Sketches and Re-consideration

Below are a few sketches I've been working on the past couple of weeks. The first is a detailed study I did to familiarise myself with the general structure and feel of the statue, as well as to observe all the smaller details and the anatomy.

Below are some initial head shot concepts developed from the first sketch. These are based from a few different versions of the statues and focus mainly on the differences in the profile. The main areas that differ in these statues seem to be focused around the eyes, mouth/nose and the positioning and size of the curls. Otherwise, the statues are pretty much identical in terms of build and pose, with very little variation to the overall look.

 

 

Variations in the statues can be traced back to the era of origin as well as initial location. Although the overall look of the sculptures is generally the same, the facial details and accessories vary accordingly. Other factors, such as wealth, size and material has also had an influence, however very minor, on the look of the statues.

Due to the issue of similarity between statues, there is little conceptual freedom and space to explore the conceptual process with this particular subject. Since concept creation is a major part of my dissertation project, and something which I am keen to develop and experiment with further, it would be beneficial to change the subject of interest (not the scope of the project) to something more conceptual-friendly and broad, and avoid restrictions like sticking to a very precise and particular subject matter. As it is, I can't fully enjoy the concept creation process without feeling limited and held back by the strictness of a certain pose/build.

Subject Research: Guardian Lions

HISTORY
The Chinese guardian lions, also known as Shishi lions or Fu/Foo ("buddha" or "prosperity")  Lions, are a common representation of lions in pre-modern China. They are believed to have magical properties and the power to repel evil spirits, and have traditionally stood guard in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, temples, tombs and offices until the end of the empire in 1911. They are still commonly used as decorative and symbolic elements in front of restaurants, supermarkets, hotels etc.

APPEARANCE
The Shishi are traditionally depicted in pairs, representing yin (female) and yang (male). The circular object often shown beneath the male's right paw is the Tama (sacred Buddhist jewel), a symbol of Buddhist wisdom that brings light to darkness and holds the power to grant wishes, sometimes carved with a geometric pattern known as the Flower of Life. The female is essential identical, but holds a cub under the left paw, representing the cycle of life.

The statues can also sometimes be seen one with its mouth open and one with mouth shut. The opened/closed mouth relates to Ah (open mouth, first letter of the alphabet) and Un (closed mouth, last letter of the alphabet). These two sounds symbolise the beginning and end, birth and death, and all other possible outcomes (from alpha to omega). Other interpretations are that the open mouth would drive off demons, while the closed mouth shelters and keeps in good spirits. Japanese adaptation state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death.

Traditionally, the statues were carved from expensive decorative stone, like marble or granite, or cast in bronze or iron. Due to the cost of reproducing these statues, private use of guardian lions was generally restricted to wealthy families or dynasties, and became a symbol of status. Nowadays, these lions can be mass produced and distributed to everyone at a much lower price. They are still very popular today, not only in China, but also in other parts of the world.

ORIGIN
In China, the lion is the master of all felines, the defender of law, and the protector of sacred buildings. It is a symbol of power and success, and of royalty and strength. The shishi is sometimes tattooed on a woman's belly to protect her during childbirth. The lion is not indigenous to China; however, Asiatic lions were quite commonly found in neighbouring India as well as Tibet. These Asiatic Lions found in Indian temples are model for those depicted in Chinese art. With the increased trade during the Han dynasty and cultural exchanges through the Silk Road, lions were introduced into China in form of pelts and live tribute, along with stories from Buddhist priests and travellers. Chinese sculptors modelled lion statues after native dog breeds such as the Chow Chow or Chih Tzu, which may have led to the misidentified term Foo/Fu Dogs, even though the statues are representative of lions.

IMAGES

Female Shishi lion at the Summer Palace, Beijing

Statue looking over Mount Emei

Chinese guardian lion in old Beijing, China

A guardian lion in the Forbidden City

A pair of guardian lion statues; the male on the left and the female on the right.

