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Bill Baxley the Bounty Hunter – Advanced Game Character – AGC 1508 – ZBrush Sculpt
Bill Baxley the Bounty Hunter
Hey everyone, Sorry it has been a while since I made a post, that will tell you how busy and serious my classes have been these last few months. But, I wanted to make sure I get this one posted because I am very proud of this one. This past month I had Advanced Game Characters AGC and our assignment was to create a character from scratch. We had to come up with a design of a character that we wanted to make and it was amazing to see how the design process can change from day-to-day. I originally wanted to do a Robot but once I got into ZBrush, this guy kinda just emerged from my digital clay. I really feel like I might have found my calling here with this one. I have been at Full Sail now for a little over 2 years and I have enjoyed almost every single class, but I have not gotten as excited about a class as I did this one. I am thinking this might be my focus, Character Design and working in ZBrush.
After the class was over and I turned in my final I decided to make a 360º Video so everyone can see the detail from front to back. I also wanted to show a few different views, some with Wireframe to show the layout, to without the mask so you can see the detail I put into his mouth and nose that you don’t see in the Main image.
Click for High Res
Please watch in Full HD and turn on Sound
Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you think. Even though the class is over I would love to hear different critiques and Ideas of what YOU think might have made him better. This is a learning process and part of that process is getting feedback from people. I would love to know what it is like to see my character with fresh eyes. Because I have looked at him for a month now and watched him morph into what he became its hard for me to see him and appreciate him to the full extent.
François Boucher’s Odalisque 1749 Remake to Bugsy 2015
CAN1 Media Center Activity
For Character Animation 1, we had to go to the Library and choose a book with some famous artwork and then re-create it in a drawing. Then we had to insert Bugsy, Our Character Rig for CAN1, into the drawing the second time. I choose François Boucher’s Odalisque simply because I thought it would be funny to see Bugsy all sprawled out looking like a 1749 French nude model. Sure enough I think it is pretty funny looking, Don’t you?
This is obviously the ordinal painting.
This is my remake of the original.
I used Sketchbook Pro and my Wacom Intuos 5 Tablet.
This is my Remake with Bugsy looking all sexy!
This was only worth 1% of my grade, and I feel I went way above and beyond what was even being asked for this assignment, but I was having too much fun because most of my work lately has been in Maya, and I have not had a lot of time to get back to drawing. So I decided to do my best. Feel free to tell me what you think in the comment section below.
Catching you back up to Speed – Some past few months of Projects and Grades.
Character Creation and Design
CDC was a pretty fun yet challenging class. It was our first real run at Zbrush. I feel pretty proud of my grades even though it wasn’t an A+ I learned a LOT about Brush and all 1 million of its buttons.
This was my final project. We had to create a detailed arm in Brush and then bring it over to Maya to re-topologize it and create a Low res arm and then place the maps of the high res arm on to the low res. Not to bad for my first run at a fully detailed arm.
Compositing Fundamentals
Compositing was an awesome class. We got to make movies! Well, kinda, just little 3 to 8 second movies. But we were doing exactly what the industry professionals do and we got to get our hands on Nuke.
My Bike was the star of my final project and I came up with the idea to put my bike in scenes that I think would be fun to ride in. It was a bit more than just plugging in my bike, we had to tweak so many options to try to make it look like it belonged in the scene. Once again another program with another million buttons to learn.
2D Animation
2D Animation was fun. Lots of drawing which really helped me get back to my roots of art. Drawing the same thing over and over many times can be a challenge even if it is a simple ball. You really have to make sure you get it as close to perfect as you can when you are doing animation because even the slightest difference in size or shape can throw a whole animation off.
Here are a few of my 2D Animations that I made into Gifs so you can view them. Please click on them so you can view in full size.
Production Modeling
Production Modeling is a class I really got into on certain projects. This class we really got to dive deep into Brush which is my favorite program so far. Even though we still have our fights, I usually win. I got to do lots of “Speed Sculpts” where we had 25 minutes to try to recreate something. It was amazing to see the different from the beginning of the class to the end in only 1 short month. I feel I really improved on my skills and plan to continue to play in Brush and become great at it.
Here is a bunch of my work in PRM but my Halo Energy Sword is what I am most proud of.
Here are a bunch of the things I made in this months class.
