Dudra 3D

Aesimoch Armor Sculpt

2011-06-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

Finished sculpting almost all of the armor. I need to add some sort of torc/choker to enable the separation of the head from the body in the final low-res. I've included the skull he'll be holding in his right hand.

Aesimoch Body Sculpt

2011-05-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've finished the basic body sculpt.

Dominance War Entry - Aesimoch: Final Design

2011-03-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Here is my final design for my Dominance War V entry. I'm going with an organic Egyptian/Aztec/Mayan motif. I've also decided to actually make him skinless. I'd used the muscle anatomy overlay as a guide during the design process, but the more I played with it, the more I liked it. I'll find a way to make it look more mystical and powerful than grotesque skinlessness. The point is that he's just a manifested form of the god of balance, so he is made of whatever is appropriate for the needs of balance. He's large enough to hold a galaxy in his hand, so perhaps the glowing aspects are all stars packed together. =)

Dominance War Entry - Aesimoch: Figure Roughs

2011-03-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the conceptual roughs I finished today for Dominance War V. I don't think any of them are the ONE, but there are parts that I like from each of them to fuse together and make a pretty sweet final concept from. We shall see what the team has to say...

Link to official thread on GameArtisans.org: Aesimoch: God of Balance

Gloom Textured

2011-03-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

She's fully textured and ready to rig. These are just some basic scanline rendered shots from Max. I'll be doing the final display shots in Marmoset or UDK. I'm leaning toward Marmoset for its easy setup, but I'm new to it, so we shall see.

That being said, it may be a bit before I do that and post it, since Dominance War V finally started this week and I'm working on my concept. Once that's done, I'll probably need some breathing room and will finish Gloom up. Here's a link to my DWV W.I.P. thread: Aesimoch: God of Balance. I welcome any and all to join me in the competition. =)

Gloom Normal Mapped

2011-01-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

Wow, so it has come to my attention that a few people actually do read my blog. You dirty lurkers! Feel free to comment on any post, guys!

So, I'm still working on Gloom. Christmas vacation knocked a couple weeks out of my schedule, but I'm back in the swing of things. For everyone who has been wanting to see her textured... "Soon, my pets... sooooooon..."

Gloom Axe Sculpt Finished

2010-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

After playing with sizes and looking at reference, I decided to go with a 2-handed long battle axe. It allows for some more dynamic posing, since I decided not to go with a shield. Looking at some image searches, most battle axes don't seem to have anything more ornate than leather strap wrapping for the grips, so I went with some criss-cross leather on the handles. The center beveled section of the pole is designed for blocking and catching enemy weapons. The bolted on plates of the blade have a wrought iron texture to them. I'm still figuring out how I want to arrange the metal shading on the various parts. The three jagged blocks on the left side are for catching/breaking blades. Below is the design I started with. I'm happy with the changes. :)

Time to do some tests with the cape and see if the arm extension is going to work. After that, I'll do a little fine tuning on the sculpts, and then it's low-res modeling and baking time. Yay!

Gloom Sculpting Complete

2010-12-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

Hurray! She's done being "defined." I considered adding scratches and other fine detail for the normal baking, but I think it would get lost and muddy in the end. I've had more success with such details being added in the specular map, so that is where it will be realized. Without further ado, here are the shots of the finished sculpting.

I'm pretty happy with the result. I got a little worried about the poly count. All totaled, at highest resolution, she's around 60m triangles. I ended up dropping it all down a level, though, so it's a comfy 14m triangles (pictured). That should be suitable for baking normals and AO inside Max. If not, I can always resort to xNormal.

I'm debating whether or not I should move on to the low-poly version, but immediately upon writing that, I know I need to sculpt her axe first. It's a small concession, since I love working on weapons. =) Once that is done, though, I will do all my baking and then proceed to paint the diffuse and specular maps onto the low poly mesh. Technically, I could paint the high poly version and bake everything all at once, but I feel things go faster on the low poly mesh, since it is easier to manipulate the lower triangle count and I'll know what detail the normal map is picking up.

Anyway, I've learned a lot about character sculpting. My Mudbox work-flow has been refined and made more efficient. It's really a powerful program. It just requires a different approach than Max (and probably Zbrush). I will say I'm more interested in checking out Zbrush. Though, I think I may wait until after Dominance War V before really digging into it. It's a very alien interface, and I think it will require a different approach than either Max or Mudbox.

Note: I'm still getting used to Mudbox's materials and rendering, so forgive the dark skin tone. She will look slightly more alive in the end.

FOLLOW-UP:

I said I'm done sculpting, but that was a lie. I'm going to do a pass of dents/scratches on the metal parts with some stencils. I'm also considering adding some slight warping to the enamel the same way.

An Overcast Sculpt

2010-11-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

After many breaks to work on other projects, I've finished the mid-res construction of Gloom (coincidentally on the same day the pre-comp starts for Dominance War V). I was feeling a bit blah about it once I got most of the armor in place, but after adding straps, buckles, and a bit of spinal protection (inspired by my wife's diligent studies of Chiropractic), I think she's lookin A-okay. I'm pumped to see what some ornamental detailing and battle marks will do for her. Plus, I'm a sucker for glow shaders, so it will be fun to see those black stones rimmed with magical goodness. Okay, okay. Thanks for reading. Here's the shot!

