501 #9 - Reflection

 While writing out the essay, I obviously had to research the subject, but since it so recent, especially the use of 3D graphics, I found some difficult finding much on the subject. However, I was able to find a few online articles.

Initially, I had some difficulty thinking of a practical to reflect the research aspect, but while I was doing the basic outline of the essay script and looking through some research material, I had the idea to create some basic models to show the capabilities of modern, publicly available software.

Since I have access to both Autodesk Maya and ZBrush 2021, I could use either to create a couple models to show the capabilities of modern software, even by an untrained person. I have used both a little before, so I knew what kind of digital modelling both software offered; Maya is more technical, whereas ZBrush is more digital sculpting.

I decided to use both, creating an inorganic object in Maya and a simple organic creature or character in ZBrush.

For the inorganic object I noticed that many environmental aspects were lower poly resolution in even modern video games, as an environmental object isn’t seen as often, so I chose a chair to model in Maya. For the organic creature, I took a turnaround that I had created some time ago of a character of mine, since the design itself wasn’t as important as the actual modelling.

Creating the chair model was very straight forward, as it was quite simple, but I had to revise my knowledge of texturing and lighting in Maya to finish up the model. Sculpting the character bust in ZBrush initially didn’t feel difficult, as I knew some bare basics of the program, however I had to learn quite a bit more, like adding more objects and increasing the polycount.

I was actually really glad I decided to create a model in ZBrush as it motivated me to learn and practice using it more than I do in my spare time. Maya, on the other hand, I was already having to use for the 503 film project, so I am much more familiar with it and did not need to learn anything new.

In regards to the practical work itself, I liked the base model of the chair, but to improve it I would re-do the texture. I would make the texture more part of the model, such as indentations in wood being visibly in the model itself rather than just a colour painted on to look like brightly coloured plastic. I also liked the character bust, although I’d have like to have thinned the head very slightly on the X axis and added the hair. I’d also have liked to texture the model properly to create a full model, but I found it hard to understand, so it would have taken too long to understand it properly enough to apply it to the character bust.

If I was to do it again, I’d detail both models more and texture them properly.