05/12/2012

I made this video back in October of 2010, but realized I never posted it here on my website. So for all you bullied youth, especially GLBT, it does get better.

04/27/2012

Yay, regular updates! I've updated the tutorial page, the top video is a link to a texture I painted recently. It was captured at four frames per second, then sped up to 30. I captured it full screen but reduced it to "only" 1080p. There is also a link in the text portion to a much faster and lower resolution 5 minute version. There is no audio, but these kind of videos were what I learned the most from when I was first getting into 3D and trying to learn texturing skills. The model is 735 triangles and the texture is a 512x512 with alpha.

04/22/2012

I've added two new tutorials. The top video link is a quick demo on how to use the 3ds max plugin Ornatrix to make low poly hair for higher poly models. The top tutorial link covers creating more realistic eyes using advanced shaders for real time usage.

04/17/2012

Big changes in my life. I tried to launch a bakery, but have since had to stop and am now back to 3D. The film I worked on shipped, and now I will be attempting to keep up with this website more. I have updated the 3D page with a massive update, and am working on a few new tutorials I hope to post soon.

 

 

08/14/2011

The tutorials page now has a Vimeo Mirror link for each video tutorial, this will allow you to watch on vimeo with no download needed, and should offload some bandwidth usage. You can see all my vimeo videos here.

10/21/2010

Seems the motivation to maintain this site has completely dissappeared. Photography, married life, renovating our house, and a new dog seem to be what end up getting my attention. I have uploaded some tutorials on my photoblog that might be of interest, One on using the blend if layer options, one on compositing separate images together, and one on de-noising. My lecture at this year's GDC for Maxon seemed to go well with a much larger venue off-site and a fairly crowded conference room. We've since moved back to Iceland, and I'm working at a small movie studio on the first 3D animated movie out of Iceland, as one of only 2 foreigners on site. A true icelandic production. Here is the trailer. My first McFarlane toy sculpt has gone into production and is available to purchase. I took the in game model and ensured it had enough detail and properly smoothed in SubD with water-tight meshes to be printed. (as a side note, I've already been paid and none of the purchase price ends up in my pocket)

10/04/2009

Finally a new 3D piece. I'd been wanting to make another low poly character, and the heroes and baddies low poly competition on Polycount was just the thing to get my inspiration going. I chose Brad Pitt from Inglourious Basterds because I loved his outfit and the interesting layers while still holding a strong heroic silhouette. It was tough squeezing that into the triangle limit, but I feel happy with the result. The likeness isn't as strong as I'd like, but at this tech limitation it was about as close as I could get.

 

08/29/2009

Off Topic update. My husband and I launched our website, which is where we will be showing off the small games we make, as well as other various software projects he decides to undertake. Take a visit: www.snjohus.com. Snjohus means Snow House in Icelandic. You can also sign up for the Word of the Day project, the first feature of the website, and get either a German, or Icelandic word each day, depending on the list you sign up for.

07/12/2009

Pfff, so long without an update. I've moved to Germany, and I work at Blue Byte, makers of The Settlers series. I've written a new tutorial, but it's photography themed, so it's hosted on my photography website, however I believe it will still be helpful for 3D artists. Here is the link. The Microcan website that hosted the Unwrap relax script seems to be down, so I've changed the url link into a direct file download of the script in my workflow tutorial. I'm also considering a new tutorial on painting cloth, but it's going to have to wait for a bit. Agust and I are making progress on our small independent game, and I'll post more info soon (ish).

02/01/2009

Finished another 3D piece. This was for the latest mini-comp on Game Artisans, and this time I finished on time. I will link to the voting gallery when it goes up. With a 3k triangle limit and a 512x512, we had to take a disney character, or a square enix character, or make up a character from scratch. Then we had to redesign them so they were ready for war, and create the asset in the style of Kingdom Hearts (A Disney/Square collaboration videogame). I took this to mean soft airbrushed shading, no highlights other than the eyes, smooth transitions and no harsh contrast. Normally I really enjoy using specular lightlights to describe volume, but it was fun trying out something new.

