Research and analysis : Sergi Brosa

                                           Research and analysis : Sergi Brosa.

Sergi Brosa is a concept artist from Barcelona working mainly as illustrator he is working at the moment on a video game as concept artist. His piece of art are fascinating me through their sense of detail very tiny, thing I enjoy a lot. He mainly uses Photoshop to create his concept art.

SWOT analysis of Alternative Techniques module.

Alternative Techniques module have been, from my point of view the most enjoyable module since the beginning of the year. I really appreciated to approach new software with the freedom of action we had. We had to stick to standard and I chose Zbrush, Adobe After Effects, and Illustrator ( Only fled other Illustrator because I had a lack of time though.). I jumped into Zbrush with pleasure, this is a powerful and very enjoyable soft, however Adobe software are more technical and less intuitive. 

• Strengths : Sculpting is mostly an organic process and that's something I do enjoy a lot, spend time shaping virtual mater is a real pleasure for me. I use my knowledge from biology and anatomy to create faces or body parts. My attention of details always push me to add more and more tiny pieces to a sculpt. After Effects, which is harder to handle is still very appreciable and the possibilities are very wide and various. I use my strength in animation to create a idle loop using separate layers which are a similar technique as photoshop and so I am not completely lost in that soft. 
• Weaknesses : My weakness in Zbrush is the hard surfacing, every time I go out of organic shape, I have trouble, mechanical part is hard to me. After Effects is quiet tricky as well, it is a good software but I have to learn all the shortcuts to improve my speed and my efficiency.
• Opportunities : I could use my digital sculpting to open a channel on youtube and put turntable on it to promote myself to employers. I could add these turntable to artstation, or on Sketchfab. At the moment I found out that I was more and more in fond of modelling, slowly taking the place of concept design. 
• Threats : When I see the level of the others digital sculptors on Sketchfab for example, I feel a bit low compared to them. Actually, I don't feel low about modelling but more about the texturing which is still a blur area of game creation for me.

SWOT analysis of Game Simulation module.

In the Game Simulation module, we had to develop an entire game level from the environment to the game rules and end level conditions. Through the big number of game engine existing, we have been guide to Unreal which is a free and powerful tool and have the good point to possess a huge and helpful community. It is as well a standard from many years now. Epic Game have done a great effort to make it affordable and easier to use. In that module, I've learn how to create a character it's texture and it's animation, import assets and the whole character into Unreal 4 and use the blueprints to create interactions and games rules.

Screen shot of my screen while playing my game project in Unreal engine 4.

• Strengths : My strength in that module is that I am starting to get use to the process of creating a character and model it. Although long, it have been pretty easy to set up all the different assets and animation under the software I'm starting to handle well such as Blender and Photoshop. 
• Weaknesses : My weaknesses are clearly Unreal Engine, I really had trouble to set up the camera and the kind of game, I miss some basics and some programming knowledge to handle the soft properly. 
• Opportunities : I have the opportunity to go deeper into programming and more precisely into Unreal Engine now that I have started it. 
• Threats : I fear Unreal Engine. I actually fear all the technical part even if it's looks like node to be more digest, it's still very technical and that's techniques I don't have. I really need to improve on this point because my classmates managed to handle it but even with the documentations from Epic Game and the insane number of tutorials on the official and unofficial channel it remains difficult for me.

SWOT analysis of Environment design module.

Environment design module have though me how to create a concept design of an environment using a whole panel of techniques such as thumbnails quick design, composition and its rules, and how to proceed to make it clear and readable for the modeller. I learnt how to do a breakthrough of a art piece in game environment design, spotting the rule of third and the line driving the eye to the important point of the picture.

Analysis of a art piece from Riot game ; In purple is the rule of third, in green the guide line and in red the focal points.

