I had some experience with 3D apps, mainly Lightwave and 3DSMax from a a few random online tutorials, and poorly executed attempts. Thankfully I made these few attempts for when I was directed to Cinema 4D the transition and learning curve was quite manageable. Still very much to learn, like proper lighting and texturing but I figured I would share some of my modeling progress.

Low Ploy Test

My first attempt was a low poly test. I’m a huge fan of Timothy J. Reynolds low poly work, so I attempted something similar to his style. I find trying to replicate a style or process is a great way to learn. Tim is a master at color and lighting so my low poly test is far less of a piece of art than 99.9% of Timothy’s work but I was pretty pleased with my attempt.

Metals & Bevels

A friend had informed me about a site called “fiver” where people can request anything for 5 dollars. He had asked for a logo, and got exactly what he had paid for. After a few laughs I said I would do a quick 3D logo for the same 5 dollars. I figured it was a great opportunity to learn and make a quick buck. This was my first real attempt at creating a clean model with using metals and bevels. My friend was pleased and I got to learn.

Light Saber

I’m a huge Star Wars fan so it was only natural that I try to make my light saber. Lord Vader’s light saber to be more specific. Admittedly, this was a challenge for me and it taught me to plan out the model before trying to actually model it. I restarted this model from scratch about 3 times before I was happy with results. I used a lot of booles and arrays to achieve this.

Flux Capacitor

My most recent attempt and study is an object from my childhood. The Flux Capacitor. If you are unaware of what the Flux Capacitor is, it makes time travel possible for DeLoreans’ and Michael J. Fox. Probably one my favorite movies from the 80′s ‘Back to the Future’. I am still very much working on this piece, but the progress has come along great. I’m definitely learning as I go, which to me… is the funnest way to learn.

I’m planning on taking what I learn and applying it to UI design and illustration. I wan’t to add more realism and tangibility to my interfaces, and more depth and life to my illustrations. Lately I have been experimenting with textures, lighting and rendering which is an art all within it’s self. If you haven’t thought about 3D design, or are scared by it.. I recommend heading over to Maxon and checking out Cinema 4D. It’s designer friendly to say the least and amazingly powerful.

Follow progress Here

This game spawned from an experiment with dynamic shadows, that I was considering for my first game attempt “Emo Guy” ( Which has been shelved do to a loss of interest and poor planning on my part) I Played around, pulled hair out, and came up with a quick little game w/ shadows. I showed my progress to a roommate and to my surprise he was not listening to a word I was saying when explaining the mechanics and ideas behind the shadows, for he was like a little kid playing Mario. He immediately requested more levels after an hour of play and wanted some added mechanics like wall jumps. It then dawned on me that I basically made a SMB clone.

RGB

You are a fragile pixel that is called on when a display goes out. The cause of the outage is bad pixels.
There are 3 bad pixels spread out through each level.

Each jump takes a little bit off your health/brightness.
Hard Lands from jumping too high will result in a increased brightness loss.
High jump falls – result in death.

Each pixel grab changes your color in order of RGB – Red, Green, Blue

There are laser/beam traps that you must avoid and time to advance or to obtain a bad pixel, along with gaps and pitfalls.

Controls:

WASD = Left, Right – in game : Up, Down – at menu
Space = jump
N = Speed Boost
P = Pause

You can jump off walls – Max 2 jump offs

If you use JoyToKey for controller mapping, you will be 10x more pleased with gameplay.

Scoring is based on Total deaths and hard lands. Lowest score is ultimately the best score.

RGB DEMO

*Note:

jumps height/deaths with shadows on, on ill equipped hardware, can result in unrecorded deaths or weird random deaths. This is a result of the fall height mechanics being directly effected by FPS. If you experience this, the best fix is to turn off shadows in the options menu. They are OFF by default.

Tested Browsers: Chrome… Use Chrome

I tested two PC platforms.
Laptop: i5 and Intel w/ integrated graphics : Shadows on, is a bit laggy @ 30FPS
Desktop: Xeon and 2GB nvidia GTX650ti : No issues @ 60 FPS

Still very much a WIP, but Let me know what ya think and if you find any issues or glitches.

Features:

• Layered & Labled PSD Files

Tis the season for giving, and I have 2 dribbble invites to giveaway. I figured it’s a great way for a couple of designers to kick off the new year. So here are the rules.

To Participate:

1. Post ONE link to your best 400 x 300px shot.

2. Follow me on Twitter, because that’s where I’ll announce the winner.

Good luck to all!

I began using images (files) for all of my buttons and backgrounds, and as I continued on.. I ended up creating css buttons where I could. I also used sprites for the first time as well. When viewing on other devices particularly mobile I noticed a huge difference between the coded buttons vs the image based buttons, in terms of crispness. The coded buttons own my image based buttons.

There are a few issues I am having when viewed on a mobile device. My sidebar doesn’t seem to hold up on phones or tablets… depending on the browser. Still working on a solution. All in all, I’m super happy with the results, and can’t wait to keep working and tweaking on it. But for now I must return to my regular duties

Features:

• Retina Ready
• 72 PPI (1024×768)
• 72 PPI @2X (2048×1536)
• 326 PPI (2048×1536)
• iPad – ready
• iPhone – ready
• Android – ready
• 2 Styles (Soft and Glossy)
• 100% Vector Shapes
• Highly organized & labeled PSD File

Fonts used

1. Lobster
2. Arial

Features:

• Retina Ready
• 72 PPI (1400×1500)
• 72 PPI @2X (2800×3000)
• 326 PPI (1400×1500)
• iPad – ready
• iPhone – ready
• Android – ready
• 3 Colors (Yellow, Blue, Pink)
• 100% Vector Shapes
• Highly organized & labeled PSD File

Fonts used

1. Liquid Crystal
2. Arial

Features:

• 326 PPI (pixels per inch)
• Retina Display – ready
• iPad – ready
• iPhone 4 – ready
• Android – ready
• Highly organized & labeled PSD File

Features:

• Layered & Labled PSD Files