Final Splash Page

Ice Nine

Mother Nature, in yet another attempt to murder her children, recently converted the state of Texas into an enormous ice rink. Like most of my fellows here at the Guildhall, I was huddled inside, pining desperately for warmth and daring not to venture into the pitiless glass sea that stretched endlessly in every direction. Condemned as I was to remain ensconced within my apartment until the sun saw fit to free me, I actually had a bit of time away from class and classwork. So, hey, blog update.







I don't get to do much drawing anymore, I'm sad to say - most of my time is poured into modeling and texture work. (My last sketchbook lasted four months!) On the rare occasion that I get to actually illustrate something, I end up throwing a lot of time into it. The above were for matte painting and splash page assignments, respectively. The splash page isn't technically due yet, so it may change.

We started character modeling this 'mod' (Guildhall slang for 'eight week temporal chunklet.' Not to be confused with a quadmester, which sounds both sillier and more academic at once). Above is a model sheet and turntable for Chashmal, created in the style of Unreal Tournament 3. We're getting into rigging him for animation later.

I'd like to say that I'll be updating more regularly, but I'm trying not to lie to you. My schedule is morbidly hectic and I can only rarely find this time; still, have patience, I am not dead, and I have not forgotten you.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Hey, everybody. Long time no see. To those of you have may have missed the announcement, I started grad school at the Guildhall at SMU this August. I'm learning to make art for video games. It's been busy, busy times, so I haven't had much to show you, art-wise.

Anyway, I'm nearing the end of my first Module (we have some sort of bizarro quadramester system here) and I'm starting to get stuff put together enough to show you.

Early concept art for the first Team Game Project, which starts next Module. Each student pitched a single concept and eight of the 41 were chosen. Lucky me, mine made the cut, and as a bonus perk, I'm automatically assigned as Lead Artist for my team.

99.95% of all video games contain crates and barrels regardless of how insane it is to actually find a crate or a barrel in many of the locations in which they are found. (Seriously? Why is there a stack of barrels on the wing of this jet fighter?) The simple reason for this is that they're dang easy to make. This is a render from my very first 3ds Max Lab. The crates and barrels where modeled and textured after actual examples here in Plano.

The minor course of the art track is essentially designed to get students unfamiliar with Photoshop up to speed before 2d games start next semester. Most days involve a 30 min to an hour speed painting (as seen above). In addition, there are two larger projects, an animation cycle and an assignment to copy a portrait photograph down to the pixel level. Though not totally done, I'm a little ahead on both of those.

Also, if you're a fellow student and first time visitor, please, have a look around. Oh, and you can click on anything to see a larger size.

Samael

Seraph

Self Portrait, in a Hard-to-Define Setting

I am afraid of cubes or something.

Lifeline/Spelunkers