Task 6 - Final 3D Model

Test

Before I created my final piece I looked at all the previous work I had created including my sketches, 3D flats and techniques and thought about what would work and what would not. Having this in mind I set out to create a miniature version of my final project just to get a rough vision of how I would create the final piece, below is the image of the test I created. 

The final piece

The image below is the final piece of work I created for this unit, after looking at my small test project I set straight into creating the finished model and so I shall walk through my steps explaining what techniques I used to get to the finished point.

To start the project I created the bark of the trees as it was the most important step to creating the project, I created the bark by first laying down some masking tape that was ripped into different sized pieces ranging from being long to short and thin to thick. Once this was done I got different colours of acrylic paint and mixed them together to get a brownish colour, making sure it had the right concentration of water to paint ration I set about painting the trees adding little bits of yellow or red to create a shading type effect for the trees.

Next I created the river, the first part was the big river on the bottom sheet. Using acrylic paint, water colour and oil pastel I created different patterns in the water with different shades of blue to create a more realistic aesthetic that makes the river look as though it is flowing and reflective. Then I created a less detailed versions in the background, my aim for them was to look darker as though the trees above them are stopping as much light as possible from reaching the river whilst also maintaining the right amount of detail.

The next step was to created the sky, since the majority of that was going to be covered I used blue water colour to add strokes to it, making sure I used two different blues I created a varied shade in the sky that would reflect what a normal sky would look like.

After this I set out making the dark area that surrounded the trees, due to it being an enchanted forest I felt like using evil creatures spying on the person to be quite a nice idea and so I used a combination of green acrylic paint and black to make sure it looked right.

One of the next major touches included was the Leaves for the top of the trees, thinking through multiple media techniques to use I came to the conclusion that just getting a paintbrush and pressing that down onto the canvas so it spread the brush out created quite a nice and similar looking design to that of leaves on a tree. Also because the paint was acrylic it would leave small gaps between other parts on the canvas that already had acrylic paint applied making it look like you can see through some of the leaves giving off even more of a realistic design. To get the shading for the leaves I also created a darker green and got a sponge dabbing on top of the bright green paint to give it a more 3D look.

To apply the finishing basic touches I painted the ground with green water colour paint, although not visible very well I tried to etch weed type designs into the ground using the opposite end of my paint brush to create a more varied look in the ground instead of it being just plain green.

As for the bottom panel I used the same water colours but instead of being able to etch weed like grass I got a sponge and used red and yellow acrylic paint and dotted small patterns around the area, this allowed me to create a flower type texture on top of the grass. I also added a few sponges to the top back panels to add a bit more of a design into them.

The finishing touch for the grass was to add a bush which presented a more 3D aspect and stopped the bottom panel from being too plain, I created this with green and red water colour to create a berry type bush and then cut out the sheet of paper I painted my design on.

The next few steps involved adding detail to the environment to give it more depth and make it feel more enchanted, the first step was to create a giant mushroom which I made using multiple colours of acrylic paint on a piece of paper, as you can see it combines beige, orange, red and white colours to simulate a real mushroom.

The next step was creating evil eyes that filled the dark areas of the forest, I created these in two different ways. The first was by painting red paint onto a sheet of paper, cutting out the eye design and adding the pupil for the bigger eyes while the smaller eyes were created by just applying red acrylic paint to the canvas and then black paint once it had dried.

The final addition to the project was things such as shading on the trees and mushroom just to add that little bit more detail and give it a final flair. It also made the tress look more 3D and easily identifiable as to which are in the background and which are in the fore front.

Below is the final look of the entire project:

My overall evaluation

I feel like this unit was both a challenging and fun unit to participate in, while it was harder due to my skills being aimed towards more of a digital aspect, I enjoyed it as it allowed me to learn skills within a new area of art. This led to a different look at how to tackle a situation and brought me out of my comfort zone keeping me thinking all the time about what to create and how to go about creating it.

My most favourite part about the unit was the final project as I was really proud of what I produced with first time skills in fine art. I feel like if I was tasked with the project again or a similar project that I could create an even better design and environment with more detail and techniques involved. I was a little disappointed in some of my final project though as I feel like there wasn't enough detail included on certain areas such as the bush, I also had more ideas that I wanted to add to the final project as we progressed through it but due to time constraints and my skills, I was limited as to what I could create and actually pull off.

My least favourite part was the media techniques creation in task 4, this was due to my own skill and creativity when it came down to the designs. While I have picked ups some great techniques I felt like I wasn't being creative enough or thinking clearly when it came to creating the techniques so I limited my skill and production to a small range of resources and techniques. Although a little disappointed with this task I felt like I did create some unique designs and honed in my skills with some techniques that I could definitely try in the future for a project or as a past time.

Overall, I think this unit is very creative and can be useful for developing several skills that a student needs when partaking on a games design course, the first being creativity and the second being very though provocative in how to tackle a task which brings you out of your comfort zone.