Ezra Lau Art

figure sketchings

2012-02-21T16:18:00.003-07:00

I went to a figure drawing session recently, and these are the pieces that are at least somewhat decent. I used Prismacolor pencil and markers for these.

goblin doodles

2012-02-11T02:14:00.001-07:00

these goblins... they look so romantic, just like valentines day ads when you're single.

So remember that post where I was making some skyrim/mass effect armor? ya, turns out my hard-surface modeling skills are really terrible, so I'm putting that project on hold while I practice on stuff that's a bit closer to my skill level. My latest project idea was inspired by the great Tyson Murphy (it's basically a rip-off of this). But my goals are a bit more realistic, just one little goblin dude, minimal armor (helmet, loincloth [gotta cover up dem gens], maybe other bits and pieces), and a weapon. Simple, right?

UPDATES:

Proportion exploration

armor + warpaint

just armor

sketching with zspheres

refining the zsphere sketch

the base form sculpt

art tests = job? nope.

2012-02-09T18:26:00.003-07:00

Final Composition

Rough Layout

Spaceship Concepts

Spacesuit Concepts

I have no idea how many art tests I'm going to have to do to get a job. Not. Even. The. Foggiest. The brief for this one was pretty good. Here's the assignment that I was given:

"In the time-frame of no more than 8 hours of contiguous work, create the following full-color illustration using the medium of your choice: A whimsical spaceship in the shape of a common household object (such as a teapot), complete with inhabitants, has crash-landed on an alien - yet familiar-looking - world. The characters should be engaged in either exploring the environment or repairing their ship. The Filament Games corporate logo should be prominently displayed on the side of the ship. Submit your rough sketches and concepts as well."

Yup, still looking for work. It's kind of interesting how this assignment was so much like the assignments I would get in Joe Olson's class. LOL FUNNY

what's this? another art test?

2012-02-09T18:16:00.001-07:00

Over on the 2d side of things, an art test for a Facebook game studio. These are props designed to be cute and to fit an Easter theme. My first time really doing vector art, so just more learning and stuff.

Here's another art test

2012-02-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that I didn't post this character artist test from a while ago. This one was actually quite difficult because of the restrictions (500 tris, 128 diffuse map, 20 bones), because it was for a mobile game studio. Kinda fun, kinda not. More learning, I guess. This is probably the first time I modeled a character after a real life person.

Art tests are cool

2012-02-09T18:01:00.001-07:00

Looking at this environment artist test now, it's actually quite bad, and I did a lot of things that REAL environment artists would NEVER do. But by going through this rather long/arduous process, I learned a LOT. One of those things I learned is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to environment art (Texel Density, ya never really payed much attention to that...). So these models were provided by the game studio, but all the textures are mine.

Anyways, even though I did a bunch of pointless work and didn't get the job, what I took away from the experience was knowledge and... power? (knowledge = power, right?) Art tests are SO COOL

Life Drawing and then some

2012-02-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

normal weight is normal

extreme skinny exaggeration is creepy

normal weight is... boring?

+300 lbs chubs is fun!

I'm a little ADD when it comes to Figure Drawing, so when I went up to the U of U with my buddy Hawks for their open figure drawing session, I was kind of disappointed that the whole thing was going to be one long sustained pose. But, I always try to work with what I've got, so I bounced around the room a bit getting different angles. And, with much thanks to Ryan Woodward's drawing classes at BYU, I used some drawing exercises where I played around with adding and taking away weight from the model to focus on drawing anatomy from memory/imagination.

wip Skyrim inspired Mass Effect armor

2012-01-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Looks pretty good to me

I've started on my next big personal project: Skyrim inspired Mass Effect Armor. Pardon the sketchiness of my concept, but I usually try to get my ideas out on paper as fast as possible so I can get to the 3d modeling part that much quicker. I usually have a pretty good picture in my head of what I'm going for, so if I know that I'll be modeling my own concept, the concepting stage doesn't last very long. That isn't saying I'm good at it, just that I do it quickly... So, just finishing up the low-poly modeling on the helmet and chest piece, guess I'll be moving on to the arms and legs now. And here's a couple images to show my references:

Thank you, Google Image Search

And thank you, Mass Effect Wiki

Also, Kolby Jukes, and Jaemus Wurzbach. I WANT TO WORK AT BIOWARE SO BAD!

UPDATES:

EDIT: More updates!

updating my portfolio

2012-01-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

So remember the Demutant (demon-mutant, it's a word I made up) from last week? I added some detail to the hi-poly sculpt, retopologized it, laid out the UVs, baked out the normals and ambient occlusion, colorized it, then lit and rendered it. Funny how I only learned about half of this stuff from BYU. ha. I'm pretty impressed with how well the Maya Hardware renderer performed.

I HAZ DROD DARGON

2012-01-24T01:50:00.001-07:00

The Year of the Dragon

This started as a really dumb idea, then it turned into an incredibly dumb waste of time. This is what happens when I try to be funny. In case any of you are wondering, Yes I drew and painted this (with consummate v's), and Yes I graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. I could say I was going for the "style" of an elementary school student, but the truth is I'm a really crappy artist. Not like this guy. Hope you all had a happy Chinese New Year.