So there you have it. It has been a busy past few months, but I am glad that I can show you why I have been a little more quiet these past few months on here. I plan on making sure I keep everyone up to date more often and maybe even adding some other older work later. Currently I am in Animation Fundamentals, which is taking what we learned in 2D animation in traditional art and applying it to 3D animation on the computer in Maya. It is much more fun as I am not having to draw the same thing over and over and over and over… My next post will be about that. Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have been up to and PLEASE feel free to share any feedback in the comment section below. I love hearing from you guys and also would love and critiques on any of my work.
After 1 year at Full Sail University
Had you asked me a year ago to do the things I have done in the past year or had you asked me where I would be in a year, I never would have imagined what I have done and how far I have come at Full Sail. I can not believe that I have completed a full year at Full Sail and when I think back to my very first day it is amazing how far I have come in such a short amount of time. I am 1/3rd of the way done with my Bachelor of Science in Game Art and at the pace it is going, I am sure the next two years will breeze by. I am so proud of myself for the grades I have gotten and the networking I have done. I am still rocking the straight A’s, which when I think of some of the classes I have had so far and the amount I had to do in 1 month per class, I am blown away at my own work ethic and determination to maximize my opportunity here. I am trying to have patience with myself as well. I have learned to not stress as much over grades. I have learned to just do my very best and work hard and the grades will reflect that. Also it is hard hearing about all the job postings at the places I want to work knowing I still have 2 years to go.
My favorite part of Full Sail so far, has been when they bring in people (Rock Stars) of the industry in to speak to us about what is going on in their position. Especially when they are Full Sail Alumni and even Hall of Famers. It feels good hearing and seeing someone who sat in the very chairs I am sitting in and taking the very courses I am in, telling me to keep at it and at the end, if you work your hardest, network, and get your name out there, “it is possible”. Of course they do not sugar coat it and they tell us it isn’t easy, but it is up to you to get it done. So that’s what I have been doing. Even with this very blog I have had industry professionals take notice. I am thankful for that.
I am looking forward to the classes I have coming up. The best part about my choice to go “extended” (one class a month), I get to make friends with people and they move forward into classes that I will soon be taking, so I get to hear all about what I have in store for me. It has helped prepare me for what to look forward to and especially the art classes, prepare for my projects. Also I am very happy that I can focus on one class at a time. I have fellow peers who I watch completely freak out because they are doing “accelerated” (two classes a month) and they have double the work load. I am thankful for that. I feel that extra time I have reflects in my work as well.
So, here is what I have been up to in the past few months.
I can not tell you how happy I was to get a 97.96 in College Mathematics! I was very nervous about Math as it has never been a strong class for me and I had not done algebra in soo long. But hard work, studying, and a lot of getting it wrong taught me to keep trying and you will get it.
Shading and Lighting I actually got a 95.05% because I was not credited for my extra credit I did in the class. This was a good class but not my forte so far. We learned how to light a scene to make it look realistic.
Then I had Methods of Design which was an AWESOME class. I got to make all kinds of stuff for this class. I found that I really enjoy working with my hands and creating tangible things. Things that can be touched and picked up. Using my art eye was so much fun to create and see things come to life. The best part of this class is that I kicked some serious butt and got my very first Course Directors Award which basically means I was the top in my class.
This may not look like a lot but let me tell you when I walked into class on the last day to pick up all my graded work, this meant the world to me. I was in shock. It is actually the second great thing that has happened to me in Full Sail. First being when My artwork was featured on the walls.
This was another great part of this class, a 99.64!! WOW! I am so proud of myself as this was a difficult class especially when I had a week-long vacation to Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona AZ, and Ft. Lauderdale FL. But I did get some work done while in Ft. Lauderdale. It was actually a great break to have from art.
Here are a few of my projects I made
This is my re-make of Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam) which was painted in 1916 and sold for 60 million dollars. The assignment was to choose a piece of art that we hated and reimagined it the way we would have done it.
The Original
5 Sided Tetrahedra
noun, plural tet·ra·he·drons, tet·ra·he·dra [te-truh–hee-druh].
Geometry . a solid contained by four plane faces; a triangular pyramid.
My next project was we had to create something out of cardboard that showed a good use of Positive Space and also Negative space. I choose to make a 5 sides Tetrahedra. This is actually 5 pyramids that are all interlocked with each other. This was gonna be a serious endeavor that I did not realize would be so challenging yet so fun.
