In this research I will look at an artist called Jona Dinges. This artist works in a software to create 3D pieces which is pretty much exactly what I am doing for my project this term. His works are also created in low poly technique, therefore I decided to look at them to get some more inspiration before finishing my project completely.
Jona Dinges is an artist based in Los Angeles, California and is skilled in graphic design, animation, ux, ui and low poly (Dribbble, 2021). He is also the executive creative director for Supernatural, a company that created a fitness app (Instagram, 2021).
I decided to look at a few low poly pieces from this artist to see how I can link them to my work and how they can inform my further process of 3D modeling. I am very interested to see how an artist approach 3D modeling in low poly because low poly pieces have very sharp edges, so it is difficult to create roundness and the feeling of smoothness.
This first piece I decided to look at is a 3D model of Yoda from 'Star Wars'. There are a few things I really like about this character and generally this design. I like the face expression. I think it is not easy to create a good face expression in a low poly character. I think it made it a little bit easier that Yoda in this picture has some sort of a grim on its face because the straight lines make the face expression sharper and angrier. I think it works well with this particular character but I am not sure if it would be exactly the same with any character or any face expression. I also really like the pose of the character. I think it adds to them. I could have drawn my character in a pose, however, I decided not to, for a reason actually. Posing the character how I did is preparing the character for the rigging process which is important when animating. I am not planning on animating my 3D piece, but since my progression is animation I decided to place the character exactly like the animator would do.
What I like about this model is the lighting and that it exists in some sort of space. I have not had a chance to think about the space I am going to put my character in. By that I mean I have not thought about how to create some backdrop for the character. I have made a backdrop before when creating a 3D model, but I have never tried to do one on each of the sides and that in this case will be necessary since I am planning on making a video of the character turning around. Now when I think about it I am wondering whether it will be better to create a backdrop on each side and move the camera or create one backdrop and rotate the character. This is something to think about. I may try to do both and whichever idea turns out better, I will put on my website.
I decided to look at this piece next because of the colors and the lighting that I really like. I like how surfaces on the tiger's body are created so the faces really do create stripes. When coloring a 3D model it is important to also remember that some faces will be one color, other will be different color and the shapes of the surfaces really make a difference when coloring. This is something I need to look at when continuing my 3D modeling process. I need to check whether I am happy with the faces and areas I have, or some of the surfaces should be changed. I really like the environment of this piece. It is more complex than Yoda's environment. There are the bamboo sticks and there is grass. I think the warm lighting really adds to the model and it makes it more pop up. I have not thought about what kind of lighting I want to do for my character, but I was thinking of making it quite neutral so it would not change the colors of the character that I am going to add.
This last piece I decided to look at is a portrait of the Joker. I decided to pick it because I thought that it is almost impossible to actually create a low poly piece with a lot of detail. This portrait proved me wrong. It has a lot of detail but is done with a limited amount of vertices. I also like how the source of light is really thought through and the warm light works very well with a bright red jacket. Once again the colored area are finished very precisely with the edges and this is something I need to work on, especially on my character's face. I need to work with the eye area and the eyebrows, so when I color the faces in, they look like I have planned. It is important to keep in mind that it is very difficult to have the finish result similar to what was planned, but looking at how other artists approached the problem, gives me inspiration for my work.
In this research I looked at low poly models by Jona Dinges. I looked at his approach to posing, lighting and coloring the models. I think I gotten some inspiration for doing the colors and I got reminded to check my surfaces that will be colored and if the areas are shaped correctly before applying color. I think looking at a different artist working in this area was very educational for me and it helped me envision a few aspects of my project.
Reference list:
Dribbble (2021) Jona Dinges. Available at: https://dribbble.com/jonadinges/about (Accessed: 01/06/2021).
Instagram (2021) Jona Dinges. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/jonadinges/ (Accessed: 01/06/2021).
Another example of well directed research that fits into your project theme in terms of your techniques and how to apply them. Well done, looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.
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