Celadon Shishi

Sources:

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/shishi.shtml
http://www.eons.com/groups/topic/1544693-Chinese-Foo-Lions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions
http://www.asianartmall.com/foodogarticle.htm
http://islandbeerclub.com/foodog.htm

Referenced Readings continued

Kermanikian, A., 2010. Introducing Mudbox. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

This is one of the only books introducing Mudbox to the reader from the very basics with easy-to-follow projects that offer a complete guide to the program. Kermanikian covers a great range of techniques and tips for sculpting and modelling in Mudbox, and explains very thoroughly all the different tools available to the reader. In the book he explains the many ways of sculpting and painting in Mudbox through various chapters, such as getting user interface, setting up your model in 3Ds Max/Maya for export and detailed sculpting, painting and rendering. All in all, the book covers most of the aspects you'll ever need to know about Mudbox.

Autodesk, 2010. Mudbox 2011 Essential Learning Videos. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL823A12BCC0FDA71D [Accessed 24 October 2011]

Autodesk, 2011. Artist Guide to Mudbox 2012. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Autodesk#p/c/E8C9006117B40A74/0/arQyKu2RmVw [Accessed 24 October 2011]

These two online video playlists walk you through the process of using Mudbox very thoroughly, from the very basics of importing a base mesh and explaining the interface and various tools, to guiding the viewer through the sculpting and painting with the many different brushes, stamps and presets available. Lighting, rigging and posing is also included in the videos, and the projects are well thought out and easy to follow. The only difference between them is the version of Mudbox used. This, of course, has an impact on the tools and interface, and various new additions that might not have been available before. I will have a look at both as the quality and standard of the videos are very high, and one might include different useful hints and tips to the other.

Greenway, T. et al., 2011. Photoshop for 3D artists: V1 Enhance your 3D renders! Previz, texturing and post-production. Worcester: 3DTotal Publishing.

Photoshop for 3D artists covers a wide range of techniques for combining 2D elements with 3D models and scenes. The seven chapters all cover quite a bit of ground on their appointed topics, such as previsualization, texturing, post-production and 3D paint-overs. The first few chapters introduce the reader to the initial concept design, such as adding originality to your work. Progressively the book covers more in-depth technical information, as well as feature artists who share helpful tips and tricks from the 3D industry, useful to any aspiring 3D artists-to-be or experienced modeller alike.

Vandruff, M., 2009. Animal Anatomy: Drawing Hind Legs. ImagineFX, September, pp. 90-95.

Vandruff delves into further secrets of anatomical representation in an in-depth overview of hind leg anatomy of animals (and humans). With pictures and descriptions, he explains the importance of understanding the skeletal and muscular structure of the legs in order to draw them correctly. An understanding in how the animal is "built up" is vital to any artist or modeller, as anatomically incorrect models will work poorly in rigging and animation, resulting in un-realistic and impractical looking movement.

Iijima, T., 2005. Action Anatomy: For Gamers, Animators and Digital Artists. Harper Design.

Covering over 280 topics and 650 images, this book takes the reader on an immensely detailed tour of the human body. Along with useful descriptions and hints, the book explores animation of each part of the body, as well as movement, facial expression and general character creation. Whilst it focuses sorely on humans, the general description of the movements and body can be adapted to suit animals and other creatures fairly well. 

Referenced Readings

Spencer, S., 2008. ZBrush: Character Creation. Advanced Digital Sculpting. Indiana: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Although the book essentially works as a guide to get the reader familiarised with ZBrush, it holds many useful hints and techniques that can easily be adapted to Mudbox, as the two programs share many features. The author talks about the basics of sculpting, from traditional to digital, and the very first chapter is an introduction to gesture, pose and form of traditional ancient sculptures, and how digital artists can interpret this information in creating their own digital sculptures. The book also features interviews with specialist digital sculptors, who share their techniques and secrets with the reader. All in all, a most handy book for any digital sculptor, covering both basic and advanced techniques that can easily be adapted to the user's software.

Linde, R., 2005. Game Art: Creation, Direction and Careers. Hingham: Charles River Media, Inc.

There is an interesting article about light, colour schemes, dirt and scratches etc in Chapter 5. It explains how the colour theme of a picture or even a whole game can set the mood for the player/observer, and how sometimes less really is more. Chapter 18 explores some quick methods of creating high-resolution models in ZBrush, which again can be adapted to Mudbox fairly easily. Chapter 19 also gives the reader some useful tips about using normal mapping to create very 3-dimensional looking images from a flat surface.

Omernick, M., 2004. Creating the Art of the Game. New Riders Publishing.

