Artwork Shmartwork

2009-10-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well all, it has been too long since my last post, mostly because everything just ends up going into facebook. So for those you readying this post who are friends with me on faceboook, I apologize, nothing new for you here. :) So I have been very very busy creating assets for the fallout 3 mod I am working on with a great group of people (www.theatomiccafe.net). Below I will post the first 4 assets I create for the game.

Also I've got a couple of my finals from last quarter including my Mantis from advanced material and lighting, as well as my first ever character rig. I rigged a character I modeled a while ago, but I had a pretty good time doing it. However rigging a character only showed me how much more of an asset and environment artist I am, cause it was NOT easy, haha.

Also in some other cool news, the UE3 mod i worked on called "Cartel" won an honorable mention from Epic games in phase 4 of the "make something unreal contest". So that was cool! http://planetunreal.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=160321 for a little more info on that.

This quarter I am taking few really cool classes, one of which is called Modeling and Architecture. I've already began work on my next environment for this class which is an old Irish fishing village. Google the town of Doolin Ireland for a kind of "feel" I will be shooting for for this next project, so expect to see updates of that project through the coming couple months. I am also taking a class called Mapping for Games taught by my mentor Johnnie Estill, so I'm very sure I'll take a lot out of that class when it comes to my tincturing skills.

Anyways, onto some in-game screen shots of my recent work for the fallout mod including an air compressor, an automotive lift, and hanging high front he front of a building, as well as a set of hair dryers that will be going into various environments in the game.

Happy Wednesday

2009-08-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well, busy as ever of course. Started attending beer Wednesdays at a pub in Tustin with many fellow students and industry pros. I learn a lot each time and am excited to go again tonight. Also the IGDA OC chapter has been re-vamped and is alive and kicking. The meeting was last night as well, and I am really excited to be apart of the group.
Alrighty then, as far as my art goes, I have been doing plenty recently. The world 6 group will be turning out project in to Epic Games soon. We go into full testing this Thursday! EXCITED Anyways, here is some stuff from my World 6 art as well as a few assignment from my advanced material and lighting class.

Rest In Peace Nana

2009-06-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

For the second and last time I would again dedicate this post to my Nana. She passes away today at around 430 pm. I had just finished finals and was on my way back home to Bakersfield. She has been one of the most influential people in my life and I know for a fact I couldn't be where I am, or the person I am today without her. Nana I love you and will miss you so much and will see you again in heaven one day.

Here's a brief overview of my finals. For more those of you who have my on facebook have access to many more pictures under some new albums I created. Thanks again for viewing. And remember to tell loved ones that you love them every day.

The first 5 pics are of my DM level, next 5 are of m Punisher environment, and last one is my comparative anatomy final.

finals preview...

2009-06-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's where I am at with finals. I'm finishing an in-game environment in the Unreal Editor 3, building a death match level using all UE3 assets, as well as doing a character. Wish me luck. It's going to be a long next few days. BUT... I won't lie, I'm still having fun... :)

[first pic if of my character, next two are my death match level, and the last 4 is my environment]

Snake Lady

2009-06-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

SO i took a break today from my 3d environments class stuff because quite frankly I'm sick of unwrapping, setting to zero, and exporting ACSIIs out of max for the punisher scene. Back to that tomorrow. (Which i should finish unwrapping and start texturing tomorrow.) Anywho, met with Charles over my comparative anatomy final and I decided I'm going to model a character. Since we have to have half human half animal things I did a half woman half snake. The render below is a smoothed out version of my low poly model. I modeled the torso thinking anatomically inc e it is an anatomy class. Her legs are obviously the snake part, and as far as head head which is the last thing to do, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing about it. I'll figure it out over the weekend. So yeah, look out for snake lady! I plan on taking her into zbrush for some details and normals then texturing her in photoshop! Also, PEPPER CONCERT tomorrow! :-) Peace all!

there was a firefight!

