Thumbnail Exercise Cont. / On Style

As I mentioned previously, I wanted to take (what I felt was) my strongest environment thumbnail, and block it out quickly in Maya. After this, I would begin the process of lighting the scene in the most interesting and effective way. I'm still messing around with lighting, but I did block out the scene. Tomorrow I'll be testing different camera angles and lighting.

Quick thumbnail block-out for lighting tests. 

While reflecting on the 2D designs I'd been working on so far for the project, I became aware of the lack of stylised presence. The main point in the project is the development of stylised artwork and the effective translation into 3D. 

So I spent a lot of time looking at 2D artists who are really known for their distinctive style. I wanted to find inspiration in 2D work which wouldn't typically fall into the realm of concept art for 3D modelling, and really bring the stylised aspect straight back into the forefront of the pipeline. 

Rob Laro is an artist who I've admired for quite some time. Laro's illustrative style is very strong and recognisable - as you can see here. 

He is also a prominent 3D artist and some of his techniques are loosely explained throughout his blog. I also managed to find a time-lapse recording of him sculpting one of his 2D (stylised) characters in ZBrush. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5hSHllFfG0 

 I think I'm going to alter my PDP having seen this. I know I said I wouldn't, and that the intention would be to model in Maya, but I can't hold off the urge to attempt some awesome sculpts any longer. 

So my next step will be attempting to sculpt my character in ZBrush!

Also, because I didn't think my original concept art was stylised enough, i decided to do some more sketches of my adult character with bolder lines. You can ignore the top-left corner, that section was more an ease-into the style practice beforehand. Hopefully the Laro inspiration is strong with this one. 

Thanks,