Things I'm thinking about as I move forward:

-Low-Res Modeling- Which parts will be all one mesh? Which parts will be segmented? Which parts will be mirrored, and how will I be sculpting/painting those details?

-Low-Res Poly Counts- There's quite a bit of profile geometry on the mid-res meshes. It may take a bit of extra time and luck to fit her comfortably into 8k. I think I'll need 1k for the cape to deform well. 1k is still reserved for her axe, too. I've round-filed the shield idea in favor of some bulky left arm plating.

Unity 3 TKO

2010-10-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

I got to digging in to the Unity 3 editor, and it turns out that it's a very intuitive and easy to use editor. My scene looked alright in the engine, so I decided to forego the refurbishing process. I got all of the assets in with diffuse, normal, and specular maps. I baked a single overhead spotlight to the the scene with global illumination. I also modified a water prefab asset to replace the water in the bucket with the foot. It has a built in cube map and translucent refraction which I tinted red. I'm pretty happy with the result. I managed all of this last night, from downloading the engine and watching video tutorials to zipping up the final project folder.

Total time spent: 5 hours (hooray!)

Now, I just need to wait for a response to my submission. Also, I need to buy more candy for tonight, since I've been destroying the bowl of candy my wife bought a few days ago. What?! I don't get to trick or treat!

Military Radar Trailer is up!

2010-10-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished formatting all of my renders for my website and uploading them. A turntable animation and the texture maps for it can be found on my site under personal work. Here are the rear, front, and detail images.

I'm pretty happy to be able to get this up there. Thanks to the company that gave me permission to post them. It wasn't my concept, and I'm not sure if the concept made it in to the title they created it for. At any rate, this has helped to round out my portfolio as far as vehicles go. I actually had a lot of fun modeling it. I learned a fantastic method for creating high-res tire treads, and I snooped in the vehicle files of Unreal Tournament 3 to find an efficient way of transferring them to a lower poly model (hint: only 1/4 of the tire is actually mapped). Again, it was also a lot of fun getting to paint in Mudbox, adding grime/dust everywhere and highlighting the edges. The edge highlights really made the whole model "pop," and boosting them in the specular map helped even more. Overall, it was time well spent, and I'm looking forward to either cracking open Unity 3D (still waiting on confirmation to get started on that) or getting back to work on Gloom. "All your [polys] are belong to us!"

Mission Medical Mitigated

2010-10-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

I just finished uploading all of the images for my application to 3D4Medical.com and fired off the application.

Head Model

2010-10-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

This is Gloom's head model (done in Mudbox), so far. Deciding to start on this was a 2-fer, because I get to work on Gloom, AND I get to use it for my application to the medical modeling job I mentioned in the previous post.

I'm cutting it off at this point to start on the eyeball model. That model will be focusing on where the eye is positioned in the head and how the exterior eye muscles attach. I was thinking of doing a dissection of the eyeball, but they already have that on their website, so I decided to make something sort of unique, as far as their current products go.

Oh, by the way, Milla Jovovich (of Resident Evil, Fifth Element, and Dazed and Confused fame) was the reference for this head. It was her face I originally referred to on the Gloom concept, so it seemed a natural choice for the model reference. It's kind of hard to tell with the model being bald, but I think I did a fairly accurate job of it. It is very hard to find a picture of her where she's not smiling or her lips are not slightly parted (it seems to be her signature look for modeling jobs).

Gloom Concept Revised

2010-09-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

So this is my Gloom concept after all of the revisions. It seems like a drastic improvement over what I started with. The armor design is more put together and thought out, the lighting is much more accurate, and I feel like her face reflects the character better.

As with all concepts, I'll have to see how it works out in 3D. As mentioned in the previous post, movement is a concern. The main puzzles will be the Cuisses (thighs) and the Spaulders (shoulders). I don't have any current plans to do any actual animation, so it will just be a matter of being able to pose her. I'm not entirely sure how the cape would be handled by an animator (probably a few bones or simply controlled by an engine cloth system against the player collision), so I'll most likely use the Max cloth system to drape it over any poses I might do and bake it down to a low-poly mesh.

By the way, if any of my animator friends out there are inspired to bring her to life, I MIGHT be convinced to work with you on making the end result animation-friendly. I feel like I could do her justice, but animation is not my goal these days. It should be fairly easy to rig her in the end, since she will only total 10k triangles or less, and much of it will be rigid armor pieces (although that might require some creative rigging to make the armor move properly).

The next step in this project is going to be creating the high resolution model in Mudbox. I'm fairly comfortable in the software, but I haven't really used it for characters much, and especially not with an armor set. I'm filled with both excitement and trepidation at this prospect. The first target will be to familiarize myself with the best way to create the high-res version for optimal normal map exporting. It may be a week or so before I have anything to show in 3D. My main obstacles are dealing with so many individual armor bits and figuring out which ones should be separated in the low-res version.. Wish me luck!

