FMP - Music Themed Asset
Whatever object I finally decide to pursue, I want it to be music related in some way, shape or form, whether it is an instrument or a piece of music tech such as amp, speakers, floor-peddles etc.
Research
I had three main choices in mind for a theme on this project. ultimately I decided to go for the music theme because it is the one that I care about the most and appreciate the most out of the ideas I previously had. At this stage I hadn't decided whether I wanted to do an asset, environment or a character.
This is my breakdown of what guitar I wanted to make, whether I wanted it to be a certain model or to come up with my own. I decided I would create the guitar I own as I could get physical images of the guitar for reference and I could also talk about it in great lengths.
My thought process depicted in mood boards, I went from an instrument to guitars then to a specific guitar.
Project Proposal
Review
I chose to create my guitar on
Maya and do a concept piece of the guitar also, I decided to do this for my FMP
because I had never recreated a real life object in Maya before and I wanted to
see how difficult it was to do.
Prior to this project I haven’t
modelled many assets, in fact the only other assets I have modelled is the
scythe and a telephone box last year.
I will be delving into prior
techniques I have learnt throughout this year such as being able to texture
models and fixing topography in Maya and hopefully be able to model assets to a
decent standard in the future.
Project Concept
For my FMP I intend to create my
guitar in Maya from photographic reference; I will be adding both textures and
UV’s onto it. I will also be doing a cinematic piece of concept art for my 2d
side of the project.
If I complete my model before my expected
completion time I will perhaps make the stand or the strap, but that will not
be a necessity for completion.
I will use a combination of
Photoshop and Maya to create my model and I will use Photoshop to make my 2d
artwork piece.
Back story: This guitar is imbued
with the power of energy infused sound waves that when played emit an immense
amount of power from the headstock. This power can be used to defeat other
champions in solo combat or by means of battle of the bands.
The genre of game would be a 3rd
person action/ adventure game and will be very obviously set inside a comic
book design.
I will use a realistic texturing approach and
make my model look exceptionally detailed I will also try to model each
individual part of the guitar in a relatively high poly excluding the strings
and the nuts
Evaluation Proposal
I will review and analysis my
work accordingly throughout the project by annotating everything along the way,
I will talk about what I liked/ disliked about certain aspects of my practical
work whether it is the model or the 2d artwork.
I will take photos of sketches I
create of the guitar and annotate thoroughly and link each and every piece of
context to the next subsequent piece of writing.
To record any problem solving I
encounter, I will discuss what happened and how I will overcome the issue, I
will also provide photographic reference to the problem.
In order to complete this project by the
deadline, I will delegate hours of the day to certain tasks and stick to a
strict time frame in order to complete my FMP in time. I will assign in-college
time to 3d modelling and writing up on the blog and spend some time at home sketching
my guitar as bringing it in every day would be a hassle.
Hardware expanded
Bridge
The bridge is the root of the guitars function, this part of the guitar acts as a bay for the strings, there are two different types of bridge:
- Standard
- Floyd Rose
The standard bridge is stationary on the body of the guitar, usually screwed into place while the Floyd Rose system is not, the Floyd rose system is partially placed on a hinge that is connected to a number of springs (Usually two) inside the guitar this set-up allows the use of a whammy bar (Tremolo), which can be mounted onto the bridge.
The purpose of the whammy bar is to tighten or loosen the strings on the guitar so when a note is played you can push or pull the whammy bar to increase or decrease the pitch of the note. This is useful for artificial notes and bending.
The only major drawback to the Floyd Rose system is that it becomes a hassle to change strings as its hard to find the right balance. A Floyd Rose system is tuned from small screws on the bridge and regular keys on the head stock.
Pick-ups
There are quite a few brands of pickups to chose from but I will mainly be focusing on the "Seymour Duncan" brand.
the way any pickup works is it senses the mechanical vibrations of the instrument, predominantly stringed instruments and converts them into an electrical signal for an amp or mix deck to produce sound.
