Initial Ideas for my Dissertation

Throughout the summer I have been putting a lot of thought about what I should do for my dissertation as I want to challenge myself as well as create something that will be beneficial for me in the future when compiling my portfolio for when I am searching for jobs or roles in the industry I wish to pursue.

I quickly came to the conclusion that I want to pursue a career in the 3D modelling industry whether that be for games, films or TV. From this I then had to decide what I wanted to do and what could be done in the time frame given as well as challenge me.

My initial idea was to model a high quality version of my car and fully texture and animate it to make it look like my car was driving down a road and perhaps transforming into another vehicle or a transformers style robot, if I had time to do so. This would be very challenging for me as just the model alone would take up a lot if not all of my time frame let alone the texturing, rigging and animating side of the project. This idea was scrapped after talking with fellow students on my course as the time frame and lack of knowledge in rigging and animating would make this too difficult for me to learn and produce a high quality end result in the given time.

As many of you may know reading this, I am a big fan of the Marvel Comics Company and particularly the character Iron Man as I have included Marvel or Iron Man in some of my work over the last two years. So I thought I would carry on the tradition and try to incorporate one of them into my third year. I decided in the end to use Iron Man again as this would be a challenging model for me to complete.

My initial idea with Iron Man was to model, texture, rig and animate, similar to the above with my car idea, a full suit if the characters armour. But after discussing with my tutors and with some research into the time frame and difficulty of modelling something like this with so much detail and depth whilst taking into account the geometry for the characters movement, I decided to only model the full suit or bust. If I was working in the industry the modelling, rigging, texturing and animating would be done by different people or teams and I was encouraged to focus on one of them and not all as this would be more beneficial for me as it is better to be very good at one aspect instead of OK at many different parts of the creation process. As I am working on my own and not in a team it will still challenge my abilities and teach me new techniques and skills in the process whilst being relevant and demanding a lot of time and research.

Research:
I briefly looked into examples of previous Iron Man models and the time, patience and ability needed to create a high quality end product. As well as looking at the above and example tutorials on the internet on creating a Iron Man model I will also be researching how to create tidy geometry in my models as well as experimenting on different methods/techniques of creating the model and different software and what the software can and can't do. I will also be delving into how to create models to be ready to handed over to animation/rigging teams and how to have my model ready to go, for example taking into account the characters movement i.e. moving arms and legs whilst keeping the geometry tidy and free from deformations and warping.

Software and learning outcomes:
The software I was initially planning to use was Autodesk 3D Studio Max as I already have some knowledge on this software and how to use it. This software is also very highly used in most industries, whether that be games, film, TV, etc. so it will be great to show to potential, future employers what I can create using this software and I will be learning/trying out different techniques to see what style suits me best and I can work well with and apply to some, if not all, of my model as well as give myself greater knowledge of Max and a challenge  in the creation process.

Again, after discussing with my tutors I was advised to research into using the MudBox software as, again, this is highly used in the industry, can do things easier/better than Max can, will be great to show to future employers and will broaden my knowledge with different software.

The model will be created initially in Max then imported into MudBox to add further details and sculpt the model until I am happy with the final result. This will also be challenging and developing my skills as I have yet to use MudBox but having knowledge in using more than one 3D modelling software is not going to be any disadvantage to me in the future. I will ensure that I have given my self enough time in the allotted time frame given to develop, learn and make mistakes using Max and MudBox as these, I believe are key pieces of software to learn how to use properly and I want my end result to be the highest quality I can possibly make, without having to rush at the last minute or leave unfinished because I didn't give myself enough time to make mistakes and learn the best methods, techniques and the general usage of the software.

My final decision to make is to either create a full suit or just a bust of the suit as both will be challenging for me. The bust would give me more time to make mistakes, research and learn better or different techniques with the software. However I may have enough time to create the full suit as I could potentially pick up and understand the software and techniques quite well, due to past knowledge with Max. The only other option is to start with the bust of the suit and if I believe I have under scoped or have more time once the bust is complete to then add to the bust and create the full suit. I will be discussing this further with my tutors and researching into this idea in more depth to fully understand what I plan on undertaking over the next year.

Examples of Iron Man Models and Busts:

Bibliography:
Full Suits:
http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/311902929#
http://blueslogo.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/3d-ironman-model/
http://blueslogo.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/3d-ironman.png
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-of-ironman-mark2-mark3/643578
http://www.blueprintshut.com/25th-2011-cool-do-you-can-t-make-any-comments-because-are-not-/the-blueprints.com*blueprints-depot*humans*humans*ironman-mark-2.png/

Busts:
http://grabcad.com/library/iron-man-mark-2-bust
http://hypebeast.com/2013/3/hot-toys-iron-man-3-iron-patriot-collectible-bust
http://hypebeast.com/2013/1/hot-toys-iron-man-3-mark-xlii-collectible-bust
http://www.xavierpop.com/2013/02/28/10-new-images-for-iron-man-3/
http://www.angolz.com/store/iron-man-mark-vii-1-4th-scale-collectible-bust-iron-man-3-hot-toys-htb13.html