Pre-Production
Going Full Size
Painting and Construction
Final
This was such a fun project to do. I decided after I started construction to go with a 3 sided Tetrahedra that way it showed more negative space. With a 5 sided Tetrahedra it would have not given me any negative space at all to show and that probably would have effected my grade. I did also start to make one out of paper to get how the construction worked before going full size. But WOW! I think it turned out amazing and it was all made with just cardboard.
This was two projects in one, I had to do an abstract along with a sculpture out of green foam. First we had to pick a household item, I choose an XBOX 360 Live Camera. We then had to sketch out close ups to try to make it an abstract look. Then once we came up with those we picked one that we liked and did it in full size and color. I choose to do mine in colored pencils which I am finding I really enjoy working with. Once we completed that we then had to carve out the item in Green Foam. This is the green foam that fake flowers are shoved into to keep them upright. What a fun project and I was a little apprehensive to work in this medium because I did not know how it would react. I found out it was very east to work with if you just used your hands and fingers. No tools, tools simple break it apart, when using your hands you can slowly mold it to what ever shape you like. Here is some of the pictures of my work.
Sketchbook Pro all done on my computer and Wacom Tablet
Final
Green Foam
Final Project
My final project we had to read Grimm’s Fairy Tales The Golden Goose and then create a scenery from the story. I didn’t get much pictures of production as this was made the final day and I was up pretty late working on getting everything finalized for turn in. But here is the final results. I feel it turned out real good. My finger is still sore from using a dull exact knife to cut out all the pieces.
So as you can see I have been very busy over the past few months. Currently I am in Geometry and Measurements… grrrr! Not feeling this math class either but I will put my rhino horn to the grind stone and get it done and hopefully get out of there with another A for the collection. Thanks so much for baring with me over the past few months and not posting here, but as you may or may not know, you can always follow me on my Facebook page as that is also where I post lots of my school fun.
www.facebook.com/MyFullSailJourney
2014 Starts off AMAZING!! ARTII Ends MCR Begins
Well, It has been a little bit since I have updated you. Art II was a BEAST of a class. Art I was a Beast as well, just in a different way. Art II was a lot more detailed work, plus we had to cram a 4 week class into 3 weeks due to the holidays. I did get an A so I am still rocking the straight A’s!! WOOHOO!!
I am so honored to have one of my pieces on the wall!
In Art I, I had 4 of my pieces of art chosen to be featured on the walls of the art building. This was a HUGE honor for me because I remember walking around Full Sail on my Behind the Scenes Tour and seeing the art work on the walls and being amazed and intimidated at the same time. I remember wondering if I had the talent to ever be as good as the other students who got their work featured. In 6 short months, I DID IT! During Art II, I walked in one day and this is what I saw. Hopefully my other pieces will show up soon.
Gladiator Robot Snow Man
My final piece for Art II was we had to design a character from scratch based on “Winter Themed” We had to draw a charter sheet to help figure out all the details of what your final charter will look like when we sculpt them. After that the sculpting began. It was a very fun yet challenging assignment. I was even not happy with how he was turning out in the beginning, but I kept pushing forward and making changes. After a few days he really started looking pretty cool. We used Sculpy, which is awesome because we could cook it right in the oven and was much easier to work with over ceramic clay. After baking him, we could paint our character for some extra credit, so of course I started laying down some paint. I felt the paint job is what pushed my piece over the edge and I was honored again, he was chosen to be put into the halls of the art building. I can not believe that so much of my art has been chosen to be shown off to everyone who walks the halls. I know there will be someone looking at my art work when they are on their Behind the Scenes Tour and I hope it will inspire them just as I was.
I had a GREAT Christmas and a Happy New year. But I just had to share what I got for Christmas!
My first day of MCR Model Creation was AWESOME! I am excited to get back on the computer and working with Maya. We will be doing some amazing looking things from what I have seen from some of my friends who have taken this class already. I am so excited to get started and will be trying to make sure I update you with everything I will be working on. The cool part from day one was the Lab… This class room was so amazing I remember it from my Behind the Scenes Tour because we have Dual Screen Macs to work on. It feels so professional and feels like I have a job in the industry already.
Glad to see my friends too!
“Alien” Noir – High Contrast (Sin City Style) for Art 1 Class
I am so proud of this piece! I went a little crazy on it but that’s just how I do when doing something. Gotta give it my all. Our assignment was we needed to choose a scene from our favorite movie and create a Sin City style Noir Black & White High Contrast picture. We could only use a black ink pen. Obviously Aliens is my favorite movie of all time and I have always thought the Alien was just an amazing looking scary as hell creation. I wanted to try to get that effect while getting that high contrast.
