Reflecting on Progress
Adam Hattrell
2010/12/31 15:59

Table of Contents
Reflecting on Progress 	 # 
First image 	 # 
Mirror image 	 # 
Join the club 	 # 
First competition 	 # 
First time placing 	 # 
Stone Rose 	 # 
Erotic Desire? 	 # 
A real success 	 # 
Finally first place 	 # 
Into 2011 	 # 

Reflecting on Progress
I’ve been reflecting on the progress I’ve made over the last 2 years of 3D art.  I first started playing with 3D art via the Daz Studio software package back in February 2009.
ZephReflecting on ProgressFirst image
Mirror image
Join the club
First competition
First time placing
Stone Rose
Erotic Desire?
A real success
Finally first place
Into 2011

First image
This was the first image I created.  Whilst I cringe now looking at it, I learnt a lot.  Mostly I learnt that adding to many lights and characters would slow down my old laptop to a crawl!

Mirror image
 This was the second image I worked on during March.  The idea was to have the mirror showing a different reality to the foreground.  I learnt how to adjust material properties to create a mirrored surface.  I then rendered the scene twice, and then used Paint.net to composite the images together (which in itself was a learning experience).  Whilst I’d relight the scene now, I’m still fairly happy with the outcome.

Join the club
I played with a number of images, but it in July that there was a significant change.  I joined the Dreamlight club.  A large chunk of my progress has come my membership.  The benefit of tutorials, a community of others learning and regular competition with feedback is very valuable.  The image on the left was my first attempt at the scene, the one on the right is the result of applying lessons from a club lighting tutorial and feedback.

First competition
  The monthly competition format is good because it takes you out of your comfort zone.  With a theme of Car Chase, I realised that I didn’t want to take the title too literally.  I didn’t feel able to compete in picture quality, so instead I focused on the story.  As it turns out, that seems to be the key part in making a good image.  I was playing here with apply after effects (using Paint.net).  Also this was the first time I’d come across the “Rule of Thirds”, so you’ll see the characters placed specifically to draw a diagonal one way, with the road (roughly) following the diagonal of the other.

First time placing
 Kind of at least.  September 2009 was the Dreamlight Club’s second anniversary, and they placed some 12 pictures.  I came 7th, so this picture felt like a milestone.  This was also the picture where I realised that you don’t necessarily need to show everything.  Originally this image was composed with a lab, and some separation between the girl and the pig.  Later I realised that the key point is the relationship between the two.  So I focused in and concentrated on her expression.

Stone Rose
 Not really sure what the inspiration was here but I learnt a lot whilst blending the two surfaces together.

Erotic Desire?
 This probably needs the most explanation!  The competition title was Erotic Desire and over the month I’d seen a lot of cheesecake type images uploaded.  You know the sort, pretty face, short skirt, soft lighting.  My image ticks all of those boxes, but hopefully in a slightly more subversive way!  Even though I didn’t place, I made a lot of people laugh - so consider that victory.

A real success
  June 2010 was the first time I really placed (4th I think) in the monthly competition.  I spent a lot of time trying to get the whales skin look slick - still not totally satisfied, but I have learnt that you do eventually have to let go!  There are lots of little touches that I was proud of here.  For example, placing spot lights before the characters eyes to get the white dot, that we take for granted in real life.

Finally first place
  November 2010 I finally managed to get a first place image.  I can attribute part of this success to Reality a new rendering tool that allows me to get more realistic lighting for scenes.  The theme was “Speed” so the Hare and the Tortoise tale slipped into my head.  That paired with the Mad Hatter’s costume meant it all fell into place.  Interestingly I find many of my better images now days are the ones that come together quickly.  

Into 2011
Hopefully I’ll continue to improve in the same way over the next year.  I hope to develop my skills with Photoshop (Christmas present from my Mum) hopefully leading to even better results.  I’ll leave off here with one final image of a face close up that I was very pleased with.