What to do?...What to do?

So of course the first decision of a project like this is to decide what exactly I am going to do.

There are very few guidelines put in place by Raffles, which in my opinion is a great thing, lets us spread our wings. However I know that this project needs to be larger in scale than anything I have worked on before, and it needs to demonstrate the skills and techniques that I am most interested in working on in my eventual career.

Hmm...tough one. I am studying video games design and so the obvious first choice is to make a game. I'm in games design for the art side however and have no idea at all how to program, or have any close friends who know either. So making a game isn't really realistic, but game art is an option. I decided to study video game design because of the huge amount of crossover with film visual effects, another area I am interested in working. Most specifically 3D modelling characters, environments and effects not possible in practical effects.

So there is an obvious crossover, and choice here, a 3D model of some sort. My main area of skill, and interest lies within character design and modelling, so another obvious choice presents itself, a 3D character of some sort. The industry standard 3D modelling tools (in both film and games industry) include 3DStudio Max and Maya which are traditional modelling software and a 3D sculpting tool, ZBrush. 3DS Max and Maya are owned by the same company and are basically the same program and I have been taught to use Maya, so I will use that where needed. However, the idea of 3D sculpting is much more compelling to me, as it fairly accurately portrays the feeling and process of sculpting in real life.

As I come from a background of fine art training, and have practice sculpting, I am very interested to try out ZBrush. Plus I think the results just look better. And so I decided, a 3D sculpture of a character made in ZBrush. Getting here was pretty easy, but there is still a way to go. Even though I knew I wanted to sculpt a character, that leaves a lot of scope. And so I began to search for inspiration, something that would grab me by the eyeballs and make me scream 'I want to make that!' I didn't take long to find either.

I don't know exactly what it is about this sculpture by Mike Jensen that I love so much. Maybe its the perfectly smooth panels, the incredible attention to detail or just the fact that it looks like you could reach out and touch it. But I knew once I saw it that I had found what i wanted to do with my major project. A 3D hard surface character sculpture in ZBrush. Yet I still wanted more, a 3D sculpt was good but was it good enough? Else would excited my to make, inspire me every time I sat down to start work? 

I have read many times professional 3D artists say that you should never show work in a T-pose, it is too unnatural, even the smallest amount of posing would help viewers relate to the character so much more. So what if I put my character into a dynamic action pose, with a small environment around them to sell the effect? And what if that environment was as enticing to make as the character itself? So how about a futristic Iron man-esque character flying low over water creating water disruption like this? That sounds pretty good to me. 

And so I have decided: a 3D ZBrush sculpt of a futuristic, sci-fi armour design, dynamically posed as it flies over water, fully lit, textured and rendered to photo realistic levels. Watch this space.