Some Changes

Made some small changes, been looking at it so long not sure if I made it worse? Calling it done for good now!

Considered Finished?

Fast Car

Been busy with some client work, but here is a car I modeled a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away. Decided to re-work it a bit and re-render it in Maya.

Hitman Case Renders

Alright finished the 1911, and thought it would be fun to do a case with the guns, considering they are Hitman themed. Here are some renders of the final product, enjoy!

Quick Render 4 AK

Here is a quick scene I threw together, used the new dDo materials for the earth. The weapon does not have a very good material specularity, it turned out okay.

Quick Render

Alright back on the saddle, here is a quick render of a shotty. So as far as projects go, finishing up some weapons, I've modeled out most of the Red Square scene. Going to do some "research" on the hockey arena tonight, and by research I mean go watch a game and hopefully remember to take some photos.

Done and Done

So here is the final rendering of Rogue on Stanley Lau Artgerm's Justice Magazine art covers. I have mixed feelings about it, overall not that great in comparison, but live and learn.

Color

So I've started to throw some color into the image. I think my rendering is too soft compared to ArtGerms, his stroked aren't quite as blended. I like his look, just need to get out of my habits. Need to wrap it up soon though.

ColorFlats

So here is the base colors for the cover, I changed a few things from the line work.

Copy Cat

So its been awhile since my last post, gonna get back on the horse and try to be more active on this blog. So if your remotely involved in the digital art community you're probably familiar with ArtGerm's Justice Magazine covers he does occasionally. They are fun and his talent level is amazing. I know everyone and their mom have replicated these, but I was motivated and thought I'd not be original. So I took some time and figured out what fonts he used and laid out my own cover for a non DC universe character that has abandoned Marvel, it could happen? Anyways it actually felt right because Daniel does a good job making the magazines headlines fit into feel of the cover. Well I guess we'll see how it turns out?

Another VPA

Forgot to post this on here for those who check this blog out. It is another virtual plein air drawing for the group on Facebook. I had a really fun time with this and learned a few things that are helping the quick concept ideas. It's not the greatest but I feel its a step in the right direction.

Making Progress

Here is the arena now, a lot of stuff is still placeholder quality. Researched a bit more, still have no idea what I'm going to do about the seat polycount, its going to be ridiculously high. No, my individual seat count isn't that high, there is just a lot of seats 12,600 to be exact. So if the seat is a 100 polygons that's 1.2 million polygons just for butts, ouch! I am getting to a point where the 5 reference pics I took aren't doing a whole lot for me, gonna need to make a visit and get some useful pictures to move me forward. This could be a problem because they're usually not open everyday, or to anybody, so I may be putting this one off for a bit, which I promised myself I wouldn't do, but I may have to for a bit.

Here's the progress.

Layout

Started to layout a few things today, trying to get the architecture right. Created the seats and placed them in one section of the arena, its somewhere in the 100,000 polygon range...! Not sure how I'm gonna get it to run in engine with all the seats in the arena....  Looked at NHL 15 and FIFA 15 and they have all the seats and upwards of 9,000 active fans animating in the arena and it runs at 60 FPS, the polycount on screen has to be in the 10's of millions polygon range, they have to be optimizing it somehow? I'll have to research it a bit more. Here is an updated pic.

Champions

Well had a few hours tonight so I replicated the championship banners. Here is a quick texture pass on them. Gonna do a cloth sim in maya and then transfer the normals to the banners to give them a cloth feel so there not so flat looking. Im working off of some old ref photos I took a long time ago. The banners aren't 100% accurate, but not too far off. Going to have to take some good reference photos the next time I'm there so I can get the details right.

Its Been Awhile....

Alright, since I've started a new job (no, not in the industry) I haven't had much time to work on stuff, or motivation. :(  I've realized that I've fallen into the artist's trap of starting a project, being really excited about it, then get about halfway through it, and abandon it. This is usually due to starting another, more exciting project, well at least I think at the time. Well, this is getting me nowhere when it comes to polishing a good portfolio. So I have looked at some older projects that are sitting on my computer and have decided to pick a few that I feel have potential to be good portfolio piece and finish the damn thing! So here is the first project that I have decided to finish and get in engine. I love sports, I love sports games, I have actually thought this would be a good industry niche to get into, but haven't explored or finished anything yet to show off. I'm making a promise to myself that I will only post pics of this until its finished, hopefully it will get me motivated to finish it. My family loves the Utah Grizzlies and hockey so here is the Maverik center in West Valley, Utah. I have a lot of good memories in this arena, and have spent many winter nights in that spot on the image. Plus I'm hoping our 2026 bid on the Winter Olympics actually goes through, its a long shot but it'd be nice to see Olympic hockey back in this arena.

Hopefully I can get the arena looking like this, minus the crowd. NHL 15

Of course I picked "The Joe" as an example!

Virtual Plein Air

Here is a piece that I painted up today to contribute to Virtual Plein Air Facebook page, its a great group with a lot of great artists, check it out. I obviously need a lot of practice, a little going right a lot going wrong with this piece but it was fun.

