Freehand Concept Art | MasterpieceVR | Final Project Assignment

Reflection

For the final assignment, I used MasterpieceVR (a tool I discovered during the course of this class, and was not a part of the independent study proposal) to create a complex organic character 3D sketch. The reason for this choice was to test the affordance of VR for creating character models (something I had not explicitly explored over the course of this class). This was also useful in the context of my thesis creation, which might involve sketching cutomised characters in VR depicting people from a speculative Indofuturist world.

I created a speculative science fiction 3D character sketch of an Indian cyborg, inspired by a mythological character from the ancient Indian book, Ramayana: the 10-headed demon, “Ravana”. This was completely sketched freehand in MasterpieceVR. The art uses inspirations for “Ravana” characteristic’s from artist Sanjay Patel’s illustrations and my understanding of the characteristics from memories of my childhood.

Concept Art sketched freehand in MastpieceVR

This creation also contributes to the informal thought experiments portfolio I’ve been creating for my thesis (imagining a speculative future world for India rooted in its cultural histories).

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Through this exploration, I learned that this tool is more suited for inorganic modeling as compared to organic. The output did not completely meet the level of detailing I intended to achieve through this piece. Perhaps cause I did not use a 2D reference sketch and created it all freehand. However, this choice was a conscious one in response to core intent of this study of creating everything inside VR. I imagined creating an outline within MasterpieceVR as a guide to the form of the character, but it ended up coming out flat.

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I then moved on to freehand sculpting, and creating relative body proportions.

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My conclusion at this time on MasterpieceVR for organic modeling is that it is a useful tool for mocking up concept and scale. The creation of a detailed output would require additional process outside VR like sketching 2D references and importing them, or experience/familiarity with hands-on sculpting that could be applied to virtual sculpting.

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