37 - Back to Work!

Greetings all!

After a short break I am back at it again. A lot has happened so let me try and catch you up to speed quickly.

First we had a family vacation to a cabin in the mountains to celebrate my parent's 31st wedding anniversary (Congratulations again!). The cabin was amazing! We went hiking to the nearby water falls, ventured into the woods a bit, and visited the local small town. Nothing like a great family vacation to recharge and relax. There was much laughter, fun, and boardgames!

Next sadly we had a close family friend pass and we were all hit pretty hard by it. I'd like to wish his family well and offer my prayers and thoughts.

Then after returning home and trying to get back into the swing of things my wife and I had some very expensive sudden home repairs needed. Now my back and my wallet are hurting. :(

But there is good news, I'm back to work!

I have received my next assignment from ImaginnerGames and will be posting about that very soon. This will be the last scene for me to model related to Episode 1. Very exciting but a little sad too. I've had great fun with Imaginner and we will continue to work together, I just have to be patient and wait for my next batch after this. :)

In the meantime I have a few other projects spinning up that you will see on here and my site soon.

My work for Gioz the Defender is coming along well. I will have an update to that soon as well.

Lastly I have a very exciting mini-series that I will be posting about the things I learn, study, and do, relative to 3d. I am calling this series the "Polygon Pilgrimage" as it is my never ending quest to sharpen my skills, obtain all the knowledge I can, and ultimately grow as an artist.

You can follow my progress here on my blog, on my website (www.mentallic.com) or on Twitter at @PolygonPilgrim.

I look forward to bringing you more awesome 3d art very soon!

Check out my site at www.mentallic.com, let me know what you think.

Thanks very much for your time. See you again soon.

Cheers~

27 - The Secret Lab: Continued

Greetings all!

Work on the Secret Lab is going well. I have got most of the major forms nailed down for the room. The only major form remaining is the laser cannon.

Not counting the duplicated master instancing objects and the wires (which are not final) I am sitting at 1,373 / 5000. There is still room for tweaks however I am not sure yet how much the laser will eat up.

Below you will find two WIP renders; one with and one without the laser gears I've been working on this evening. Even though there is not much to see yet behind the gears I figured this would make viewing the scene a bit easier.

As always please let me know if you have any feedback as it is always welcome.

thank you for reading and enjoy!

Cheers~

25 - 3D Training 2 - Train Harder

Greetings all. I have been quite busy with personal things this week but I have new progress to share.

Having completed the Low Poly pass for the TV Remote I did a test bake of the Normal Map for it.

The results are fairly good but I am not yet satisfied by the result.

See below for the Flat Render and Wireframe comparisons.

As always any comments or feedback are greatly appreciated.

Above you can see the wireframe for each pass. The High Poly pass is sitting at just under 4,200 polygons (with a TurboSmooth of 3 added for baking), while the final Low Poly is just 125 polys!








Cheers~

24 - 3D Training

Back to the Future Basics!

I have been working on learning all I can from several tutorials and fellow artists to improve my skills.

First up I am learning more about proper Normal Mapping basics from my friend Warlock279. He is a freelance artist in Pennsylvania.

To begin we set forth a task for me to create simple household items and study their physical properties in order to better understand how to paint the various texture maps that mimic those properties.

My first model was a very simple light switch. Here you can see the model in both it's high poly and low poly state (with the resultant normal map bake applied). On the left is the high poly model at 4,800 polygons, and on the right we have the low poly (game ready) model at just 46 polygons!

Below you can see the wireframe of each model:

Next I will be working on creating the Light Switch's Diffuse and Specular maps.

After the Light Switch model is complete I will be moving on to a TV Remote model for which I have the high poly already complete. (See below)

Thank you for viewing and if you have any questions or comments I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Cheers~

23 - (Undead) Armored Pegasus

Greetings all, it's been a long time since I posted here. I've been keeping quite busy with my recent trip to SIGGRAPH and all. I've so much to tell about the trip, but that will have to wait for another post.

Tonight I have an update on the Armored Pegasus that I owe my friend Dave. Here is the latest. I believe all I have left to do on the actual horse is to clean up the hooves and then some minor smoothing here and there. After that I will be moving on to the wings and the armor.

As always any comments, ideas, or suggestions are most welcome.

Cheers~

14 - Base Mesh Done!

Here is my completed Base Mesh, ready for sculpting! :)

Cheers~

13 - Keeper Staff (High Poly) Complete

The High Poly pass for the Keeper's Staff is now complete.  The following images show the staff as a whole, a bottom element close up, and a top element close up.

Cheers~

12 - Keeper Staff: Scroll High Poly

Here is the result of the High Poly pass for the Scrolls in the Keeper's Staff.  Feedback is appreciated.

