RFX Design: DESIGN • ENERGY • MOTION: May 2012

5/21/12

Academy of Art University 2012 Spring Show

I was very excited and humbled to receive 1st place for 3D Modeling – Environments for my spaceship environment at the school's spring show. I wasn't originally planning on submitting to that category, but one of the faculty strongly suggested that I do so. Her suggestion paid off immensely.

I feel very honored to have this at the end of my career at school. I worked hard and am grateful for the help of many faculty and students that I've had along the way. I went to school with some immensely talented people.

5/10/12

Demo Reel May 2012

5/9/12

Organic Modeling: Tallis Textured

The semester is just about over, so I am wrapping things up with my classes. I had a fun time doing the polypainting for the Tallis model, although I still see room for improvement.

I used a fairly new feature called Lightcap in ZBrush to do the lighting this time around. It essentially lets you light your model by placing virtual lights around a spherical environment. It gives you much more control over the falloff, spread, and shadow of each light and gives much better results in my opinion. You can even load and sample any image to create a lighting setup and background for your model.

5/1/12

Organic Modeling: Tallis Sculpt Progress

I spent time finishing up the little details of my model using both ZBrush and Maya to do some of the little props. If I was making this for animation, I would go back and redo the topology of some of the parts because they are very high resolution for being so small. However, I am pleased with how it is turning out.

I plan on doing a bit more work and then hopefully texturing it up. It will make a nice addition to my demo reel then.

Approved!

I just wanted to post and say that on Monday, April 23rd, I successfully presented my thesis project and was approved for graduation. The review committee consisted of four individuals from AAU: Chris Armstrong, Stewart Lew, Ease Owyeung, and Derek Flood. I kept my presentation brief, didn't give much background, and mainly focused on showing them what it was that I learned throughout the whole process.

Their deliberations were brief and they had some very complementary things to say to me afterwards as well as some advice for improvement, which is always welcome. My stuff isn't perfect. They were also very adamant that I submit my stuff into the AAU Spring show this year and wanted me to be able to be at the reception where recruiters come in to look at prospective hires. So now I am busy making up a poster to hang up on the walls at school so that everyone will see my project.

All in all, I wasn't really nervous to present my project. I knew I had done what I had proposed to do at my midpoint and was really just anxious beforehand to get it over with. It was a good experience and I had a flood of relief when I was finished. Afterwards, I was pampered all week long by my loving wife with a trip to Cold Stone, an afternoon matinee to see The Hunger Games, and a half-hour chair massage.

Master's degree, consider yourself almost complete.

What is this all about?

I was only nine years old when my brother brought the game Myst into our house. I remember vividly delving into it's surreal world and being mesmerized by the groundbreaking visuals that it held. It was at that moment that a seed of fascination had been planted inside me which continued to grow and grow and grow.

It has been many years since that day when I was introduced to the world of 3D computer animation, but I have had an increasingly strong desire to learn more and more about it. I remember the first computer animation I created as a teenager using Strata Studio Pro: a simple car driving around a corner and into a garage with the door closing behind it. The modeling was crude, there were no textures, the animation itself did not look realistic at all, the resulting movie took up a significant portion of our hard drive space, and the rendering time tied up the family computer for over a day. Despite all those things, I realized that there was something in my future involving this new developing medium.

My interest in 3D computer animation grew exponentially over the years and I have never been able to get enough of it. I am continually fascinated by the challenging visuals that are continually being achieved in the entertainment industry. I'm the type of person who will buy the special edition of the movie just so I can see all of the "Making Of" featurettes. I think I enjoy them more than the movie sometimes. Although I had this strong interest in 3D computer animation, I chose to do my undergraduate work in industrial design. I have no regrets about my decision to pursue that path, however, because I learned a great deal about proper proportions, composition, form, color theory, and how people's perception of things can be influenced by visual cues. I recognize that many of these principles translate very easily into visual entertainment.

I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 and was hired by Pride Mobility Products in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While there I was responsible for designing various mobility products such as powered wheelchairs, scooters, and other accessories. Oddly enough, however, I found my duties in the design team being focused more towards tasks that were closely related to what a technical director or render wrangler would do. I was often chosen to do the renderings for the products we designed because I understood how to program shaders and how to create HDR studio lighting setups. In addition, during our regular meetings, I found myself doodling little cartoon characters that I had dreamed up or dreaming up ways of how our products could transform into robots, etc. Eventually the itch returned and I realized that my ultimate goals and professional desired wouldn't be fully satisfied in my current career path.

In the spring of 2009 I decided that I wanted to pursue 3D computer modeling and animation as a profession and applied for the MFA program at Academy of Art University. I recently moved to Provo, Utah, and am currently taking classes online while I pursue some other personal goals. I am eager to collaborate on projects and am excited to get involved with the other graduate students. Feel free to check out my web site www.rfxdesign.com and give me any critiques on my work. I'm always looking for a chance to improve my knowledge and skills.