Blog Archives
Game Portfolio 1 Final Turn In
Male Anatomy Study
This was my final turn in for my very first full character for Game Portfolio 1 class. We were tasked at completing our 80% done characters from previous month to 100%. As you can see from the first post, to now this post, I have put a lot of work into this guy. I learned a lot in this class and it feels like this was a true test of everything I have learned over the past few years.
I used ZBrush 4R7 to sculpt at around 8 million Polys, then Maya 2016 for retopology down to around 50k Polys. For color, I used Substance Painter and then Marmoset for the final render. I am finding it very fun to use so many different programs to come up with one final result. I received a B+ for my final grade and of course I would have preferred an A, but I understand that this is “Finals” It has gotten very serious when it comes to grades and critiques.
This is my model that I used for 3d.sk for this months male anatomy. I feel like i know this guy, I have stared at him for so long. haha
Learning how to do Hand Painted Texture for TPS – Part #1
Texture Painting and Sculpting
For this new class we are learning to do Hand Painted Textures, which is a fancy way of saying Digital Painting, which is a fancy way of Photoshopping. We were tasked with painting a texture using 4 different materials. I choose Wood, Stone, Cloth and Metal. My stone turned out pretty decent in my opinion and was a lot of fun bringing it to life with all the cracks. The cloth was by far my best piece and I had a lot of fun doing that one. I learned a technique where you paint all in grayscale just focusing on where the highlights and shadows should be and then adding color at the end. That way you do not have to worry about color and getting all the colors to look correct. I used the smudge tool for 98% of it and with a lot of time it comes out looking like a real cloth. My wood was my least favorite, only because I left that for last and didn’t get to spend as much time on it as I would have liked. I added Metal nails for effect, but I am sure with a few more hours it would have been much better. I received a B+ on this for my grade Mainly due to the wood.
Our second project was to Hand Paint a barrel to tell a story. I choose to do an old radioactive barrel with lots of damage, rust and mold. I really enjoyed making this one because It was fun to see a nice fresh looking barrel become old and beat up. I used a bunch of different techniques in this one to get the final result and lots and lots of different layers in Photoshop. The trial and error were fun on this one and learned very quickly it is fun to make a layer and experiment and if I don’t like it, just delete and start something new. That’s how the mold turned out. I had several different versions of the mold and after receiving a few critiques decided to end with this version. I received an A on this for my Grade.
I am currently working on Legacy/Current Generation Textures making another wall, and soon will start on a box. So I will post those at the end of the month once they are completed. Enjoying this class for sure. It’s nice to get back to feeling like I am making art.
Visual Effects 1 Grades
So proud of myself for this that I wanted to share! 97% A+ as a final grade makes me so happy. Two years later and still rocking those A’s.
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.
2015
WOW! I can not believe we have made it to the future!
I am very excited that it is 2015 because this means that I only have just over a year to finish my degree. I had such a wonderful year in 2014 and I have learned soo much. The year flew by which means I must have been having some fun. When I think back at the beginning of 2014 and now I feel so much smarter when it comes to my field. Classes are really ramping up when it comes to difficulty but I feel I am still keeping up and getting A’s.
Character Rigging 1
I made a few tiny mistakes in this class which gave me a %99.20. I am extremely proud of myself for this grade. I really enjoyed doing rigging a lot. I had heard from a few fellow students who had already taken it and they warned me and some down right hated it. That made me a little nervous that it might not have been such a fun class, but they were all wrong. For me, this was my type of class. My teacher, Mr. Clavan, was a wonderful instructor and was able to teach us the basics or rigging very well.
Character Animation 1
I have started my next class and it is going to be a fun one. Character Animation 1 is a continuation of Fundamentals of Animation. I am looking forward to using what I have learned from that class and adding more knowledge to create some fun and exciting animations. I will keep you posted.
Discussion: Blog Post – Character Rigging 1
Discussion: Blog Post
Well this is a first… I get to use my blog as one of my assignments for class. All month-long I have been learning Rigging in Mr. Clavan’s Class. This has by far, been one of my most favorite classes so far. For some reason rigging just appeals to me. I think it is the precision of it all. Everything has its exact place and it just feels good when everything is perfectly lined up and precisely in its spot. We also got to do some coding in the last week of class. It is fun to see how you can make a code that literally does things that took me an hour to do and now I can do it in a push of a button. I am not sure if I will become a rigger, but it is definitely at the top of my list of things I might want to do when I get done with Full Sail.
Part of my assignments this month is to make a post on my blog once I am finished with my Rig showing off my work. So here it is Mr. Clavan, hope you like it.
Prior to this class we had done very minimal rigging so this was kind of our “real” introduction to how full rigs work. We learned from start to finish how to rig a character, but of course each one will be different, but the basic principles should remain the same. Here is a few shots of the progression of my work.
