A very helpful critique video as always. I attempted L2 again, this time spending more time on each one. After the initial gesture was established, I tried to simplify the muscle masses I saw as blobs of various shapes and edges. Afterwards I drew rough cross contours along the arms to really understand the 3d forms of the blobs combined. That helped immensely with figuring out where the form would start turning away from the light, and what edge each blob would create. When choosing the lighting, I picked a group of blobs that I wanted to emphasize (like Stan mentioned in one of the demos) and chose a lighting that would create the most contrast/little shapes. Thinking of each section as cylinders/boxes and lighting them beforehand made lighting the actual arm a lot easier. There’s some shadow shapes that I made up on the spot because I thought they looked more interesting, even if they aren’t accurate. Lighting from imagination is hard, but it feels more manageable now, having applied what Stan has taught in previous projects.

Some more practice

Shadow mapping attempts

arigato gosiamas]

Take-Aways - variety: if it's not obvious, push it a little, especially in areas that will accentuate the forms. Variety is also not the same as complexity. Focus on the big reads. - shape design >> anatomy: good, clear shape design compensates for any deficiencies in anatomy knowledge. And a key element of good shape design is asymmetry and rhythm. Ignoring that you know it's an arm and has muscles and instead thinking about C,S,I, round/organic vs boxy will get you where you need to go. - proportion: while less important than the above, accurate proportions support shape design and variety - thick ≠ soft: an edge that is soft is gradated, light. - outlines/contours should support the sense of form. Outlining everything can detract from the overall effect of roundness, flattening things out. - finding the terminator is only the first step in identifying the core shadow. Also, I really appreciate how Stan tempers his expectations based on the skill levels of submissions, as well as as the critique precedes. I think that helps those of us that might get discouraged by commentary that doesn't speak to their skill level.

I hope it will be some christmas challenge this December also 😊 Its so fun.

Sorry I did the assignment wrong and rendered the entire thing. I realized after I submitted it and saw everyone else’s that I didn’t do it right. But I’m super stoked you took the time to critique my submission! That was really cool. Thanks for everything Stan! And thanks for the awesome course. It’s been one of my favorite courses so far.

Thanks again professor Stan. Nice lesson!

I was struggling to understand what was a firm line and what was a sharp line.The explanation in this demo really helped me out.

✅

This is why I was asking about charcoal. I find it difficult to control. Is it just practice or are there good tutorials that will help?

Lol @ Scott. The horse part.

Excellent, Mr. Stan! Thank you for the feedback; I understand it and I will practice doing smooth edges. I've noticed a significant improvement after applying the last two lessons you gave before this critique session.

Thank you! If its firm edge make it thin and soft thicker. I get it. I’ll keep on focusing finding firm and Sharp edges. And yeah I think I was a bit confused with the shadow mapping as well because the terminator gets 2 edges one to the light side and one towards the shadow side we don’t fill in. So i didnt really knew what to do towards the shadow side.