Project 1: Self-Critique

Original Toy:

Model:

The model appears similar to the toy and has the general shape. It possesses similar colour with the toy and a Phong E texture to show its shiny, plastic appearance (The toy's plastic but the actually monster is metallic. Hence, the texture served a dual purpose). Much of the proportions are alright and the shape of the eyes, nose and hole on the head appear circular. Extrusions are properly applied for some of the details.

Some of the model's flaws followed. The arm are symmetrical while the toy's isn't. Though this doesn't really make the model horrid, it still does not follow the original toy. Another immediately noticeably flaw is the size of the model's head, which is large in comparison with the toy. The lower jaw is especially large and unlike the toy, the head is straight. The head is supposed to tilt downwards, hence another flaw. The model itself in standing straight while the toy is hunched. Body details are too small. Also, the legs and body are squarish while the arms are to circular, hence it does not exactly resemble the toy. The body itself and very wide and the head appears squished. The tail appears flattened and barely circular while the toy's tail is circular. The tail's vertexes are also not merged with the main body's and merging is virtually impossible due to different number of vertexes. The second "fin" behind the head does not resemble the toy, instead being concave rather than convex. The teeth are also flat, unlike the thick teeth of the model. The model is also missing the tongue, although the mouth it still coloured pink to resemble the tongue.

The final model resembles much of my initial conception. I somehow knew that it will appear cubic rather than circular for some of the limbs, most notably the legs. I also conceived the head to appear flat from the front but it will greatly exaggerated in the model, hence I had to stretch it out to appear large. Overall, despite the many flaws of the model, I am satisfied with the model.

Project 1: Research

I've searched and read quite a number of tutorials on how to do models of dinosaurs and claws, since Aron himself appears like a dinosaur. Thus far, most of my research shows similar ways on how to make sharp edges of dinosaur-like models with ease and it isn't entirely new to me: Vertex and extrusion.

Modifying vertex little by little along with multitudes of extrusions seem to help achieve shapes which may appear intimidating to make at first, despite its simplicity and tedium. Taking my time to modify the vertex for the detail and extruding to move on to another limb may yield good results. Extrusion especially helps when dealing with a cube since quad faces needed to be maintain. Regardless, however, once I make the pointed edge of the claw, the faces around it will be triangles when I merge the vertexes together.

This may apply to Aron's horns. Initially, I wanted to make a separate model for it, using the primitive cone. This may seem simpler but I will have to merge the vertexes of the two models later, adding to tedium. Then, I switched to using a circle and a curve for it to extrude on but once again, it will produce a separate model. Hence, I have to add in more edges to the main body using the edge loop tool and pull out the vertexes little by little from the main body, making a horn.

Regardless, some of the "failed" techniques is still useful in other areas, most notably the tail. The tail lays on the ground and bends to Aron's right, losing any possibility for making symmetry for it unless I use a method which allows it to bend, which I was unable to find. Merely extruding the tail from half of the main body will not yield the intended result, unlike the horns or claws, which has symmetry.

Hence, for the tail, I will use an extrusion along a curve, using a circular drawing or a cube. Scale shall be set to 0 to make a pointed, a method I initially planned for the horns.

Another method which I researched on is to simply make a large plane polygon and place a texture on it, showing an image of your intended model. It can then serve as a guide and multiple images can be used for the different views. Some videos show that this can greatly help in making virtually any model, even the ones that may appear complicated such as a dinosaur shaped model. Along with extrusion and vertex modifying, I won't have to rely on imagination or assumptions anymore.

Project 1: Design

This is the plan I had before going about with making the model. Most, if not all, of the models will start out as a cube and will undergo many extrusions or vertex modifications to make up Aron's shape. Cube was chosen because I want to maintain quad faces rather than triangular ones, although I may have to make triangular faces when dealing with sharp points such as the horns. Even the curvy parts, such as the paw and the legs, will start out as a cube. I may, or may not, use beveling but I will use a lot of smoothing so that rounded areas will appear rounded instead of jagged.