2009-05-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the last bit of models for me environments class. All of the modeling is done except for the high poly of the M16 is not quite finished. Just need to deck out the little details and the magazine then the modeling is finished! FINALLY! then I get to UVW them as quick as possible and texture all these dang things. So yeah, these are just the high poly models. Each model has it's own low poly mesh which will get normals off the high polys.

Happy memorial day!

2009-05-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

Well I at least got SOMETHING done this weekend. Here's a shotgun that will be going into the punisher scene I'm still working on. LP is at about 1300Tris. Happy memorial day!

Amp energy...

2009-05-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

...has gotten me through the day yet again. So here's some updates on some stuff I've been working on for school. First is a rendering of a small pistol called a derringer for my Punisher environment. And second is the first steps of my finals death match level for me level design class. K, time to get in a good hour or two of fallout 3 before bed.

Unreal Smengine three

2009-05-19T04:13:00.000-07:00

Well I'm pretty much done with my first set of assets for the World_6 project. I've got them all packaged into unreal and what not. These screen grabs form unreal are just the direct textures plugged into the direct spots. Still plenty of room for improvement by using unreal's node based materialing system to make certain assets really pop to full potential. That will be next most likely with the help of our Unreal guy and environment lead for the project ;-) Thanks again and hope y'all have a good week!

5 weeks left

2009-05-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

until the end of the quarter! Gah, still do much to do for me 3D environment class! Work work work! Here's some updates on my environment class as well as some finished world_6 props. Keep in mind these layout renders for th e enviroment are all of low poly geometry so you might not be able to tell what they are.

Mid-terms

2009-05-04T04:08:00.000-07:00

Mid-terms are here and I've still got plenty of work to do over the next couple days. Anywho, been cranking on getting my World_6 props all with base materials on them, so I'll post those for everyone to take a look see. I look forward to really grunging them up for the game. Sadly they probably won't be touched for a few days since I really need to focus on my actually mid-terms and not so much on this independent project

one more

2009-04-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

So right after my last blog post I got busy and made the bunk beds for World_6. Right beds are high poly left beds are the lows. Hope you like them :-)

ass(et)

2009-04-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

So wow. I'm starting to have a taste of what it might feel like working as a prop artist in the industry, and here's why. I've had the wonderful opportunity to work with about 20 fellow students on an independent project for a short game that will be entered into the make something unreal contest for phase for to try and win $25K. I am currently on a team of about 6 or 7 artists for the game, and it's pretty awesome. Things are looking amazing so far. We have a wide mix of people on the team including artists, programmers, and we even have a music composer! Haha! I've been pumping out low and high poly props like crazy lately due to this project as well as my 3D Environments class. Needless to say... busy busy busy! So regarding the independent project, I will release more details about the game when I think I'm allowed too, lol. I can give you the name of the poject; World_6: It's a 3rd person survival action game in the Unreal 3 Engine for PC. I'm also plenty busy with working at the student store, having a 2d drawing class where i'm pumping out 75 sketches a week, as well as my level design class too. But guess what y'all, it's fun :-) Anyways, here's some of the stuff I've been working on. I'll be working on another prop tonight. I'll try and update a but more often gicin the amount of stuff i'm making recently. Peace! :-)

This piece is something I've been tirelessly working on due to the fact that Johnnie at school kinda gave me a crash curse rendering with Mental Ray in max. This is rendered in mental ray. However, these props will be using in my Punisher scene that's slowly getting done. I really wanted to convey the feeling of mourning Frank Castle felt when his family was murdered in the comic series. These are strictly low poly assets. No high poly needed.

There's are some olden' time hand drills that will be in use in the World_6 project. (Torture devices...hehe)Textures soon to come.

