My beetle is Now Complete. Responsible for all aspects

VSD Blog Post

 This month I dove deeper into lighting. What I really want to show off in the above image is the purple light on the floor. This is called caustics, it's a very appealing effect that does a lot for the shot. After I saw this effect I started thinking of ways that I could incorporate this into characters. To make it look right though there are several aspects from the global rendering options to the light and material that all need to line up so this works.

 This was the very first time I made UV's, created the textures and mapped them onto an object. It really opened my eyes to the whole texturing process and I learned a lot of pro tips and tricks to stream line my work flow. Not only was I shown how to be faster but to work with higher quality for less of a cost.

First Tutorial

Hey all this is the first in many tutorials. This is the most basic thing you can learn. How to set project files. Once you have this down you have 90% or your pipeline organization down. I will show you how to do it and what benefits you get from working within project files. I hope you enjoy it.

3D Blitz 2014

Click the link to see my entry to the Full Sail Sponsored 2014 3D Blitz. The animation was made from scratch in 24 hours. All the characters and assets were modeled, rigged, textured, animated and rendered in that window for the final result.

Had a great time with some of my hardest working peers.

VEF 2 Project

For VEF 2 we were introduced to Maya fluid effects along with Houdini. For the project we were given two days to recreate a fire/smoke effect using this set up in Maya and Houdini. I had a lot of fun playing with maya fluids primarily because the look even before render was really easy on the eyes. Maya's fluid effects are fairly easy to get the hang of as well. We were taught in two stages how to create our simulations and it worked very well. The first stage was how to get the look and shape of the fire or smoke we were going for. We went adjusted the size, speed, direction and several other parameters that make up the general and refined look of our effect. From there we had a second lecture that went into shaders, lights, and textures. 

We were given free range to research anything relating back to VEF. I got my hands on RealFlow and it was amazing. The interface to this software is by far one of the most intuitive I've had the pleasure to work with. I noticed that when i created emitters and geometry into a scene they we automatically aware of each other. There was a no need to create rigid bodies of colliders. This was made possible because of the central hub node. Everything when created is initially plugged into the hub node and is aware of each other. This made your set up much faster and a lot easier to get to simulating.

Vixon Ambient Occlusion

Vixon Colored

Showing off Annabelle's character modeled by me. I didn't use a comp sheet for this character but that being said I did take a few creative liberties.

Annabelle I'm sure you'll pick up on some of the subtleties I've added quicker than most. I hope you like them and it stays true to the character. If you would like to collaborate in the future on other characters just let me know and I'd be happy to work with you again. 

The character will have at least one more pass for polishing but for the most part this is Vixon interpreted into the 3D using Maya.  AO's to come soon.

Vixon-Basic Shaders

Check out the progress my friends. 

Annabelle Leigh Bowie's Original Character: Vixon

A friend of mine attending Digi-Pen drafted up a quick drawing of one of her original characters. You can see more of her stuff here Annabelle's Work.

I'm working towards being a modeler so I asked her if she would like me to take some time to model her character out. I Played with it for a couple hours last night and this is where I'm at thus far.

 For the face you'll notice I'm modeling the character with her eyes shut. I found a tutorial a few weeks ago that went over facial topology he explained that modeling this way is optimal for riggers, check out his tutorial here> Sergi Caballe It is my first time modeling a character like this but it's turning out very well. Save some pinching issues I'll have to smooth later.

 The torso is coming along smoother than I had originally thought. Her top was simple to form but I'm in the process of playing with the tension folds. I haven't really studied cloth before so I'll be doing some research later when the character is fully modeled. I played with the edge flow a little and managed to find a technique that will describe tension, now it's just a matter of knowing where to place it. Next time I post progress I'll play with some shaders too.

Tr_Helmet_FieldTech_2ndPass

I got my first critique from the player studious people yesterday and among them was senior art director Tramell Ray Isaacs. He critiques everyone but it's still pretty cool.

But here is a look at the current Terran Republic Helmet.