Happy Halloween!

Thesis Progress

Well, it's been a while since my last post on my blog. Still working on my thesis, but I actually have something to show this time!

Elia went through some changes, even changing her jacket's color (gasp) but then returning to it's original color (phew). So anyways, here's a posed shot.

Not the pinnacle of perfection, but this is the sculpt with polypaint. I am currently retopologizing her and will be doing some rigorous texturing to make her look perfect. 

Next I have an update on Taluun. He's not posed, but here's my progress so far:

GAHH! He's blue! Yeah, he is. Remember the sculpt a few posts back of the guy with the helmet? Yeah, that is Captain Elim of the Aeroica City Guard and is the same species as my thesis character, Taluun. Taluun was the first of his people. I originally wanted the race to be a dark tan, but after making Elim's sculpt blue, and upon suggestion of my professor, Taluun and the entire species has now turned blue, which to me makes it considerably more exotic and interesting. I'm not saying blue people haven't been done before, but it is different. 

Anyways, it seems that the fun is over for now for my characters. What comes next is many weeks of retopo, rigging, and texuring/UVs. Yay. 

Until next time!

VGREMIX IS FINALLY FINISHED!

Hoo boy. That was fun, and my quote of the night is "Now I don't know what to do with myself".

I finished my Polycount Contest Entry and pretty excited on how it came out. If you want to see my submission, click here: POLYCOUNT VGREMIX SUBMISSION

I'm nervous and excited about how this is going to turn out, but I had a ton of support and I can honestly say that if nothing at all:

I learned a lot of things I didn't already know
I found out about Sketchfab (amazing!)
I had a few followers and wonderful supporters, so I know my art touched at least someone
And most of all, I finished a project in a small time limit amid also vacationing and general life

This was definitely fun and I think I may have found a new portfolio piece :) At least for now, anyways.

I'm tired from working, so time to chill for a bit. Until next time!

Thesis update and Polycount contest!

Hey there! Ok, so last time I posted I had a tidbit of information on my thesis and my progress. Well in my down-time I have been working on a few other things so that I don't get burned out (which tends to happen).

First, I've been keeping up with my daily sculpts...but not uploading them. The time it takes to render a turntable, edit it, render that, and upload to YouTube is exhaustively long and takes a lot of time out of my day where I could be doing more interesting things. So yeah, stopped the Vlog, keeping up with daily sculpts. Speaking of which, here's a dude!

Secondly, Polycount started up a contest which I have been very interested in, and considering that it is only 3 weeks long, I decided to jump right on it! So I don't clog up the blog, here's a link to the thread: POLYCOUNT VGREMIX ENTRY!

The basic premise is a diorama based on Pikmin mixed with tabletops like D&D and Heroscape. Below is a sketchfab with my latest progress!

So that's pretty much it. I will be continuing my entry, continuing sculpting, and getting back to my thesis AS WELL AS updating my portfolio which I feel...kinda needs it. I like my old stuff, but I think it's out of nostalgia. Anyhow, winning the contest or not, I am proud of the Pikmin entry and will be placing that in my portfolio.

Until next time!

Thesis pictures incoming!

Hello there! So last time I posted I was talking about getting inspiration for the project and doing a daily VLolg. I am still doing it, but need to streamline the process because as it turns out, editing the video is proving longer than actually doing it. Anyways, I have 6 speed sculpts up HERE.

Anyways, what else have I been doing? Well of course, my college thesis! And without further ado, the pictures of my progress so far on said thesis:
**NOTE: THESE ARE IN PROGRESS! JUST LETTIN' YA KNOW**

The first two images are of the main protagonist, Elia. She is very strong, fast, and courageous (though she is not quite sure of her full potential yet.) Some ideas behind her design were that I wanted someone with some idea of aerodynamics or fast, without being completely speed based. If that doesn't make sense, maybe this will clear it up. I wanted to give her a red color because I felt that red often signified two things: DANGER! and Fast. Think about red cars and the feeling you get from them. With her bright red jacket and tabi with orange markings I figured that it would make her look dangerous yet somewhat fashionable. The teal color I felt would bring back the extremity a little bit by cooling down her overall form along with the grey in her pants. 

The second two images you may have seen before of Taluun: God of the Sky and the "Grand Architect", though recently huge pain in everyone's ass. It is up to Elia to stop him, as protagonists do, and show a counterbalance of speed over pure bulk. Now, Taluun's colors are not all grey (because that's boring) but I am having somewhat of a hard time with deciding his scheme. I could go classic green and purple with black but I'm afraid that may be too cliche. I want him to appear light, as he is the God of the Sky and can fly, so maybe some yellows and blues. I will play around with it, but that's my thoughts so far. 

Thanks for taking a gander at my images and if you have any comments then feel free to post them below (I'm pretty sure this thing has a comments section anyways). Until next time!

New Vlog and update on thesis!

Hello! Well I have a few new exciting things to share.

1. Remember that mic I talked about? Well, I recorded some test lines for Taluun, played around with some filters, and I think I have a good sounding voice for him. Soon, I'll be recording all of his lines and making some animations based around them to get a general feel for the character and also working kinks out of the Unreal 3 pipeline so that later down the road, there isn't a problem.

2. I also played around with Taluun and made some progress on his model, however, I won't upload any more pictures until he is completely finished. I also made some adjustments to Elia and hopefully by next week I can upload some update photos on her.

and finally:

3. To keep myself from burning out on my thesis and to motivate my art skills, I decided to start a Vlog called "1000 Bad Drawings" with the concept that every artist has a 1000 bad drawings out and practice makes perfect. Essentially, its just a digital sketchbook, but why not make it interesting?

Anyways, here's my first video and I'll be uploading daily (yes, daily). I am terrible with keeping up with these kinds of things...so let's hope this goes well. I will have to push myself harder than ever before.

Enjoy! And until next time...keep updated on my new youtube Vlog!

Getting it together

So, it's been a bit of a slow week as far as work is concerned, what with it being my birthday and all, but I have been getting some things together and doing some 2D work.

I went into Photoshop and quickly whipped up some squares for story boarding which I will be using to get a general idea of how the scenes look and composed. So far I have 2 pages which isn't really much but like I said, it's slow going. Once I get the storyboard done, I will be scanning it and will post it.

I also recently purchased a microphone for recording dialogue. So far I really like it for the price range. $70 Samson Meteor Mic with USB. I will be playing around with different audio software to see what I can do for voices and synths for the previously mentioned character: Taluun.

I am very excited to continue working on this and I hope to get Taluun finished in the next week or so (high poly I mean) and can start recording lines. Oh, the fun will begin when I start rigging. I may hold off on that or flop back and forth between Elia and rigs in order to not get bogged down and bored of the single project. I tend to find that working many hours on the same thing as tedious and can make mistakes doing so from looking at the same thing.

Anyways, I'll be posting hopefully some good stuff next week!

Until next time!