Dominance War

2010-09-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Dominance War V (Dominance War site) is going to start in January (mini challenge starts in November), and I want to take a solid crack at it this time. Last time I tried, I was in the process of getting laid-off and then finding work. In preparation, I am going back to the DWIII submission I started. This will warm me up and get me back in the groove of character art. Characters are pretty much all I did in high school and Digipen, and it's always exciting to make them. Environments are what I fell into in the gaming industry, so I've just been playing to my experiential strength there. Beefing up my portfolio with characters will broaden my application possibilities.

Without further ado, here are my plans for "Gloom" :

This is the original concept I did (it's in the 2D section of my portfolio). I was never very happy with the boots and breastplate. The calves feel "okay," but the knee area feels very simplistic. I'd like that part to be fancier. The same goes for the foot covers. I might work some thigh-high black leather into the design for a little sex appeal. The breasts, themselves, suffer from some poor lighting. I think I'll change the spiral engraving to the red enamel, in addition to revisiting the shape of it. I'm fairly pleased with how the shoulders and gauntlets went. The thigh armor is still satisfying, although the lighting isn't great on it, and I need to redesign the hip area for her mobility in combat. That was pointed out to me in some crit during the competition. I reworked it then, but I think it needs even more work. The cape needs some detail. I had this idea for a pure black cape that doesn't reflect light, but as cool as that sounds, it's just not very cool LOOKING. This is for a game, and game characters need to LOOK awesome. It's cool in writing, but vision is the platform here. I'm thinking some fold highlights on the fabric and perhaps some red glowing runes along the bottom hem, stretching up to the gauntlet clasp. That would help balance out the glowing stone at her collar bone, too.

Here are Gloom's revisions so far:

I reworked her face, neck, and hair a little to make her more sinister-looking and give her more accurate lighting.. The background is now darker and a complementary color to her red accents. I think it suits her better. My changes are only to the right side of her body, as they will be mirrored to the other side to save time (I need to jump into 3D work on this ASAP). The thigh plates have been better lit (the bottom-most one hasn't been fixed yet). I adjusted the knee a little, but I'm still not happy with it. The thick band of enamel under the knee might just need to be removed or made much thinner. I need to do some research on how plate armor fits together and moves. I think I saw some articles specifically on this for artists a while back (I knew I should have bookmarked that!). I need to just pick apart some samurai armor, too. If anyone has some good armor reference, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Thoughts On Omega-093 Progress And How To Continue

2010-09-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

After revising my portfolio site recently and taking stock of its current state, I've decided to make the Omega-093 project much longer in time-frame than previously planned. I want to make this project a fully-explorable map via the Unreal Engine 3, and to do that alone will take some serious time investment. In the meantime, I will be creating a few smaller projects to beef up my portfolio more quickly.

My concept painting section could use some serious love. I'm confident in my current skill, but the number of completed pieces is a little on the low side. I have a few pieces already started that I'd like to finish. I'd also like to take another crack at ConceptArt.org's "Environment of the Week" Challenge. My first one was a very positive experience, and it's a nice way to stretch my repertoire.

I also need some more vehicles and high-tech models in my 3D section. My personal taste in such things is very specific, so it should be interesting to see how I push myself in that direction.

Omega-093 grayscale full shot

2010-09-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a full shot of the base, thus far. The port is slightly elevated to the left of the station. The radar is on a highly elevated plateau to the right of the station. The pock marks in the mountain are laser craters from initial orbital terraform landscaping of the mountain top. The flat regions and elevation routes were created by landed construction machinery.

Omega-093 grayscale station

2010-09-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is a slight iteration on the previous station shot. You can now see how the observation tower is able to look over the edge of the mountain. You can also see the broken greenhouse which is the spawning point for the plant mutation which will sprawl all over the base. This will account for a large amount of damage to the station and visual asymmetry (thanks for the asymmetry note Tim!). Drawn to heat sources, the mutant plant will have tendrils that tunnel through the ground and spring up from various other points in the map, offering opportunities for gameplay design (getting past obstacles, restoring power to damaged station components, etc.). The circular corners of the station will be where the light defensive missile turrets will be placed. You can see the entrance/exit to the port vehicle elevator (mentioned in the previous port post).

Omega-093 grayscale radar

2010-09-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is the first pass of the radar geometry. The second pass will include a large base platform for the whole tower, elevating the tower even more (and possible providing a vehicle elevator for quick station-level access. The globe functions as a weather radar for scientific observation and severe weather warning for the station. The two disc platforms will each support a radar on the outer edge which is capable of rotating around the tower. One tracks horizontally. One tracks vertically. These will be more for tracking planetary bodies, and, in emergencies, tracking for the base's light defensive missile turrets.

Omega-093 grayscale port

2010-09-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is the first pass of the landing port geometry. The control tower has a passage to a hangar, which leads to the other hangar, which leads to the vehicle elevator (which has an unshown exit on the station level). The hangars still need a lot of attention as far as model design goes. That is reserved for the second pass.

Omega-093 Mission Brief and Layout

2010-04-16T13:30:00.001-07:00

Reconnaissance and Rescue Mission Briefing:
Omega-093
Terraforming Test Facility

Status:
Unknown

Location:
Persephone IX Solar System, Planet Charybdis

Mission Background:
Communication with Omega-093 Terraforming Test Facility was last received on 22.5.2306 at 04:17:86 GMT. This communication was made by Dr. H.K. Hoffman, Chief Scientist of the facility. The message mentions a new discovery in the hybridization project being conducted between Earth flora and the native plant-life of Charybdis. There was also mention of plans to move forward with testing theories surrounding the new knowledge. Details of the discovery were to be outlined in a later report, but said report was never received. It has been over thirty days since last correspondence with the facility, which has prompted an investigative recovery mission.

