Post-graduate elective
In our final semester of Diploma in Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture we are required to take an elective. This elective can act in two ways, it can be a tool to enhance a particular aspect of our thesis, or allow you to branch out and explore a new tool, methodology, or engaging in critical thinking in a specific field.
For my elective, given my underlying passion for all things clay/ceramics related, and my hidden desire to be a sculptor, I chose Digital Sculpting with zBrush. This tool is so wonderfully different from Rhino, ArchiCAD, Revit, etc and has been unbelievably enjoyable to play with.
Below is a weekly journal of my explorations in zBrush, screenshots taken during the sculpt of my final assessment, and a critical reflection of the elective, the software, and my explorations in zBrush.
Weekly Journal
Week 01 - 24th January 2018
Unfortunately I missed the first class due to my late arrival from my Erasmus semester in Oslo. However, the first lecture was mostly admin, course structure, and basic UI explanations which I was able to quickly catch up with through the uploaded material on CANVAS and some late-night youtube binging.
The Basics
Week 02 - 31th of January 2018
Week 2 was a bit of a learning curve. A very fun learning curve. Its evident how easy it is to get into zBrush and just start creating madness. We were taught about planning projects and breaking down reference material into smaller elements to tackle one-by-one.
We also learned about zSpheres, which allow you to create the basic foundation or structure for a model. This was referred to by Danny as creating an 'armature'.
These zSpheres are created, moved, scaled, and rotated off each other to create a network/skeleton for your model.
It was really interesting to see what potential this has, as a creative tool, in the hands of people like Benji who are easily able to create worlds and creatures out of the figments of their imagination.
We also learned about the zTool and the difference between zSpheres, primitives, and polymeshes.
Images to the left taken from Danny's notes because I still hadn't learned how to save or taken note to screenshot process.
Primitives and brushes
Week 03 - 7th of February 2018
Using the zSphere 'armature' we created we exported the 3D Polymesh and started manipulating the form with the various brushes available. Needless to say I got pretty carried away. This 'self-portrait' is how I was feeling knowing final reviews were coming up but the preset options available in zBrush is incredible and allows you to quickly go mad.
Textures and masks
Week 04 - 14th of February 2018
This weeks lessons revolved around learning to use masks and textures. The 3-dimensional masking abilities are quite incredible in zBrush. Learning the differences between holding CTRL+SHIFT off the model, holding CTRL and 'brushing' on the model, and using alpha's as masks was incredible. You can quickly model so many organic figures.
Today was also the day we learned about hard surface elements. I did NOT enjoy this day. The logic behind zBrush's hard surfaces baffles me. Trying to understand creases, polygroups, QMesh, and why a simple push/pull/extrude was so F*#^ing convoluted is beyond me. Anyways, safe to say I was not happy, things didn't end well, and I gave up.
Illnesses and Exercises
Week 05 - 21st of February 2018
I was incredibly ill but also knew we (final year Diploma in Architecture students) had our final reviews coming up on the 28th of February and would most likely miss the following two sessions so I went to class only to find more than half the class was also ill and that Danny had pushed back the in-class exercise.
Instead, we continued to play with zBrush and read and made an attempt on the assignment. I took this time to refresh my understanding and re-read the course notes from the previous weeks because masking and groups were still a complete mystery for me.
the beast from the east
Week 06 - 28th of February 2018
Final reviews for final year diploma students were scheduled on this day so I wasn't planning on attending zBrush class but then of course mother nature had its own plan and snowed 3.5 irnbru cans of snow. This caused MSA to cancel all reviews and GSA shut down from Wednesday the 28th of February to Monday the 5th of March.
Schedule disruption
Week 07 - 7th of March 2018
Unfortunately due to the 5 days the university was shut because of snow it caused a lot of disruption and many of our assignments got pushed and rescheduled so we were unable to attend class. We had to attend a year meeting where the head of school and Stage 5 leader told us how they were planning to reschedule and accommodate our final reviews in the weeks to come. I did, however, send Danny my mood board for my final sculpt. Below is another concept image I had done for a whale jumping out of an oil barrel. I went with the turtle though.
The mood board was along the same theme of my thesis. I am looking at how we can use architecture as a medium for social and ecological responsibility. The project is looking to critique the Norwegian oil industry, tie in how 4% of crude petroleum extraction goes into the making of plastics, and societies throw-away culture and our mass sea plastic problem. Therefore I had decided to model a sea turtle stuck in a barrel of oil.
DIPLOMA IN ARCHITECTURE FINAL REVIEWS
Week 08 - 14th of March 2018
We finally had our final reviews which meant, unfortunately we, again, were unable to attend class. We had, however, been in constant communication with Danny and I made some feeble efforts at starting to model my turtle.
Hard surface elements, still miserable
Week 09 - 21st of March 2018
Its funny how creating squares, and cylinders was so difficult for architects. Because of all the cancellations and rescheduling I wasn't able to do the exercise previously so I spent the class trying to model some of the fenestration details in the Hotel de Bagis example we were given by Danny. After maybe 2 hours of utter frustration I gave up, for reasons I will cover in my critical reflective journal. So instead I began creating the armature for one of the storks in the column in the Hotel de Bagis in Toulouse. This was thoroughly enjoyable.