Here is the timeline process of how this piece came to life.
Fun with Alchemy in Art 1 FUNdamentals
Today in Art 1, we were told about this really cool program called Alchemy. We used this software to make a mech, but the cool part was the 4 members in my group each had 2 minutes to contribute to this work. Afterwards, we got to enter it into a contest in class and the teachers choose ours as the winner!!
I also, for the fun of it decided to make a logo for my team… turned out pretty cool.
I am kicking butt in my drawings and I will scan those soon and post them ASAP.
Update time!! (BIG One) Sorry for the delay… 3DF had me busy this month!
First off I would like to say “REALLY?” 99.9%? They just couldn’t give me perfection that I strive for so hard… But, no worries, I am very happy with my final grade for 3D Foundations. This class was soo much fun yet VERY challenging. So for me to basically ace this class makes me feel so good that I am capable of learning such an in-depth program such as Maya in such a short amount of time.
So to catch everyone up to speed on what I had been working on in the past month.
Storyboarding! This was my model I made in Maya to get the idea of my story that I would be working on over the month of class. My idea was to have a character creeping through a dark city street, dodging the light, doing jumps and rolls till she finally reviled herself with a pair of guns and shooting at the camera.
Then I had to draw out the storyboard. I used my new Waycom Tablet with my new program SketchBook Pro to create these storyboards.
Afterwards I had to use PhotoShop to import them into a template to make them into professional storyboards standard to the industry. Feel free to click on each one to get a closer look at them.
I also had to make a Prop. I choose to make street lights since I know those would be part of my main light source. This was a fun yet challenging part of the assignment. There are so many things you have to think about, Keeping everything quaded, Making sure you are not going over the poly count, trying to make it look realistic while making it from one starting piece and extruding it all from one single piece. I feel it turned out great considering my limits I had to stay within. I also did other props for my scene as you will see down below.
I then had to work on creating my own character. I choose to make a female character. Once again, we had lots of limitations that we had to follow. She was constructed out of one square and each surface had to be pulled, extruded, adjusted into place.
This is my final results of my character I created 100% on this one too!
I also had to create a head for my character. I didn’t have to use it in my final movie but we had to show that we knew how to create a texture. This was my final render of my female character in a ski mask.
We also had to add color to our scene. I choose to put my character in a Bikini style outfit… Sure chics run around with twin Desert Eagles in Bikinis, RIGHT?? I also colored everything else in the scene even though in the final you lose a lot of color due to lighting.
Finally we had to light the scene showing multiple different lighting schemes and shadowing. Since I choose to do a dark city street I wanted to fill my scene with light from Lamps, windows from the buildings, and slight moon light. I lost a lot of detail that I put into my scene but the lighting effect was well with it.
Last but not least the final 6 second movie I created using Maya, Photoshop, and After Effects!
WOW!! That was a LOT!! I know… Think of how I felt all month doing it… But what a fun class and I would like to give all the credit to my wonderful teachers that helped me through the whole process. Steve Gold, Sarah DeBaar, and Brian Belz, they did an AWESOME job helping me and all my peers. They have the patience of saints because I know what it is like trying to walk someone through something that you are a professional at and the other person has zero clue.
Fun with my Wacom Intous Sketch Pad
I wanted to practice taking a picture and trying to sketch out what I saw. What better model then Halo?
This one started off just practicing with the line tool and I created two vanishing points. I then just started playing around with the circle tool and then this bird guy came out of no where.
More practice with perspective and a vanishing point. Practicing with the ruler tool and color.
Practicing from my art book.
This was my very first drawing with my Wacom Sketch pad. I started with no intention and just started drawing shapes. The right ear was just a shape and I saw this catlike creature come out of it. I love to start drawing with no clue what I am going to draw and let the creation come to life on its own. It is really great to be back into drawing again.
FINALLY got my Wacom Intuos Pro Digital Sketch Pad
I am very excited that I finally got to pick up my Wacom Tablet and my first art book for my art classes. This thing is AWESOME and is going to make me a much better artist. I was going crazy last month watching all the “Full-Time” students getting theirs and bringing them to class while I had to sit and just droll at them. I can not wait to start posting my art that I create with it.
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