Asheville, NC

I'm visiting the wife's family for the week here in Asheville, Nc. There's not much time to work on things as I would like so I've been trying to take some notes on Normal Maps and learn a few things. Set up some ideas for projects I want to model over the summer. I've already got an ambitious list together but I think it's feasible if I stay ambitious enough. I'm thinking that won't be hard to do as the more I learn the more I want to try those new things out and turn them into usable skills.

In keeping with my idea of wanting to model a vehicle, by summers end I want to model a semi truck and trailer. I'm thinking something old school.

Again, I typically like to pick projects that are fun, interesting, and something that I can relate to. So to model something like the truck below would hit close to home. My Granddad was a truck driver with Standard Trucking for a very long time (not exactly sure how long) and has been a truck driver for over 50 years. I used to remember seeing him pull his truck and trailer next to the house all the time when I'd visit. Although he's no longer a truck driver anytime I mention travels through NC he can still name near about every road and the quickest way to a destination. Personal projects like this certainly help me focus on my goal and are enough to keep me motivated to see a project through.


Anyways, if anyone's reading this or following then keep checking back often to see some of the projects throughout the summer.

As I progress I hope to start getting a good workflow pipeline in place for myself to make my models game engine friendly.

The Marmoset Toolbag from 8 Monkey Labs is an awesome program to render your models in real-time with it's respective maps. Check it out. At 50 bucks it's a steal!

Modeling Practice - Pocket Knife

I've decided that I want to start testing my speed. As a way of doing that I will create models under a time limit and leave them at that. I may use them or touch them up for other projects but for my speed purposes I want to see if I can get faster with my high poly models under a constraint.

I have a tendency to focus on the most minute things. Hopefully this will help speed up my progress without worrying so much about every single vertex. 

In the below images are the reference I decided to use for my Pocket Knife model.
In this model I limited myself to 2 1/2 hours.

Summer Goals!

Since I will not be taking any classes over the Summer I've decided to learn some new skills and hone all those other ones while I'm at it.

Some of my goals for the Summer are:

Unreal Development Kit:
    -learn the basics of the development environment
    -learn to import my own models to create a fully lit and rendered environment
    -learn the basics of Unreal Script

3Ds Max
    -Model a fully built scene to import the objects into UDK (some ideas - am abandoned gas station is what I've got in mind right now)
     -start modeling high poly objects and learn to build Normal Maps from them.
     -Practice UVunwraps for textures. (Texturing is my weakest link at the moment)
     -model a car and a pick-up truck.

Programming
     -Learn Unreal Scripting
     -Continue lessons that were not assigned in my Game Programming class using DarkBasic GDK
     -Review my C++ book from previous semester for programming class in the fall.

This may seem like a lot, and I assure you it is, but I'm ambitious and want to know as much going into some classes and personal projects as I can. When I get this out of the way by Summer's end I'll be that much closer to getting some great designs, objects, and skills developed for my Portfolio and whatever jobs lie beyond.

My main driving focus is that in a year I'll be leaving an industry I've worked in for 12 years and (hopefully) start in another that I can find something I enjoy doing and that personally challenges me to better my skill set.


In 3 1/2 months I'll be just that much closer to my goal.

Demo Reel and Portfolio Images for classes

These Portfolio renderings were made for our final project in my 3D modeling class. We were to select from any of our past projects and compile a portfolio image. The only one required to be in this showcase was the character model.

The video below is the Demo Reel that was created for my final project in my Audio/Video class. I rendered out animations for my models to show them off. To flesh out the video I also include two of my Google SketchUp projects from the Fall 2010 semester.



This Spring semester has been a blast. I've been able to create a lot of assets and develop on skills from the previous semester. Thanks to all my instructors who encouraged all their students to do more than just what was written in the requirements. It's great to have people that support their students going the extra mile.

Here's looking forward to a fun filled Summer learning a bunch of things before returning in the fall.

Audio Video Projects from class

The first A/V project was to make a video. We were given freedom to do anything we wanted (within reason of course). I honestly prefer being behind the camera as much as possible and really did not want to do anything that couldn't be shot outside of my apartment.

This video is a little different than the one shown in class. This one has some re-edited audio cues, and the main song throughout the video has been changed to one that I feel fits better with the theme and pace of the video.

"The Blind Date"


This next video was an "in class" project that took roughly 3 hours to complete.
This was the first collaboration project that Rich, Kevin, Joey, and I worked on together.
To make the project more interesting as groups we were given a title and told to generate an animatic based on the title. The title were taken from Video Game Name Generator's website.

