Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Saint Nick

I went ahead and participated in the 3dTotal forum sculpting contest for xmas. There usually are like 4-10 really epic entries, but so far there are only about 2, so maybe I have a shot! The contest is open to literally anyone, so it's cool to see the different levels of experience. Plus, I can give some tips or advice if anyone has trouble getting something to look right, or how to use certain tools. Anyways:



The first pass was going to be wooden, like a folk art ornament, but I got some advice from Bryan Wynia.



And BAM! totally different character. This was a great exercise and I can't wait for the next one!



Coming soon: A rhino, a bear, 2 robots, and figure studies

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Cactus Level

The cactus level from background and environments is FINALLY done! All special effects, animation, programming and such by Nick Dolce. Concept by Yusuke Sato, as well as some modeling and texture maps and the actual layout of the level. Roberto Tercios also helped with modeling and texturing, mostly the armory room weapons. Roberto worked really hard on the assets he was given and learned a lot about the process. Actually we all had to learn a lot because this was the first time any of us had to use the Unreal engine and we had to figure most everything on our own, especially Nick. Anyways:


This is the level! Woo! The player spends a load of time outside running around on bridges and platforms.



Entry room: The player starts here. It's meant to kind fo trick te player into thinking he's in a cave or something. But then he steps out into the blinding desert sunlight to see that he's in a giant cactus.
The next room is the "lobby." It has big piles of fruit, supposedly harvested by the residents of the cactus as well as harvesting tools and the like. Plus, bug swarms!

The armory room: Loads of vases and racks filled with spears, bow and arrow, maces, all made from cactus parts.

The shrine room: Easily the coolest part. This area is meant to be easily recognized as a cathedral-esque room. Complete with totems, pews, and a grigantic goddess statue.


Throughout the level the player uses large crossbows to launch themsleves to distant platforms. This is the last one.
Hey, what's that up there?
Oh noes!
and... eaten....
Stomach room... right now the level just sort of ends. We intended to have some kind of puzzle or boss in here that would cause the cactus to upchuck the player, but time constraints and limited knowledge of unreal was a constant hinderence, even though we were contstanlty researching and learning new stuff.



We aslo have an easter egg. If you look closely as you leave the lobby, you can see an odd painting in an innecesable room.
If you take a leap of faith later on in the level, you can land in the room. It's got some doritos, Yusuke as a katamri guy, some onigiri, a sweet chicken, and a vehicle to fly around in.


All in all it was a good learning experience, but with more info about the engine it could have gone a lot smoother and we could have got way more done. Next quarter I will be doing another level, so I expect some pretty great stuff!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Drawings, finally

I've been meaning to scan in life drawings for a looong while now and I finally got around to it. Problem is I couldn't find my stuff from last quarter. I think this new stuff is better though so, oh well.







And this quarter's zoo trip! Fun, as always, and the best part I get to see improvement over last quarter.





And some cactus level stuff from Background and Environment.



I was really hoping to get a character in this level, but looks like no... However if I get any free time at all I'm gonna try my best to get a tribal dude in there.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Still alive

Finally have time to post some stuff!! YAY! This quarter has been super busy, I feel like I have barely even slept. Next one should be really great though, and this break I will be doing some pretty sweet stuff as well. Anyways here is some WIP stuff.

First up, some assets for the level we are building in Background and environments. All concept art by Yusuke. I made other stuff, but mostly unimpressive low poly objects like pots, vases, columns and benches and stuff. I'll post all that when it's textured and in the game (unreal 3 engine).

Character launching crossbow.

Wall decoration

Large totem pole.
Simplistic Idol.

Shrine God.

And of course the actual level itself. Essentially it's a ginormous cactus tower, with loads of little bridges and stuff. The player weaves in and out of hollowed out sections and spirals up some of the cactus "branches". I won't give away the ending just yet, but it's pretty epic.



And this is for the game animation class. During the first part of this quarter I had some free time kinda so I built my own model for the rig. You will be seeing muuuuch more of her soon.





Whew. Tomorrow I will be scanning in TONS of drawings. I haven't scanned anything in for a looong while. I've also got some other stuff in the works including a zombie bear, a robot, and dr. seuss car. Now I just need some time to do it....

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Fishy fish

Okay I lied, life drawings later. Scanner is still broken. I did this for the 3dtotal competition. 4 hours well spent, I think.





no idea who this is, but here is a reference of the ancient Dunkleosteus skull.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Dryad

Model number 3 from 3DS max. Much better than the boat and the tank, but still not perfect. I have some sweet idea on how to make this chick much more interesting. Concept art and Life drawings next post!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Chinese Junk



This project was really interesting until I hit a snag, because about two days before it was due, a hinge apeared and corrupted all my incremental saves. Also, I do intend to do a vehicle and some sort of environment for my portfolio, but it will not be in splines or curves or anything like that....

Friday, August 8, 2008

Games that work

This was for part of an internship I did at Games that work. I don't really know a whole lot about the game it is for, but I will find out more soon when I go back to do more stuff!








Concept by Stephanie Waugh