Details and Finessing of Vaiva's Model

Monday onwards, I was defining the character to its details. I have added amber chest, interior of the mouth, chicken feather part of the dress.

I have resolved body parts which needed great detail: chicken like feets, hair and face. 

In Mudbox I've created high rez meshes and imported those back to maya to extract normal maps.

Not without a reason many sculptors noted that essential mesh doesn't take too Long to build up, but the fine detail takes 10 times longer.But modelling, I believe is now finished and I'll  work now on texturing (!)

My First Fashion Shoot in i-D Magazine’s Style: Doppel Identities

The inspiration for aesthetics came from magazine i-D, analysis of which was delivered here. The theme for fashion shoot  I chose was double identities. Or if in more particular, the glamour identity pulled over. The beauty and the fake of it. The manikin qualities overwrighting  organity.   

 

 

 

 

 I was responsible for art direction, photographing and postproduction . The mask is also made from before.

One soft light and white colorama was mainly used . Images were aestheticaly postproduced for atmospherical and mood change. 

It was an amazing experience to be a hptographer to find the aesthetics, find the  model, the props etc. By the end of the shoot I was really exhausted to my surprise.

Old Man's Mood Studies

The life drawing gets entertaining. We are asked to use different mediums and expressive techniques to convey an emotion , a state or mood. This time it was narcoleptic, melancholic, sneaky and pompous.

CAPS: Research for Fashion Photoshoot: i-D

 The Magazine:

i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art, youth culture and

 different issues around the central theme of identity. i-D was founded by

designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. Over the years the

magazine evolved into a mature glossy but it has kept street style and youth

central to every issue.

 

Tipped on its side, the "i-D" typographic logo reveals a winking smiley. Most issues of i-D magazine have featured a winking cover model.

The magazine is known for its innovative photography and typography, and over the years established a reputation as a training ground for fresh talent. The magazine pioneered the hybrid style of documentary/ fashion photography called ‘The Straight Up’. At first, these were of punks and New Wave youth found on English streets and who were simply asked to stand against any nearby blank wall. The resulting pictures—the subjects facing the camera and seen from "top to toe"—are a vivid historical documentary photography archive, and have established the posed "straight up" as a valid style of documentary picture-making.

 

Photographers :

• Nick Knight,
• Wolfgang Tillmans,
• Juergen Teller,
• Terry Richardson,
• Ellen von Unwerth,
• Kayt Jones 

Analysis for Preperation:

The issues have developed but retained 'core mantra' : 'Originate, don't imitate'

Essentially it seems that there is a dominant light from one side and slightly from above, which is modeling the shadows. For shadows are gradient and soft, it must've been soft box light or beauty dish.  Also, face is lit the brightest, perhaps using white or golden reflectors.

The background is not overcomplicated, and grey or white colorama is used. Some pictures use ‘screen’ or postproduction techniques to partly obscure the image. Most of the times, models are dressed in bold clothing,often limited to black and white pallet. 

It can be noticed that the image is complimented with lots of geometrical shapes to tie the image together (For example a reflection of the mode on the wall, which reaches to the end of frame) and direct the eye of the viewer towards model’s face ( hand towards the face, décolleté as a frame for the face).

To keep the photo-shoot guided, I have gathered some pose references for the model from i-D magazine history images. 

 The pose references and Example images of i-D issue work as moodboards for the fashion shoot

To end the analysis, it seems that i-D’s shooting style and approach resembles that of Brassai’s : full of soft gradient light, tonal values. I’D’s photography quite often goes with desaturated or almost desaturated imagery.

 

  And one particular image of Edward Steichen:

CAPS: Product Shooting for Toys Brochure

Given the task to prepare several images for Toy company’s brochure had set particular challenges. It has to be visually engaging and appealing, and fit within commercial shooting standards.

 

To reach this , experimenting with product’s placement, lighting and techniques of postproduction was put into practice.

Lighting and placement:

For clean aesthetics and focused directing white colorama was chosen for the shoot. This has lead to a very ‘light’ , unencumbered images.