Høgsholtve, Denmark 
http://www.mapcrunch.com/p/55.730139_9.490896_-663.14_-18.88_-1

1911 Update

Alright, I think I'm happy with the 1911. Here's a quick render of it. I know its clean but that's how I wanted it, Agent 47 receives only the finest in weaponry. Doesn't look much different that the other render, but this one looks better in all lighting scenarios.

Stay out!!!

Here is a fence I made for a side project I'm working on.

Tileable Fencing

Here is a quick tileable fence and barbed wire texture I made. Modeled some quick shapes, dropped it into Zbrush to get some 2.5D renders and Photoshopped.

Quick Marm Render

 Close Up in Maya VP 2.0

Back to Life, Back to Reality!

So I was lucky enough to spend a few months working on personal stuff, but now that I realize a job within the industry is not in the cards right at the moment, time to get a part timer. I just felt bad and irresponsible to not be bringing in any money at all. This is why I have not posted anything the past few days, 10 hour days at the new job and just have been burnt out to jump on the computer. Well I'm back in the saddle and here is a little hard surface modeling nugget I found in the depths of the Interwebs, Enjoy! http://imgur.com/a/dEWXP

This picture is just an example check out the link to see more!

Block In

Here is a block in of Red Square that I plan to hopefully finish one day. Its a pretty big undertaking considering the detail in the buildings of this era. The tiled cobblestone is not the scale it will eventually be, just threw it in there so you guys can see what it was for. Eventually I will throw it in UDK and the Cobblestone will have puddles and variation to the height with a Vert Blending shader that I got from my friend. With some decals of crosswalks and street lines, it will break up the repeating look of it. The cathedral itself is actually backwards as well. Man I'm getting overwhelmed looking at it.

Finalized the Cobblestone Texture

Here is the final version of the cobblestone texture I've been working on the past few days.

Texture Fun

So I am taking a break from the towers and doing some tile-able textures for the red square floor. Its a first pass on all maps except normals.

Quick Update

Here is the progress on the towers....

Okay Last gun, I swear!

Alright guys I got my last fix of firearms to show off. I know what people must be thinking is this dude from Russia or the former Soviet Union. The answer is no, but I have been watching a lot of the show "The Americans"?  It's actually a coincidence that half of what I've shown has originated from the "motherussia", but another weapon from our Cold War collegues. The ppsh-41 is a full automatic rifle with a crazy rate of fire, I mean you could cut wood with it.

Game-Res Geo

First Texture Pass

Couldn't get the embedded version of the Sketchfab model into this blog, so here is the direct link if you want to check it out. https://skfb.ly/yJOu

Good Advice For High Poly Modeling

Where was this when I was going to school? Keep in mind that anything I repost from another source will be credited unless there is credit info on the picture itself, thanks Joe.

Update

Here is a preview of the normals on the towers of St. Basils Cathedral, enjoy.

PBR Materials Cheat Sheet

So learning PBR workflow has been challenging, but rewarding to see how much better the assets look in various lighting scenarios. Here is a cheat sheet to pass along to those who want to get a little help.

If any one who checks this blog has any questions regarding this sheet or PBR in general, comment below and I'll try my best to answer them.

Play Time

Here is a quick set I made to see how far I could push the normal detail while using super low poly geo. Quick and dirty, but fun to mess around. 

Wires

Guns, Guns, Guns, and More Guns Part 2

Alright so last gun for a bit. Classic AK, I made this awhile back and decided to redo it. I forgot to mention if you have any critiques or comments feel free to write me. The fact that I am trying to do a post everyday, I should be able to respond to it very quickly. Also, please follow my blog, tell your friends or share this page on Twitter or Facebook if you like what you see. That was a shameless plug because of the hard work on my end, thanks.

Game-Res Geo

Normal Map Applied

First Pass on the Texture

Gonna change the handle of the AK to a synthetic instead of wood. Plus gotta grunge up all these guns to give them a story. Alright this will be the last gun I post....for a little while. Definitely gonna keep posting everyday so check back. 

Guns, Guns, Guns, and More Guns Part 1

So I started to model a bunch of different things for my portfolio and I got caught up doing a bunch of different guns. I had modeled several different ones a year or two ago and thought while I'm doing these new ones, why not update the ones a did awhile ago to a higher quality. Well come to find out I had to practically start over on them, so I didn't save that much time. Well, live and learn. Here is a KS-23 shotgun, little fact about this shotgun is its actually considered a Karbine. They used old small cannon barrels with rifling to create it, and it has 7 different types of ammunition for it.

 Game Res Model

Normals Applied

First Texture Pass

Check back tomorrow, one last weapon preview......

Ode to the Motherland

Here is a quick glimpse of an environment I'm working on. It was a real challenge to bake down the domes and keep them at a decent poly count. I think each one is about 140 tris.

What Can I Say, I Like Guns

Here is a g36c I am modeling alongside other projects to update my portfolio.

Game-Res Model

Normal Maps

 First Texture Pass

And yes, there will be a few more guns to show.