The awesome title we received was "Elderly Boxing Fest" and what follows is the result.



Rich Perrotta did an awesome job on all the art for this quick animatic. He's a very talented individual.
Joey Grossano did an amazing job on the sound. The old man's monologue is a very good use of audio.

In this next video we were tasked with making a trailer or re-editing an existing trailer for a movie.
This was a project I worked on with Joey Grossano, Rich Perrotta and myself. We were given three weeks to complete this project. Once we nailed down the story for the trailer figuring out filming locations was a major concern. Luckily, my wife is in the Radiography program at Wake Tech's Health Science Campus. She put me in contact with some department heads that were more than willing to help with some hospital scenes we had written in. Overall I'm happy with how this project turned out. Next time around I would use an light stand to get some more light in the scenes. A lot of lighting was only using natural lighting and parking lot lights.


"A Game in His Hand" (a play on "A Gun in His Hand" film noir from 1945)

**as a side note. This video is not the correct brightness. Some scenes are MUCH darker than they needed to be. Specifically where the detective is walking down the side walk interrogating people. I'm going to have to re-upload another version that has the right brightness and contrast values. Until then. Here is this version.

Renders from "Still Life" project

 The assignment for this project was to create a still life. The only requirements were to create a scene with no void areas, light it properly, no poly limit required, and that we must model three separate objects and place them on a surface.

I started by using some Google Image Search tactics I've honed over the years to find some interesting ideas. This failed. So I spent some times thinking about something that would be interesting to model, something that would challenge me, and something that would be recognizable to everyone.

Once I decided on Monopoly as my centerpiece I wanted to tell a story with the image. It may not be easily spotted. Essentially, I wanted it to be a "Rich vs. Poor" theme. Placing the "Poor" Iron piece's last move on the Boardwalk.

If I were to go back and tweak anything I would do a completely different smoke for the cigar in the ashtray. As it is I only cloned the smoke object I created over and adjusted it slightly.

Renders from "Plants" project

These are from an assignment from around a month or two ago. The assignment was to model three low poly plants from reference images. I chose plants that would help reinforce some of the techniques learned in class. During this time we were learning about using Splines to make organic shapes and the Bend modifier to make the leaves look more organic and natural. Most importantly we were learning how to start using different Materials in Max. We were using Diffuse, Spec and Bump on all these objects.

In the last render, I created a scene to house all my objects. I had recently gotten back from the Bahama's and wanted to do something with that.

SGD - 111 - Introduction to the Game Industry - Fall 2010

Wake Tech PLM - Convenience Store Animation w/ Google SketchupIn Fall 2010 I starting the Simulation and Games course program at Wake Tech. The introductory course required everyone to model objects using Google Sketchup.

The following are my favorite projects that we completed.

This was also my first time using any 3D software to create objects.

The first assignment for class was to model a "Fortress." Our inner creativity could be released on this project. We could design any fortress we wanted.

The second assignment was to model a house from a reference image of our own personal choosing. The goal was to model the house as closely as possible while using some of the newly learned concepts from the "Google Sketchup for Dummies" book.

One of the more intense assignments was to model 3 objects. The objects could be of our own choosing. The only stipulations were to keep the objects organized as components and groups. This organizational grouping would better allow us to pull our object apart to add to it or to examine it closer. Also, we had present our objects to the class and talk about our efforts in creating them. Personally, I like this part. It makes me strive to push myself to make something interesting and something (hopefully) better than anyone else in the class.

I chose three objects that would keep my interest:  1) The Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future
                                                                             2) A Tricorder from Star Trek: The Original Series
                                                                             3) A generic refrigerator (Not shown b/c of it's       
                                                                                 utter dullness)

Object 1) The Flux Capacitor

Object 2) Tricorder

The final project for the semester was to model a add-on convenience store to the PLM building here at Wake Technical Community College. We had to model the building as though it were a completely new addition. It had to be something related to the Simulation and Games Program. I chose to do a Video Game Store. 

 Below is a linke to the animation that we had to set up as a tour of our store. Some models were taken from the Google 3D Warehouse. These are noted in the credits.

Wake Tech PLM - Convenience Store Animation w/ Google Sketchup

 I'm going to update with some more current projects shortly. This Spring semester is full of them.

Steps...

I've been toying around with the idea of starting a blog for some time. I finally took the step and set it up. This blog will, more or less, be gauge for me to track, possibly get feed back, and show off some of the projects I've been working on in my Game Development courses. 

This semester I have several courses that have resulted in some interesting projects. Over the next few days I'll post some updates.