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.

5/9/12

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.