And lastly for this post this is an older style operation light used in a surgical room. This will also be used in World_6. On the left is the low poly and on the right is the high poly. The LP was something around 3K tris and the high was like 56K.

three dee :-)

2009-04-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

3D Owns my life. Simple as that. :-) Today started out interesting when I decided I'd make a couple more props to go into the punisher scene. Ended up making a bit of a 3D still out of it for the fun of it. A good buddy aught me about cube maps in Unreal ad how to make a glass shader in unreal. Anywho, here's what I did today. Hope ya like it. It was a great learning experience and I'm not quite done with it yet. TTFN! These are game models and the whole thing is rendered using Max software.

speed modeling and texturing

2009-04-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

I guess you can consider this a speed model. This is a florescent shop light I plan on using for my 3D environment project "Frank Castle's Workshop", I'd say all and all it took me about 3 hours. I've been working on it off and on all morning and afternoon today at school when I wasn't doing something else related to the classes I was in. I'm not sure how much I like using planes and opacity maps for chains, but I guess it's passable since it will be above the players head suspended from the ceiling in-game. Anywho here it is. Grand total of 64 polygons, diffuse , normal, and spec all at 1042. Maybe a bit much on the pixel resolution but whatever.

k-bar inspired

2009-04-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

My combat knife is done, that was fun :-)

back into the groove of things

2009-04-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

So howdy all. Been a bit since I've posted. Sprig break was short, yet enjoyable. But most of all, GDC was amazing. Had an awesome time meeting new people and getting my worked looked at. Got a lot of good feedback from fellow students and industry pros alike. Any who, I'm glad to be back in school and making art. I modeled this prop, unwrapped it, and started the texturing process on this today. This is a USMC Kay-Bar combat knife that will most likely be used in my project for me 3D environments class: Frank Castle's (The Punisher) Apartment. Hope ya like it. I'll probably finish it sometime this weekend hopefully if my other homework doesn't keep me from it.
Here's a look at the topology.

And here's a quick render out of max.

GDC, HERE I COME!

2009-03-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

So finally, all of my finals are done. Again, what a quarter it's been! Stunning. As you may or may not know, I'll be leaving for the game developers conference this Tuesday and attending Wednesday through Saturday. This is an awesome networking chance and I'm going to jump right on it. Of all my work this quarter, and at my time at Ai, I have made these 4 portfolio sheets. No I'm not going to a job yet, I still have over a yea till graduation, but YES I will be looking for comments, critiques, advice from game industry props the I'll be meeting with. And maybe bed and plead for an internship, hehe. Anyways, here are my pieces I'm taking over, hope you like them! Wish me luck in San Fransisco, and to all you lovely Ai students, have a wonderful spring break! :-)

End of Q7

2009-03-21T04:06:00.000-07:00

Whew... and what a quarter it's been. So the I went on overdrive to get get the piano "done" for tomorrow. Still have to wake up and throw it into UE3 for some screen grabs. The piano has turned out... ok.. I guess. It's just been pretty hard to focus recently being ill and all. Ah well, such is life. Well, I've got plenty to say about the past few days, but no energy to type it, so yeah... sry for that. Check out the max renders of the grand and tell me what you think.
Love
me

Mono:

2009-03-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

It may slow me down, but it shall not stop me. And thanks to the help of Mighty Joe I'm very pleased with how the final version of my den scene came out. There were sacrifices though. The lanterns are one of the biggest, but hey, ars gratia artis and for nothing else :-) Anyways, yes, as of today I've been diagnosed with mono. It's not the end of the world, but it's surley an obstacle to overcome for me. Anyways, happy St. Paddy's day all.

The first is a render out of Maya using Maya software, and the second is a quick brightness touch up I did in photoshop since the school's computers and printers all turn everything out a bit darker.

testing

2009-03-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

Seems like I am being tested. As you may, or may not know, I was diagnosed with pharyngitis and its annoying the heck out of me. Very very painful. Needless to say, I got a little bit of work done and finished texturing the den. All that's left is to really make the lighting look good, and run all my diffuse maps through the nvidia filter for some bump on this piece. Expect more tomorrow night. Night folks, and if you're the praying type, send one my way, I'm going to need a miricale to crank out some decent work now.

texturing

2009-03-10T02:08:00.001-07:00

I've been at the den all night. Here's where I'm currently standing. Only color maps on these, no normals yet. Stupid paint effect flowers don't cast shadows. Please don't tell me I have to paint in shadows in photoshop or actually model and texture these dang things.. gah...

polygons...

