A Little Abstract Stuff

I was really inspired by the work and style of Nick Luchkiv, Erik Jansson, and Matt Laskowski, also known as fox-orian, and decided to try a bit of abstract art of my own, which I've been wanting to do for a while now.  I really enjoyed working on these and will definitely be working on some more graphic design, web design and abstract pieces in the future especially since I really like the idea of being more versatile and able to create more than just game art.

Teaching

For the past six weeks I've been alternating between teaching Maya and the Starcraft 2 editor at an ID Tech camp, the Villanova ID Gaming Academy to be exact, as the Lead Instructor.  Our director, Andrew DeScisciolo was kind enough to put together a demo reel of what the camp is all about.  It gives a quick example of what each program entails for the students' parents and then goes into some of the students' work for that session.  Each session is two weeks.  Above are two of the reels that we put together.  For the first one, I taught the Maya session and did the quick battle axe creation to give the parents an idea of what Maya is and how it works.  For the second one, I taught the StarCraft 2 Modding session.  The camp was an absolute blast and I'm really proud and impressed with how quickly the campers, ages 13-18, were able to pick up and understand the software as well as how motivated and dedicated they were.  The only unfortunate thing is that I don't really have any new work to show other than some completely random objects, characters and environments that I used to show the students' how to create things and use certain tools.

Here are the other awesome instructors that I worked with:

Sean O'Connor
Alex Kwan
Mike Leach

Letting Go of an Old Project

I revisited my old Brooklyn Banks scene after about a year; I wanted to add the edge detection shader that I've been playing around with, and loving, to see how it would affect the scene and I wanted to add environment fog to the scene, which I believe is new to UDK (within the year) to improve the atmospheric perspective.  I was thinking about going back and improving models, textures, normal maps, etc. since I feel like I've learned so much since I started this, but I think it is beyond fixing.  It was my first real game environment and I think that there is just too much to fix to make any significant improvements.  It kills me inside, but I know I have to do it and move on, make better projects and continue learning.  I did like how the environment fog and shader came out though and so I thought I would post a couple screen shots.

Another Portrait and a Prop in Progress

I made another 'Gorillaz style' portrait of myself for fun.  I was planning on putting the 3D dagger into the image, but it wasn't looking right for the time being.  I need more practice compositing I guess.  The dagger still needs to be UV'd and textured and I still need to model the cloth for it and make some adjustments to the handle, but I wanted to show some of the stuff I've been working on lately.  I've also started another environment, but I think I'm going to put some more work into it before I post it.

Rage Shading, New Concrete and a Paint Over

Back when I was working on Dreamspanner with Team RageWin we had an edge detection shader written by Neal Ahmed that we affectionately called the 'Rage Shader'.  I put a similar edge detection shader on my bike scene to give it more of a Borderlands, toonish feel, thanks to this baller right here.  I feel like it really helped the scene out a lot and gave it more of a stylized look to it, which I love.  I also added a new pedastal/concrete section to the map because the old one just wasn't working enough for me.  The new one is cut more and sharper and hopefully gives more of a feel of being ripped from the ground.  The last image is a paintover for how I thought I might take the scene, but I think I'm going to stick to my original concept for the time being to have a finishing point for the scene.  I'll be able to replace it in my portfolio and demo reel then and continue on with the grand scheme of it which will likely take me a while to finish.

Granny Guntner and a Big Pea Shooter

My friend Matt (Guntner) who I went to Full Sail with was doing some coding tests/mockups for a job.  He  created a little game/simulation that allowed the player to maneuver the cannon and shoot it.  He asked me to make him a couple quick assets to use with his demo.  So that's what the little setup above is.  I didn't spend very long on it, but I did try to give him a lot more than what he was asking for, which was basically a cylinder, lol.  He ended up getting the job and is now working at Bigpoint, which I thought was really cool.  I'm still trying to get a little YouTube video out of him of the game, but I know he's pretty busy getting acquainted with his new job and city.

Update: Matt hooked me up with the video.  Check it out!

Gorillaz and Megatouch

A couple months back I went to an AMI Entertainment also known as Megatouch presentation on Full Sail's campus.  It was very interesting and helpful.  One of the little tidbits that the presenters shared was to have a picture of yourself on your website so people you met at a conference or what not would remember you by face.  At the time I started making these I had been looking at a lot of Gorillaz inspired artwork.  I love that style and the way that they are able to incorporate live action, 2d and 3d elements.  Since I'm an introvert and a bit uncomfortable plastering my mug all over stuff I thought I'd meet the challenge half way and at least draw a semi-realistic interpretation of myself in a Gorillaz style.

I've gotten a lot of positive responses from them, but some negative ones as well.  It seems to be a bit more polarizing than my traditional game art.  If you're checking this out I'd definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts, good or bad especially since I have a couple more in the works that will be incorporating some 3D models.

P.S. - the cats are mine and the black one, Grace, only has one eye :)

Eat 3D Forum Spotlight

A couple weeks back I started posting my works in progress for this on Eat 3D and I was lucky enough to be put on their forum spotlight which I thought was really cool.  I've been posting more updates there than on my blog so if you would like to check it out here's the link.  It shows what I was going for in terms of the textures and the model.

Pedastal Concept

These are some quick concepts I drew up for the pedastal/small environment for the bike from Akira.  I'm going for the enlarged one, still have a ways to go yet.

Akira Bike Update - WIP

I'm in the process of updating/improving my rendition of Kaneda's bike from Akira.  I've worked on pushing the texture detail, bringing it into UDK, and changing the environment/pedastal around from what it was previously.  The pedastal I had before with my Maya render was a bit rushed and neither the textures or models were really ideal so I've been re-working it to make it a bit more presentable.  It's still a work in progress, but just wanted to post an update.  Maybe later I'll post some of the concept ideas I drew up for it.

Female Character WIP

This is a female character I'm in the process of creating.  I'm trying to keep the polycount under the 6K triangle mark, but I keep trying to add silhouette here and there.  I also have a tendency to keep working on the face to make it better.

Gorilla Spider WIP

Here is a couple screen grabs of a gorilla spider I worked on.  This project was for a class I was taking.  The objective was to mix two different animal types into one creature.  Polycount is under 6K tris.  I have this rigged, thanks to some help from my friend Taylor, and there is a run cycle for it.  Perhaps one day I'll get around to posting the rig setup, run cycle, and concept sheet.  The texture for this needs some love and I'd like to have it posed on a pedestal of some sort at some point as well.