A fairly basic book covering some of the techniques that artists in the games industry use today. It goes into some depth about the importance of good conceptual art in the process of creating a game, as well as how to turn those conceptual drawings into models and levels. The author also gives some useful hints from experience and examples from games that he has worked on before.

Pardew, L,. 2005. Beginning Illustration and Storyboarding for Games. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.

The author of this book takes the reader through a handful of different topics, from creating storyboards and level designs to character creation and environmental illustrations. Each chapter is followed by a FAQ section with popular questions spanning the content of each chapter, which (although very brief) can give light to the reader's queries.

Mudbox vs ZBrush: A comparison

As mentioned earlier, the program I would use for creating and polishing my statue would either be Mudbox or ZBrush. I will have a closer look at some of the positive and negative sides of either programs in order to decide which would be more suitable for me to use in this project:

PRIOR EXPERIENCE

Mudbox: 
Whilst not getting taught to use the program, I did some research about it last year and used it for my final character creation project, where I learnt the basics of the program itself as well as some more advanced techniques, such as rigging and lighting, even though I didn't have time to make use of these properly in my project.

ZBrush: 
No prior experience.

INTERFACE and EASE OF USE

Mudbox: 
Since Mudbox is a part of the Autodesk range, it shares a lot of features and tools similar to 3Ds Max and Maya. The import and export between these programs is made very easy as well. The interface is very clean and easy to understand. The short-cuts and hot-keys are for most parts the same as in 3Ds Max, which I have worked a lot with before. If any of the hot-keys don't suit your needs, they are editable to the user's preferences, both for keyboard and tablet users.
The setup for the interface is very neat; you don't have to go searching for where to find certain tools, and all the options are easily displayed to the user. It is also very similar to some graphics programs, such as Photoshop, in the way that the brushes work and are laid out, which is a definite plus. All in all, the interface is very beginner friendly but still offers the range needed for more advanced use.

ZBrush:
At first glance, the ZBrush interface can be a daunting sight, especially if you have previously been working with software like Autodesk Maya or 3Ds Max. After a bit of research, it looks far more complicated than it is, but far from as neat or easy to use as Mudbox. Many menus you won't ever visit or need to use. The hot-keys and short-cuts are completely different to both 3Ds Max and Photoshop, which can easily get very confusing, and the name of many tools are also different.
The range of sub-menus and options, however, make ZBrush an excellent choice for very advanced sculpting. It just requires a lot of getting used to before the user can take full advantage of all the options available.

TOOLS, TECHNIQUES and FEATURES


Mudbox: 
Mudbox offers a wide variety of tools in the creation and sculpting process. The latest 2011 version includes a whole new range of tools to offer even more options for the user. With the latest version, rigging was also made possible without having to create a separate skeleton in 3Ds Max/Maya first by just clicking and dragging anchor points and falloffs over the model and commit them to a skeleton which can be edited and changed very easily.
Mudbox also features a very advanced Polypaint technique which allows the user to edit textures, create layers of paint and masks (very similar to Photoshop) as well as direct export/import to Photoshop for even more advanced painting.
Mudbox also comes with the handy connection of exporting models back to 3Ds Max or Maya after render. All textures and rigs will be saved and easily implemented to the model again as a lower resolution model, ready for animation or export to a games engine.

ZBrush:
ZBrush offers more advanced and in-depth tools and techniques for sculpting, whilst lacking in the painting area. With the use of ZSpheres and ZSketch, users can very quickly create the base mesh directly in ZBrush without the need of using a 3D modelling software first. There is also a far greater range of sculpting brushes available.
ZBrush also features something called 2.5D Pixol Illustration. This is essentially a 3D model (sculpted in ZBrush) blended with a 2D document, a hybrid between a painting and a rendering. You can place the 3D sculpture in the document space, light, shade, and render them as a 2.5d illustration. It's a tool that allows you to paint colours, materials and depth as a backdrop for your 3D sculpture. The document make use of layers as well as interactive lighting and rendering, but they cannot be rotated or edited in the 3D space as they are composed of pixols, which are special pixels that carry colour information as well as depth and material base.


