3D Toolkit: Evaluation

3D Toolkit Evaluation

3D Toolkit has been the project I have struggled the most with over the course of the year: though I have been consistently challenged by all projects I have worked on, 3D Toolkit has been the one that has pushed me the most. This is in no small part due to the nature of the course. Learning ZBrush, a software I came into the year without any experience with, has been a definite challenge and learning it from scratch was incredibly difficult, especially considering that the skills and techniques of 3D sculpting are completely different to anything I have done before. As such, I feel like there was a sharp learning curve when practising ZBrush, and feel that the final outcome of my sculpting project is the most lacklustre of those I have completed this year. Nevertheless, I feel that time management was an area of strength in this project, as the sheer amount and variety of work I had to do for the final piece - sculpting, retopology, rigging etc - seemed initially insurmountable. This perception was also due to the fact that 3D modelling, generally, is not my strong suit at all. I was pleased with the amount of work I got done for the final project in the time span I had, though I feel that the quality of my model got swamped out somewhere in the retopology stage. 

Though I was relatively pleased with the final sculpt and think the textures look nice, the retopology of my final piece definitely lowered the quality of it drastically. This is due to my unfamiliarity with the process: even though I tried to expedite it through separating the mesh, the quads are somewhat uneven in areas, and this has negatively impacted my ability to texture and rig the model. I had also never modelled or sculpted a full human before: translating a character design into 3D was incredibly difficult, though I am generally pleased with how the 2D art's design translated into the 3D model. 

As I had not modelled a human before, there were many aspects of human anatomy that I struggled with greatly. This included the face, eyes and hands, which I feel all suffered in terms of quality in the sculpt and retopology. This is down to another weak point I have with the software and with 3D workflows as a whole: that prior mistakes and inaccuracies can drastically negatively impact processes further down the pipeline. 

This is not an issue with any 3D software I used and is wholly a detriment of my skill level: I found consistently that mistakes I made in earlier stages, sometimes without even knowing, negatively impacted future processes. Examples of this include the fingers in the hand merging, the retopology of the eye, meaning that I could not texture it with detail, and the retopology of the face affecting how normal maps pinched imperfections in a strong and unsightly manner. Though some of these were able to be worked around, I found this continuous string of minor inconveniences annoying. Though I am certain I learned from this project, 3d sculpting is not - and is not likely to become - an aspect of game art I work consistently within. However, I feel I have a better understanding of the 3D pipeline as a whole and believe this will impact my 2D design here on out: if I ever do design a character for 3D sculpting, I will use what I have learnt in this project to ensure that translation into 3D is relatively straightforward. Additionally, I have a better understanding of retopology, rigging and weight painting, which were aspects of the 3D pipeline I had no experience with prior to this project. 

I believe I was much more successful in creating the sculpt for my alien character, though I am not entirely sure why this is. When working on the final project I had more experience and a wider knowledge of the tools at my disposal: perhaps I feel the weakness in the second model was due to its potentially more complex design resulting in more apparent imperfections, or maybe due to my unfamiliarity with sculpting human features, again making imperfections more visible. As such, I consider my alien model to be the best and most polished piece of work I completed throughout the year. Whether or not this perception would change with retopology and normal baking remains to be seen: my experience and understanding of such processes are slim, after all, and I am much happier with my 3D sculpt of my final character than the finished and retopologised varient.