 

01/10/2009

That's right! Another update. New tutorial on the tutorial page. This one covers the programs, plugins, scripts and hotkeys I use in my workflow. I will update it as I realize I've overlooked things, or as I add new methods to my workflow. The most useful aspect will probably be the fact I included links to all of them, and since they come from all over the web, it serves as a small directory of useful stuff. Also, as of March I will be living in Koeln (Cologne for you English speakers) Germany. Any readers from Koeln or the surrounding areas, please email me so I can have a nice social base before moving. :-)

01/04/2009

Happy New Year! This is the start of much more frequent updates. December 31 was my last day of employment at CCP Games here in Iceland. I had a good time and stretched my skills, but it's time for me to move on. In March, I will be moving to Cologne, Germany. Anyone in the area, get in touch, as I need to build a good social network before moving. As of January 1, I am officially engaged, so that's also some big news for me. :-) You can find my latest finished 3D piece on the 3D page, it was originally conceived during the mini-comp on GameArtisans to create a death knight to commemorate the release of Blizzards latest expansion pack, but I did not finish on time. I was excited about the idea though, so when I was invited to Demontfort University in Leicester, England again, it was a good subject to create there. The majority of the project was made from scratch in front of the students over the course of 4 days. They got to watch everything from start to finish, and since it was a school computer, I showed them many of my plugins and scripts that I use. This also prompted the idea for my next tutorial. I will be making a page outlining all of the tools, scripts and plugins that I use in my asset creation process, both in max, photoshop, and 3rd party tools. I also have on my to-do list to finish the next-gen texturing tutorial.

10/02/2008

A great artist by the name of Jing Wang has contributed a custom written Max shader for my Agusturinn model. You can download it here.

08/13/2008

The tutorial I've mentioned in past updates has officially been started. This is going to be a long one like the normal map tutorial, so rather than make you wait as I say that I'm progressing, I am linking to the page here, and allowing you to follow along the progress. It will be linked properly in the tutorial section when done, but here is the start.

08/01/2008

Long time no update, but my photography has been keeping me busy. I have a tutorial planned for this weekend, which I'll try my best to finish and upload. I have a request. Will anyone attending a university that meets the following requirements please email me? The university must operate entirely in english, offer a 3D degree, a photography degree, and not be located in the UK or the USA.

06/07/2008

I've started a lighting blog to serve as a sort of tutorial site for my photography. Anyone interested in using off-camera flash, or just curious how I do my lit photos, drop by. mr-chompers.blogspot.com

06/04/2008

Long time no update. There is a good reason. After Morocco, I went on a three week trip to Finland and the Ukraine. Immediately before I finalized a new personal 3D piece which can be seen on the 3D page. He is rigged and available for download. In addition, the Finland and Ukraine photos are up, on the poop-map page. I have a few small tutorial ideas floating around in my head that I'd like to create soon, but I'm not sure of the timeline. In one week, I will be traveling to Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada to present at the Jalloo festival for NBCC. Anyone in that particular pocket of the world should give me an email so we can hang out.

 

04/28/2008

Back from Morocco, and clear of the stomach virus I picked up while there. Guess that even in a 5-star hotel, don't drink the tap water in Africa if you're not from there! The photo album will take a few days to edit and upload, as I took about 12 gigabytes worth to edit, but there are two new updates on my accolades page, accessible through the resume page. One is a video interview with Ten Ton Hammer at the NYC comic con, and the other is my VFX world interview collated onto this site.

04/02/2008

Few news updates. First, a new interview with me on VFX world is up here. I don't copy and paste between interviews, so there should be some new information within. Also, upcoming trips: I'll be giving a talk at the NYC Comic Con in NYC April 17-20. I'm going to be in Marrakesch, Morocco April 25-30, and then on May 9-19 I'll be in Helsinki/Tampere, Finland, May 19-30 in Kiev/Odessa, Ukraine. If you live in any of these awesome cities, please give me an email and we can meet up while I'm there. There are also some new panoramics on the panoramics page.

03/09/2008

GDC went well, despite a few snafus. There were about 70 people in attendance at my lecture, and Maxon had me give away a full version of bodypaint as well as free T-shirts. SF was gorgeous, and I took a ton of photos. My photo page has been updated with three new galleries. I've also now got a flickr page going that I update much more often than my photo page, which you can find via the link on my photo page.

02/18/2008

Now I'm being told it's still on Wednesday. I'm not sure what to believe. I'm pretty sure it's on Wednesday like originally was planned. The paper schedule we'll all get at GDC should be correct, but I'm not sure. If I find out for certain I'll mention it here.

02/17/2008

Update, apparently GDC has changed the date of my talk. It's now Friday the 22, same time, but now room 3003 in the West Hall. Please use this page to double check the day, as it should always be correct.

01/22/2008

I've found my GDC lecture date and time: Wednesday, February 20th from 12-1pm in room 2016 of the West Hall. More details here. Please, if you attend, and knew about it from my website, come up to me afterwards and introduce yourself. I'll try to hang around and answer any additional questions or chit-chat.