I selected this particular pickup brand because the guitar I have chosen to model has this particular brand on it.
Knobs/ Levers
The knobs and levers on a guitar are generally used to increase and decrease the volume of the guitar (Note: just the guitars volume, not the volume of the amp and any subsequent distortions.) and some have a small booster knob to control the tone aka the tonal knob. The levers are commonly used to switch between different types of sound ether: Chorus, Verse and solo.
Used in fair use, Via Public Domain.
Parts of a Guitar
Body
The body is the main bulk of the guitar, the part where most of the hardware goes to, the shape of the body differs from the company and even the model e.g.
Used in fair use, Via Public Domain.
The guitar on the top is a Gibson Les Paul, The one on the bottom is a Fender Stratocaster
Used in fair use, Via Public Domain.
These two may look alike but they are both different brands of guitar, some obscure companies like to replicate well known ones.
Fret board
The Fret boards purpose is to differentiate the pitch of a note played most guitars have 22 frets but some have 24, I will be modelling one with 24. The 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 20th and 22nd are marked with an inlay which tells the musician where to put his finger. The inlays are commonly just dots or crosses but I will be putting the custom inlay my guitar has onto the fret board.
Head stock
The head stock is the top of the guitar where the strings go to from the Bridge, depending on how many strings the guitar has the subsequent amount of keys will be there. The keys are used to tune the guitar, Each individual guitar string is fed into the tuning peg and then twisted around it in a clockwise fashion (the twisting direction is down to personal preference) this increases and decreases the tension of the strings.
Strings
Guitar strings are usually made out of a flexible metal and ridged to add a small bit of traction, a common guitar has 6 strings decreasing in thickness gradually.
the usual tuning setup for a guitar is "E-A-D-G-B-E" Not my preference but the tuning does not affect the guitar aesthetically. what does affect the aesthetic of the guitar is the gauge of the strings. there are multiple makes of multiple gauges of string.
The most common/renown brand is "Ernie Ball" strings, within Ernie Ball there are:
etc.
multiple sets of sticks is advisable as they have a tendency to break easy.
(After thought) For this project I will be modelling my own guitar. I will make it high detail, texture and UV it. If I complete my model before the allocated time frame ends, I would like to model the stand that it will go on.
The most common/renown brand is "Ernie Ball" strings, within Ernie Ball there are:
- Regular Slinky
- Super Slinky
- Hyper Slinky
- Beefy Slinky
- Skinny Top-Heavy Bottom
etc.
Drum kit Research
A Drum kit is comprised of multiple different kinds of percussion instrument and cymbals that are used in making music. a regular kit is comprised of: A snare drum, floor tom, bass drum, hanging toms and five types of cymbal being: Hi-hat, crash cymbal, ride cymbal, splash cymbal and china cymbal. But as a drum kit is a collection of instruments its contents can be edited to suit which kind of music its tailored for. e.g. a rock/ metal drummer would often have two bass drums and up to four floor/ hanging toms. In order to play drums, one should invest into a set or multiple sets of drum sticks as these are required in order to play.
Bass Guitar Research
The components on a bass guitar are very much similar to the parts of a normal six string guitar, except a bass has four thick strings rather than six thin ones. though the number of strings can potentially reach nine. Though to achieve this amount of strings one must get there bass custom built like in the image below.
(After thought) For this project I will be modelling my own guitar. I will make it high detail, texture and UV it. If I complete my model before the allocated time frame ends, I would like to model the stand that it will go on.
Guitars in games
The most common game to feature musical instruments is of course the Guitar/Band Hero franchise. not only to they depict guitars in there games but they put existing guitars into them. brands of guitar that are world famous such as Fender, Gibson, Schecter etc. this is probably my best point of reference from a video game as the guitar I own and using as a subject for my FMP is actually in one of the games as a usable instrument.
(Insert image here)
Mind-Map Refinement
This is a narrowed down version of my choices to model. I focused heavily on my Guitar options because I could get photographic reference of my guitars while I wouldn't be able to get any for a set of Drums or a Bass.
