Playing around with this one, trying to come up with a better silhouette. The previous version felt too bulky. I can't wait to retopologize this thing and build it in Maya so I can texture and render it. Also, it's been a while since I've built a robot in 3D of my own design. This will be a good diversion from organics, that's for sure.
Tonight was all about practicing how to model clean forms. I've been trying to come up with new ways to get cleaner, sharper forms that feel like they interact with each other. I used this handsome thing to practice on tonight.
I'm planning to teach a class in the near future, so it should be fun to teach my technique to those interested. Keep an eye out on my blog for updates on future class announcements :)
Had some time tonight to refine this demon model I've been keeping in the backburner. Worked on some form clean-up on the body and face. I also added a kitchen knife beside him. It's his tool of choice to flay the skin of the damned (direct rip-off from Wayne Barlowe's "Inferno" hehe).
Today was one of the first days of the year where it was actually warm enough to wear shirt and shorts. The weather was brilliant. If today was an indication of how summer is here in Seattle, then bring it on!
My wife and I spent almost the entire day roaming and getting to know the area taking pictures. Here are some of my favorites below. I've also updated my 'photography' gallery with more pictures so please do visit and check them out if you can.
I've always had an idea in my head about a group of very young kids getting into all sorts of danger in the slums of some futuristic world (ala "Tekkonkinkreet"). I think I was subconsciously riffing off young Christian Bale from "Empire of the Sun" with this one. I wanted to create a very young boy who looks and feels old due to having to grow up pretty quickly in order to survive the slums. I'll definitely take this one all the way to face shapes and perhaps even animation.
I've been looking at a lot of really awesome 3D scan data from Ten24 and was inspired to do this soldier.
I decided to go ahead and revamp the look of my website and blog using the awesome new capabilities of Squarespace 6. This is still a work in progress, so expect the look to continue to change.
In terms of new content, please check out new images added under the 'Digital Work' and 'Sculptures' section of the gallery as I've added a lot of current works. I've also created a new 'Film' link that contain works I've done while in the film industry. I can't wait to add 'Game Work' sometime in the future. :)
Hope y'all like the new look!
New Years Eve is always a time for me to ruminate on the year that was. This time, it forced me not to just look back at 2012, but at my entire career thus far. I've come to the conclusion that I have been one hell of a fortunate guy to have worked at the places I've worked at and meet the people whom I've met. What a journey it has been. After finishing school, I took jobs which didn't seem to have any relevance to what I would eventually want to do, but looking back they helped build the armour to weather many of the challenges I've faced. These jobs led me to a much clearer path towards my goals.
To have achieved my childhood dream is something not many are able to proudly say. This moment was when I got that call from ILM offering me the hard surface modeling position for the next Star Wars movie. From there, it was one surreal moment after another of going through that proverbial checklist in life, crossing out things from my childhood that transformed me into the artist I am today. Build the Tripod for the next sci-fi Spielberg movie? Check! Work on a Star Wars movie? Check! Build Shockwave, your favorite Transformers robot as a child? CHECK! The checkmarks kept coming. There was not a single day of working there that I did not forget the fact that I was among the film giants that I've held with such reverence as a kid. I absorbed their knowledge like a sponge. It would've been such a foolish waste if I hadn't.
Photo Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
2012 was the year that "The Avengers" took the box office by storm. I, along with many talented folks at ILM, worked our butts off on a particular green character with some anger management issues. If there was ever any character to work on, it would be The Incredible Hulk. He was the character I've loved since I was a kid. As a small child, my relatives would often make me do the Hulk impersonation (modeled after Lou Ferrigno from the famed TV show). So being asked to supervise the creature work on this film and build the green guy himself was perhapsthe ultimate cherry on top of the most delicious ice cream that is Industrial Light and Magic. It made the decision to leave ILM one of the hardest and scariest decisions I've faced. But, it is paying off big. I'm now working for one of the most amazing companies in the world and I'm learning so much, well beyond what I thought I could do. I'm once again unsure of myself. The ripples of self-doubt that rumbled in my stomach are once again present for me to tackle and conquer. It truly is an awesome feeling.
My farwell card from the folks at Industrial Light and Magic
Wishing everyone a great 2013!
Inspired by the works of Kenneth Scott, Mike Nash, Anthony Jones and a lot of the artist at "Nothin' but Mech", I've been in a very hard surface frame of mind lately. I started this during today's lunch session and fiddled with it here at home, unable to stop.
A result of one of last week's lunch crunch sessions. A brokenhearted Quasimodo perched on top of one of Notre Dame's gargoyles looking at his lovely Esmeralda down below.
Had a lot of fun with this one. I worked on it for an hour at home, refining the pose and the forms.
I feel like it's been a while since I've modeled a human figure, so this is my first attempt during today's lunch crunch. Next will be a female figure.
I've always wanted to do a rendition of the vampire monsters from the anime "Blood: The Last Vampire". After seeing Casey Love's awesome clay maquette of this creature, it pushed me to do a lunch crunch version, which also borrows a lot from Carlos Huante's version found in his site. This model took about 2 sessions to get to this point. I'll call it done for now and move on to the next thing for the next crunch.
This was done during the second session of our lunch crunch (I won't even bother posting my first one since it looked pretty ass). I was happy with how this turned out. I refined her a little bit here at home and added the kid. Eventually I would like to do a very detailed diorama piece out of this study.
What exactly is a lunch crunch, you say? I was introduced to it by my work buddy Matt Furniss, where a group of us spend our lunchtime building our own personal models in Zbrush (or any prefered modeling tool). I found this to be quite liberating since I had never originally been into speed sculpting, so the thought of getting a model to a certain point with only 90 minutes was pretty daunting. This giant is one of the models that came out of our session that I was pretty happy with. I also spent an extra two hours here at home polishing him up before posting it here.
Here's the model in p3d.in:
The images:
Went to a carnival in Mill Valley with my wife. I had some fun shooting pictures and videos.
Here's the video I made:
Photos:
Quick sketch for tonight. He's got a face only his mother could love.
Here's my update on Tars. I posed him and detailed out his face a little bit more.
I wanted to do my own rendition of Tars Tarkas the Thark from "Princess of Mars" and "John Carter". My take ended up being a lot more alien than the humanoid-ish figure we've seen. This is a very early WIP of me having some fun with forms.
