End of MP2 Blogpost

 Intention of Definition & Exploration of Ideas:

 

When beginning my project I very much wanted to include the theme of invention and fantasy. I Took a lot of inspiration from the manga Berserk when originally making my project plan especially the armor. I always wanted to model a full set of armor before, but I was stuck between if I wanted to craft something similar to that of berserk or something on my own. Eventually I drifted away from this theme more into the theme of historical pieces and arts and nature. I still wanted to model a set of armor but rather than modeling some mythical renaissance era armor, I decided to model that of a samurai. I have always liked the look of samurai armor so I found that this project would be quite interesting and enjoyable. With that I ended up designing a wave scene to go with the armor when it was finished to incorporate that theme of art and nature. 

Planning: 

My plan was pretty simple. I was going to start with producing the entire scene and move on to different segments of the armor. I would begin with making the ocean, mountains, sun, and tori gate of the ocean scene and then move onto my armor. For this, I very much wanted to craft it on my own but found an incredible tutorial that took me very little time to replicate (linked here). This plan worked quite well and I honestly don't have anything to comment about it. There were only certain things I could have done better per se maybe modeling a better tori gate. I may come back to model it again but I feel as if I had worked on it a bit harder then I wouldn't have to worry about coming back to it. Now for the armor itself, I planned on starting with the head, and torsos and then moving down from there. Specifically, I would model the mask, headband, chest pieces, shoulder piece, waist piece, leg guards, and then shoes for the armor. So far I have only finished a mask due to some problems with my wanting to be independent. I learned that sometimes being independent in a project you want to produce perfectly isn't always the most effective. I set myself back quite a bit because of this and eventually, I ended up using a tutorial and later going freehand. 

Producing:

Overall it may sound like I'm contradicting my last segment but I believe production actually went a bit better than expected. When t comes to my landscape model, I believe I have done a pretty good job. I believe the scene turned out pretty good in the end and I'm pretty proud of it. There were no setback in making it and overall that part of my project went quite well. Making my mask was bit more tedious though. While making it I attempted to use the mirror modifier in all my attempt which looking back to was not the best decision. While using it I never figured out why but the model kept duplicating a smaller version of itself with all vertices slightly inward and other times it would place a cube throughout the entire model that was never originally there. This was quite frustrating due to me never figuring it out, but eventually I just ended up using the mirror option in the top right of sculpting instead which I found was quite easier to use and would not cause my project to completely corrupt itself. This decision ultimately caused me to produce my final one and solved all the problems I had been facing.

Evaluating:

I'd say I am so far producing my project very well. At the start of the year, I wanted to make my samurai armor with a sunset scene and so far that is what I have done. Though I do feel like I have spent a bit too much time on a simple mask for a full-body project. I have finished the project to the length I want to so far, I just feel that I am focusing too hard on simple things when I can come back and revise them later. Otherwise, with the nature scene, I feel like I have properly integrated it into my project as I wanted. I wanted to make a sunset scene with my tori gate and that is what I have done. So besides spending too much time on the mask I'd say that I have so far been reaching my intended goals of the project. 

Integrating:

Moving forward in my project, I definitely feel as if I should work more with techniques I’ve used on the past and what I’ve learned trying to work fully independently. Although working independently is good, it can sometimes lead to problems that at some times need outside help, so moving forward if something gets messed up like my mask, I’ll definitely look online to see if anyone has ever had a similar problem as I did. Also, using tutorial is always fine. Trying to do stuff freehand can be fun and challenging, but when it gets to the point where you’ve been stuck for a week with no idea what you should do to keep moving forward looking for what people did similarly is perfectly fine. So overall I’d say from now on I’m going to be more open with my project production and not be so confined to my own ideas and techniques.