Courtyard scene update

Chinese Courtyard Scene

I was stagnating on my previous big environment, so I'm working on this small scene for a while, and when it's done I'll return to the previous project - I haven't abandoned it ;) When I return back I'll have a bunch of new assets and textures from this scene that will give me a boost.

Anyway, really enjoying this one!! I love the lighting and evocative mood of the concept, by Wang Rui (click)

Updated treasure chest asset I made about 6 months ago. Tweaked proportions and fixed texture problems.

Tree

Finished this 'hero' tree for my scene! I intend to use the same components (ready-made branch sections, etc.) to produce a couple of regular trees to populate the distant areas of the scene

Life drawing at Gage Academy: short poses 24/7/13

Photos

Environment project

As my main project at Futurepoly I've started an environment piece based on this awesome concept by Andrée Wallin
Progress so far:

And a paintover to help define the direction I want to go in:

Next up, a few terrain tweaks, lighting and props!

Photos

FUTUREPOLY!

I moved to Seattle and started at Futurepoly recently, on the Digital Art and 3D Modelling courses. We started with some basics that I was already familiar with, but it's all good practise and I'm learning a tonne by picking up alternative and efficient workflows from the badass instructors.

The curriculum is moving fast into new ground for me now; I'm so excited for the upcoming weeks!!

Here's some of my work so far:

This is a WIP matte painting - once extended and finished, it will be used as a skybox.

Staring at clouds is a hobby of mine, so this was a lot of fun! The lesson on skies and lighting was given by Jason Connell and he seriously knows his shit! I learnt so much from that one lesson, it was a real insight.

This was an exercise in efficient UV use - I modelled this (based on a concept by Darren Bartley) and wrangled the UVs to fit a tiling trim texture (which I think was by Patrick Hammond)

Same exercise as above (modelling and UVing to fit a texture) - this time using a modular texture from Guild Wars. These exercises were really useful in improving the way I can squeeze the most out of a texture.

Texturing exercise - model (and some awesome feedback) was provided by John Germann.

Some tiling textures (diffuse, normal, specular). Shown tiled twice.

First post! Stuff from the past few months

I'm starting this blog 1), to help me chart my own progress, and 2), motivate me to keep arting! Here's some stuff from the past few months to start off with.

Lunchbreak studies

 

Quick hand-painted material study from photo reference. Needs some work to get to Luke Adwick standard :)

Creation of Adam study. Hnng, that face... pleased with the values though.

Still life. Most recent at the top

Sheet of very vague thumbnails created using a brush derived from an Alchemy doodle - which was in turn created with a sense of dynamism and futurism in mind using abstract sharp shapes. Quick colour adjustment over the top, and a couple of these thumbnails then developed further. I like this as a completely open ideation method :)

Life Drawing

I had an amazing series of life classes come to an end recently. The tutor was the best I've ever known! Her name's Elena Andreeva, if you're anywhere near the Guildford area, take her classes NOW!

These were from near the end of the course - the first is conté on black paper, a really interesting way of working that forces you to 'invert' the way you see light. The second is acrylics, a medium I'm REALLY not used to. It was hard, and frustrating, but so much fun once I got into it - and much more rewarding than digital - gotta get off Photoshop and paint more!

Photos

Clouds, mangled in Photoshop

 View from my house :)

Textures
 I've been working on March's Noob Challenge on Polycount - I'm going for a low-poly, fully hand-painted style. These are a couple of tiling textures, still WIPs, but getting there.

Check back soon for progress on the Noob Challenge :)