a short form in the contact section of the site. I think if I could perhaps find a plugin that would help me with this in Wordpress, it would make a very neat addition to the site.

With other 3D artists the portfolio's followed a similar theme. In the case of Johan Steen, the focus of the homepage was again a gallery. Showcasing Steen's 3D artwork in a 2D form in the way of a gallery makes the whole site very practical and easy to work with. Having the same theme as many of the others, with a bold header and strong navigational structure, I think this is something that will be very important when developing my own portfolio.

Again, the contact section of the site seemed to be a built in form. Having this as a main feature of many of the sites i've looked at really shows it's importance. Alongside this, having all the social media links in this section has proven to be very important.

Graeme Borland is a designer I have been following since before starting my Degree. Initially finding him through tumblr I have followed his progress up till this point. His social media presence is massive and it really shows with his body of work. Not only does Borland have his own portfolio of work, but he also keeps an up to date blog showcasing a Sketch of the Day. This blog consists of 2D conceptual artwork that he does over a 20 minute to half an hour period and posts his results at the end of the day. The Tumblr site is very basic, but the idea behind it is flawless. Connecting this Sketch of the Day blog with his portfolio site not only shows his commitment to the field, but his every growing desire to improve his craft.

In practise, this is something I would very much like to adopt myself. Working for half an hour a day to create a concept is something that I think will help me greatly as I move forward in this field.

Looking at Borland's site, we can see a distinct difference between this and the others I have looked at. The site itself is very basic, connecting to many external sections and more elaborate and in depth segments on the site. As Borland professes to try his hand at anything within the field, much of the site is separated out into projects rather than types of work.

Having the site laid out in this way makes it very easy to look at and navigate. Showcasing many different types of creation gives the portfolio a very unique feel to it and creates a very interesting perception of the artist himself.

Although the site looks vastly different from the others I have analysed in many ways, the key sticking feature is again, the contact form. Because of it's consistent appearance throughout all of the sites I have looked at, I feel this is one of the most important features to include. That, along with a working image gallery and links to social media, I think this will allow me to create a working, professional looking site.

Overcoming Problems And Finishing Off

With the basic shell now formed I was able to begin work on more of the props and stand out features of the model. To begin with, I wanted to make the environment seem self contained and sheltered, but open enough to really show off all the things i'd designed. Working through the environment, I began assigning various different materials to different sections to try and create something that looked slightly more realistic. Moving away from my colour study, I looked more at my reference images to find the correct colours. 

Assigning colours in Maya comes with picking a new material. As the default material in Maya is known as Lambert, I opted to carry on using this material and just slightly change the colour. Going by my reference images, I chose a lighter tone to assign to the overall piece as I felt that it would really show to contours of what I had created as well as stand out as a focal point of a landscape.

Creating more stand out props became my next task. With the different levels I wanted to have a sort of focal point on each level, whether it be a large hallway or stairs, I wanted to have that big drawing point. For the mid level, I decided to edge the walls with a sort of temple inspired design. As I had included a temple to the bottom right hand corner of my concept sketch, I wanted to use the design somewhere in the finished product as I think it really does fit the aesthetic of the overall piece.

Using the same technique as the grate, I created a pillar to sit the roof on and duplicated it until I had two even rows at either side of the wall.

Creating the roof was the most challenging part to date, as I had to create this triangular roof and then bend it round the corner to fit. Using the bend deformer I had previously used with the stairs, I began to create the new shape. The issue being that the shape would not bend at an angle, but instead bent overall into a curve rather than two distinct ends with a bend in the middle. After hours of working round this I opted to separate the two piece and do it manually. Although this didn't give me the piece I was hoping for, it did allow me a lot more freedom over it's creation.

Using facial extrudes on the edges allowed me to create an interesting pattern on either end, and a ridge on the top.

Next, I moved onto edge work for the walls. Creating a small arch from a flipped cylinder and extruding it to look as though it had been etched from stone right into the wall, I began combining and duplicating many of these over the model.

Creating this piece raised the biggest and most troublesome issue I had come across. As everything I would combine, separate, move or scale this object Maya would crash. It did not matter what I did, but Maya would just crash and I could not find any solution after days of searching. No one else had reported the same issue before and even speaking to other members of my class that use the software were completely dumbfounded when having a look at the project file.

