This week I've been filling out my learning contract and doing time management; I've been planning out how much time I have for each project, and what I want to do for them, and also defining some characters.
I'm glad I did this planning now because I have a lot less time than I thought I did, doing this now stops me from planning my time incorrectly and causing a whole lot of stress.
Though I still don't know if I'll have much time for a Summer holiday #JustGameArtThings
2016-2017 Calendar [1]
I got a calendar from online and plotted out the project dates; I like to visually see all my dates.
I then looked at all the pipelines I'd researched from the GDC pipelines and ones I'd received from character artists from my survey, and came up with a pipeline that suited me the best:
3D Character Process
Concepting
Backstory
Moodboard
Thumbnail sketches
Silhouettes
Value exploration
Detail
Colour exploration
Final design
Orthographics
3D
(Base mesh?)
ZBrush sculpt
Export
Retopologise
UVs
Bake maps
Texture
Rig
Idle Pose
Stretch goal (most likely won't have time for this):
Face rig?
Animate?
Publishing/Model Viewer Setup
Make diorama (environment) for them
Marmoset
Sketchfab
Character Creation Plan (Based on FMP and time-frames given to me from survey)
4 – 6 weeks per character:
Concepting: 1 – 2 weeks
3D: 2 – 3 weeks
Publishing/Viewer: 1 week
How many character can I get done?
5005 + 5006 (15 weeks): 2 – 4 character
5008 (17.5 weeks): 3 – 4 characters
Total: 5 – 8 characters
I’m going to be aiming for 5 characters because I want at least around 5-6 weeks per character and with 5 I’ll have 6.5 weeks per character, and might have time for some extra stuff.
Update: My supervisor Mike Pickton said that my characters didn't display enough skills or styles, and thus I am editing my character plan a bit to cover these:
Skills I need to show:
Creature
Fur
Hair
Hard surface
Soft surface
Clothes
Natural matter
Style I need to show:
Realistic
Stylised
Leave a week to make a showreel/character diorama:
Diorama of characters example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A5qmpPUOH0 [2]
Theme: RPG style character classes based on folklore/mythical characters
Stylised PBR
Keep a consistent art style
Tengu fighter
Suko
warrior
Experiment with different ages
What kind of warrior is she?
Olden Era or Modern? A combination?
Character fights a lot, will have old scars, bruises, split lip?
Headless horseman
Headless biker dude with unicorn biker jacket
Greaser?
Horsepower
Keeps head on jeans, shrunken head
Biker gloves with chipped black and pink nail polish
Stone man
Gold and black
Jade accents?
Gatekeeper
Egyptian?
African?
Theme: Realistic
Greek heroine [3]
Atlanta
Excellent archer
Wears fur
Raised by bears after being abandoned for being female
Spends time with hunters
Like hunting and the outdoors
Extremely independent
Strong
Good at wrestling
Gets turned into a lion
Theme: Creature
Changeling Child
Deep, dark eyes
Heavy bags
Cute
Row of sharp little teeth
Time Management
I also have an Excel sheet [4] for my day planner and to make more in depth notes.
I'm going to start the research/mood-boarding for my projects now to save time later; time is of the essence.
Bibliography
[1] CALENDAR-365.COM (2016) 2016-2017 Calendar. [Online] CALENDAR-365.COM. Available from: http://www.calendar-365.com/2016-calendar.html [Accessed 23/11/16].
[2] Avengers: Age of Ultron. (2015) Avengers: Age of Ultron End Credits Scene HD Music | Marvel Metal. [Online Video]. 4 October 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A5qmpPUOH0. [Accessed: 28 November 2016].
[3] GREEK MYTHOLOGY.COM (N.D.) Atlanta. [Online] GREEK MYTHOLOGY.COM. Available from: http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Heroes/Atlanta/atlanta.html [Accessed 24/11/16].
[4] WINCALENDAR (N.D) 2016/2017 Weekly Calendar - starts with Monday. [Online] WinCalendar. Available from: http://www.wincalendar.com/2016-Excel-Calendar [Accessed 23/11/16].