This was our final day in class before spring break. I spoke to Danny about the game plan for my final project and confirmed that me sculpting a turtle in an oil drum was good, however, I'd probably need more of a hard surface element than just the drum. I suggested maybe I could add a Jerry Can to the scene and Danny gave me the OK to continue.
Organic over hard.
Week 10 - 18th of April 2018
Our first day back after spring break and our last scheduled class before our submission. I had begun sculpting my turtle over the break and wanted to show Danny my progress. The sculpting was so enjoyable, but then I realised I should start on the hard surface elements and all the fun was instantly sucked out of the whole process.
Danny announced that he would be available for tutorial the following week to make up for the lost day due to the Beast from the East.
Assignment process images
Please click the thumbnails to see action and description of what I'm attempting to do.
Critical Reflective Essay
I love working with clay. I throw ceramics in my spare time and have always wanted to do sculpture and when we were given an opportunity to take an elective I wanted to finally take advantage of the fact that I am studying at an ART school. That being said, my first choice for electives was Advanced 3D Modelling (3DS Max) which I have some experience in but pragmatically knew that that would be the most useful for my degree and future career. But I didn’t get my first choice, and to be honest I’m incredibly grateful because zBrush has been so much fun. The program is incredibly realistic and the brushes and masking options give you so many possibilities.
From the beginning the course was laid out very well. I missed the first day but saw all the material and step-by-step screenshots for everything (including text descriptions) was already uploaded on CANVAS. Danny was very approachable, friendly, and knowledgable as well.
As I mentioned in my journal and the little annotations to my assignment processes I found getting into the clay sculpting in zBrush very easy and fun. You could quickly set up a primitive and get going to your hearts content.
One thing that really annoyed me however, and I remember Danny mentioning it, but could have been explained further and more frequently was the saving/closing/opening/screenshotting process and options. Probably not great to admit but I didn’t turn off my computer for 2 days because I had lost a model because I had apparently saved things wrong. Again, this was probably due to my lack of attention during class. Only after 2 full days modelling my final sculpt did I fully understand how ztools work.
My ambition for the final assignment was to make a relevant model that I could 3D Print and present at my exhibition. I wanted to model something aquatic, to go along with my theme of the suffering of animals caused by ingestion of sea plastic. Originally I thought I would model a giant humpback whale with hundreds of plastic bags pouring out of its blow hole but then quickly realized this would not be possible for a beginner. Then I thought I would do a turtle trapped in a plastic 6-pack beer holder but didn’t know if that would count as a ‘hard surface’. In the end I modelled a sea turtle coming out of a barrel of oil. The oil representing the raw material plastic is made from.
The progression from the course material and the pace was very nice I think, however, the timing of this elective, being in the final semester of our post-graduate degree was ill-timed and should be better considered in the future. We had so many other assignments, deadlines, critiques in our diploma courses that often I felt zBrush took a back seat. Luckily Danny was incredibly accommodating and gave us a lot of flexibility to work around our schedule.
In the first lecture I attended Danny had mentioned how important it was to plan your sculpt and it really is. Finding the right reference images make sure a difference. I was able to find great top, bottom, and side profiles of sea turtles and a barrel and using zBrush’s reference planes made creating the armature very easy. After working with zSpheres turning it into a proper 3D Polymesh was a little tricky but I think it was mostly down to lack of practice with the software as it had been quite some time between when we learned about zSPheres to when I started my sculpt.
In my journal and process annotations I do make many references to my utter hatred of hard surface elements in zBrush and modelling within the program. zBrush is so strong as an organic modelling tool I just could not see the point in forcing myself to use the zModeller tool to create a Jerry Can or a cylindrical barrel. With my background in architecture I’m very proficient at using Rhino, Sketchup and for the most part 3ds max and was incredibly frustrated because it would have taken me under 15 minutes to model these elements in these programs and imported them as OBJ files. Of course, for the sake of this module I modelled them with zBrush but in the future I know it would have been far more efficient to use (in my opinion) the right tool for the right modelling task. zBrush is incredible at organic shapes, I couldn’t ever imaging modelling a turtle in Rhino, but horrific for solid element objects. Danny had mentioned bringing in OBJs and manipulating them with alpha’s etc to get a feel for zBrush and this is most likely something I would try in the future.
I’ve barely had the opportunity to explore the vast array of brushes available in zBrush. This is something I look forward to exploring after I submit my thesis. I wanted to take this elective because it can allow you to create characters, animals, or figments of your imagination so easily once you understand the basic principles and considering I’ve never used the program before January I’m very please with the level of detail I’ve managed to create in my turtle. As for the barrel and Jerry Can… well, I’ll be honest and say I’ll stick to Rhino for that.
Click below to download OBJ file, ztools,final .tff, and process JPEGs. Please be aware that the link is 1.75GB.