2D Assignment 6: Value

For this week we practiced value by looking at Dota 2's Character Art Guide.

From there we took line art by the artist Matt Rhodes (who's an inspiration of mine) and took what we knew of value to paint the piece in any style we choose.

I spent about an 1.5 hours on this.

3D Assignment 6: UV and Digital Sculpting for a Prop

This week we took the cannon from our last assignment and created UV's for it in Maya, created a high res version of the canon, and then brought that into Zbrush for detailing.

The cannon with the UV layout:

The high res version of the cannon:

The cannon after detailing in Zbrush:

The cannon after decimation:

Some reference images I looked for inspiration:

I spent about an hour UV'ing, and about 1-1.5 hours detailing.

2D Assignment 5: Silhouettes

This week we covered silhouettes and could choose between making designs for weapons, characters, creatures, environments, and transports.

I had a lot of fun with this assignment and decided to do both weapons and environments.

Overall this assignment took me about hour for each set, so about two hours in total.

3D Assignment 5: Modeling a Prop (Cannon)

This week we all are modeling a cannon in Maya.

First we set up the scale of the object using the UE4 mannequin as a reference:

Modeling WIP:

The finished model:

And here's the model in UE4:

This assignment took me a bit over an hour or so.

2D Assignment 4: Composition and Layout

For this week we looked at various compositions and had to create an illustration of our choice using one of the following composition types.

I decided on the rule of thirds...originally I had planned for a radial composition, but it turned more into the rule of thirds as I progressed on the project.

For mine I first started with some thumbnail sketching:

Then once I decided on my composition I did a quick mock up in Maya to use as a reference:

And here's the final illustration:

Overall I spent about 1 hour concepting and mocking up in Maya and then about 3 hours painting the final image.

RPP Round 1

Yesterday we finished up our first RPP (Rapid Playable Prototype)! RPP is probably the most challenging and time consuming thing we do in our first semester at FIEA. The entire cohort is broken into teams of 5-6 and we must complete an entire game in two weeks, then we get a week off before repeating the process with a whole new team. For this first RPP the only restriction we had was that it must be created in Flash.

My first RPP went really well and I think my team and I worked great together. We accomplished our goals and kept to our schedule well. My team was made up of two programmers, Jacob Edelen and Justin Moser, two producers, Paul Nirenberg and Ryan Stanley, and two artists myself and Lindsay Green.

Here's some assets and animations I created for the game, it's a vertical platformer and the goal is the rescue the cat before the fireman.

And here's a screenshot of the finished game:

3D Assignment 4: Lego Group Project Part 02

For this assignment we're continuing on with our last assignment, but now working with our entire class. We broke into 4 smaller teams, focusing on different aspects of our project. My team is focusing on environments! My team is made up of myself, Bailey Steggerda, Noel Graham, Anthony Ballinas, Paul Salas, and Will Perez-Valines.

The other teams are:

The Air Transportation Team:

Boo Roseman, Matthew Trupiano, Kendall Robertson, 

Yunhao Huo, Tiffany Brodie, Hezekiah Olopade

The Character Team:

Ryan Hill, Lindsay Green, Matthew Young,

Chelsea Ziu, Kay Ghering, Melissa Almirall

The Land Transportation Team:

Francisco Romero, Michael Vogel, Raymond Halley,

Yanjun Chen, Connor Hollis, Sam Moss

As the environment team we talked with the other teams about what kind of environment we wanted. The class decided the the setting would be the future and from there we decided to create an outpost on an asteroid that is the home of a giant crystal tree. People from around the galaxy can come and visit the tree, which now houses a park, hotel, and parking area. We wanted the aesthetic to be inspired by tron with dark blues, purples, and glowy.

Knowing all of this, I decided to model 3 pieces that I felt would be useful to our environment.

Once the environment was decided, I was also tasked with creating the asteroid and the dome. I tried to keep the tris on the two as low as possible as I knew that once the legos were in the scene it was going to be taxing on UE4.

For the environment I worked on concept sketching with Will. After that I worked on set dressing with Bailey. I created blueprints for trash cans, lamps, tables, bushes, crystal clusters, planters, statue, and fences. Anthony did the majority of the hotel based off of a concept sketch I made. I helped him finish up the hotel by adding plants, materials, and some detailing. I also worked on various material instances stemming from a base material created by Bailey. Bailey helped combine the environment team's maps and from there I placed assets from the other teams into the final environment - mostly the characters and some vehicles. After that I did the lighting and then took screenshots for the entire class to use.

Concept Sketches:

By Will Perez-Valines

By Will Perez-Valines

My blueprints for set dressing:

The finished hotel with materials:

The final environment with the whole class' assets:

For this I spent about 3 hours meeting, sketching concepts, and deciding on the environment and concept with the class and my team, 1 hour modeling my legos, 2 hours modeling the rock and dome, 3 hours building set dressing and the hotel and materials, and another 3 hours compiling the levels, blueprints etc. from the other teams, as well as lighting, building the light, and taking screenshots.