Mission Objectives:
-Determine the status of the Omega-093 Terraforming Test Facility and report your findings
-Locate and, if necessary, rescue Dr. Hoffman and other facility staff members
-If possible, restore the facility to normal working order

Precautions:
While Charybdis maintains a high surface temperature and has no known bodies of water on its surface, the water vapor in the air is dense. This vapor, combined with the intense and fluctuating ground temperature leads to chaotic and dangerous weather patterns. Fierce electromagnetic storms have been reported along with extremely high wind speeds and may be the cause of communication loss with the facility. (Note: These swirling storms were the inspiration for naming the planet after the Greek monster of stormy whirlpools.) It should also be noted that despite having received no reports of animal life on the planet, there have been reports of near-animal intelligence and speed from certain species of vegetation. As always, use caution when encountering alien life forms.

Omega-093 Terraforming Test Facility

2010-04-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

So, I've started my first project since my official contract end (I'm still doing piece-meal bug work for Super X, atm). This one's coming together quick, and paired with some crit and suggestions from the wife, I've got a strong basis for an environment. I've written a mock mission brief for it (which I'll post right after this one, since it's a bit longish), I've finished a brief bird's eye sketch of it. I've also started the basis for the geometry (which I'll also post).

I'm feeling pretty good about this one. Ideas for it have come and gone, but the creme is starting to rise to the top, as a clear mental images start forming in my head. Initially I was going to do an interior and exterior environment, but I want to finish the first pass within a month. I'm super excited about the exterior, so that's what I will focus on. I will define the interior of one of the structures, but the rest will just be what you can see from the outside.

Omega-093 is the name of this project. The subject is a terraforming test facility on an alien planet which focused on developing hybrids between Earth plants and alien plant life. The mission brief goes a bit more into detail, but the gist is that one of the experiments went horribly awry and caused the station to lose contact with home base.

This is getting long, but real quick, it's set 200 years in the future. Architectural and industrial design is advanced beyond ours, but there is enough similarity to be familiar. The facility is set atop a mountain, where metal and stone could be extracted to construct the facility. There is a giant alien plant which has busted out of one of the greenhouses and taken over half of the facility, spreading its tendrils and roots like an infection. Picture "Little Shop of Horrors" melded with "Aliens."

Stay tuned for an immediate second post with the layout and mission brief.

A New Beginning

2010-04-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo... much has happened since my last ancient post.

A quick synopsis of events leading up to now:

-didn't get hired at Zombie
-got hired at Super X Studios as an environment artist for Greg Hastings Paintball 2 (to be published by Majesco on X-Box 360, PS3, and Wii)
-moved to Iowa for wife's chiropractic schooling
-about to finish up my contract with Super X, which they were so gracious to transform into an off-site contract up to now

Super X has been a fantastic experience. I was completely responsible for 5 locations in their line-up over 7 months. It was an incredibly daunting schedule for what was required, as environment art was split between myself and only one other artist across 3 systems. It didn't leave a whole lot of margin for mistakes. That being said, the crew was fantastic to work with. I signed on to a Dev team of two programmers and three artists (counting myself). By the end, we had four artists, four programmers, and five testers. All of them rock! Thanks for the wonderful contract and experience guys!

That being said, I now find myself without work in... Iowa. What is a 3D artist to do?!

Well, for one, I've decided my portfolio looks like rubbish. For another, there are some companies that farm out work to off-site artists. "Whaaaaat?" you may ask. It's true! They're out there. No really, I've seen their websites. Srsly.

To track this new adventure, I'm rededicating my blog to rounding out my skills, knowledge, and portfolio. This is going to be my incubation time. I've got 3-4 years to regroup and hone my skills. Hopefully, I'll be slam dunking some off-site contracts as I do this, but whatever it takes, I'm going to be ready to hit the ground running when we return to an area more conducive to the gaming industry.

This will be my grad school, in a way. And just who are my teachers? Well, you of course! If you'll have me as a student . I'm going to be digging back into the forums (most likely Game Artisans), and anything I do on there, or otherwise, will get posted here. It is then your job, as my teacher, to tell me which parts rock and which parts suck.

I'm sure anyone who WAS following me has realized that I failed to update once I got work, but I'm going to be hounding a few of you. I'll be working on both 3D, 2D, and even a little animation as get comfortable with moving environments. Joel and Akio have no choice in being a part of this, but I'll be hoping that you other art nerds feel the need to gut punch my art now and then. I will learn no other way! =D

Oh, and you critics... feel free to post anything relevant to what I'm doing in the comments: links, tutorials, artists, software... W/E you think would help me. Thanks in advance! Oh, and I am more than happy to reciprocate crit to anyone who wants to help me. To be honest, my crit is much better than my art, at this point. I KNOW much more about art than I SHOW, and I'm fairly good at being nice about it (Joel and Akio exempt, as they need to be punished regularly)!