SWOT analysis of my module :

•  Strength : I have a clear idea of the environment and the ambiance I want to create and I really appreciate details in a draw or a picture. I am the kind of person to be obsessed in the fact of look every little detail or explore every piece of a map in a game because I love details. 
• Weaknesses : I am not good to represent structure, my strong point is organic shape. Although my idea is clear and I have a complete scene in mind, I struggle to put it on paper because I have trouble with 3D drawing on paper.
• Opportunities : My opportunities here aren't about selling anything, I'm clearly not at the level in environment design. However, I see the opportunity to improve my understanding of space and my knowledge about architecture.
• Threat : The threats I can relate to my weaknesses are to not have the ability to draw environment. I feel like a child drawing a house when I draw something I have in my mind and I'm afraid that it'll stop employers to pick me more than an other.

  

  Side view of the city 

  
  

  

  Top view of the city

  
  

  
  
  

  

  Street view of the city, final piece of the module.

SWOT analysis of Character design module.

This module was about how to Create and develop a character from scratches to a functional and usable model sheet. This module allowed me to dig deeper in the process to create a game character, because we already had a similar module with the same name last year. We got introduce to the concept of model sheet which is a visual and comprehensible "scheme" of the character including expressions, gestures, ...,  and the most important for a 3D character ; front view, side view, and size. In the video game industry, this model sheet will have a reference purpose for the modeller.

Proper character model sheet.

SWOT analysis of my module mark :

• Strengths : My strength about this module is, in my opinion, my ability to imagine a character and a back story giving him a consistence in his world. I feel an technical improvement in my technique compared to the last year module. I use photoshop and a graphic tablet more easily and my knowledge about it have improved as I used it. I also used a set of colour suitable to his universe making him fitting more his universe.
• Weaknesses : A part of my weaknesses is that I have to many ideas and I have troubles to make a decision, this is making me lose time which is an other one of my weaknesses ; I have trouble to manage my time. I am often late on my schedule and struggle at the end of the module to catch up the late. This is making me stupid mistake such as forgetting to allocate a place for a character description as asked in the brief and, per consequent, making me lose percent on my mark.
• Opportunities : I could use my newly acquired skills to design some character and put them on a clothes personalisation web shop like "red bubble T-shirt design". I should design more character using model sheets to build myself experience and post it on my blog or an other social media / platform to have more view and more opportunity to have job request. 
• Threat : My threats are about miss time because of my weaknesses because when I feel that I'm struggling with time, I tend to scamp a bit even although I always try to complete clearly and the cleanest I can my subject and project.

  

  Final piece of the module.

Weekly Reflection : Zbrush youtube lesson.

I found on Youtube a basic tutorial that I used as introduction for Zbrush basics. This is a French tutorial of a 1h30 duration from the ToutApprendre channel  that you can find on that link :

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-050KjlpPzE

That tutorial thought me many thing threw the building of a face :

• I learnt that Zbrush don't use pixels but pixols which are specific to Zbrush canvas. They add depth, orientation and material making them a kind of smart pixels. They are 2D pixels with over information, upgrading them to akin of 2.5D. 

• the Lightbox is a panel referencing a series of default project to use for Zbrush. Its short cut is   " , ".

•    You can personalize your interface by moving the panel. To do it, you simply have to click on the pin symbol on the top left of each panels.

This is an example of the described situation, the red lined area is the white square area. In that area you will be able to change the view.

 

•  When you are too close of an object and you can't zoom out because you don't see the grey zone in the back, you actually still can do it by going in the area out the white square. 

•  To make Zbrush understand that an object is available to be sculpt, you have to convert it in polymesh 3D.

•  We had an example of the dynamesh tool which is a powerful remesher going from stretched and unsculptable polymesh to an equilibrated mesh. Its shortcut is a control + click and drag in  the canvas.

•  Through this tutorial, we also have a introduction to mask under Zbrush. Masks allow you to paint an area on the mesh, that area will now on be unsculptable. It's shortcut is control + click on the mesh. It is possible to invert the mask to lock the sculpting on the outside area, the shortcut is Control + click in the canvas out of the mesh. To deselect the mask, the shortcut is Control + click and drag in the canvas out of the mesh

•  That tutorial also gives me some of the most common shortcuts here they are :

- control + N = New document.
- F = reposition the polymesh on the middle of the frame.
- X = activate the symmetry.


The tutorial is very clear and detailed, he started from a simple sphere to build a complete face. He also explain in his video that anatomy is very important when you want to start sculpting, this will add a lot more of realism in your creation.