The original line work, just in case you wanted to see what I started with

Also, Strongbad email #58 - Trogdor. Old and cheesy, but still very relevant.

some more mudbox doodling

2012-01-17T02:03:00.001-07:00

If I ever imagined what a personified Monday might look like

this guy's face would probably come pretty close to it.

And he's happy to see you!

This here orc/demon/mutant thing was partly a wind-down character exercise from an intense, week-long environment art test that I just submitted to Naughty Dog. And the other part was because I've been really inspired by some amazing artwork in TES: Skyrim. Eventually, I want to use this bust to figure out some retopologizing/baking tools. Expect a colored version in the near(ish) future!

Oh, and just to show where I started from, here's an image of the "basic head" model provided by Mudbox:

mudbox doodle and some New Year's ruminations

2012-01-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

fish face!

inspired by Mass Effect (tm)

I was playing some good 'ol Mass Effect 1 over the Christmas holiday, and I've come to realize that my greatest goal in life right now is to get a job at Bioware Edmonton working on the Mass Effect series. Up to this point, I haven't really had any particular studio that I wanted to go to. I used to think that any studio at all would be great. But after going through the process of submitting a couple of art tests to some really cool studios that I didn't really want to work at, I felt like there was something missing...

"But Bioware is one of the most successful video game studios in the world, with several of their titles earning game of the year awards! You'll never get into a studio like that, especially with the skills that you have." I have actually heard these words coming from my own brain, and the fact of the matter is: the truth hurts like a b****tch. This part of my brain is obviously very mean, but honest and quite "realistic". I am not a world-class artist; I'm not even a Provo, Utah-class artist. But even if I'm not that good right now, there's still a possibility that someday I could be, and my negative attitude for the past little bit was not helping me get there. That's what passion is for. And that is the thing that I've been missing.

So if you have yourself a few New Year's resolutions that seem a bit far-fetched, DO NOT give into those negative thoughts! Turn those goals and dreams you have into daily To-do events. Be Relentlessly Positive. That advice is from Day[9], a great Starcraft 2 shout-caster, and also a surprisingly effective life-coach. But anyways, I'll wrap this post up with some lines from the Holstee Manifesto:

This is your life. Do what you love.

Link as a Ninja

2011-11-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

This quick little sketch was based off a silly idea I had for Link dressing up as a ninja for Halloween (is this post a week late or what?). I also wanted to try the cool technique for composing illustrations that uses the Fibonacci spiral; I've never really consciously tried it before. Here you can see a rough approximation of what I was going for:

The Legend of Zelda series is arguably the best video game franchise of all time, and Ocarina of Time is probably my favorite game ever. If you've never played a Zelda game, I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Also while I'm on the subject, if you want to see some spectacularly awesome sketches of Link and Ganon, check out this guy's blog: http://dimitriarmand.blogspot.com/2011/11/legend-of-link.html

Peter Ninja Pan progress!

2011-10-31T01:58:00.001-06:00

Check it out! Progress! *(only on the face, and the hair is wip) I sure took my time getting back to this little guy, but the model and uv's are all finalized. Now I'm going through the task of painting textures to fit into the "stylized-realism" category. I just know that if I didn't have Mudbox to keep me company on this project, I would be pretty miserable. Is it sad that my software is keeping me company? yes and no, i suppose...

Minocentaurus Final

2011-10-25T17:47:00.000-06:00

Minocentaurus = the head of a bull, the torso of a man, and the main body of mostly bull/kind of horse. I think the ax turned out pretty dang awesome, but I can't say the same for the rest of this piece.

I saw some awesome digital art today at this site: http://ldaustinart.blogspot.com/2011/10/hogger.html and then I felt sad when I looked back at mine. Getting back into the digital painting game is tough. I feel like I'm starting from scratch all over again, which is incredibly unpleasant. Feel free to post crits or offer any helpful feedback.

Thanks for coming around to check out my stuff!

behold, the Minocentaurus WIP

2011-10-24T22:36:00.001-06:00

wooopp halloween's coming! I sketched this piece using pencil and paper, then scanned it into photoshop. At this stage I'm laying down some ambient occlusion before I get into the more complicated lighting stuff. and the wicked battle ax is obviously temporary. I call him "The Minocentaurus."

On that note, I'm looking for work as a Video Game Artist! If you or anyone else you know happens to have info on those types of jobs, you should probably pass that good stuff right this way. To my inbox. Thanks in advance, you!

I've also updated my portfolio site, if you hadn't already noticed. http://ezralauportfolio.blogspot.com. And you should all be expecting a lot more regular updates, as I am devoting a lot more time to upgrading my portfolio and producing higher quality 2d/3d artwork.

why hello, mudbox

2011-09-22T23:23:00.001-06:00

I just started doodling around in the 3D Digital Sculpting package known as "Mudbox," and this cool looking bust of a surly Frogman came out. Here's some of the images that came up in my reference search (thank you internet! also, I don't own any of the images below: all rights go to their respective owners and blah blah copyright jibber jabber):

cute!

precious!

Naruto! narutoads?

hmm... Battletoads?