Thanks all!

Sick + Tired = ?

2009-04-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

So, I've been sick. Good stuff. I've also decided not to revisit those old pieces just yet. Thanks for your words of shame for not posting more, Joel. ;) I keep sitting down to do some art, and I just kind of stare at my screen. I've been doing a lot of reading (for me, anyway).

Zombie said they want to have me in for an interview in the next few weeks. They're not quite poised to hire yet, but they want to have people lined up for the green light.

I also have a smaller art test to complete for another company.

As for personal projects, I've decided to go for the quadumvirate (better than a triumvirate). I'll be making four separate and distinct environments that display my skill and diversity of style. It's going to be a long haul, but I'll be completing them one at a time, in order to have something new to pop up on my site. I'm in the documentation phase of it right now. I'm strongly considering having them all link to each other in an actual playable world in the UT3 engine. There won't be too much "fun" to be had in them, but it'll let people look at my art up close and personal. So I'm approaching the whole thing as professionally as I can. Design docs, schedules, concept art (just for you Joel!), models, lighting, skyboxes... the whole shebang! So bear with me as I build up to the conceptual stage, at which point, you'll be seeing plenty of (hopefully not bad) art.

That's where I'm at. So stay tuned. Same Dudra URL, different Dudra time. That's a poorly executed pun, but I refuse to delete it.

Cheerio!

Now What?!

2009-03-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

So I finished my art test for Zombie. I learned some things, and I panicked a bit. I'm going to continue respecting the test and not blabbering about what it is. I will say, however, that I ended up putting in a 36 hour shift on it near the end. I think it turned out alright. We'll see what they have to say about it.

So, repeating the subject, "Now What?"

Well, I still have a few projects in mind.

There's the entire MMO-fantasy-style zone I want to build. That's going to take a while, but I think it might end up being the best thing I could show someone looking for an Environment Artist or World Builder.

I still need to work on my 2D skills, too. I'll need a few good technological and industrial pieces to show some variety in my work (which I could later turn into 3D pieces). I could also use some architectural studies.

Lastly, there are a few 3D pieces I've been working on forever, but I got stuck on them for one reason or another. They're always leering at me with those beady eyes from the dusty folders in my portfolio directory. Strangely, I think I could go back and slam dunk those guys, now. They're just not exactly the cup of tea that I'm needing right now. Well, okay. One of them is. Okay, two. Bleh. I'm convinced. I'll go finish those two. You people! So pushy!

Baby Steps

2009-03-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this post isn't entirely art-related. It's more of a note to myself about how to approach new material structurally using some critical thinking. I find that if I write something down like this, the process of writing tends to reinforce the idea in my own mind.

During this art test I'm working on, I've hit a couple spots where the concept I'm working from didn't make a whole lot of sense, and I've had to improvise. Anyone who works from concept is bound to come across this, at some point. For just a moment, I get the thought, "Well, now what in the Hell do I do?!" It's a brief moment of panic that happens especially when working on something very important or with a tight deadline.

How to overcome this:

So the easiest way to tackle a big problem is to break things down into smaller bits of information and ask myself some questions about what's going on. In the example of working from concept, I ask myself which parts DO make sense? I then focus my attention on those parts, arranging them where they need to go. Once I get those parts nailed down, I can proceed to built upon them. "The part I put in needs to be attached to another part..."

From here, hitting up reference is a good idea. See how similar structures are put together. Sometimes, it can even be beneficial to use a certain structure in an unconventional way. As long as it keeps in line with the feel of the concept, it's fair game, in my opinion. I used to get really into tearing apart art that wouldn't work in the real world. Even fantasy stuff: "That floating Wizard's robes would TOTALLY be floating, too!" But the more and more I switch gears from examining Art in a technical mindset and move more toward a compositional ideology, the more I realize rules are made to be broken. "That Wizard's clothing might float too, but having it drape down like that gives him a more weighty feel, and it also helps add a sort of mystical irony to the physics... a sort of eerie quality."

Anyway, so once I have some good reference for what these theoretical "connecting" pieces should be, I can go to town inventing what might work for the situation. In the end, it's about making something that looks cool and commands the viewer's attention.

So there's my little note to myself. Hope it might help someone else out, too!

A New Leaf

2009-03-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, everyone or anyone that happens to read this. On March 5th, I got laid-off from my job, due to lack of funding. The following day, I went out of town to visit the in-laws in Kansas for 5 days. Then, I immediately got sick when I got back. The wife stayed in Kansas for an extra week (picking her up tonight!). About the time I started feeling a bit less bad, I received an invitation from Zombie Studios (I applied the morning of the day I got laid-off, ironically) to take an art test. So, I've been working on all that. Hopefully, this will all suffice for an excuse! I'll see if they'll let me post my art test results, but chances are they won't, since they probably don't feel like writing a new test for people. If everyone knows your test, how good of a test will it end up being? Anyway, I have two weeks to do this, so I might be MIA just a bit longer! Sorry to all my awaiting fans!

The new website is up!

2009-02-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

Hey! My new site design is up! It is much better organized, and it includes the new "Great Wall" painting. It also feels quite a bit more professional. Hope you all enjoy! Check it out at www.dudra3d.com

Website Reconstruction etc.

