Week 0
Since our class finished work early we were allowed to start working on the FMP as soon as we wanted, so I started doing the ‘Context’ section in the WIX website builder. I managed to complete that whole section and started on the ‘Research’ section.
Week 1
When we started working on the FMP our tutor said we were only allowed to use WIX and not HTML and make our own site however this week she said that UAL gave permission to use HTML as our website. Most of this week was spent porting over my work over from WIX to HTML and making a good CSS and designing the website around the style I wanted my 3D model to be. Workwise I continued with the ‘Research’ section via responding to my questionnaire responses, the ‘Problem solving’ section with the contingency plan and the ‘Planning production’ section with the GANTT chart.
Week 2
This week I started working on the concept art for my weapon. Despite this being a “concept art” I think the model will look pretty different from this art I’m making as I'm bad at drawing and I can’t easily draw what I fully envision. I want the grips to look semi-transparent with the accent stuff being non-transparent and I don’t want this to have jagged edges.
Week 3
I finished designing my 3D model on photoshop by doing the side profile. This was easy as all I needed to do was line up the front facing drawing with lines and think how it would be on its side. In my opinion, this is pretty good for my standards as I don’t really make that much high quality designs. This week I also started on the 3D model by just setting up the reference art in blender and spawned a cube. I’m hoping to continue making the blade next week and possibly the grip, only time will tell.
Week 4
I worked on the 3D model and almost finished the green side of the scissors. This project is going quicker than I thought it would go even with a few setbacks, for example near the end of this week I needed to stop working on the project as someone close to me got a bad infection and I wanted to care for them. Other than that the project is going smoothly.
Week 5
Finished the base model on the green side of the scissors complete with the 3 accent ovals on the side. The model was surprisingly easy to make by using extrudes to form the shape and bevels to form a more rounded shape and the 3 oval accents are just subdivided and warped cubes. I started working on the blue side and so far it looks okay, but not exactly what I want. I’ll see how this model will go after Easter break.
Easter Week 1
Nothing
Easter Week 2
Nothing
Week 6
After 2 weeks of break I got right back to modelling the blue side and it didn’t go as planned. I made the model just like how I made the green side however an error occurred and now the method didn’t work how I invisoned. The extruding somehow went slightly wonky and beveling didn’t cut in the same way as it did before so I spent some time thinking about how I can do something similar without using bevels.
Week 7
I started the week by remaking the blue side of the scissors as I said last week. I didn't like how it looked, so instead of using bevels I manually resized and moved the points to where I wanted them to go. Personally I think despite not using the tools given, it looks better like this than how it was with bevels.
After making the base model I then added the accent block at the top using the same method as I did with the green side, an easy process. Next week I will teach myself how to UV unwrap and maybe even start the texturing process.
Week 8
The week started with me watching a video on how to UV unwrap anything and learnt how to create textures easily. Surprisingly I thought it would’ve been harder to do but it was really easy to do, there was a part that the video didn’t explain was how to properly apply the texture to the model so I had to figure that out on my own. Making the textures are simple too, with my experience in photoshop made this infinitely easier to make.
Week 9
I decided to not use custom textures for this project and switched to using the in-built shader tool for blender after realizing it takes a long time to make a detailed texture while the in-built shader tool is way easier and simpler to make.
Starting with the grips, I made it slightly transparent just like the original reference image however due to a bug with making the texture I decided to make both grips identical instead of separate colours. Despite that, I think it looks alright and not that different from what I originally wanted. The accents were really easy too as they were just solid colours, nothing crazy here.
The blades were simple too with slight deviation from the original reference like how the blade’s cutting edge being the same colour as the rest of the body.
The project feels like it’s at the very final stages now, there’s only so little I need to do now and I can definitely finish within either a week or 2.
Week 10
Finished the render and uploaded the project to sketchfab. Everything is done.
Evaluation
To start my evaluation I made a form with a photo of the render and the concept art and asked if the model is a good representation of what I drew.
Using a 5 start ranking system and out of 8 responses the model got an average score of 4.63 with three 4 stars and five 5 stars. Clearly from this overwhelmingly positive feedback my model was good and worth the time put into creating.
Along with the star rating I asked for their thoughts on accuracy compared to the concept and according to the responses everyone agrees to its accuracy and how similar it is to the original.
The final question I asked was for any other thoughts on the model they would like to criticise. One of the points was how I didn’t follow the notes I wrote and I agree as I originally wanted it to be smoother and cleaner however I ended up going for a lower ploy look as that style I'm more familiar with. Another point was how there's no outline around the model and I researched how to do that but due to the low-poly it didn’t look how it should’ve.
My thoughts on this model and the process is that I think the model is way more basic than I desired. If it wasn’t for my laziness and unwillingness to work I could’ve made a way better model than what I created in the past 10 weeks.
