Update: Feb 6th

Well, it's been a slow process, but the project is starting to come along. I've also taken on some additional texturing and lighting on a senior animation project.


I'm having some trouble laying out the UVs, so progress on the branch texture is on hault until I can figure that out. I've been trying a program called UV Layout, which seems really powerful, but not so user-friendly.
Painted color map for the ladybug wings.

Close-up shot of ladybug with painted textures.

Update: Jan 24th

After some consideration, I've decided to do something similar to the images below. I really like the contrast of the ladybugs against the background. It's a bit surreal, and a little stylized. The environment will me a little bit more of a challenge than I was hoping for, but I think it will turn out pretty nicely. This might be a nice opportunity for me to explore Mudbox for some of the finer details.

Here is the progress that I have made so far on the composition.

Initial Modeling

The ladybug model is almost finished and the environment modeling has just begun. Still a while to go before I start shading.

I'm also still deciding on a composition, and the entire environment is still up for discussion. I have also been working with rigging the model, which is something I've never done before but always been interested in learning. It will be interesting to see how that ends up turning out. More updates to come soon hopefully.

Preliminary Sketches

Production Schedule

This is a tentative Week-To-Week Production Schedule

Week 2 (Jan. 12th)

- Concept finalized

- Style decisions made

- Initial modeling started

Week 3 (Jan 19th)

- Modeling

- Ladybug complete

- Environment modeling started

- Fluid and Particle testing

Week 4 (Jan 26th)

- Texturing of ladybug complete

- Ladybug ready for animation

- Environment model complete

- Fluid and Particle testing

Week 5 (Feb 2nd)

- Ladybug animation complete

Week 6 (Feb 9th)

- Fluid and particle animation complete

Week 7 (Feb 16th)

- Lighting complete

Week 8 (Feb 23rd)

- Compositing/Rendering

Week 9, Week 10 - Troubleshooting

Research!

Look and movement research.

Style sketches to come later today.

Inspiration!

Some inspiration for my Studio II project. This should give you a little bit of a clue as to what I'm doing. Tomorrow I will be "pitching" my idea to the class and getting some feedback.

Also a big THANK YOU to my good friend, Arielle for helping me with some concept art, which I will be adding within the week.

This is going to be a great quarter, I can't wait to get started!

And so the quarter begins. More updates coming soon!