This frog neck is what nightmares are made of.
Imagine how many babies he could fit in there if it was fully extended.

If you actually made it to the bottom of this post to read this, then you sir/madam are a trooper. Thanks for coming around to look at my art! Comment and post your best joke and see if you can beat my Jorge Lucas one.

My internship submission is in

2011-09-22T01:20:00.000-06:00

And now all I can do is hope and pray for the best. These are some of my "finished" renders of my little environment piece. I was running really low on steam and time tonight, and so I am quite unsatisfied with what I've got to show. But I guess that's just life. You just gotta do the best you can with what you've got. And hopefully in the process your best keeps getting better.

And the only thing worse than a grubby animation student doing his/her best to get more experience in the industry is a greedy animation graduate trying to hog it all for himself (yup, that latter one's me). But sometimes it's okay to be selfish, right? People do desperate things when their job satisfaction is suuper low. We'll see if I even get considered for the spot, because otherwise this rambling is all moot...

Time for the sleeping! woo hoo! Thanks for coming by to take a look, and I appreciate all your support and whatnot. Peace.

ha! i bet you all thought I had gotten lazy!

2011-09-21T00:27:00.000-06:00

Source: ArenaNet blog

But in fact I was super busy working on an Environment Artist Internship application which I found out about just last week that is due today! (ArenaNet had posted their internship positions Aug. 15, but I only read about it on their blog Sept. 12) ... and come to think of it, daily posts are exhausting for both the blog writer and the blog reader... so I might amend my previous commitment to weekly blog updates.

I was delaying posting my WIPs and any other details about the internship just in case some other grubby animation student was planning on stealing my spot! Now that there's only 24hrs left before the submissions are due, I figure there's no harm in showing you all what I've been working on. Here's a link to the blog post with all the cool details about ArenaNet: http://www.arena.net/blog/arenanet-class-of-2012-internship-program-now-accepting-applications

I still have a few things left to work on, but I've only got so much time in the day to devote to this project. If only I didn't have to go to work all day every day... JUST KIDDING I LIKE GETTING PAID MONEYS

Anyways...

If any of you have any crits/feedback, feel free to drop a line. If not, then feel obligated to wish me luck!

progress?

2011-09-08T00:49:00.003-06:00

Yup, I suppose this could be considered progress. His arms are about halfway done, and his legs have yet to be started. My long weekend was pretty awesome, involving good friends and my first ever outdoor rock-climbing expedition (FUN!). Oh, and I saw Super 8 for the first time at the local dollar theater here in Provo. It was good. And I watched Memento (2000) last night with some work friends instead of working on my art stuff. That movie made me think about how I think about things. It was cool.

I'm realizing now how out of shape my character modeling skills have gotten. And my eye for human anatomy = also quite rusty... *sigh... at least I'm working on it, though I wish I hadn't let this digression go on for so long.

Stagnation and mediocrity leads to greater frustration, and I am perpetually reminded that my present existence is plagued with all three.

sketches from institute

2011-09-02T00:32:00.001-06:00

I went to an LDS Institute class today. I drew some people. as I was listening to the uplifting Gospel message. I promise.

Sadly, I didn't make much progress on Ninja Pan today... but there should be more to show tomorrow. Promise. Actually, I take that back. Tomorrow's Friday! No promises on having artwork to show for the weekends.

almost a duplicate but not quite

2011-09-01T00:46:00.000-06:00

yup, this post looks a lot like yesterday's... but I actually spent a ton of time getting some better edge flow and tweaking verts to get his face to look "just right". So I'm pretty sure I'm finished with his head, and then tomorrow I'll see how fast I can get his body and everything else done.

ninja Pan in 3D! kinda...

2011-08-30T23:51:00.000-06:00

A little screenshot of my Maya work space. I guess I'll be keeping this guy low-poly with tri's with the intent of putting him into a game engine. Kinda wish I'd gotten more done on him today, but hey it's progress. I think I spent about an hour modeling to get the face this far.

blog lovin time

2011-08-30T00:58:00.000-06:00

Wow, my last post was around 3 months ago. Sheesh. Well anyways, with a bunch of my friends going back to school today, I figured I should set some new goals for myself and push my artistic boundaries. So each day I'll be doing a sketch or some type of art activity, and I'll be posting my progress here as a means to hold myself accountable to you, the people/robots/sentient beings of the internet.

Meet Ninja Pan, an interrupted clone experiment that will never age, with his AI guide TNC (Training/Nurturing Computer; pronounced "tink"). This is the futuristic/Asian/street culture restyling of the classic Peter Pan story. Stay tuned for more art featuring Pirate Mercenaries, Mutant-spliced Savages, and the crumbling vestiges of Earth's civilizations. I figure that if I'm going to be making art on a regular basis, I might as well think up a theme to base them all on. The story line is still in production, but I'll be posting more soon.

Used Photoshop to draw the character, about 45 minutes total.

'nother update

2011-05-25T17:28:00.000-06:00

Finished another piece of the pie... the skull-spear prop is super lo-poly (164 tris), and so with that consideration in mind, I think it turned out pretty good. The detail comes mostly from the diffuse and normal maps.