Placement of the product was put into a careful consideration for if the product was placed incorrectly, it  caused some  visual information loss. For example bear-toy and colorama had closely same tone and chroma values , therefore bear almost disappeared in images.

Donkey-toy was  to be used for contrasting.

 Another example was tricycle’s lamp: when facing studio lights directly they would bleach out any texture of the tricycles light bulb.

When Light angles and composition was set , this was the outcome:

For Lighting there was two lights used with one white reflector for softening of the shadows .

Postproduction:

Having reached 90% of the quality during the shoot, postproduction asked for minor tweaking of exposure, shadow intensity and colour tints. Some images benefited from slight increase of sharpness, clarity or noise values, for emphasizing fur on stuffed toy’s.

And the rest of images :

Vaivas Body Modeling Progress

It is nearly done and ready to be UVd and taken to Mudbox for fine details.

These stills are little bit dated, as I have talked to Alan and done some tweaks to her crown, face and general topology.

Nudes of March

This time the session was particularly interesting for we were asked to interpret an emotional state in different visual languages. So cool! there's an indication to what was the feeling on the corner of every image. Also, some 2min. poses at the end of the page.

Sketching out Vaiva's Body Model

Progress in modelling Vaiva's body. So far it is only a sketchy map out, with only hands being modelled to the fine detail.
This is helping me now to see how 2d designs translate in 3d. I see which areas need to be more punchy.

Detailed modelling is on its way.

Vaiva's Head Model Turnaround

Vaiva’s head model  consists of head mesh, hair and the crown.

There are hints of chicken-like anatomy in her facial features: elongated sharp nose, round big eyes. Also royal grace is another intention: long thin neck, small chin in an overall thin face, but at the same time her face doesn’t lack volume in cheekbones or the hair for contrast. With some of the asymmetry in her model it is aiming to break from the “tidy’ harmony, for the character is of a twisted kind.

With Mudbox there are options to pose the character using essential tools of painting selection for moving and then using move tool. Quite simple and quick results. When the model is in the correct pose, sculpting the asymmetrical details can take place. 

'Laumikas' Model

Time's come for production. This is the model of 'Laumikas' a bag of straw out of which a dwarf-child grows.

Original Concept was :

Pixie's Silhouette Test and Colour Pallete Indication

This is the  tidying up of the concept stage: indication of 'The Baltic Pixie' colour palette and the shape reading sheets. It is simply a more formal presentation images I haven't included before.

The palette of 'The Baltic Pixie' is essentially based on complimentary colour system: the character is predominantly green and the background is a complimetary to it,  violet/purple. All other colours of the wheel are also used, but in lesser proportions to make make the workings of complimentary colours more sophisticated ( otherwise the relationship would not have the  'gusto' to it).

I've said that expression sheets are next to come, but after some though I've decided to film the reference material beforhand creating the sheets. In this way I'll avoid generic results.

Storyboard Script, Adjusted Animatic and 'Laumikas' Concept

Tidying all the loose knots: storyboard script for my own convenience when further going to animating. Also it shows the planning of screen time, concerning the variety of shot structure.

I have revisited the animatic and added more panels for better flow and clarity. Shouldn't have changed that much in its essence

Lastly, in the animatic we see three other objects: the moon, the rainbow and the

'Laumikas, a sack of straws out of which a dwarf child grows!'

Blueprints for Vaiva's Character

The turnarounds of Vaiva show  her construction on couple of levels: her body and dressing. Particularly challenging was the side view of the body, side of head and skirt for it is the profile view which uncovers the ambiguity of shapes in her design: the welcoming round shapes triangulating eventually to suggest her more feisty nature.( front view looks much more piecefull , but the side one sharp and wildly dynamic for example)

Her head drawings is a particularly subtle part, which’s characteristics can be hardly captured on blueprints and work instead as brute guidelines.

Another little upload I wanted to draw attention to was the title design for The Baltic Pixie, which I’ve created from scratch. It is supposed to mimic the feeling of a relatively primitive style of Baltic art.

Next in line , I'd say , are her expression and pose  sheets