2013 3d art goals.

That time has come back around again, Christmas is just about done with for another year and people start thinking up new year's resolutions that they attempt to keep in the coming months.
I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone, but I'm not quite sure where 2012 has gone; it has definitely been the quickest year that I can remember. I have just kept studying 3d art, improving over the last 12 months whilst and working around my part-time job, that's about it really. It's always good looking back to January and seeing how far your artwork has come in that short space of time though. The effort does (and is) paying off, for sure.
So, on the topic of making new year's resolutions, I have typed up a list of 3d study-related goals that I will strive to achieve in this coming year.

• A fairly general one to start with; I want to continue to improve my 3d modelling, texturing and digital sculpting.
• Find a work placement to gain some invaluable industry experience. This is a big goal for me in 2013 and one of the most important on this list.
• Continue to work on personal 3d projects, bulking my portfolio up to 5-7 polished pieces of artwork, showing off a variety of subject and art style of things I love to create.
• Whilst working around personal artwork, try to stick to my schedule and get Train2Game work done too. Since July I hit a brick wall with the coursework, coming to a stage that requires to model, rig and skin a character and study a whole book on animation; two of my biggest dislikes.
• Make time to practice some digital painting. Since starting my studies of 3d two years ago, there hasn't been a whole lot of time to dedicate to traditional 2d work. In the new year I want to improve my 2d, in particular environment and prop concept art.
• Attend some gaming events. In the last couple of years I have been unable to attend events such as Eurogamer, Develop and game jams, this new year will be different.
• Last but not least, an optimistic extra. This one is not something I 100% aim to achieve in 2013, but if I can manage to get my foot into the door of the industry, it would certainly make my year!

There we go, that's a handful of goals I aim to achieve in the next twelve months. What are you targets for 2013?

A big thank you to anyone who has given up some of their valuable time to read any of my blog posts this year.

The sacred jungle comet.

Time to start a new project.
I have been learning the basics in Zbrush recently and wanted to create an environment piece that would showcase some of my (basic) sculpting skills so far.
For this project, I had the idea of making a small diorama on a wooden plinth. The environment is set in a jungle, with stone steps leading up to some ancient stone ruins which was used in the past to protect a mythical weapon. I want to create this piece in a stylised way; somewhere in the middle of realism and toon.
So far I have done some blocking-out work in 3ds Max and painted over some of that in Photoshop, to show you in what sort of direction I am going for. There will be much more foliage and randomly placed stones/rocks than I have painted in this image, but the big (main) forms are there to see.

Update #2: I have taken a couple of weeks off from the Jungle Ruins scene due to working on another small project given to me. Here is a small update before I take a few days away from the 3d work for Christmas; a few Zbrush stone sculpts (wip). I want to add a bit of surface detail to the completely smooth parts of the stone on a second sculpt pass.

Update #3: I took the decision a couple of days ago to revise the concept for the Jungle Ruins scene. I wanted to pre-plan the scene a lot more before I continued creating 3d art, in order to create a much more visually appealing piece of artwork. Here are some plant life studies I have done for the scene.

Jungle plant life research:

Update #4: Here is the revised concept for the newly-named 'Sacred Jungle Comet' scene (No more Jungle Ruins). There will be splashes of colour surrounding the small clearing from the flowers in the studies above.
'A mysterious comet with blue glowing symbols crash landed into a remote part of the deep jungle. For many years this small clearing in the dense forest was used by tribes people to worship this gift thought to be send from the Gods, until something caused the people to quickly leave their home and the sacred jungle comet behind. There it has stayed, not discovered since.'

The recovery room incident.

This is a new environment piece I have been working on in my spare time for a couple of months now. I had the idea of a small scene with a hospital room and hallway, where the room has been messed up by someone or something.
The focal point is the bed where the patient has been taken from; a bloody trail now starts at the bed and continues out of the room and down the hallway. The lighting will be a lamp that has been knocked off of the bed side table, along with a few dim ceiling lights.
I took inspiration from the games Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but also from some horror films I have seen in the past. This idea is a concept in my head and I will be creating as I go using reference images I have collected.
Here is some screenshots of the overall scene set-up before lighting and texturing. I am currently in the baking process for the props and will start texturing items in the next couple of days. This project is assembled in Unreal Development Kit, modelled in 3D Studio Max and textured with Adobe Photoshop.

Update #2: Placed down base colours of the textures and drafted the lighting, just to give some sort of idea of what I'm going for. Still a lot to do!

Update #3: Finalised the lighting and diffuse textures and currently finishing off specular and normal maps. Next thing to do is create the bloody trail leading from the bed and out into the corridor.

