Practice V. 2.0 (SUMMER '15 #11)

Hello! Let me just preface this by saying that for once in my life I'm keeping my word to you guys: I'm actually taking a sketch and working on it. It's the guy with the big sword from my last post. Hee hee! I'm not going to show you what I have yet, but I'm tinkering with it between studies. 3D? I'm still working on my classes. This week I've learned more hard surface modeling stuff. I was blown away when I found out I could paint curve brushes to specific aspects of geometry, such as borders and polygroups. I took the sword to a near-finished level of completion but failed to keep the lowest subdivision level, spending hours worth of effort to try and finish the darn thing. A plus is that I've learned more about 3D workflow and what not to do. Also more about generating maps and stuff. So I'm learning a ton, I just don't have tons to show (yet). Here's some stuff from the last couple days I didn't despise:

Up first: Some girl. I found her by Googling "Female head reference."

Next, a Rocketman. He reminds me of this guy from this post back in 2013. Man, I was terrible(r) back then!

Then a random face.

I'll be back, have a nice Friday!

PRACTICE (SUMMER '15 #10)

Being too comfortable makes me uncomfortable.

I have to push myself more, do harder things.

A study from tonight and other junk. The 3D will happen, I'm just trying to drink from a firehouse and it's uncomfortable.

I'm rambling because I should be asleep now.

I saw Between the Buried and Me last night (this morning, technically? I have to go to bed, but Animals as Leaders and The Contortionist were there, too. I'm getting too old for late night concerts at 20 billion dB) and I'm exhausted.

Oh, I found the reference image for that top one from here, will probably do more tomorrow. But maybe I won't show you.

Cranquee (SUMMER '15 #9)

Well, uh...

Well.

I'm feeling a bit burned out. I haven't done Zbrush for a couple days because I jumped gung-ho into modeling my sword from a few days ago... I ran into a problem because midway through, I realized that the version of Maya I'm running is the student version and I'm not supposed to make anything commercial with it. So I have to learn Blender now. I really just need to add some edge loops to the dang thing so when I move it to Zbrush and subdivide it up to ten bazillion polygons it maintains the sharpness along the blade, but apparently Blender has a completely different interface and control system (I read somewhere that anybody who thinks Blender is "Maya for Free" is setting themselves up to be disappointed). I will learn it. I must. But that sets things back and confuses things. I haven't posted for a while, so I'll just post what I have for you today (It took me half an hour to figure out how to properly render out what I've uploaded here). There's nothing in color, unfortunately, but I hope I can make that up to you with a post full of love, instead.

The story behind the text at the top of this one is as follows.

Kaitlin and I were sitting in church and her young niece Amelia was sitting with us. Kaitlin is very supportive of my artistic endeavors (you'll notice she's basically the only human who comments on these posts) but doesn't quite understand my fascination with monsters and chaos and gibs. She asked Amelia, "Are those scary monsters?" to which Amelia gave the hilarious reply "I think he's just a really good artist!" So there you have it. I get to keep drawing hideous aberrations in church.

And my sword so far. 

Finally, the Pig (SUMMER '15 #8)

I've spent like the last 2 and half weeks on this blasted pig! It's terribly amateur, but I learned a lot. My current lessons are on mesh creation techniques and then it's on to hard surface modeling. I think one thing that was ultra valuable from this pig course was learning about maps. I figured out about low and high poly models and how you bake visual information from the high poly down to the low poly using normal maps, displacement maps, etc to maintain detail. I always tried to draw or paint detail in manually with my brain, which is basically impossible! So with this knowledge I'm now armed to take my sword to the next level. That's my report on 3D so far.

I drew this at the bus stop. The monster was waiting for the bus, too.

I've been doodling on this guy between lessons. I think I may try to paint and finish him up as I go. We'll see.

[SECRET 7/22/15 UPDATE: I changed the gradient and cleaned some stuff up. It was too sloppy! Back to the future I go!]

Okay, I'm out. Til next time!

Figure Drawing Dump (SUMMER '15 #7)

There are a lot of pictures here! Sorry to slower browsers. I'm still working steadily on my pig (learned about fibermesh yesterday!), and will hopefully have something to show soon. It's rough and amateur, but I guess it's my first lengthy Zbrush project and I've learned a lot.

This was the final for my class.

This one makes me mad. I had an awesome drawing going, and then when it came time to render it and dump in lights, I struggled and didn't like what happened. I really have a hard time with the whole rendering thing

"Buttth of July?" What on Earth (SUMMER '15 #6)

I took the title from one of the images here, where I'd labeled the date as something that's not even real, exactly.

Hi! Sorry about the lack of posts. I finished a sketchbook, and am working on my 3D stuff! A lot of it is kinda boring but necessary stuff about  the interface, etc. I'm hoping that things pick up here, because...

I didn't buy a new sketchbook.

That means I don't have anything to draw on except loose sheets of printer paper! I'm doing this because I always get distracted by sketching new sketches and I don't finish anything! So yeah.

I tried to polish a thing I showed y'all last time (you can click here if you're too lazy to scroll to the preceding post[also, I like the sword arm in the original sketch more, hmm. Might try to fix]). I fulfilled on of my summer goals by trying to use reference for some of the drapery and the shinies on his armor:

Obviously, it's not super colored or rendered and some of the areas are a bit hot, but it's something, right? I took a sketch and pushed it a bit further. I'm also concerned his bottom half is way too boring and junk. My wife made the pattern for his drapery, by the way.

I've also modified my goals slightly. I want to build some assets for games RIGHT NOW (portfolio, etc) so I think I'm going to build some weapons or sets for DOTA. While I don't know that my 3D is strong enough to do all that that entails right now, I sketched out a prop and painted it (I want to start putting it together this week):

The sketch:

Here's the last bits of my sketchbook:

I did these next three clowns on printer paper during church today (I was listening, I swear). Yes, my congregation looks like this.

This guy has a cool pump-action shotgun:

So there. Sorry for the lack of updates. The nature of the 3D stuff I'm doing right now means I'm learning a lot of essential skills, but I haven't quite figure out how to apply those in a way I can show you. I do have a pig I'm putting together as I go, maybe you'll get to see it soon.

Okay, it's time for bed! I'd love to post again soon. Have a good week, everyone.

It's Wednesday, and I'm Posting (SUMMER '15 #5)

You can trust me [Sometimes- Ed.]!

I told you'd I'd be back sometime this week, and here I am!

I finally got to start my 3D work! Here's my first thing, it's atrocious! But such is life. 

Next, a sagely warrior with a sword.

A hooded guy, a spider-face guy, and a wounded guy.

This guy is getting ready for combat.

Then some other random scrubs.

Perry told me to go draw legs and feet, so that's what I'm going to do now. Off to draw from reference! Just like I promised in my summer goals. Farewell, YALL

P.S. As always, I'm still phailing to phinish any phreaking work. And apparently, "Phreaking" is a word. Here's a link to Wikipedia. You're welcome. I'll try to finish something and stuff, whatever, etc.