2009-02-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Just want to say that I've been working on my website the last few days. It should be done some time tomorrow if I can make the grind.

EOW #107 on conceptart.org is "Your Own Island Paradise." I'm trying to push my style a bit and do something cartoony for it. I also wanted to lean away from doing the cliché idea of a beach, so I'm running through some things in my head. I did up a small color comp of a "space island." It looks alright, but I wasn't too inspired about it, especially in the cartoony style. I'm thinking I want to have a frige full of beer and a recliner facing a sunset as part of the environment. The only requirements for the thing is that it needs to be away from civilization, and it needs to incorporate a fishing boat. I'm starting to lean toward a lake island reminiscent of the one Bono's character lived on in Across The Universe, only without a bridge. It would be fun to make a rickety, amalgamate vertical house with a little balcony containing the recliner and beer frige. An above view would be fun to play with, and the sunset lighting could really blow out one side in color. Hmmm... I so often come up with ideas I like as I write. I should probably do this more. Anyway, now I have something to work on when I get burned out on website work.

Thanks for listening!

EOW #106 Final

2009-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

So here's the final submission of my "Great Wall" concept. I'm pretty happy with it. I pulled out the reds on the dark side, due to the rainbow of colors that was resulting across the composition. I played around with some fancier strut supports for the wall, but less seemed to be more, so I used some basic structures from a dam photo. Hope you all enjoy. Rip it to shreds, IF YOU DARE!

EOW #106 WIP - Color 1

2009-02-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

So here's the first pass of color on the expanded comp. I'm pleasantly surprised with how the "natural" side turned out. I have to keep slapping my own hands to stop from polishing that side of it. Obviously, the left side still needs lots of attention. I think I have to wrap this up by Wednesday? Even if it doesn't look so hot by that point, I'll end up finishing it for my website. I've learned a lot on this one. Using photo textures has always seemed like the Devil's work to me, but damn it really helps to plan out my thoughts. I have to remind myself that the end goal is to communicate a visual idea. If it looks good and gives the right information, there's hardly an Art Director alive that would scoff at the process. Sigh. Repeat with me boys and girls: I am not an illustrator. I am not an illustrator. I am not an illustrator. Okay, so I wouldn't mind doing illustrations, but I LOVE doing 3D, and this is a vehicle for that process.

EOW #106 WIP - Composition

2009-02-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

So, here's the work I've done so far on the current EOW on ConceptArt.org . This is just the comp stage, but it's nice to feel an internal progression in how I approach things.

The premise is to create a "Great Wall" of sorts. I've chosen to create a pestilence wall. One side is going to be completely charred/burning/plagued, while the other side is going to be a bit natural. Though, the natural side will see some affects from the wall, such as a receding tree line, a few unfortunate dead animals, and a slight creeping of blight from the wall.

The first iteration was fun. I got to play around with my new 6D Wacom pen a bit (this thing is awesome! I wish it had buttons on the side, but I'm getting over it), and I used some of the illustrious Daniel Dociu's brush settings (a flattened palette knife shape, opacity set to pen pressure, and full hardness), which I'm really falling in love with. It works very well with the rotational capabilities of the 6D.

After a little external crit and a larger amount of internal crit, the second iteration represents my idea much better. Giving the wall a much stronger foreground element made it feel more imposing and megalithic. Putting it on the apex of a mountain crest (derived from some reference of the Great Wall of China) gave it a greater sense of separating, and using some photo ref for the forest (don't worry, it will largely get painted over) gave it even more depth in terms of the concept, itself. Using a more head-on perspective also allowed me to play with the atmosphere in the distance to a greater extent. I'm pretty happy with the direction this is taking. We'll see if the rest of the process continues to be worthy of the strong start I've got. Through my readings of Digital Painting 2, I've noticed that ALL of the artists in the book go through a very organic process of adding and removing elements in any given piece, so that has helped to free my mind a bit. I don't HAVE to get it right the FIRST try! Digital painting is so forgiving in this respect, too. Concerning further progression, I may extend the frame a bit to give a wider view of what's happening on each side of the wall. We'll see how it affects the compositional balance...

[Update] I DEFINITELY want to widen it, the more I look at it. I want to give much more attention to the left charred side. I'll flip the axis a few times to make sure it stays balanced. The natural side could use a little more room, too (the foreground wall feels a little too weighty).

As always, I'm open to C&C!

Tower Concept (Low Angle) WIP #2

2009-02-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

So here it is after rotation. I feel much better about it like this. I worked the clouds a bit more, too. I'm going to go do some studies for now. I definitely want to work this one to a fairly polished state, but I've got to figure out how these colors are going to work. Baby steps. I was reading through my recently-acquired copy of D'Artiste's "Digital Painting 2." I came to the realization that all of the inspirational works that Daniel Dociu (my current model for success) put into his section were his coworkers at ArenaNet. Damn, do I have a ton of work to do! I had a moment of panic, but it was closely followed by an eagerness to rise to the challenge. Clearly, I'm going to need to be painting something every single day. More, if I'm to tackle the addage of every artist having 1,000 bad drawings/paintings to get out of the way before they're "good." So 3 paintings a night? I suppose it's possible...