Cheers~

11 - Keeper Staff Update

I've been hard at work on the Keeper's Staff.  The top consists of scrolls with their parchment bent in curves briefly representing a Poseidon like stature.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers~

9 - Keeper WIP (5)

Tonight's progress: Model sheet (started), staff concepts (started)  C&C are welcome.  Thank you!

Cheers~

8 - Armed and Dangerous

Just finished a page full of arm possibilities for you folks.  Please let me know which ones you like best.  Thank you!

Cheers~

7 - Finally Getting Somewhere

I've finally got a good shape going.  Here is the latest for the Keeper.  I've included the body shape as well as some rough sketches for the robe/toga and his scroll staff.

C&C are most welcome.  Thank you!

Cheers~

6 - More Ideas

Still not finding a design that I love.  Here are a few more ideas in a different direction.  C&C are welcome.

5 - DWV Thumbnails Round 2

Moving forward with the design I am attempting to create a "lumbering giant" of sorts.  Here are the latest thumbnails.  Please give me some feedback on which are your favorites.  (1-12) (far right S1-S3)

Cheers~

4 - Thumbnails, Round 1

Here are the results of about an hour total of thumbnail sketching.  The idea at this phase is to get an interesting shape that can be taken and elaborated into a more concise character.  Even after a thumbnail is refined that is taking further and details such as muscles, clothing, armor, and so forth are drawn over top of it.

For tonight I ran with the idea of the Keeper, an ancient deity that protects all knowledge throughout time.  At the end of all things he/she/it returns to mankind, selects the most worthy, and presents them with the knowledge needed to start anew.

The idea I had was that the Keeper is a massive golem the size of a mountain and on his hand/arm would be a stairway or some sort of entrance to a library.  The chosen worthy would ascend into the Keeper to gain the knowledge necessary to save their species.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think of the following:

Cheers~

3 - The War Horn Has Sounded, The Gods Shall Answer!

Dominance War V has officially launched!  This being the last of the Dom War series the theme this year is The Rise of the Gods.  See below for the full brief and rules:

Theme
"Immortality! We strive for it, we long for it, we fight for it. For as long as we can remember, we have even died for it. But what is immortality?We have always believed that our goals, our beliefs and our ideals, when forced on others through Victory of War - had ever, lasting, meaning. Because in being remembered, we ourselves became gods. But we were wrong... After centuries of war - they finally came. To guide us? To punish us? To destroy us!? We do not know. But what we do know is that the results of this immortal war, will shape the universe forever more.

Come, join us, for a final chapter in the legendary series, Dominance War V... The Rise of GODS."

Brief
Create a powerful GOD that shall defeat all other gods and determine the future of the universe forever more!! Your God must symbolize one exceptional trait - God of War, God of Machines, God of Peace, Demonic God of Chaos, God of Torment, God of Love, God of Mercy, God of Swords, etc. The design and style of your GOD can be made in any fashion, except cartoons. Here are examples of what NOT to do - [links removed...two images of sunday paper style cartoons], etc. Additionally, NO real/known gods (Allah, Brahman, Elohim, Jesus Christ, Waheguru, etc) or current fantasy gods (from Dungeons & Dragons, etc) can be used for this challenge. You must invent a God from scratch and from your imagination. Show us why your GOD is THEE GOD of ALL!! The time period for this challenge is set in the utterly destroyed and distant future.

World standings await the best designed GOD! Be it for fun, for practice or to show the world your skills, Good luck to all those brave enough to enter!


Guidelines
12500 triangles
1x 2048² Texture set
 All textures must be original and hand painted
 Renders must be in some sort of 3d Engine (i.e Unity, DXStudio, Marmoset Toolbag, etc..)


Where you come in
Please visit my blog regularly as I will be updating near daily with progress.  I will post polls, ideas, sketches, and all work in progress (WIP) images of the model as it is created.  I will do my best to explain each step of the 3d process to both illustrate to the 3d community and prospective employers that I know what I'm talking about, and to you my non-3d friends and family so that you can follow along and help me to critique each phase of the build process.

Edit: Please vote in the poll on the right hand side for your favorite god/goddess idea! Thank you!


I deeply value and appreciate your feedback and your support during this intense competition.


Cheers~

2 - Still Waiting

It appears that Dom War has been delayed. For how long we have not been told.  I'll be posting some WIPs (Work In Progress) of my latest work later this week,

Cheers~

1 - All Set Up and Ready to Dominate

Greetings all to my 3D Modeling blog.  Tomorrow begins the 5th Annual Dominance War and I am ready to compete!  Please join me in the contest of epic proportions.  I will be updating this blog with my Dom War progress as well as any any all artwork I create.  Feel free to leave any constructive comments and critiques.

Cheers~