01/07/2008

That's more like the proper length between updates! The links page has two new very talented artists linked to, Henning Horstmann and Askhat Mozembikov. Check out their sites. Also, I've added a new asset to the 3D page, the Cyber Punk. He's been "done" for quite some time, but I was originally planning to make a low poly/normal map, and complete asset out of him. It's been so long I'm calling him done at just the high poly stage. He can be viewed on the 3D page.

 

01/05/2008

First update of the new year! I wish it hadn't been so long since last update, but I was out of town almost all of December. The lecture at Demontfort in Leicester, England went well, I did a week long workshop as well as a two hour lecture on creativity in the game industry. Some of it was filmed, and when I get my copy, I'll upload it to the website. I just got back from my vacation in Virginia and took a ton of photos, which you can see via my photo page. I'm getting so into photography I plan on starting a sister site to showcase only that. It will have fewer photos, and only photography related tutorials. I'll make a news announcement when it goes live. The 3D page has been updated to include the SDK for Popeye the Sailor Puffin (see the last update). Click the download link in his text description. All personal art is up for download for learning purposes. GDC is approaching, and I'm finalizing my lecture content, so be sure to find the Maxon (bodypaint) sponsored demo if you want to see me making a fool of myself in front of a crowd.

11/27/2007

Mondo update! Two new 3D page entries, one personal, one professional. Resume has been updated to include the latest title I've helped on, Hellgate London, as well as to include a link to frontpages and interviews on one easy to access page.

 

 

11/13/2007

Fanfest has come and gone, and here is an interview of me for Ambulation, the upcoming expansion pack for Eve Online that I'm currently working on. Right click and save as here.

 

 

 

10/29/2007

New pictures up! A friend from work put on an art project where she designed costumes, assembled friends, makeup artists, and photographers, and put on an event called "Wierd Girls". I covered the getting ready stage, which is what the new gallery is about. I don't have any off camera flash yet, so when we got to the main event, I didn't have enough light for the group shots, but I'm happy with the shots I did get. In addition, I'll be headed to Leicester, England the week of December 10-14 to lecture at DeMontfort University. Anyone in the area, send me an email and we can meet up.

10/08/2007

New pictures up! I retooled my photos page to be a bit easier to navigate, and I have one more potential change to make it even nicer later. Now when you mouse over the points on the map that have more than one gallery associated with it, you get a drop down list. In addition, there is now a dot for panoramics, as well as one that shows my current gear. Speaking of which, I added a 35mm f/1.4 L to my Lenses this morning, and it required a full shoot to test it out, so there is a new gallery up. The pictures are now listed with the latest at the top to give less scrolling.

10/02/2007

New pictures up! I just purchased a Canon 40D, a 17-40mm f/4 L and 70-200mm f/4 L, along with a nice tripod and a panoramic tripod head. There are three new panoramic pictures, and you can clearly see the increase in quality from the nicer camera. There is also two new galleries on the poop-map, one from Sirkus with the CCP gang, and one from exploring around Iceland. The Iceland one is from a trip to/from the Blue Lagoon, and a visit to the Thingfellir, with a good friend visiting from Belgium. A really talented artist named Brice Vandemoortele. So check out his page, my pictures page, and the panoramics, and look forward to even clearer photos from my travels.

09/19/2007

A russian magazine did an article on outsourcing in videogames. They interviewed Liquid Development and Streamline Studios, two very large outsourcing studios. They also talked with a russian employee of Streamline, to get the input from an employee of a big studio, and lastly, they interviewed myself, to talk with an independent freelancer. You can click the thumbnail for larger, or here.

 

 

09/08/2007

Finished another competition, though a small one. Check out the 3D page to see Greg the mini-monster. It was made for the new forum Game Artisans. I find myself spending more and more time there, so it's a great forum to check out and get involved with. The mini competitions are great if you're short on time. There is also a new main competition where you have to recreate a Naruto character in next-gen specifications. I'm doing Naruto of course, but this time with the full budget allowance and a pretty radically different design than is on my website. These competitions are how I fill my lunch time, so my evenings and weekends are still for my personal project for Snjohus Games.

 

08/20/2007

Just got back from Siggraph and Vacation in Croatia, and have uploaded the pictures. There are two new galleries on the poop-map page. One is the Reykjavik Pride parade, and the second set is from my recent vacation to Croatia, with a side trip to Venice. Also, for those who have been reading about my side project. I have a teaser page up, www.snjohusgames.com.