Update #4: I have decided to rename 'The Hospital Room' project to 'The Recovery Room Incident' and this scene will be completed tomorrow night. Final screenshots imminent! 

Final Update: Here we go, 'The Recovery Room Incident' UDK scene is finally done! The entire scene weighs in at 19,593 tris. Below are the final screenshots and texture flats. Enjoy.

Last thought: This has been my first time having a proper go at using the Unreal Development Kit, so this environment project has taken me a little longer than I first thought it would/wanted it to. I had an idea in my head for this type of a scene and working from some reference images and no concept, I have managed to create a fairly decent environment piece, that I am proud of.
Next up I will begin to learn some 3d sculpting in Mudbox (or Zbrush if I can ever afford it?), with the aim of my next environment scene being outdoors and featuring much more organic assets, such as rocks and foliage.
Thanks for taking your time to view my work and read my thoughts about it!

The acid container.

This is an acid container prop that I'm currently working on. I am going for a well-used, realistic look, to make it feel as it would fit in some sort of old industrial factory environment.
Admittedly the tri count could have been lower and that is something I have learnt from through creating this piece so far. This mistake will not happen again.

Update #1: I have now completed the high-poly acid container, the low poly is unwrapped and the normal and ambient occlusion maps have been baked out.

Update #2: I went back and created a 1024x2048 diffuse which have been overhauled (Adding to the normal and specular map too), I also changed some of the geometry.
I'm still working on this in my spare time; I need to finish the diffuse, add to the basic normal map, create a decals map and tweak the glass pane in the door to make it see-through.

 

Update #3: Here is the final Acid Container model. I finalised the diffuse, normal and specular maps and presented the prop using Marmoset Toolbag. 

Indie Game: The Movie.

Released on 12th June 2012, Indie Game: The Movie is an incredible documentary that follows four indie games: Super Meat Boy, Braid and Fez through their development. You get to see everything, from the darkest moments, all the way to the highest of highs. All I can say about IG:TM is that it should be seen by all fans of video games, it's a great insight and is generally a fantastic piece of film. Truly inspiring. *****

Eighteen months in...

I have now been learning 3d art for eighteen months (Give or take a few weeks), in which I feel that I've learnt so much; all the way from opening up 3ds Max for the very first time and being terrified by the complicated-looking UI, up to where I am today. I feel I have made great progress so far in my studies, both through the Train2Game course I'm enrolled on and extra-curricular learning, working my ass of each and every day.
Another milestone that the eighteen month point brings, is that I have also paid off half of my course. Working the extra hours at my part-time job in order to pay for my studies is tough, but at the same time allows me to learn the skills I need to break-in and get that job in the games industry!
Looking to the next eighteen months, I should be much more proficient in high poly modelling and the Unreal Engine; both of which are things I have recently started to learn. Add to this continuing to improve at my texture work and as a wannabe environment artist as a whole. Hopefully if I can learn as much in the next eighteen months as I have in this past year and a half, then I will blossom into a fairly good 3d artist, who starts to make some tiny ripples in the proverbial ocean that is the games industry.

"This is what I want to be a part of as a career, this is my passion..."

The ruined jetty project.

I'm currently in the planning and concept stage of a new environment piece, which will hopefully make a solid portfolio piece once finished. I want to make a beach shoreline with an old jetty leading into the sea, which was once used for illegal operations such as drug and firearms smuggling, before the place was raided by a small special forces squad.
Here is a concept sheet I have painted up with some overall designs for the scene and (rough) props. I may add one more sheet of concepts too that aren't so loose. The programs I plan to use for this project are 3ds Max, Photoshop, Mudbox (or Sculptris) and UDK. I only know the very basics of UDK and I'm yet to use Mudbox, so this project will be a good (more thorough) introduction to both programs.

UPDATE: I have added another concept sheet with some orthographic drawing and measurements on.

Final deep sea diver.

This deep sea diver has been fully modelled and texture now and is more or less completed for the mean time. I think there is little tweaks I can make here and there with the texturing, but overall I have learnt some new things during this little coursework project and I'm pretty happy with the result.
I think the course requires you to rig and animate this little guy at some point, so you will probably see him popping back up in the not too distant future.

Deep sea diver project.

My coursework requires me to create a deep sea diver from a concept provided. Here's where I am up to so far; I have just finished the modelling stage in about 5 or 6 hours. Next up is the mesh optimisation (The diver is currently a hefty 2900 polys!) and texturing stages. More updates on this to come!