Note: I'm going to put this one on long-term notice. As I keep saying, I need to do some more studies (which I've admittedly been slacking on). I'm also getting a lot out of the ConceptArt.org Environment of the Week competitions. I doubt I'll gain any "status," but that's for when I'm already good, right? ;)

I've joined CGHub.com and ConceptArt.org!

2009-02-09T01:25:00.001-08:00

Pretty self-explanatory. I've joined CGHub.com for professional networking and inspiration. I joined ConceptArt.org to submit my stuff for crit and help others where I can. ConceptArt.org also has weekly comps for characters, creatures, environments, and industrial design. Needless to say, I'll be working mainly in the environment section, but I might change it up if there are some interesting propositions in the others. I think the next environment one starts tomorrow. I'm stoked!

Oh, and just in case any of you use these sites, my S/N on both is "Okcyde." It's my go-to moniker for most of my online presences. If anyone is so inclined, please post your S/N's in a comment, so I know my buds when I see 'em.

Tower Concept (Low Angle) WIP #1

2009-02-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

Here's the beginning of a low angle version of the Tower concept I'm working on. This is just a rough color blocking of the composition.

I'm trying to be very conscious of composition and lighting in this one. I'll be using cloud patterns and color to help draw the viewers attention to the tower below. It feels like the eye is floating off the left side, at the moment. I'll puzzle that one out as I add more detail and modify the clouds. Maybe put a flag up on top of the far left mesa that points back toward the tower. The lighting on the near mesa formations on the right feels a little off, as well. I'm going for a stark, gloomy overcast lighting scheme. Looking at it, I definitely need to rework the lighting angle on the rocks. Perhaps I'll just give it a harder light on the far sides. We'll see.

As for the clouds, I started out using a large soft brush. It helped work out the color intensity, but thankfully, I recalled my lesson in the previous post and started using a solid, opaque brush. It looks messy right now, but it feels so much better for this stage of the process. I also kept this in mind, once I started on the rocks. Thanks Daniel!

This one has been pretty fun so far. I love painting from my head. Hey self! Hurry up and jam through your environment studies, so you can do more of this! Speaking of which, I think I'll need to do some mesa studies before I really start detailing this one. I downloaded some reference from cgtextures.com today, so you may see a bit of that soon.

-update-

I've been thinking about it a bit, and I think I might rotate the whole comp 15 degrees clock-wise using the sun bloom as a pivot. The angle feels a little flat, and I want a slightly unsettling feel to the piece. As a bonus, I think it will help me deal with the composition flaws on the left side.

Sandstone Arch

2009-02-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

It's been a little bit. No, I HAVEN'T fallen off the horse! I've been working on redesigning my website. I'll let you know when it's up and ready. Perhaps I'll work on that some more today...

Anyway, I just finished doing a study of a sandstone arch slightly buried in white sand. It is almost entirely hand-painted. The only photo texture I used was a very faint noise layer for the bricks. I did sample a quick palette from the original photo I used for reference. I kind of see it as cheating, but as long as I'm using it to learn, I don't feel too bad, and it's a happy medium between devising my own colors and sampling every single color from a photo.

What I learned:

-Be minimal with line work in bricks. A little detail goes a long way. If you need to draw in the lines for a brick wall to help you keep it well modeled, do so very lightly. save the extreme darks for the end

-When dealing with a sandy environment, it really sells the believability of an object if you pop some of the sand in cracks/crevaces. This piece felt very flat, until I did that. I'm used to doing that with dirt, but sand/snow and the like get a noticable build-up

-If all of the stones are of the same material, you can get away with blocking it all in with one color, then use subtle hue variations of it to set the bricks apart from each other. After that, you can also use a rough scattered brush to start speckling the color of one stone on top of another. This helps to unify the wall, while still showing it's composed of separate bricks

Photoshop ~1.5 hrs.

-Update-
I got some solid crit from my good friend, Daniel Landerman (see his blog in my friends list). Namely, don't use a low opacity brush and stack it. Use a high opacity brush and make every stroke count. This keeps stuff from looking blurry, it's faster, and it gives a better knowledge of color usage, with practice. I totally agree, and my next piece incorporates that technique. He also agreed that my perspective is a bit off. =)

Tower Concept

2009-02-03T00:38:00.000-08:00

~5 min. - Photoshop
Winning thumbnail of 8 for long-term Tower project

~20 min. - Photoshop
Compositional Layout for long-term Tower project

Holy Flaming Kittens, Batman!

2009-02-03T00:28:00.000-08:00

1.5 hrs - Photoshop
*Unfinished* Created from photo ref to study organic metal surfaces

1.5 hrs - Photoshop
Created from photo ref to study light glow and wax surfaces

The Beginning

2009-02-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Garrulous exposition concerning the burgeoning evolution of my artisinal prowess.

In short, this blog is intended as a venue for me to blather ad nauseam about my personal art projects. Whether or not anyone else reads this is of little consequence, as it's mainly just a way to catalogue (Screw you spellcheck!) my progress and force me to stay committed to my development. I always want to be making rad art, but as many of my fellow artists can testify to, it can be a love/hate relationship some days.

To anyone who happens to stumble upon this site or is directed here by me, I'll attempt to briefly (I like to kid myself and you, apparently) summarize my history with art. I hope to elucidate the path that has led me to creating this blog.