07/18/2007

Super Update! Not one, but TWO new tutorials are up! Part 11 of the delilah series is up, as is an explanation of the DDS plugin for Photoshop. It explains the different compression options and when to use them. In addition, I added more pictures from here in Iceland. I'll also be at Siggraph this year, so look for me and feel free to say hello if you see me. After that, I'll be headed to Porec, Croatia for a week, but I'll also hit Zagreb, so if anyone lives there, give me an email.

06/30/2007

I did an interview while at UAT, and the finished version has been published on their internal site. Here is the article in question. *click the thumbnail for the full version*

 

 

 

06/20/2007

The Tech Forum lectures went really well. There were about sixty people in attendance for the demo in the Forum itself, and about 35 in the workshop on Saturday. When I get the video from UAT I'll edit and upload along with the example files I created. As another announcement, I've added torrent links to all video tutorials. This means that when the http links go down, the torrent links will still be available. If you prefer torrent, by all means use it and leave the http bandwidth for users without access to torrent downloading capabilities.

06/08/2007

Small update. I'm headed back to Phoenix, Arizona next week for the UAT Technology Forum. I'll be giving a short lecture on texturing during the forum, but then a longer workshop on Saturday. If you live in the Phoenix, AZ area, drop me a line and we'll see about meeting up. If you can come to the Tech Forum, please do, and say hello when you see me. I got the physical copy of the Russian magazine that I was interviewed in, here is the picture of it.

05/25/2007

I really hate going this long without updating. I've added some pictures from Iceland on the poop-map page. I'm also working on the project I mentioned in the last post. I need to find a program that will let me scrub well backwards in an avi. I'm trying to edit the last part of the texture tutorial for Delilah, but going back a frame takes 2 or 3 seconds, and I can't scrub in real time at all. I have some ideas to try, because I really want to get it done.

05/01/2007

Finally did a 2d update. I'm trying to focus more on my sketching and painting, so there will not be many 3D updates. However, I am starting work on a larger personal project. I don't want to say too much about it till I get more done, but suffice it to say, it will require a sister site to maintain the updates. As a further hint I bought a copy of the Torque engine.

04/01/2007

Part 10 of the Delilah series is up, the hair texturing. There are only two more to go, the body texture, and the rigging using skin. Head over to the tutorials page for the link. I think I've worked out a way to keep the videos up the entire month, but if you ever get the message "bandwidth exceeded" for the video links, just wait till the 1st of the following month for it to be back up.

03/27/2007

Dominance War is over and I finished my entry. Check it out on the 3D page. I am still in Iceland, and I really love this country, it's so beautiful. I didn't manage to record any of the high poly process, but I did come up with some new techniques I'm going to do mini tutorials on this week most likely. This file is in the zip with the Dominance War model, but in case you want the bare file, here (right click to download) is the FX file I created for the entry, and here is a picture of the interface. It should load in any FX compatible engine/modeling program. Be sure to fill all the slots, even if it's with a blank map, or it won't show up in the viewport.

 

03/12/2007

Switzerland and Germany pictures are up on the pictures page. I'm in Orleans, France right now, and will be back in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday. The Russian GDC is a bust, they expected me to pay all my travel expenses, even though I was coming to help generate content for their event. Frustrating, but beyond my control. I might still flesh out my powerpoint presentation and throw it up, but it will have to wait till after the Delilah series is completed. My Dominance War entry is coming along, I think I'll be able to finish in time. I'll be putting the completed model up for download, so be ready!

02/24/2007

My lecture was accepted to the Russian GDC, so it looks like April 6-8, I'll be in Moscow. I'm extremely excited to be able to visit Russia for the first time, and to get to give a lecture at such a big event. The title of my topic is Next-Gen Asset Production in a Timely Manner. After the event I'll put up the PDF for everyone to download. In addition, I was interviewed by a Russian Magazine. I've uploaded the image, which you can either click on the thumbnail in this post, or click here. It's in Russian, so if you don't speak russian, you can click here for my original ICQ conversation where the questions were asked.

