It is always difficult to get going in January, so I am going to consider the week of 12 January the first week, for this month's Image Of The Month (IOTM); unfortunately the deadline is still the end of the month.

The first week consisted of framing the shot and attempting to match the artist's 'camera' and perspective as closely as possible.  I ended up cutting the people out of the original and pasting them into a single file.  This allowed me to scale each person/group so they were relatively equal, which, in turn, allowed me to export the images as separate files and import them into Blender.  Once their size was established, the only way to visually scale the people larger/smaller was to move them nearer/farther from the camera.  This was very helpful in establishing the characters', and associated buildings/props, relative distance from the camera.  Using that information, I created rough approximations of the major objects in the scene.

MOTW history was made this week (a full two weeks into the challenge): the model was finished on Thursday.  The MOTW followed the 'airport support vehicle' theme that started last week.  This will be the theme for a few more weeks until all the support vehicles are one big happy family.  This week was a tug and luggage carts that form the train responsible for getting your luggage from the terminal to the airplane.

After struggling to model the wheel wells last week, I decided a Subdivision Surface modifier is a requirement for nearly all vehicle models.  That worked reasonably well this week, but trying to keep edge loops intact throughout the model significantly increased my vertex count.  There are plenty of mistakes left to make, but I am getting better at linking assets during the creation but locally saving everything (assets, materials, images, etc.) packed in the final file.  The important Lessons Learned this week:

• Subdivision Surface modifier is key for vehicles (see above)
• Without blueprints, or at least a 3-view drawing, it is easy for relative dimensions to 'adjust' during modeling.  My 'need a human figure for reference' comment from last week still applies.
• Noise textures are great!  I've started using them in almost every shader.  Over the next couple of weeks, I expect to learn the lesson, 'Noise textures can be overused!' :)

The first several Models Of The Week (MOTW) will have an airport support equipment theme; this week's MOTW is a luggage conveyor.

Day 1: Spent the day finding reference photos and dimensions from the internet.

Similar to the Model Of The Week (MOTW), the Image Of The Month (IOTM) is a self-inflicted challenge to improve my 3D skills.  In the IOTM, the challenge is to create a 3D replica of a famous painting each month.  Still in the Christmas spirit, I selected a painting by Robert Finale, Home For Christmas. 

My intent is to provide weekly updates on the work in-progress.

One of my many challenges in 3D modeling is knowing when to stop.  I started creating in 3D as a hobby, and endless tweaking wasn't a significant drawback.   But when working with teams and/or with a customer, being predictable and staying on schedule is vital.  To retrain this particular bad habits, I created several challenges for myself.  Through this MOTW challenge, I will attempt to create a (admittedly simple) model each week; due by midnight Friday.  In theory, I will choose a wide variety of models to create.  In reality, the first few months appear to be leaning toward mechanical objects with which I am most comfortable.  We'll see what the rest of the year brings. 

I will post images of the results here.   I've already started an informal pool to guess how many models I create within the specified schedule.  Feel free to join the pool.  The winner of the pool will likely win something terribly exciting, like a warm feeling of superiority.  Comments and suggestions are always welcome. 

Cheers!