Not only was this issue affecting this one object I had created, but it would not allow Maya to save. Because of this, I was set back about 4 days in trying to find a solution. No suggestion made to me at this point helped my situation and the file could not be worked on anymore. After this issue, I reverted to an earlier save file and began work again.

Wanting to include this frill work to the edge plagues me for days, until I finally decided to give it another go. Yet again, the issue came back for unknown reason and had begun to manifest itself every time I would use the combine or separate function.

This was not only an issue for the file I had already made, but I could not progress any further without finding a solution. Going back into maya I had a look through the script editor to see if I could find any warnings or errors that may alert me to the solution for my problems. Whilst in the script editor, it occurred to me that I could type in the command for both the separate and combine commands. Although I didn't have much hope, I thought this may give me more of an indication of the issue if I have the script editor open.

Selecting the trouble objects and combining them before had made Maya crash, but for some reason unbeknown to me or anyone else I had spoken to, using the raw text command made the combine and separate stick. Using the PolyUnite; command to combine and the Separate; command to separate the issue disappeared and I was able to work with these objects again.

With this revelation, I moved both commands to a button situated in a custom shelf and carried on working. This issue cost me days of work, but the fix was as simple as typing out the words. It seems silly, but at least I know for the future to try the command script before uninstalling Maya again.

With this done, I began to create the decor and position it all over the model. Alongside this, I decided to create a small rail to place on the edges of many of the walls to create some cover for potential archers if the walls were to be used in battle.

From here I joined the mid level of the castle to the walls by extruding one of the faces on the mid section and created a bridge. Using the arches below as a base I could use them as a support without having to create any extra geometry. Duplicating this on both sides was relatively easy as I could move these newly extruded faces into the walls together.

Much like the drain, I was able to extrude the faces on the arch to create the illusion of brickwork. As these arches were much bigger, the effect is that much more noticeable.

Using the same basic technique as before when creating the larger stairs for the entrance, I created a curved stairwell to connect the lower and mid level. with the addition of a stone rail that could be included in the deformation gives an extra object to the overall stairwell. This doesn't only serve to be practical in it's application, but also helps to give that grand feeling I was looking for.

Duplicated on both sides it gives a feeling of completeness to both the mid and ground levels.

Along with the bend deformer, I began to mess around with some of the others. From playing around with the deformer before, I had the idea to include a scaled staircase. One end being fat, the other thinner to connect the covered level. In the deformers palette, there was one names "flare". Using the basic shape I had created for the curved stairs I applied the flare deformer, flaring the top end and leaving the bottom end in place. This created a very fitting set to set into my scene.

Moving up to the top, I worked more on the triangular section at the very top of the castle, extruding the sharp edges to create the shape of pillars. Having these running down helped create this grand feeling overall and really pushed the scale of the construction I wanted. From the top view down, I wanted it to feel very grand and magnificent. From this view here, I feel very happy with what I have created. For my first time in this software, I cannot even begin to understand how I have come this far in such a short time.

To give another focal point to the picture and to really reinforce the different levels, I wanted to introduce some tall towers that could be used for look out. Using more polycylinders I reduced the height subdivisions and scaled down the top to create a taper. From here I could extrude out every other face to create an interesting pattern, and extrude in faces on the top to allow for the idea of windows. These are some of my favourite parts of the model. Duplicating them front and back really gave the piece a very towering and almost scary feel to it.

Wanting to give a sense of scale to the image, I began creating little huts out of wooden planks. Creating these basic planks out of a cube was fairly easy, subdividing them 3 times and slotting them together very nicely. I didn't want to add too much detail to this area as it is just to show scale, but I duplicated the planks and laid them out to create a little kiosk from which people could tender things such as fish, wools and books etc. I think this addition is one of the best decisions I made. Working from nothing but my own ability to concept in Maya using 3D objects, creating these models allowed me to see how far I had been able to come.

The other prop I decided to include were barrels. As the wooden huts would most likely be for traders, I felt that barrels would be a nice addition to have near by. Again, using a polycylinder to create the basic shape, I could use a lattice deformer to manipulate the entire model from different sections. Similar to the scale vertices tool, it allowed me to create something entirely different from something exceptionally simple.

With the model completely finished, the only thing left to do is animate a camera and show it off in the best was possible.