Video of my Rig in action, Enjoy.
I am very happy with the way he turned out and apparently so was my teachers. I received a 100% plus got an extra 10% for doing extra credit with the fingers having their own separate controls. Below is some screen shots of the finished product showing off some of the controls that I made and how it was rigged.
I am looking forward to CRY2 and I here it is even more fun then CRY1. But until then it is time for CHRISTMAS!!
Fundamentals of Physics Group Project – Illumination
Team Artichoke
We had a group project to do in Fundamentals of Physics where we were grouped together with like degrees. I was very honored to get paired with all Game Art Peers and they all did a great job. We had to choose a physics example of how we might use physics in our degree. We choose to do Illumination or Lighting.
I volunteered to do the voice over work on the project and I feel we created a very professional and informative video that explains how lighting is used in todays video games. We used Cryengine to create the video demo and we wrote a script to explain what we were doing in the demo. Today we will be presenting it in class and I am confident we will get an A+ on it.
Only 1 more day of this class and looking forward to some TURKEY!!
UPDATE!!
I received one of the greatest compliments on an assignment I have ever gotten at Full Sail.
I’m Halfway There… WOOHOO!
I am officially a Junior at Full Sail University…
Today marks the day that I have made it to the exact half way point of my 3 year Game Art Bachelor Degree. I am absolutely blown away at how much I have learned in the last year and a half. I knew when I started I would be learning some amazing things and would be able to do things that I never knew possible, but I am still amazed as to how much I have grown as a student and an Artist. I have had some amazing classes and some amazing teachers and met some really cool people.
My favorite part of Full Sail so far, is Networking! I have never been a big networker in my previous life because I felt I didn’t need to be. From day 1, here at Full Sail, they have preached to us about how important Networking is. Now, I thought this was just their standard information that they kind of just told everyone until I met Rob Coble. Rob came into my 2nd class and drilled it into our heads of how important this is. He told us stories of former Full Sail grads that got jobs not because of their grades, not because of their resume, not because of their demo reel, but because of the networking they did. Yes, of course all those other things are very important, but the key to all of it is Networking. I made it my mission to take what Rob said and become a great networker. Now don’t think I plan on doing nothing but networking and praying that I get a good job at the end of all this. I am working very hard to make sure EVERYTHING is in place, Grades, GPS Points, GPA, Giving 100% on everything I do, Winning Awards, Being Impressive, and Networking, so that way when this amazing journey ends, I will have that much more over my competition. I will be the best candidate for the position when the time comes.
The best part of Networking at Full Sail is the Events that they host. They bring in industry professionals to speak, do Q&A sessions, and demos, so that way we as students can hear what we will be doing very shortly. I love it when they are Full Sail Alumni too, because I know they sat in the same exact seats as me and went down this same road and had a great outcome. They come in as Rock Stars but are so humble and so willing to help out and share the knowledge of what they did to get to where they are. They also re-confirmed what Rob told us so long ago, Network! Not one person that has come to Full Sail said “I filled out an application, and they just called and I got the job” No! It has always been some sort of networking story of how they met someone along the way and they were able to help them get that job. The best part of networking is, I have made some good friends and it is awesome to see and hear what they are up to in the industry.
Report Card Time!
After 18 classes I have a 3.82 GPA. When I started I did want to try to maintain a 4.0 GPA but Geometry got me. Although I did not reach this goal I am extremely proud of myself for having such amazing grades. To go through Full Sail which is not an easy college to do great, and to get all A’s and one B is insane I think. Most of my grades are A+’s which means higher than 95% and I plan on keeping this up for the next year and a half. I want to be standing up on that stage at the end and them say my name as top of my class. I am also rocking the 100% Attendance record. Have not missed one day.
I want to also take a minute to thank everyone who has been following http://www.MyFullSailJourney.com I am humbled that so many people are interested in my dream that I am making a reality. Looking forward to keeping you guys up to date on all my exciting adventures.
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.
TGGAMIO = Thank God Geometry and Measurements is Over
Well I gave it my all and did my best, but the record of straight A’s has fallen.
It was the tests that killed me. I have come to learn that my brain just does not work so well with math. Not that I can not learn it and perfect it. I think it just takes me a bit longer to get all the rules down. Full Sail being a accelerated school, we are learning in 4 weeks what most colleges do in 16 weeks. I am sure had I had a bit more time, I could have aced these tests. I am actually happy with my final grade of B+ when usually I would be upset it wasn’t an A. But I know I did my best and I am proud of myself for that. I do have a secret weapon though. Full Sail allows you to bump up 1 grade at the end. So if I continue to keep getting A’s, I can change this B+ to an A.
Next month is Character Design and Creation, and I am looking forward to that. I am sure I will have more to post next month. So keep your eye’s pealed for that.
My Full Sail Journey.com 