Week 10/31/2021

                            Introduction

I've been interested in the Vtuber community for a long time. I'll be honest 3D Vtubing was not my idea first. At first, I really wanted to do 2D Vtubing and have a really cute character that did not look CGI or did look more resemble of an anime character. After looking through and seeing the prices of the artists on Twitter my wallet wanted to cry and I realized that 2D Vtubing was just going to have to wait till I had enough money.

Inspiration

The artists that I really like the artists in the 2D Vtuber community are Eruichu and Akairosu! I love their art style for their commissions they look very well done and polished. I love that they both do the rigging for their own artwork too. Their characters are very much so digital and flat yet they also seem like they can jump off the screens of our monitors. Although I would not be doing the art and rigging for a 2D Vtuber myself, it is still my preferred look when it comes to whether wanting a 2D vtuber or 3D. I want to make my 3D vtuber as close to 2D looking as possible. Using these two would be a great example of what kind of idea/image I want my final product to be.

of too flat

Example of  too much

Example too flat

Brainstorming

Although I am not doing 2D art for the models, I can try to recreate the feeling of 2D in a 3D concept with textures. I feel as if I need to make my textures more smooth as if it would be like for a digital drawing. Rather be a flat color like a 3D model. I feel like for some 3D character models the characters look either too 3D so you can clearly tell it is 3D compared to its background or it looks too flat to where the 2D looks more refined and developed than the 3D so you can have an obvious difference too.

Experimental

seen. 

Process

I have started making my model, but I am still currently in the modeling phase of making the actual base. I am planning on making the UV textures off on my own time so I can continuously figure out what style/shading I want my character to have.

Reflection

I am ready to start on my progress of working on the textures of the clothes and making the character base. I can't wait to study and see how the artists make their art and have them through their Twitter and youtube links.

Work Log:

Monday: Watching the last few videos on Vtubing and watching someone's time-lapse of making a vtuber female.

Tuesday: Asked my friend and I to work on a character base and made an interest board of everything I want my character to look like.

Wednesday: My new mouse finally arrive last night so I started working right away, I have made my character base torse, and legs.

Thursday: Fined the torse a bit, trying to figure out how to make the chest area without messing up my polygons.

Friday: Attempted on making the chest area, hated it, reloaded a saved file, and tried to get Adobe Creative cloud working again but I needed an update, but I couldn't update due to no admin password nor username.

Week 10/24/21

                            Introduction

I wish to study the program Miku Miku Dance (MMD) and its community. It's a community of animators and 3D artists that use Blender and make model parts then just mush it onto the model to make it part of the model; rather than doing the process of rigging. and creating textures.

Inspration

I'm on the internet a lot and on my Tiktok FYP it would have Genshin Impact character models dancing to some Japanese songs or just have them in animations which I wondered how. I wondered if people would go into Blender and animate the model dancing. I dove deeper to find out the program MMD. Kimagure and MagicalPouchOfMagic. Kimagure because they would post WIP of every little project they would work on and Magical because the whole video of Doki Doki Forever was one of the smoothest MMD videos I've ever seen. 

Brainstorming

Although I am not animating anything as of now( I want to see if I can finish this Vtuber before the end of the year) I love seeing character animations move super smoothly like this video by MagicalPouchOfMagic. I also love the use of lighting and character texturing that went into this project. It looks like something that took a long time to make.

Experimental

Although I have not started my process, I have watched multiple videos now on how to properly weight paint a part of bones so my physics for my hair and character will not be flying everywhere. I have also watched someone make hair so I do not have to make a bone for each individual strand of hair which can help me in the progress of making my character move.

Process

Have not started the process.

Reflection

Have not started the process. 

Work Log:
Monday 10/18/21; I watched half of the Rigging tutorial by Mako Ray. Learned about the importance of Weight Painting and how it affects each bone in the body.