My final decision came down to my Schecter Synyster or my Gibson Les Paul. I eliminated the other three options because the Synyster Special look too similar to the Custom-S. I eliminated the Fender Stratocaster because it's appearance is too generic for my liking, I would prefer to model something a little more exotic, which brings me to the B.C Rich Warlock. This was removed purely on the basis that I wouldn't be able to get any primary photographic reference.
Schecter Sketches and Research
2D Art side
Guitar Photography
The way artists usually portray guitars in art is to focus on just one part of the guitar whether it's the bridge or the head stock. Whichever part of the guitar you focus on, it has to me very zoomed in. It is advisable to catch some light off the metallic parts to make it stand out more.
The other method of guitar art is someone playing it, usually the only part you can see is the hands and maybe the sleeves. This form of photography is common when depicting guitars and/or other instruments.
I liked how the art for guitars is completely different to guitar photography, they are all in colour and have some sort of effect going on, e.g. the guitars on fire.
So for my initial concept I attempted a realistic concert scene, with the guitar on the stage basking in spotlight.
Modelling practice run
For Today, I attempted to model my guitar as practise, to see how difficult it would be to model it. I found that it was harder than I initially assumed, but I managed to model it completely and texture it completely. This worried me as I've set aside 4 weeks to complete my model and I did the whole thing in one days worth of classes. So I think I might have to do some of the assets off the wish list.
I started blocking out the body of my guitar, I used the custom polygon tool to get the perfect shape. I then extruded it backwards to make the shape three dimensional. The only drawback to this method is that there isn't any topography on the front face.
I made the neck using a rectangle and textured the fret board on the front face.
The headstock was modelled in the same fashion as the body, using the create polygon tool.
Art Experimentation
For my initial concept work I drawn heavy inspiration off these images
So for my initial concept I attempted a realistic concert scene, with the guitar on the stage basking in spotlight.
Iterations:
I started off by drawing some silhouettes of my guitar, I did a front on full guitar, front on head stock and front on body silhouette. there weren't many other angles I could silhouette that would be useful for the design progress.
I only needed front on silhouettes as I had already decided I was going to focus on the front of the guitar. This is further reinforced by my Initial concept piece and my art interpretation.
Colour Pallets & Composition:
this is a selection of colours I am going to use on my final promo concept. I knew I would need black and white as those are the colours of my guitar. I then thought that if I was going to depict the entire guitar, I needed some kind of colour to make it stand out so I grabbed an image of my guitar and experimented with some compositions and some colour pallets.
I prefer the latter. So I expanded on that idea.
I added a paint splat corner vignette and a brick wall background to localise the design onto a wall rather than it just being on a generic flat surface. I Thought the red one looked the best, it also reminded me of the rising sun. which was my inspiration for this design, as shown below.
I then decided to scrap the colour entirely and stuck with this.
Lighting:
When it comes to lighting, I didn't know how I was going to show light in my concept as its essentially a piece of wall art but I did some light experiments and had a number of ideas. I thought I could have it as a spotlight and as a dim glow. I use both of these when doing my other concept ideas. though the vignette on the corners helps to convey lighting.
Art Interpretation
for this I looked into the way guitars look when used in a tattoo design. specifically I drawn inspiration from pin up girl tattoo's. I found that they tend to have thick outlines and prominent features with very bold shading.
I tried to incorporate the grungy/ poster edge look of both the guitar tattoo and the pin up girl tattoo. I think I succeeded. I like this one more than the other one because it looks more expressive and I feel like there is way more going on. If I use this as the basis for my design I will have to include more components into the foreground.
Modelling Side:
Orthographic of body:
Planning:
Modelling practice run
For Today, I attempted to model my guitar as practise, to see how difficult it would be to model it. I found that it was harder than I initially assumed, but I managed to model it completely and texture it completely. This worried me as I've set aside 4 weeks to complete my model and I did the whole thing in one days worth of classes. So I think I might have to do some of the assets off the wish list.
