3 month work placement at Neon Play.

Since early February I have been invited to spend a week at Neon Play Games and have since been going back to continue work on their unannounced title. Last week I was offered a 3 month, full-time (paid) placement with Neon Play! I have now organised sabbatical leave from my part-time job and will be starting the extended work placement from next Monday. I can't wait to get stuck in and continue working on this game full-time for 3 months, it's coming along great and is sure to be a hit when it is released!
Oli Christie (CEO at Neon Play) took some time yesterday to type up a blog on their website, about how I got the chance to gain some valuable industry experience check it out!

Happy as a fat man with cake!

Week placement at Neon Play.

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend this week on work placement at Neon Play, a mobile games developer based in Cirencester, working on a model for their upcoming unannounced title.

This opportunity actually came about when I attended a web chat with the CEO of Neon Play, Oli Christie. I was the only person to turn up for this and was duely rewarded by having my work looked at and invited to a morning at the studio, with the possibility of gaining some work experience. That came to fruition and this is my diary of my week spent at Neon Play.

Day 1:

I left home bright and early for the first day of my work placement at the Neon Play studio. First up was the Monday morning meeting, a time for everyone to sit together and hear about the plans and general goings-on about the place. Once this mini-meeting was over, I was taken around to meet the Neon Play by the art lead; everyone seemed really nice and were enthusiastic about their job and work on the current unannounced project. With the formalities done with, it was time to sit with the art team and see what I would be working on for the week.
Being shown the current build of the game for the first time was awesome. Just from spending a little time playing around with what had been created so far and hearing plans for the coming weeks, I can tell this new game from Neon Play is destined to be a big hit! I felt lucky to have the chance to work on it with the team for a short while.
There is some stunning work being produced at the studio and the concept work provided for me to work from was no different. Time for the fun to begin! I got stuck straight in to this piece, admittedly a starting a little slowly as I knew only a little about using Maya. By the afternoon I was beginning to get a better grasp of navigating Maya and using its tools. With day one over, I was making fairly good progress on the modelling phase considering.

Day 2:

During day two I continued to model the asset, trying slight design variations to see which one suited the purpose, had the strongest silhouette and read the best. Tuesday afternoon was spent optimising the mesh and getting to grips with Maya's UV Texture Editor to start the unwrap.

Day 3:

A couple of hours on Wednesday morning was used to finish unwrapping the mesh from the previous day. Now it was time to start the texturing! The first challenge was to get some solid base colours down, that both suited the purpose and read well in-game with animation. At the end of day three, after adding some big detail pieces to the texture, it was decided to change the colour palette ever so slightly. The new version was looking much better.

Day 4:

Thursday was largely spent working on the texture for my model, continuously adding new details and testing them out in-game. Things were starting to come together, just lots of tweaking with the texture.
Towards the end of the day I was called into the board room with the CEO, CTO and lead artist to talk about how I had enjoyed my week at Neon Play. Obviously I had a lot of fun working in the studio, getting to spend the days creating 3d art for games was awesome and something I hope to do full-time in the future. They told me my skills were coming along nicely and they had been fairly impressed with what I had created for them. My texturing work is slightly weaker at the moment, but will improve as I continue to relentlessly work and study. The conversation ended with me being told I could continue to work in the studio on work placement basis if I wanted, helping out with other bits of artwork for the current game. I was really happy with that. It's great to see a company going out of their way to help students like me, giving me some valuable experience and the chance to have an important addition to add to my CV and portfolio!

Day 5:

The final day of my work experience week was spent polishing the texture maps I had been working on, continuously iterating to create something slightly improved each time.
By the end of Friday, I had wrapped up work on the model I had been working on for the week. The lead artist seemed to think I had done well, considering the first day and a half was a little slow, trying to get used to using Maya properly for the first time. I was pretty happy with the model too, it was great to see something you have created put into a proper working game!
Just before I left that evening, I said goodbye to some of the team and thanked the artists for helping me out for the week. I had a great time at Neon Play and loved helping out on the fantastic game in the pipeline.

Thanks to Oli and Mark for giving me a chance to gain some real experience at a really great studio. Also, thanks to the whole team for being really kind to me and helping out during the week. I will definitely be back over the coming weeks to help with the game even more! 

The moral of this blog is to go that extra mile, put yourself out there and show your enthusiasm. How much do you really want this? By doing so, you will eventually get great opportunities like this.

Blitz Games Studios: Open Days 2013.... DENIED!

So, the time of the Blitz Games Studios: Open Days has come back around, 2012 absolutely flew by! For this year's open days, I submitted an environment piece; The Recovery Room Incident scene I created in UDK a couple of months back, to be precise... Well, to cut the story short, I wasn't successful this time around either. While it feels a little disappointing to begin with, I know what I need to do to get much better as a 3d artist (and artist in general). Hopefully, with all my goals laid out for 2013 (>see here<), learning the techniques and software I aim to add to my skillset by the end of the year, I can be successful on my third attempt.
They do say that the third time is the charm...

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.