Tuesday 10/19/21: Watch the rest of the rigging tutorial and understand different ways to make sure I DO NOT do the same mistakes Mako pointed out in his tutorial.

Wednesday 10/19/21: Imported Hu Tao's character model from Genshin Impact into Blender to see how the meshes were made and put together.

Thursday 10/20/21: Watched half of the final video of Mako's tutorial on a vtuber while putting together a character color palette for brush painting and base coloring.

Friday 10/21/21: Finish the 5.5 part series of Mako's Vtuber in Blender tutorial and watched a few other suggested videos that he said we should watch to get a better grasp. 

Week 10/17/2021

Introduction

This week I watched videos from this Vtuber called "Mako Ray". They make videos to give out great advice for people who already knew how to use Blender or just starting out. I decided that I wanted to make a character similar to the ones from the popular game called, "Genshin Impact." The game "Genshin Impact is an RPG fantasy world filled with lore and gorgeous aesthetics and characters.

Inspiration

Mihoyo's characters are taking Twitter by storm. He has worked on multiple games such as "Honkai Impact, Gun Girls Z, and Tears of Themis."  Two out of the 3 have 3D models in an animated-like form rather than realistic. Their characters are super cute and it truly looks like hard work for each individual character rather than a copy and paste.

Brainstorming

I do not have the artistic ability like a group of artists, but I can take inspiration to how to model the characters. Mihoyo actually releases his characters out to the public for his fandom to mess around with. If I ever want to figure out how he model's one thing I can always load up the model or see it on sketchfab to figure out what I must do to make it look the way I wanted it to.

Genshin Impact: Scaramouche by Alqueit on Sketchfab

Experimental

I have not yet started my character modeling process mostly due to the fact I want to finish watched Mako Ray's tutorials first then going through and rewatching it alongside me working on the model. He also suggested this for first-time makers.

Process

Have not started the process, but I can already tell that rigging and hair psychics are going to be the death of me.

Reflection

Have not started the process. Do not have a reflection yet.

Text and Image

We see text and images every day now, unlike before where art was not normally known to have words or photographs.  It is everywhere and it was used to convey feelings and ideas that might not have been talked about normally. Like Banksy, he is an internationally known street artist mostly known for his spray paints and is a mysterious man.    He uses text and images in his art mostly used as quotes or to make his spray paint have some sort of meaning or message behind the art. One of my favorite pieces of art from Banksy is "Laugh Now". I did laugh at this art and if you look even at a surface level you can see how Banksy is tellings us, the people laughing at the monkey, to be more humble because anything can change at any time. 

What have you learned about Text & Image?

I've learned that text and images help the audience to understand what the artist wants to tell easier. Though the saying goes "A picture worth a thousand words," but sometimes words are easier to understand. Text and images also tell taboo messages that not many people would have discussed publically at the time. 

How do contemporary artists use the concept of Text & Image in their artwork?

Banksy uses his art to tell his viewers social and political issues with the world. His art would make people stop and think when they pass by them on the streets. His simple one-word or sentence would help us ponder and think about how our world around us is working. Sometimes the text on the art is more than just words on a wall. It was always a part of the art, but now you can actually see it being a part and understand how the words being washed away means that everything we might do in life affects other people, but even if it isn't remembered forever we can still do our part.

How might you be able to use Text and Image in your own art?

There is not much I can use for Text and Image for modeling a character. But I have a singular idea right now is items that my character can wear. Graphic tees have words that can be a part of the art and that can be on my character to have subtle hints or my own personal beliefs.

Is there something that you found in your investigation that specifically interested or inspired you?

I will be honest, I didn't have much that would inspire me with my project, but this has defiantly opened my creative window to somehow add words to my art. I now take a great interest in street art. I loved it before, but now for example last Sunday I was in New York I actively look for street art to understand and enjoy. I don't think street art should be illegal, but at the same time, it's not okay to work on someone else's property. I enjoy street art more than I like to admit.