Long time

Haven't really done much since the character model. However, recently, I've been itching to get some artistic and creative stuff done, both 2D and 3D. I started an image that I meant to start for October for a series of Horror story images in celebration of Halloween, so I will be posting the WIP for it here. I'm still starting off way too soon with the details, but it seems like that might be some time for me to break when doing illustrations and environment concepts. Yay for practice!
Currently the horse is done. Once I finish the bg I will come back and edit as needed to fit the rest of it. Now I am working on the Horseman, so I need to research some clothing from the appropriate period and area.



EDIT: Also just found an old WIP of mine I forgot about. It was sitting there on my desktop, staring at me, and I didn't even think about it! I don't think I will finish it, since I thought of something that would be a better composition, but I thought about posting this at least and compare in the future.

Nearly done

Nearly done the model. There's some cloth parts I want to add, and I have to fiddle with the skinning of the model to the skeleton. And then I am DONE and can put full focus on my next project. For the next while this blog may only see small practice assets for modelling and texturing. Anything big or completely finished for my project will be in my new blog, which I will completely reveal to everyone when my project is complete.

I finished the body and started the textures a while ago. Today I started messing around with the shading networks that maya can do. Currently the textured renders are done in Mental ray with the fast_skin shading network. It definitely added some depth to the skin, though I feel as though my normal map is a little lost...




Still have to do the hair and the transparent clothing assets on the character and then I will pose it.

New Character Model

Started working on a new model as of yesterday. Another female, but the character I made a concept for is fairly exposed, so it allows me to focus on modelling the anatomy (I'll do a male next, I promise!).

I normally do the block out method, but this time I did the plane-extrude one. So far I find it working quite well, especially when getting the finer details in the muscles before I take ZBrush to it. It also allows me to do each muscle group separately, i.e: I was extruding the neck out to start, but when I tried to define the neck I wasn't liking the result, so I did planes and extruded and ended up with a better result (as seen in image 2).

I worked on the head yesterday, and today I did half of the body. Tomorrow I will most likely finish the arm and leg and mirror the body (yes, the head and neck aren't connected yet).

Thus Far

Here's what I know thus far (generally) as an artist:

Practice, practice, and more practice!: Art is a constantly changing life form. We've seen many styles, eras, movements, counter-movements, revivals, and technology of art from being blood and clay to computers and 3D. To keep up with it is to always practice, even if you just stay in one kind of style.

Go back to basics: Some times, when you don't know what to do with a piece, how to start one or finish, look back to the simple, basic things that make up art. Often times I refer back to the fundamentals and elements, even after years of it being stuffed into my head through all the years of various art classes.

Always get your reference!:Many times I thought I knew a subject well enough to draw or paint it without reference, only later to find images to work from and do better. No matter how much you think you know always draw what you see.

Don't be afraid of mistakes: People learn more from their mistakes then they ever could from their achievements. Which also means don't be afraid of getting critiqued. Having someone else look at your work and being constructive will help an artist improve.

There's more that I could write, like draw various subjects and not just one, focus on values, shape and depth before colours and details. Oh, and when you get tutorials, actually try it out, don't just read/watch it!

So, for my final few words: Art is definitely a thing of discovery that can be done anywhere. Go out and explore the creative, imaginative world that is art!

4th week in.

Nearly half way through my internship. Whoing a statue asset from my environment. I have to model very low-poly, so I need the normals and textures to do all the work.




-Unreadered vs Rendered.

Week 1 of Internship

Just some rough sketches for my current work on a project.

Pretty Much Done.

I'm pretty much done the character I am/was currently working on. Learned quite a bit, so my next model will look even better. Now I will set up images for my website of this character, and then I will work on concept art next.






And the face.

Final Stages

Finishing up some stuff. Still need to mess around with the sword textures. I haven't textured a sword before so its a new experience. Texturing models definately gives me painting practice for when I do concept art.

Currently fiddling around to pose the character as well (image below). Rigged just enough to pose the character easily, though not looking forward to skinning. x__X

Working out stuff.

Just finishing up the textures for the character.

There's some little things I still need to do, like accessories and weapons, and then I will finally be done thing character! =D

Texture fun and saving failures.

I've had wonderful people give me feed back on my work recently. I went back to my saved files to start editing what I needed to edit and know what I find? I saved the wrong character folder, so all I have of my dragon is the turn table images (Whoo...). Well, I excepted it, since I was going to redo it all anyways. Also, sadly, I forgot to save my semester 3 environment... So I can't do any editing to that. Reluctently I've come to accept that as well. Now that I have a little more time and 24/7 computer access I can draft up and model a better environment if I wanted to.

Anyways, still punching out the textures for my current character. Slowly forming.

Colour/Texture WIPS

I'm fairly sure I have the texturing for the face pretty much done. Currently working on the texture section by section and altering the design as I see certain things not looking like I hoped it would.


Full body with base colours and some finished details


Bracer is looking good. I like it.


After a few hours I finally got the face looking close to what I imagined it would.



Current diffuse map. As you can see, I am still working at it. The bracer is only partcially finished and the rest of the clothing only has the vary base colours. Lots of work still ahead.

Well than.

For a while I was just playing around with ZBrush, figuring out how to use the brushes with the Alpa and all that. Today I desided to go back to my character model and start working on the texture.

Currently I have the bease colour of all the parts and am working on the skin for the face. It's not too bad I guess.

Update on Character

I took a pause for a couple days and started to think of things I can add and take away from the character concept. I also keep redoing the sculpting as I figure out new things with ZBrush.

I also did the UV layout. I realized that with the way I had it before it would make it difficult for AO baking.

Character Clothed

Current Project

Character model I am working on.