Third Year wisdom and guidence...

Considering our courses current third years never had gurus when they were in our shoes, it makes me really appreciate the help given. Also it makes you wonder how they have managed to fit tutoring us noobs into their busy schedule. Having seen what their projects are like and knowing they are preparing for their Final Major Projects: they must be uber efficient about tme management!

For our Project we have been given a pretty neat theme: Medieval Weapons. What started out as silhouettes of potential designs has progressed to a 3DS Max model waiting to be textured.

This ws the first time I was introduced to graphics tablets so as I expected it took a while for me to get the hang of using the pen. I chose axes as my weapon of choice since they can have more complex and elaborate designs to them as opposed to swords or maces. Whilst I had several ideas already, I gained some influence and referance from weapons used in World Of Warcraft since they is a wide range of weapons in the in game arsenal. It was only the shape of the blade I needed influence for, I had plans for what to put on it later on.

After recieving feedback on which designs were most favoured, I began using various surface texture referances to fill in the blank axe. Design No.2 was recieved the most praise, and after some consideration it went from a 2H axe to a polearm. The design reminded me of the sort of weapon an elite uard of sorts would wield. Though I did not use it as referance, it reminded my of the angels from Darksiders......

When it came to modeling I was already familiar with the majority of 3DS Max so modeling proved no major issue ( the opposite of my first leeson!). Though I stilll have some tris to spare, I don't want to make it too complex. So far I'm happy to go ahead and texture it into the future.