2009-03-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

...are win. Well the LP and HP versions of the grand are finished as of just a few min ago. Edge control was a pain in the butt on some parts of this baby, but I'm happy with the overall result. Next in line for this project is to unwrap it then throw on a base texture for a critique from my professor. Sadly, the rest of the project will be on hold for a couple days as I focus on texturing my opium den for my material and lighting class, as well as finish up my final for 3d camera techniques. Anyways, thanks again for reading. Peace, love, and chicken grease.

79 years young

2009-03-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Before I give a quick update of my work, I first want to dedicate this posting to my Nana. Today she is a ripe 79 years young. Nana, you are the epitome of a role model, and will forever and always be an inspiration in my life. There is no doubt in my mind that I couldn't be where I am today with out you, and I love you very much! Thank you for everything!

Now on to the artwork :-)

To maybe give everyone an example of my modeling work flow, I just did a screen grab of my next and final model for my asset class. A grand piano. Let the modeling begin! Plenty to do with this project, that's for sure.

And lastly for today here is a max render of the register I've been working on. Just just say that this prop has definitely been a learning experience. Thanks for reading!

first prop sheet everrrrr

2009-03-06T00:33:00.001-08:00

Well, I tried. In my un-educated opinion I like it. Let me know and if you have any comments or critiques on improving this asset sheet! Thanks always! Three cheers for GDC preparation! :-)

more cg lighting

2009-03-04T17:53:00.001-08:00

The infamous "pool balls" assignment given by my material and lighting instructor. I had fun with it. The first render is supposed to be a day scene, followed by a sunset scene, and lastly, a night scene where the only light in the scene is the bulb turned on. He epically liked my sunset scene, and said it conveyed good realism. He said the night scene wasn't bad either. Fun stuff. CG lighting is not easy.. for example, int he last render o the night scene, it looks as if there's only one light source that's coming from the bulb... right? Nope... I've got twelve different lights set up in that scene to get that look. Crazy yo... Enjoy :-)

5am

2009-03-04T04:50:00.000-08:00

Guh... I need to be asleep. Here's some progress on my register model. Mostly just on the diffuse. The diffuse is pretty much finished. I'm sure I'll tweak a few more things before I slam in some normals and a spec map, but it yeah, diffuse is done for the most part. Hope some added normals from the diffuse for those little patterns and stuff all over the register combined with the HP normals will really make this thing pop. Darn thing would be done by now if it weren't for the 7 or so hours I spent on 3d camera stuff. Ahh well, such is life.

There ya go. Again, just diffuse, no spec, no normals...

And if you're ever wondering what a MooM is. this is one ^. We don't get along very well. This is a screen shot from my final chase scene for 3D camera techniques class where Chris just stole Kyle's pop tart and is about to run out the door with it. Epic lolz.. right?

P.S. Big thanks to Zach Gonzalez for letting me bug him all night about the games industry. He's goten pretty much my dream job, and I've been going back and fourth thorugh e-mail all night on industry advice and what not. Awesome guy, thanks again Zach!
Here's his site... show him some love...
http://www.3dzach.com/index.html

3D Ownage

2009-02-28T22:33:00.001-08:00

As the title says, 3D has consumed my life this quarter. And you know what? I love it. Here's the work in progress of the opium scene I did today. Everything's unwrapped and I messed around with lighting a bit. It's crap I know. The stunning Joe Young is going to give me a hand in lighting this bad boy here within the coming weeks for the final render. Bouncing in between max and maya for material and lighting and my game assets class is doing two main things for me, A; driving me absolutely insane, and B; making me a well rounded 3D artist... :-) BRING IT
Here's the checker. Not the most amazing of UV's. whateva...And here's the clay render wit my trying to light it up. More to come!

Dirty register

2009-02-28T02:14:00.000-08:00

This is a WIP that I'm handing in tomrrow. I wasn't feeling too good about this project early the mornin when I was working on it, but now after about 8 hours on it (mostly stupid mistakes in high poly modeling and uv unrapping) I'm feeling a bit better about it. Decent texture work can do that I guess. I still have quite a bit of teture work to do on it, as well as spec and updated normals. C&Cs welcome ♥

CG Lighting and wat?

