Blocking

If anyone actually follows this blog, there should be a more complete update on this model either Thursday or Saturday. With Valentines day and President's day it has been a busy week at the restaurant, and I haven't had much time to really work because I've been at "work".

I have everything blocked out in this one. It's just a matter of getting a few things on the base mesh worked out, and working it in Mudbox now. Depending on my work schedule, I can probably be texturing and tweaking by Sunday.

All together I've already worked about 20 hours on this character (the Maya/Mudbox workflow is still new to me). The initial design worked on paper, but not in 3D space for me, so I redesigned the legs. The Idea is a bug-like character that has natural camo to blend in with a cave environment. It's legs would be able to arrange themselves to look like a stalactite. I'm still a little worried about the silhouette of the redesign, but at this time I'll wait for comments before another big redesign. If you are still reading I'm glad you care about what I'm doing enough to pay attention. Thanks, and keep watching!

WIP part 2

Here's some further work on the Mantis character. The normal maps are still incomplete, but I'm going to move on the the abdomen section of the character before going back and finishing all the normal maps. This way I can make sure they all work together and fit the design.

Character WIP

I needed a little break after graduation, but I'm back working. I've been learning a Maya/Mudbox workflow, and I'm ready to start a new character. I don't have a scanner right now, so I won't post the concept sketches (you're not missing much, they are pretty simple), but I've decided to post a WIP thread to show my process and progress.

I'm working on this character in stages since it is a segmented character. Here's the head. I'm still working on the Normal map, and I'll probably smooth out the chin some more, but I'm trying to keep the poly count pretty low and rely on the normal map for details.The body will be posted soon.

Oh yeah, Right now I'm calling this character Mantis...get it... MAN-tis...HA!

Flatbook

I just realized I had never posted anything from my flatbook. Well here it is. I'll be graduating in 2 weeks! That also means I will be relentlessly creating new content, so before this version gets scraped I figured I'd share it. I'm pretty happy with the overall design, but crits and comments are always appreciated. Let me know what you like and don't like about it. I can take it. Really. I want then next one to be better so rip it apart!

Oh Yeah...the phone number on the bottom of the cover is not mine anymore, so I really don't care if you crank call it.

Mudbox Tests

Here are my first two modeling experiments with Mudbox. I'm breakin' in to the high-poly stuff. I'm starting with Mudbox (coming from Maya it is much eaiser to teach myself), but I plan on learning zBrush too. I didn't get into too much detail yet, still figuring out all the tools. My next model I plan on putting as much detail as possible. The attempt at a Meats Meier-ish wire character taught me a lot. It's not a very high poly model- the renders are from Maya- so I may play with that type of model for the next one, but make it much more detailed.

New Demo reel rough cut

Here's the rough cut for my new demoreel. A lot of the content is the same from the last version, but it will get a major overhaul soon. I've been working on some new stuff. This one is basically just a little prettier than the plain version I posted before with a few changes. Crits and comments are always helpful.

demoreel v2

Here is a shortened, revised demoreel. I still don't feel like it's done(it probably never will be), but it's the latest version.
-edit I'm currently redoing this...hopefully I'll have a version I like soon!

Bone Commander Rudolph

***I'VE NOTICED ON SOME BROWSERS THAT THIS IMAGE DOES NOT DISPLAY CORRECTLY. FIREFOX SEEMS TO SHOW IT WITH THE RIGHT COLORS***

This character design was done by Mike Macropoulos. A fellow student at the Art Center. He is an amazing artist and character designer, as well as the creator of the underground comic "Spook Girl"

Anyways, here's the model I made of his character.

Horney the "Don't Do Steroids" Demon

This is a model I did for fun yesterday. I'm trying to speed up my workflow, so I'm planning on doing a bunch of quick models in the next few weeks. This one took about 8 hours from starting to sketch to where it is now. I wasn't too concerned with staying perfectly to the sketch. This was more about making quick choices and finishing a decent model quickly.

I'm going to move forward with a new model now, but I might come back and tweak some things on this model later.

If anyone out there has any character designs they would like to see modeled, just email me, and I'll give it a shot!

Tucson Toros Animation

This is the first paid animation job I've done. It's for the minor league baseball team here in Tucson. I did everything but set up the skeleton, my friend Mike Munoz did that since he is much faster than I could have been and this was a quick job.

I learned a lot doing this, and found ways to streamline my workflow in the process. All in all I'm pretty happy with it.

low rez body














high rez w/ head




















I'm finally getting around to building a body for the head I made.

Siggraph Mascot for The Art Center

This is a character I modeled for an opening to my school's demo reel at Siggraph. The design and animation was done by Sean Coleman, and it was rigged by Mike Munoz.

To check out the animation use my link to "Sean's Animation Station" and go to his Agust '08 archived page.

Head Model

Just a head.