3D Modelling and Wood Work

Below is pictures of the art that I did through my last year of college. In my last year I decided to branch out and express myself in different types of art instead of art that I have already explored. When it comes to games design I don't just want to be able to draw and make the game, I feel like I want explore more ideas on how to make a game come to life, adapting different styles of art to give a game that I  might design in the future a new way to think about how the industry can evolve. 

The first project was to create a model that is connected with the term Metamorphosis. The idea I had was taken from a video game. one of the main characters bases himself off of what properties a scorpion has for example the scorpion tail and attacking style, the story would be that the character dies and reincarnates as a larger than normal scorpion. This is brainstorming ideas for the upcoming project in my sketchbook.

Now with the ideas in place I started to draw some ideas of what I want each stage to look like when it came to the creating process of the project, 

 From the start I wanted to adapt some link to games design into the project so I drew out a story board to help the viewer whoever it may be understand the story behind the three stages of the model.

The snapshot of the story that I wanted to create for the model was the three stages of the character morphing into its new form, starting from just bones that are buried under sand.

Then slowly gaining the flesh that will shape the scorpion for his final form, he starts gaining extra additions to the body like the pincers on the front and also the stinger that seems to start magnetically pulling together, below you can see this stage in a picture. 

This is where the final form takes place, all the parts of the scorpion come together. The stance that I choose for the scorpion to have is an aggressive pose, almost like he is about to pounce onto his prey. using the sand to my advantage, I wanted to make it more realistic and give it the feel that he blends in with his surrounds, this gives off the impression that this is one of his offence techniques so I gave the scorpion sand on his back to make it look like he has just risen out of the ground stealthily. 

Where I started with the metamorphosis story is quite a weird one because I almost worked in a reversed structure of story planning, to start off I wanted to continue with a theme that I have been working a lot with over this past year and that is “Natural History” taking things from the world which may be decayed or primeval and creating fine art pieces. 

Now with the word metamorphosis this means a complete opposite to decay but when coming up with the final idea, I thought of the process as “death in reverse” and that is the reason why I did this project in a reversed structure starting from the model of the fully formed scorpion and working its way down the models to the core routes of what the scorpion will be.

Linking the project to games design was at first quite daunting but after brainstorming those first initial Ideas I was sure on my way to producing a more than satisfactory project story and final piece, the story was quite a unique one for me because I took a character that is already well known in the gaming world and added a new spin to it, at moments I thought that story didn't seem like it was going to be successful but after fine tuning and “filing off the edges” I started to see my passion for games design shine through along with the story. 

 Going onto my Final Major Project now, this project was based on war and different kinds of war there are, The project beginning was fuelled by the Leeds Royal Armouries trip that we were taken on to get visual research through pictures, this was done before we started writing our statement of intent. When at the museum I was able to come up with many ideas by seeing other pieces of art that had to do with war, from olden times and Vikings to modern wars that are happening today, there was many themes and ideas that I had but in the end I was able to sieve ideas to one final idea.
This is the final piece below, also the design stages of what swords I was thinking of using are down below as well taken from my sketchbook.

My idea basically consisted of a memorial piece that showed off the different factions that can be involved in war, I went with an older themed timeline for my idea because I liked the possibility of creating swords in 3D modelling, the older timeline seemed to fit the style of art that I was trying to create through wood.

 The several sword types fitted different factions, these factions were linked to a certain class of living through the design and atheistic features of the swords, for example the broad sword that is at the centre of the design is best suited to wealthy soldiers whereas the daggers seem to take on a more poor/peasant role. The story telling aesthetics varied from colour of the design to the aspects of used and damaged parts of the swords. All swords were varied in materials, colour and design but still came together by sharing similar techniques and the effect of a dark oaky finish.

For both of the projects above I do have Sketchbooks that show the design, research and making process for the early stages of the projects, these are available if I have any interviews for university places, I will be bringing these sketchbooks for the interviewers to get a more in depth look into my passion for art.