Hello everyone! I've been enjoying my time on CGCookie these first two months, this is my first time touching the forums over here. Not sure if I wanted to start a polybook over here, I currently just upload all my (work-in-)progress pics somewhere else. However, I would like to start incorporating feedback from others on my projects. Is it recommend that I do all of this in a single polybook or is it better to make separate posts? I feel like it'd be easy for a single thread to slide down into obscurity, but I may be wrong about that!
I'm currently doing an exercise to model a first-person gun; I've decided to design my own watergun, but making a design from scratch is tough! I do want to improve at coming up with my own designs, so I've come up with some ideas and I'd like to hear your thoughts and ideas! It's still early days, but I intend to do a lot of iterative design and maybe eventually even make a nice portfolio piece.
The idea for my watergun is that it's cobbled together from household parts, but combined with some more whimsical magical / witch-like elements. It's supposed to feel a bit like it's been put together by a young girl, though it doesn't have to be too grounded. I have a moodboard but I'm pretty sure a lot of those images are copyrighted in some way so I won't post them here
Some sketches (vacuum cleaner parts + hose + flask / watertank)
And my rough blockout so far (everything is placeholder), blocking it out in 3D actually gives me a lot more ideas than just the sketches
I'm not too displeased with my idea so far, but it can be improved by tons! I'd like to incorporate a lot more whimsical elements, like old potion flasks etc; make it more cute, too!
Thanks for reading, and don't be afraid to comment -I'd love to hear your thoughts, good and bad.
Hi, and welcome! Don't worry about your polybook sliding into obscurity if you post regularly. Whenever someone posts something in a thread, it gets pulled back to the top of the forum, so if you post regularly, that shouldn't be a problem. It's also nice to have one polybook so we can see your progress and to help keep the clutter down on the forum. If you have a problem with blender, the site, or similar, you can post a separate thread about that issue so you can get help faster than having it buried in your polybook. Up to you.
As for your water gun designs, it's a good start. The household parts are there, but the magical whimsy could be more prevalent. I do like the spherical flask holding tank as a sort of "witchy" element. What are witches known for? Making potions, so it makes sense that maybe some flasks would be used. Or maybe some ingredients that represent different elements could be part of the design. But with your mockup as of right now, it could definitely use more magical whimsy, of which you are aware.
Colors can also play into how you want your work to be perceived. What colors are associated with witches and magic?
This is a good start so far. Keep going!
Thanks for responding. Good to know about the polybook threads! Thanks for the feedback, I definitely need to do a lot more sketches and try out more ideas to get that magic/witch-y feeling. Thanks for taking the time :)
I felt that a good way of coming up with ideas was to make a sketch of the character that would hold the 'gun', so I made a quick mockup in Blender and did some overpainting. This really helped put the scale of the weapon into place. I've also started to gather a lot more witch-related reference to help me come up with ideas / vibes.
numbernine No problem =]
Your paint over looks nice! Definitely finding the style.
In my opinion, it looks a bit too much like plastic. If it's a whimsical, otherworldly, magic thing, I doubt it would be made of plastic.
In this case it actually is supposed to be plastic. I roughly modeled it after the handle of a Dyson vacuum cleaner. I had the idea of making something out of household parts, but with a bit of a magical twist. I've been doing some more sketches, but I've been toying with the idea of making the main 'body' out of wood, like a broom.
numbernine Yes, but why? When I think of a magical girl building something, I imagine a structure made of wood and glass, because magic and plastic don't really go together in my mind. Your choice, I guess.
I'm really liking the look and style of this. Keep going with your idea, can't
wait to see the conclusion.
@charmn-one
Thanks! No real timeline for this idea though. I must admit the paintover went much better than I expected, and now I certainly want to make a character sculpt some time! :D I'm currently spending most of my time going through 'Modeling in Blender' learning flow to get a solid idea on how to not suck lol. As an experiment I just started doing an hour of quick gestural modeling every morning for at least a month or two so I hopefully have a decent sense of anatomy / proportion. I think I'll make a polybook thread here sometime so I can share my findings later down the road. I'll get back to the little witch kid eventually though :)
numbernine great progress so far, keep it up!
btw you can edit this topic and rename it "Polybook of numbernine" ;)
I just wanted to say. that I think you're doing great! Keep it up, you're on the right track;) Btw your little witch girl reminds me a bit of 'Villanelle' from 'Killing Eve' in so far as that it looks like she is sooo pleased with her 'gun'...Anyway, that is not important, just carry on!
As an experiment I just started doing an hour of quick gestural modeling every morning for at least a month or two so I hopefully have a decent sense of anatomy / proportion.
That is a fantastic idea; in fact, I think I'm going to start doing that.
jakeblended Cool, I'm curious already to see what that'll look like. Your male sculpt in your own polybook is already looking better than my previous attempts at similar sculpts. I'm really having a lot of trouble with the elbows / knees, so many forms and shapes weaving into eachother.
I started the 'Realistic Characters' modeling course. The first assignment is to sculpt three random objects to get comfortable with the sculpting in Blender. I wanted to make a little bonsai tree, gave myself a time limit but I got carried away a little. It's not perfect from all angles yet, but it's already a bit much.The bonsai by itself felt a bit lonely, so I gave the tree a happy little friend. I had the idea to put a little decayed shrine in front of it, so obviously it needed a little tree demon-deity thing as well.
I know the hand is really messy but the hand wasn't even supposed to be the point so I figured this was good enough. Now onto the other two objects
I also finished up the Post-Apocalyptic Car course. I've discovered modeling cars isn't really my favourite so far, but I did really enjoy decorating it with some additional stuff after the course was done.
numbernine I can see me running over zombies in one of these things!
straocastus Don't forget to stick your head out the window while wearing really cool shades. At night, for maximum effect.
