Beatrice Losco - A first year student 3D journey!

My first project this semester was for the Game Art course! We were tasked with creating a stylized version of a WW1 Plane! This was my very first attempt towards hand painted textures. I must say it is so so fun to hand paint your textures, there is just so many possibilities and combinations! 

At first I struggled a lot with hand painting, to the point were I had to go back and repaint the main body of my plane by the end of the project, cause I had learned so much during the whole process and I was finally able to give it a bit more justice! 

This whole learning process was extremely inspiring, yes, my plane was not perfect by any means, but instead of feeling discouraged I felt even more inspired to do better and to put even more effort!

My second task for the Game Art course was to create a stylised weapon that could fit in World of Warcraft. The task was extremely intimidating at first, I have never had to work in a specific style before, let alone such a famous and successful style like the one of Blizzard Games.
It all felt extremely overwhelming, I didn't really know how to start, but if there is something school has taught me this year is: ''In doubt, make silhouettes!''  

I started very very wonky as you can see, but by the first row I was finally starting to see patterns and rules of the style. I quickly went from having no idea what to do to having way too many options! 
What I did at this point was simply consulting all my World of Warcraft fan friends, asking them to select a couple of swords they'd like to see in the game! From that I selected 4 of those and developed them further.

I have to be honest, I've always been a very hands in person, I don't have a great relationship with drawing and I normally just throw myself directly into the 3D process, but this year I have really learned the importance of really taking your time to design your works instead of just running to Maya. 

My final result was a Night Fae inspired sword surrounded by little fireflies. I was so very happy with the whole process and how much I've learned from it. I'd definitely say it was one of the best learning experiences this school year has given me, and it really makes me look forward to what comes next!

For the animation I had to resurrect some very remote memory on how to animate in Maya, it was definitely a challenge, one I did not need to add to myself, as it was not required, however, the end result made it truly worth the whole effort.

(I also may or may not have made 3D version of other swords I have designed, as the project was just so much fun, hopefully once I'm done with exams I'll be able to texture them and finish them up :P) 

My last entry is a bit different compared to the previous ones, but it is by far the one I'm the happiest about for now! For our 3D2 course we were tasked to make first a hover engine out of machinery objects that exist in real life and then a vintage car! 
If you would have asked the Beatrice from a couple of months ago she would have told you ''how am I supposed to model a whole car? That's impossible! I'm most definitely not good enough''
Yet here I am, not only I made the car, but I'm also so so so very happy I didn't give up. This project was so incredibly challenging and the feeling you get when you see it finished is something I'm never gonna get tired of! 

I swear, I'm still not sure how I managed to make a car that doesn't look like a potato, but whenever I see it in my files I just can't help but smile so much! I love it! It makes me so so happy! 

For this project we had to learn subdivision modelling, so to the already challenging task of making very complex objects we were added the fact that we could only use quads and no triangles at all.
I've always admired the artistic part of 3D, just sitting there, with music on creating stuff, but here I was measured against the more technical bits of creating 3D models, I actually had to think, problem solve, calculate. I would lie if I said it was easy, and it was most definitely one of the most challenging tasks I've had to deal with this first year of DAE.
I sit here now however and think :''it was all worth it'', not only for how the end result came out, but for all the experience I've gathered while working on this which made me a better artist and a better person. 

Thank you if you managed to read this whole poem aaaall the way here! I am looking forward to next year and to prove and challenge myself further for all the years to come! 
As always, feedback is very much appreciated! 
Have a lovely rest of the day!