- Art Explorer -

2012-01-03T17:40:00.001-08:00

Chimera Fun

2011-10-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a little doodle I did while I had some free time at work the other day. Lorelai came to visit me for a few hours and while she was enjoying tortilla chips, a hamburger and some Phineas & Ferb I sketched out some Resistance 3 fan art. I didn't really have an idea in mind so it was a bit of "free flow" drawing going on. Lorelai helped too! She was very creative with some of the highlighters we had laying around. Came out pretty good so I think I'll slap some colors on 'er and use it on my R3 Global signature. Enjoy.

TF2 Spy pack Scroll

2011-08-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

It is here! The next comp sheet for the Spy Ninja Assassin pack. I'm pretty excited about this addition and can't wait to get this into Maya and modeled up. Always up for suggestions. Couple things. The character select is not the final, I just needed to have something as a place holder for now till I can work up a custom character select screen. Also, the kanji up top, I have no idea what that says, so first off, sorry if it offends. I doubt it since I grabbed it from some poster collection but you never know. Second, if anyone knows where I can get a good translator program, I'd like to type some stuff up in English and have it convert to Japanese for the final.

Some other cool news. Sparkwire on the TF2 forums has offered to help me out with some animations. As of right now he has the Smokebomb placed in hand and is working on making that puppy fly! So, Thanks for the help Sparkwire. I'll keep you updated on that as well as it develops.

Progress! We have a SmokeBomb

2011-08-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I meant to do this yesterday but I got crazy busy. Anyhow, Here is an in-game screen shot of the Spy's Smokebomb. I tell you what, it's pretty comical to see people lunging in death from being stabbed in the back with a ball! As of right now it is taking the place of the Kunai and will be until I can make up some animations for its real purpose (cloaking). You'll notice that there are a few more tweaks to go but this is basically final aside from placement.

As requested on the forums, I toned down the normals a little but kept the same texture. I also changed to color of the cork to be less drastic of a yellow as requested. What's next is some placement adjusting and I'm going to work on getting the Scout's Mom to show up a little better when the bump isn't as predominate. I was trying to rely on the bump to show her outline but there are light situations that cause the phong to wash out the bump all together.

First three renders are from Maya, just the bomb with textures, just the normals (no diffuse) and everything together with specular. Fallowing is the in game render for both Red and Blu team. (And yes, I know I spelled blue wrong. It's an abbreviation of an in game company)

Click the images for a hi res view!

The Spy has a new toy. The Shuriken!

2011-07-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

   I finished the Shuriken for the TF2 contribute site and am very please with its outcome. Probably my favorite mod of the set so far. I felt that my plans and the moments of inspiration really came together to create a really cool looking model.

   One bit of "on the fly" was the logo that surrounds the center of the star. The design was looking good but it was lacking interest. I thought, "how cool would it be to add some branding to the design." And I'm glad I did! It really tied it into the game and the TF2 logo made the shuriken look even more authentic to the era. Some other gems that helped create its realism was the scuff marks I added.

   The shuriken just looked too clean, and I thought, "What if the Spy had missed his target from 15 feet away?" It'd surely stick in the walls or ricochet off the surrounding rock walls and would look so pristine afterwards. Take a look at the screen shots below. Be sure to click on the images to view it in hi res.

   I also create a quick little YouTube video to go alone with the images today. Its a nice break down of what goes into creating a 3D object for in game models. You'll first see how the model looks at its base level, then the normal map is added to give a sense of depth (like an embossment). Next you'll see the specular map added which tells the model what I want shiny and what I want matte. And finally, everything previously stated with textures. Enjoy!

The Tanto Tickler!

2011-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

Cool cool. I finished up the tanto for the Team Fortress 2 contribute system. That means I have the mask (now dubbed the Shroud of Sneakyness) and the Tanto Tickler. Only two more mods to go and I can submit this off and get all kinds of rep, honor and hopefully a golden chariot! Okay, the last one was just a suggestion.

Last night I finished texturing the Tanto and adjusting the specular today. First off I must say, keeping within the style is not that hard to do with the right tools. If anyone is interested I made these killer brushes from these posts by Swizzle and Frump over on Polycount. Way cool and resourceful

Second, I will intentionally contradict myself by saying it's not that easy making the style cohesive with the rest of the game souly by having the right tools. The textureing step set me back a bit as I was doing a lot of trial and error trying to get a balance and understanding of what makes this work. Again, it helped a lot to read this thread by Swizzle as he methodically broke each part down into an easy to understand format. Still, not the end all "how to". Anyone else out there working on a model needs to know there is a lot of trying, erasing and head scratching that goes into making a piece work. DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED.

Anyways, here are a few renders of the tanto for your scrutiny. Enjoy, and lets see those critiques.

P.S. I will settle for the Australium coated chariot, just FYI. :^)=

Doodles!

2011-06-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Just as the title says, I've been doodling. Here is a preview of a sketch I'm doing of a Medic hut on a snowy mountain side. Those in the know, know!