Blocking Out:
I made the neck using a rectangle and textured the fret board on the front face.
The headstock was modelled in the same fashion as the body, using the create polygon tool.
Detailed Modelling:
each individual component is modelled using ether a cube, cylinder or sphere. and textured using block colours such as black or silver. I rounded the edge of the neck to smooth it and same goes for the knobs and pick-ups.
The bridge & tremolo are comprised of multiple parts and is probably one of the densest parts of the whole model. That and the pickups which are also completely modelled.
Texture map colours
Texture map colours
Final Model:
I am happy with my finished model, I like how my textures turned out. I also like the way my modelled guitar hardware looks when finalised. I got the shine on the metallic parts that I required. The only problem I faced was the spheres being very low poly but as they are the smallest part of the model, it didn't really make a visible difference.
Final Promo Concept Idea 1:
For this piece I actually stumbled upon this style by accident. I used the Photoshop filter 'cutout' to change the appearance of the guitar and realised it followed the semi realistic style of my prior initial concepts and also follows the backstory iv'e built up around the guitar. I like how it turned out but the one concern that I have with it is how it will look once printed as due to prior knowledge, black ink doesn't always turn out.
Final Promo Concept Idea 2:
Obviously I heavily modified my artistic interpretation as I really liked the "paint on the wall" style. I included some imagery related to this particular Schecter model in the background and two dripping roses in the foreground to add some colour to the piece. the dripping effect was an experiment that I liked the result of. though after looking at it for an extended amount of time, I feel like I might have gone a bit overboard with the drips. nevertheless I am still happy with the way it turned out and now have one hell of a decision to make.
I think I will choose the latter as I feel it will print better than the other piece.
This is how I designed my Concept, your eyes should start on the red rose and track down to the white rose, along the guitar and should finish at the head-stock.
I think I will choose the latter as I feel it will print better than the other piece.
Golden Spiral
Evaluation:
For my FMP I modelled my guitar and created a conceptual art piece on it. Though when I started this project all I knew was I wanted to make something within the theme of music, so I researched drums, and guitars. I decided that guitars would be the way to go because I could get photographic reference of guitars as I own a fair few of them. Now the question was, which one do I model?
So I drew up some mind maps and mood boards to get my thoughts on paper and through a process of elimination I decided on modelling my schecter synyster. I then started focusing on this one guitar, taking pictures and sketches of it along the way.
For my 2D side I did some research on how guitars are depicted in photography and in art. The two styles differ drastically in ways I wouldn't of known otherwise. I eventually started drawing up some ideas of how I could show off this guitar,
I first put it on a stage with a spotlight, the scene was pretty dark and not very interesting.
Then I put it as a spray paint on the wall style which I quite liked, I felt that this one grabbed the most attension.
The third was a very dark semi realistic piece with only one dim light source.
I ultimately picked the second one as I felt I could do more with it to make it look more eye catching. I messed with the colour pallets and the design adding a fair few drips of paint onto the design to make it appear imperfect. The roses were a welcome touch also as they catch my eye first with there bold colouring. I am happy with how the design turned out in the end and have no qualms with it.
i then worked on my modelling side. modelling the guitar wasn't actually that difficult, though getting the topography right was the hardest part. It was difficult to do this because the shape of the guitar is hard to work around. I ended up with only one face for the front and back of the body which could be problematic. The texturing part wasn't particularly difficult ether. as the guitars design is merely lined with assorted widths. Although as all I had to model was a guitar, I also modelled my amplifier and the stand. I did start on modelling the monitor but due to time restraints I couldn't get it to my personal standard of completion.
Overall i'm happy with how my model turned out. If I had a little more time, I would of redone the guitar stand as I wasnt particularly happy with that ether and finished the monitor other than that I think it turned out great.
To conclude I am overjoyed with what I have ended up with and don't think I could have done any better with the time I had available.
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