1hr 38 min worht of reasons why Kevin Lanning is my new hero

Alright - so I picked up an AMAZING book on 3D modeling - not so much because it broke down HOW they did it, but because it showed the low poly meshes of a few of the models in gears of war. WOW. first of all, I lost hte ability to speak in words after seeing how they solved stuff, and just how amazing their work is, and then after hours of studying how they use bevels to create edgeloops (making it very, very easy - totally second nature) I was able to literally poop out this model. the last model didn't have anywhere near as much detail as this one, as nice edge loops - nor was it anywhere near as fast to make.

I'm now very confident that I can make realistic-ish 3D models, and I want to do a few deformation tests on this to see what it looks like, and my next project will be a realistic face. possibly a celebrity. I'm feeling old Ben Kenobi right now, actually. then after that I'll play in Zbrush for a bit, and hit some UV mapping tutorials. This summer is going to be the greatest summer EVER!

oh and if anyone wants to see my demo reel:

http://animation.sheridanc.on.ca/portfolio/Internship/class_list

check out mine, and anyone else in our 3rd year program! Adios guys!

The Imperial March

okay - so I'm not actually listening to any music.. .but the Empire Strikes Back Menu music is the imperial march, it has been going on for the last hour on repeat as I keep telling myself - just one more step before I can turn it off. and now I have. What an awesome movie.

Anyways, so here is the model the quick colour sketch, and the colours the model is supposed to be, and the render. wow. once this works, it's going to be beautiful... Mike Watters- you are a god of maya.

Sympathy for the Devil

I'm running out of names, so I'm just going to start listing the songs that I'm listening to as titles unless I have something more appropriate. Expect a lot of Rolling Stones and Floyd... I'm on a very strange kick with both of them lately. Anyways - the silhouette is coming even closer, and Mike is going to help me render him and have the model look totally awesome for a portfolio. I can honestly say that this is the best that I can do - every ounce of effort that I have is going into this model. I wonder what I'm going to do with it afterwards? lol Guitar hero?

Sleepy is me

Awesome - I'm really excited because the silhouette of the character is starting to read like the concept sketches that I started with. I also changed the pose a bit so that it looks a bit more natural which I think helped the overall appeal, and may help the character look natural when I rig it later. well. if I rig it.

Kind of a random comment, but Grandpa, if you are reading this, can you email me your email? I tried to send you an email the other day, but it came back. I'm just not sure how else to reach you.

Time to pack! Home I go!

wow.... that's a couple of long days - here is the model so far - I just attached the head for kicks - the neck isn't positioned properly at all and the meshes aren't even sewn together. I just wanted to see them side by side.

Also - it is officially time for me to do some cleaning, and powerpacking so that I can catch the bus tomorrow... I... really hope they let me take my guitar with me... I don't know what I would do without it.

Unless I decide not to sleep for the 2 hours or so that I have to sleep - this will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I am heading home. I should still be drawing though - so hopefully I will have some new layouts by the time I get back.

oooh - and by the way - check out how all of the squares flow on the model... I'm so proud.. soo.. soo proud that it is working! The pecs flow into the deltoids and then follow down the back into the trapezius, which then circles around and flows around a plane on the bum and back up the other side. There's some other smaller stuff -but that is the main attraction as far as I'm concerned, as I planned it, and executed it completely on my own without any kind of tutorial help *while I was doing it. I still spent hours, and hours studying tutorials beforehand until I *think I got the jist of it. adios!

En Guarde!

heeey!

been a while since I posted, but i've been working diligently every day. here is a HUGE update on the work that I have been doing on the Character Design for Maya. He now has a name - Darek. a personality too - but I'm tired and lazy, and it's going to be a long night - so I'll just post something nice to look at. by the way - just like 5 minutes after doing this, I adjusted the chin, and it looks like 10 million times better. I hate myself for jumping the gun.

Maya Modelling

Alright so I've set up this really sweet world that I don't want to talk about too much until I set up more so that I save the surprise for later. In any case - it's being built around a character that I am designing for my portfolio - and here are some of the more successful sketches. wow I am tired.