My Mom is an artist. I've been around the stuff since I was born. There's even a story of me, at age 6, trying to "fix" one of her commercial sketches when she wasn't looking. "I thought the lines were too light, Mom!" I'll let you ask her about my modification to her brand new car's paint job at age 5. I owe her a link for that one ( www.artjb.com ). Cartoons were about the greatest thing in the world to me. Later, I fell in love with video games (hang on, it becomes relevant). Comic books also became an obsession.

Then, in Middle School, an old art student of my teacher's visited class to show what he'd been up to in High School. It wasn't on paper. It wasn't made of clay. It wasn't an ironic fine art interpretation of man's triumph over nature. He was packing a VHS tape, and on this tape was the catalyst for my current career in art. The then-lad had been working in 3D Computer Graphics. What he brought was a simple animation of a fish swimming around a head with an all-black background. It wasn't really a prize-winner, but he was certainly a champion of heroic proportion to me!

Suddenly, something that seemed so esoteric, and strictly for people who knew how to program computers, was within my reach. A high school student was doing this stuff! Toy Story hadn't even been released yet. At the time, It was a weird and mysterious alchemy of computers and art. I'm pretty Sure 3DS Max was in its infancy (I ended up starting to learn on v2.5), and Maya hadn't even been conceived yet (Hah! Take that, Maya! I've been working in 3D longer than you have!).

I didn't immediately jump into Computer Graphics, but it was always tugging on my mind, and when it came time to start figuring out a career-path, there it was. I gave up on Calc 2 and enrolled myself in the only CG class available, which happened to be at the district's Trade School. I ate, $h@#, and breathed 3D software during that time. My previous adventures in art (Sculpture, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Tesselation, and Jewelry) were all useful in my endeavors, but I lacked a Master 3D Guru to consult. I joined local groups focused on the industry, but they seemed more focused on making a buck than divulging their secrets. I needed something more. Enter Digipen.

Joining the now-vaunted halls of Digipen IT was a fantastic step forward. Suddenly, I was surrounded by students of similar mind and hunger for 3D. Not only did I have great peers, I now had access to the "gurus" I craved to learn from. I felt liberated... but that light soon faded as I began to recognize the prison I'd been building around myself. Always being around art, and being quite familiar with the fundamentals, I had achieved an over-inflated sense of ability. While I've always been a natural artist, I didn't necessarily put in the time and hard work required to hone my abilities. Though my efforts usually produced a fine result, the fast-paced production-oriented curriculum left me breathing hard and heavy.

My magnificent masterpieces encapsulated in my mind were grand... too grand. I always started strong, but when deadlines came around, I was scrambling to wrap things up. This resulted in half-baked final products. The curriculum focused on animation, which I was happy with, but I always got caught up in the modeling and texturing of things. "I'm so close! There's just a few more things to fix!" became a sort of motto for me. Perfection was an obsession, and it shot me in the foot (often the knees, too).

The software and theory of CG and animation came easy, but prioritization and scheduling were the most valuable things I took from Digipen. My final project suffered to the same fate as all the others, but it was the final nail in the coffin of my avoidance tactics.

I moved back to Kansas (where I grew up from 7-18) to build a presentable portfolio and see what work could be had. The portfolio came, but the work just wasn't there. The area has some very motivated groups in the 3D CG industry, but there was a very small pool, and finding work of any kind in the field was nigh impossible. After working various CG contracts (only one required 3D) and supplementing my income with unrelated work, my fiancé (now my wife!), helped convince me that we needed to move somewhere more conducive to my career.

I came back to Seattle specifically to enter the Gaming Industry. After living with my generous Aunt for half a year, working on my portfolio and applying to companies, I found myself a home at Handheld Games, Inc. I've been with Handheld for 3 years, now. I quickly worked my way up from Pixel Artist, to 3D Environment Artist, to Lead 3D Envrionment Artist. I've definitely worked all of the kinks out of my scheduling habits (as the Gaming Industry can be even more fast-paced and demanding than Digipen is), and I've honed my 3D skills to a needle point (11 years worth of effort). You can see my portfolio at www.dudra3d.com.

Now, it is time to expand that horizon to include 2D painting. If there's one thing I've learned in my work, a strong concept is the foundation of badass 3D. It doesn't matter how great you are at sculpting, texturing, or animating if you don't know what to do with it. While I can whip up some 3D concepts fairly quickly, it can be much quicker to crank them out in versions and adaptations if it is done in 2D. It's a fantastic way of communicating visual ideas to both myself and others. Much of what you'll see here in the next year is going to be 2D concept practice and development.

Ultimately, I want to be quick and efficient, so there will most likely be a lot of ugliness and fumbling around in the beginning as I do compositional, color, and life studies. If a piece looks unfinished, it probably is. I need to keep myself to a strict daily schedule of practice for now. I'll probably post a few intermittent polished long-term pieces to remind myself (and you) that I'm capable of "decent" art.

Oh, and if you have any opinions on my progress or pieces, feel free to post comments. Constructive criticism's fine and appreciated. I suppose I'll even take project requests, since my goal is to be able to communicate other peoples' ideas as well as my own.

-M.S.D.