Block out has begun

I've started on my blockout of the environment, and I immediately noticed that this would be a quite difficult project simply because the concept only has the silhouette and well developed color, but leaves the fine detail to the imagination. This, however, makes me very excited because its just enough to keep me on the right track, while also leaving me to my imagination. 

I decided the best place to start was in the foreground with the mysterious and seemingly useless traffic light. Considering the area is somewhat overgrown and serves more as a walking area, I decided to further incorporate the whole sky-train idea into this piece. I decided that the only way a sky train would be practical would be if it remained in the air on a set path rather than flying around wherever it pleases. In order to get up to the sky-train you'd be required to take this elevator up to a walkway and board the train from there. 

The style of the elevator is mostly inspired by Chinese maintenance elevators. I incorporated a grid onto the sides with square holes and an aesthetic, yet functional design.  

Instead of having a door that lifts up though, I decided to make something more pedestrian friendly and have just a lift hatch. The ceiling piece at the very top is from the rest of the scene where you see those scattered all about the scene. With this as a part of the elevator, I figure it would serve as a marking for a walkway area with stops intermittently about the city. 

This is pretty much all I've worked on, but I have been planning how I want to make this and I want to try and make the whole thing procedural, using only normal maps and specular maps. I think it may just work, and I'm excited to begin that process. However, until then, I'll have to finish the block out with the exception of the actual train, which I will have to spend a lot of time trying to flesh out. 

Hope you enjoy and keep a look out for more progress. 

Finals, and now another new project?

Well, Finals are here and I've updated my blog almost none. If you want to see what I've worked on then check out my website. I've also become somewhat proficient at rigging and marginally decent at animating. I think, however, it's safe to say I want to do Environment Art. For the longest time I flipped back and forth between what I want to do, whether it be environment art or character art but now that I've decided, I think it's time for me to heavily focus on my skills. My work is always rushed to some extent and as a student I feel like that is good, but only for a bit. I shouldn't be lazy about my work, but I shouldn't go full force on working on projects either. I think what I'll do, after finals of course, it start on one large personal project to work on amid my school work. It'll be my go to peaceful time away from the hectic schoolwork. The concept I'll be working from is this:

This is "Sky Train" by Kinman Chan.If you want to see more of his work, here it is. I can't wait to start on this piece, and if I've learned anything from my previous project, its that block outs and time management is key. 

I'll try and keep you updated!

Fooling around, now time for work!

So I bought a Nexus 7 tablet recently and have been really enjoying it. It is a gaming tablet so its been giving me some ideas on games I can make using powerful engines such as Unreal. Games like Dark Meadow give me a strong understanding of just how games like that work, but then again, how they don't. I feel like the tablet isn't really meant for hardcore gamers or even casual gamers. Simple games are more for on the go and are equally as addicting as any hardcore game. I'm thinking platformers are perfect. Besides, there's nothing wrong with them, just overdone and rushed. Quality games require love and care and I see that when playing games like Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland. So anyways, school is still around and I am working, but not so much on my level as I should be. Trust me, however, because I will post more images soon once I get my flow map working. Until then, I'll be playing n my tablet (which is where I'm posting from by the way).

Back in the saddle?

Whoah, school started and life started to catch up. Unfortunately, I've put the Bionicle project on the back burner for now. Reason being was the lack of the ability to animate/rig properly. Considering that I'm taking both of those classes now, the project will resume eventually assuming I don't find an internship.

On another note...school! I'm currently enrolled in a Level Design course and am enjoying it thoroughly  I've been working on a level for my Game IP "Smile's World" and have quite a few pictures to update with. However, instead of taking space here, I'll link you to the Polycount WIP page.

On top of that, I also will be entering the DOTA2 contest on Polycount with school work on top of that. Oh boy, how exciting.

Lots of work done!

So over the past few days I've focused mainly on getting Po-Koro finished as far as animations go. The village seems very alive now and full of antics (Like one of the Matoran trying to catch a goat and falling on his face.) There isn't a lot of unnecessary action though because I don't want to detract attention from the main cast of characters. I'll probably post a video later of what I have so far, but for right now I'm building lighting and need to do some texture work on the characters since Pohatu is the only polished and good looking character. Everyone else has a diffuse and barely a specular slapped on. The masks are also lacking, but I think that only Hafu, Hewkii, and Onewa need really detailed masks considering everyone else is just background.

Now that I finished Po-Koro, people and environment, I decided to start (and finish) the final character for the video, and the most important as well: Tahnok. Right now he has a pretty basic diffuse on him, but I'll be working on textures tomorrow all day (sounds like a blast). However, the modeling went by very quickly and I think that since I'm in the groove of things, modeling is the least of my worries. Getting these key animations done though is a different story. I'll need to put more time into them considering I'm not a skilled animator by a long shot.

I'm tired now and need to get some rest before starting the exciting process of refining those texture maps (and there's a million of them.) By God knows when tomorrow, I'll post tons of pictures of each character with the finished textures and maybe some videos of how the town is looking. Thursday I'll be spending the day with my friend and talking with him about getting some music for this video, although most of that hangs on when I'm finished. Either way, it'll be a nice little break. The summer is quickly fading away and my time to finish this is getting crunched down to nothing. Yikes. Hopefully I can get it done and can be ready for the next part of my project during the school year. What, you thought I'd just make all of these Bionicles for no reason or just for a two minute video? Please...I have a lot planned for these models. A lot planned indeed...

Po-Koro finally done! Now onto animations

That's right, I finally finished Po-Koro and have moved onto the tedious task of animating the city. I'm not doing the main animations yet due to the fact I still haven't finished the masks or even Tahnok! However, I've done the animations for the Maha and some for the Matoran (though the list is quite long).

I intend to have the Matoran interact with one another in various ways, so that will take some work, but I have a few basics done like idle, waving, and head turning. If these don't look quite right, it doesn't really matter since these are mainly backdrop characters and not essential to the overall video. I have to say though, Po-Koro is much more exciting to look at with actual movement in it now rather than a dead city.

Take a look at what I've got so far!

Slow going

I know I haven't posted in a few days, I'm just working on various props and things. I started a thread on Polycount to get some critique on the project, and so far with little success. Hopefully I can get the ball rolling a bit faster and finish those props. Shouldn't take too long and I just finished the crates, wagon, Maha and am working on the sand piles. Woohoo. I'll be gone for a while, but when I post again, it'll be the first pass of the completed Po-Koro and I'll have started on the animations. I'm excited, and I can't wait.