Low Poly Modelling - Explained!

Good news everyone, 

we've been assigned mentors for our projects and I've refined my idea some. 

I've updated my PDP slightly since last time as I hadn't drawn enough attention to the concept art side of the project. 

Core Discipline: Character Concept art and Modelling for Games. 

Area of Enquiry:  Remains the same.

Agreed Action points:

General:
Remains the same.

Design and a contextual relation.

Experimenting with pose and proportion. (Traditional/digital sketchbook)

Design methodologies to enhance model topology and quality. 

Designing through 3D – Emphasis on topology budget. More interest in designing in low poly opposed to high poly sculpts > low poly. 

Agreed Deliverables:

Appropriate Visual Development (in the form of traditional/digital sketchbooks) for the creation of 3D character assets for both low poly and any high poly models.

Digital sketchbook should include the understanding and exploring of necessary topology. 

All Maya files for 3D models created and their corresponding texturing, mapping and rendering images. 

Blog in the form of a .PDF

Transcript with personal mentors in the form of .PDF.

Mentors.

So this is very cool. For this module we are assigned mentors from industry, who we should remain in regular contact with. It's quite awesome. 

The mentors are relevant to the area you chose, and the mentors I've been assigned are fantastic. 

To cover the concept art and modelling side of things I have been assigned Alex Ronald - a brilliant artist who has worked in many areas across the entertainment industry. From Comics to Crackdown, his career so far is fascinating at a glance, and so I'm very much looking forward to meeting him. 

Mike Cummings is my other Mentor. He won Dare the year I started my undergraduate back in 2009 with "Shrunk". Since then Mike has worked at Travellers' Tales as a technical animator. As a kid, and even now, I was a huge TT fan. Puggsy was one of the first games I ever player - and played it I did. A LOT. Sonic R and Sonic 3D also provided many a fond memory. Nostalgia aside, it'll be incredible having a professional , from a company whom are such a huge inspiration to me personally, to help me out with my work. 

Pose and Proportion. 

Today I decided to create a character sheet for what could potentially be my first 3D models of the project. I've created a lot of 2D designs so far and they've been a great help for developing my skill, but this is the first one which I believe can serve my 3D practice well. 

I was thinking this morning about the 3D modelling of a character as a child, and then also as an adult. Typically, peoples personalities and physical appearances tend to change with age. So I thought it would be a great idea to establish one strong character profile, but at different stages in his life, and then move onto the topological and animation considerations.

As you can see in the development sheet below, I've also included some simple vehicle designs. I find that including things like vehicle designs and environment sketches helps me find context in my process. Hopefully I'll have time to do some quick models for these vehicles as props for my final models. 

Considering how a character changes with age. (Click for High-Res)