SUPPORT

Mudbox: 
Mudbox has small range of online video tutorials that walk you through the program, from the very basics of importing your mesh to shaping, sculpting and rigging it. There is also an online library where users can share knowledge and resources with each other. The online community for Mudbox is still very small but growing.

ZBrush:
As ZBrush is more widely used than Mudbox, there's a lot more support out there for ZBrush users. A wide variety of professional and amateur video tutorials have been made for the program, and there's a lot of support both online on websites and in books. Since ZBrush has been going around for much longer than Mudbox, the online community is very large.

PROFESSIONAL USE

Most games companies work in either Mudbox or ZBrush, although ZBrush seems to be the leading one due to its independence from 3D modelling programs and more advanced features. However, a lot of artists and games industries use both programs nowadays, sometimes even entwined.  

CONCLUSION

Both programs offer a wide variety of tools that the user can take advantage of and create very life-like renders. However, both programs have both advantages and disadvantages compared to each other, and can be more specific for a certain type of render.

The interface war is won hands down by Mudbox. The interface in Mudbox is so much simpler and easier to use that most people new to the program have come up with some very nice "doodles" within the first 20 minutes. It takes next to no time to grasp the very basics of the program. With ZBrush, on the other hand, the learning curve is steep, and it takes a lot of time to get used to the almost alien interface, and you need someone to hold your hand with the program to begin with, so to speak.

On another note, ZBrush is more extensive and offers more variety to the tools available. It is more "mature" than Mudbox, and is undoubtedly the more powerful product of the two in terms of potential sculpting detail and overall features.

For the texturing process, Mudbox seems to be the one on top. The advanced layer features makes it easy to paint, edit and remove parts of the texture whilst still keeping others. The local subdivision is far more superior in Mudbox as well. Rather than tesselating border faces and creating unnecessary tri's like ZBrush, it locks the area outside of the subdivision and divides each face separately. This makes for a fluid workflow on high resolution meshes as you can locally subdivide area by area without destroying the geometry of the mesh.

All in all, ZBrush is like a Swiss army knife. It can do about everything, but you have to find where what is hidden first, and you have the impression there's always something in the way. With Mudbox, everything is laid out on display very nicely for the user to choose and pick from at will.

Because I'm already familiar with Mudbox, it would be interesting to give ZBrush a go, but for the moment, there is no software available to me. The computers at university already have the latest version of Mudbox installed, but not ZBrush. Whilst it would be possible to download a 30 day free trial, it wouldn't be enough for the whole duration of the project, and would be impossible to do within those 30 days only.

Reference: 
Spencer, S., 2008 . ZBrush: Character Creation. Advanced Digital Sculpting. Indiana: Wiley Publishing.

Dissertation Ideas

Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking quite a lot about what I'd like to do with my final year dissertation work, and I've nailed it down to either one of two ideas, or possibly a combination of the two. As I'm more of an artistic person as opposed to a modeller or coder, I would prefer my work to reflect this. Also, I know that I would enjoy the work more if it was based around something I enjoy doing. My ideas are as follows:

1. A 3D model of a real life statue, modelled (briefly) in 3Ds Max and further sculptured, textured, rigged and rendered in either Mudbox or even ZBrush. I found that I really enjoyed working in Mudbox last year in Phil's character creation session, and I would love to explore it in more detail and let my work reflect on what I learned last year.
The statue would preferably be one from real life, so that I could take my own pictures of it as reference and build the textures from it as well. In Mudbox, I'd sculpt and texture the statue accordingly, as well as rig it, which was one of the things I didn't have enough time to do properly last year. Alternatively, if it's too repetitive of last year's process, I'd be happy to explore and learn about ZBrush instead, as it's more widely used than Mudbox, but also a lot more complicated.

2. Another idea that I had and would like to work with is based around concept art. This is the field of games design that I would want to work with the most, as a job. However, I haven't been able to think of anything where I'd be able to implement this without having to model something afterwards, which I'm trying to avoid as much as possible. I suppose the best thing to do is to combine this idea with the first one, and just do a lot of conceptual art regarding the sculpture, and base the art around still life / character creation as opposed to environmental concepts.

So this is as far as I've been able to think for now. It doesn't sound like much, but as I'm quite the perfectionist, quality definitely comes before quantity for me, and if it's something I enjoy working on, there's no limit to the amount of time that I would spend perfecting every last detail.