2009-02-27T00:06:00.000-08:00

SO this week's been.. ok. Had my crash course in computer generated lighting and realized how fake it is. It's ridiculous how tough it can be to make believable lighting. Anyways, here's a couple renders out of Maya from two lighting exercises done in material and lighting class on Wednesday.

Also, on a side note, Expect to see some renders of m next prop that's due saturday, as well as m opium den all modeled and unwrapped. I've got a large amount of stuff to do... now let's do it! :-)

The Den

2009-02-25T00:22:00.001-08:00

So I should have modeled a bit more than I did today. I've spent about 5 hours today on this scene. I'd like to have more done than what's here, but alas, still a n00b... This is the beginnings of my final project for material and lighting class. He wants an Asian inspired theme, and instead of the cliche Samurai swords and armor that the rest of the class will be undoubtedly doing, I'm going a Chinese opium den, lol. I'd say the modeling is about 69% done. I'll most likely finish the rest of the modeling tomorrow, then work on the unwraps.

Woo hoo, numba one!

2009-02-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

Wowee, so my first post on blog spot ever! Stunning... ok, so here goes. Life is going going going! Between 4 classes at Ai, and working at Gamestop as well as working at the Ai student store, I practically have no time to stop and smell the roses. It's pretty crazy, I don't play games like I used to, I don't run on the beach anymore, blah blah blah wahh wahh. This is my future! It's so close I can taste it. Anyways, stay focused blah blah follow your dreams and draw joy to yourself. Just remember, you've got to work for that joy.

So as far as classes go, everything's going relatively smooth as of now. I was a bit behind in one class due to some technical issues (maya you pain...) but I'm getting the hang of things in the program and everything seems to be on track. So yeah, long as I'm on schedule, I should be alright... right?

WRONG Brad, WRONG! Your going to San Fran-freeking-sisco on week eleven when finals are due! You have to stay one week ahead of the game. Get cracking whitey...

Anyways, I'll try my best to use this blog as a means for friends and family to see my work and it's progression. Speak of family, Mom, Dad, Nana, and Papa: I love you guys so much, without you I would be nothing nowhere. Thanks for everything.

In advance, sorry for such a long post... I'm going try to and catch everyone up a bit on a couple things...

Here, have some Art... First... older post...

These were 3 of the 4 final props I made for a game modeling class. Not bad for first textured props ever in my opinion :-) Sarge epically likes how the flintlock and cutlass turned out. And I kinda impressed everyone with the projection mapping for the chest. Yay for Game Art!

Here are some silly Nazi's I made for character and object design class. This was a piece my final. I'm thinking of taking Patrick's next class special topics in game design some quarter, but I'm nervous about doing so. I'm terrible and conceptual drawing, but I want to get better. If only there was the time to be a decent 2d AND 3d artist...

And here we go, my first character concept... This is still a work in progress since last quarter. Here's his character sheet.

Needless to say, I opened him back up one night in maya and did an absolutely terrible, quick unwrap in UV Layout, and a crappier texture and bump map in photoshop as a "lets practice and see if I like the whole character art thingy." Well, I DO! I plan on fixing up the model a bit and then going to town on this guy. In Max of course though. Nothing personal Maya... I'm going to rig him for animation once I take 3d character rigging.

So yeah, One last look at the p.o.s job I did. :-]

OK, so now for newer stuff...

The Infamous tele. :-) I had a lot of fun with this one in Game assets development.

First prop I did in game assets development. 60's themed Television set. As far as how much I like it.. meh... I'll re do the textures and add normals for uberness one day maybe...

Here's my mid-term for material and lighting. I'm please with how it turns out for my first scene ever set up in maya. The wagon wheel came out awesome!

Ok, one more thing, here's a render from a lighting study in maya... I did the lights.. that's it, not the modeling. K, stay tuned, and ILY all! :-*