02/11/2007

Part nine of the Delilah series is up! This part covers the face texturing in photoshop and Bodypaint. I'm participating in the Dominance War again, which is what Delilah was made for, which means I've taken an entire year to get the tutorials out and I'm not done yet! Oh well, no one can complain since I'm doing them for free! Muaahahahahahahhahahahah *cough*. I'm routinely updating my panoramas page which can be accessed at the bottom of my poop-map page. Here is a direct link to the wip thread for my domwar entry. I'm aiming for a fast sprinter that gets in, snipes his target, and gets out. I am planning to record part of the process, when I do the high poly mech modeling. It won't be as official as the Delilah series, just a time-lapse from a static camera (that changes angles to see the right area I'm working on) with no audio. I'm going to keep it application neutral, so I won't be accompanying it with tool tips or a crib sheet, this is gonna be a ghetto tutorial, but I think it will successfully show my high-poly workflow which is something I get a lot of questions about. I'm headed to Cologne next week from the 15-16, then to Dortmund for the 17 and 18. My friend Agust is coming too from Iceland, and we'll be hanging out with Peppi and going to the Carnival. Many pictures will follow!

02/05/2007

This is the low poly character I was talking about previously, he's based off a record cover I saw at my friends house in Montreal. It took me a bit longer to finish than I'd like, but he's done all the same. You can find him on the 3D page.I had forgotten that I'd left the tutorial series undone, so I started back on them. The ninth part, texturing Delilah's face has been edited and compressed, I just have to add the commentary and complete the PDF and it will be uploaded shortly. Also, the Dominance War has started, I'll be participating. Unfortunately I won't video much of it. If I decide to go normal mapped with my asset, I'll try to capture some of my hard surface modeling techniques. I'm in Switzerland and really enjoying it. I've been uploading my panoramic pictures as I take them, but the snapshots won't go up till a bit later. I'm still open for new contracts, especially PSP or diffuse map only assets, so don't hesitate to get in contact with me.

01/08/2007

Reykjavik, Iceland was so amazingly gorgeous. I think I found a new country I've fallen in love with. I had a blast staying with my friend Agust, and I'm headed back in the future for sure. I've uploaded my Iceland gallery which can be accessed from the poop-map page, and also added eleven more panoramic photos to the panoramic page, which can also be accessed from the poop-map page. I'm in London at the moment, hanging out with the London polycount and conceptart.org members. Once I'm in Switzerland (my next stop) I'll be sure to edit the remaining footage for the texture tutorial section of the Delilah series. I brought the raw files with me, and want to work through them soon. I'll be studying German five times a week there, trying to add a second language to my repertoire.

12/19/2006

Montreal is now my favorite North American city. It was amazing, so much good food, interesting sites, attractive people, and cool buildings. I updated the poop-map, and added my Montreal pictures. Contract work is going well, enough stuff to keep me busy, but still allow me to explore around. I'm back at my parents house for Christmas, but I have a lot of stuff to take care of before I leave for Iceland.

12/11/2006

The first few weeks of being a traveling freelance artist have been awesome. I'm in Montreal, Quebec Canada right now, having finished my Boston, MA leg. The pictures for that trip are up on the poop-map page, and can be accessed either by clicking the Boston dot on the map, or the Boston text link at the bottom of the page. I'm starting a low poly character tonight based off a ridiculous record cover I found at my friends house, and I'm going to try some experimental texture usage. It should be online later this week.

11/17/2006

As you can see from the above promo image and text (which will stay in place for a while), I am now a full time freelance artist. Today was my last day at Neversoft Entertainment. My main motivation is to travel the globe. I will be using this site to document my trip. The pictures link page is now a link to the "poop map". This will provide a way for those interested to track my journey and see if I'm coming to their area. This is a huge step for me, but I'm excited and eager. Please feel free to pass along my work to anyone looking for a freelance artist. My skills lie in doing slightly stylized stuff, but I can normally plug into any pipeline.

I had a blast working at Neversoft, and it was a tough decision to leave. They were great to me, both while working, and in my transition to freelance. They really are the top studio in terms of treatment of the employees. In the end, it was the siren call of the open road that persuaded me to leave, otherwise I'd still be happily toiling away on the Tony Hawk franchise.

This post also brings with it two EXTRA goodies, both a new tutorial, and two new pieces of professional art. Part eight of the Delilah series is out on texturing the gun in BodyPaint and Photoshop. Look for the yellow *new* on the left column. The new art can be found at the top of my 3D page.

10/31/2006

Today is my twenty-fifth birthday. I woke up to this message from my mother, which made me tear up a little. My dad left me a separate message too. I'm so greatful for such loving parents who have encouraged me in all my endeavors. I would not be where I am today without their love and support. Also, I bought myself a new camera, and have been taking crazy pictures with it. So check out my pictures page for new panoramic pictures, and this folder for random examples. Also, though it's short notice, tomorrow I head to Arizona to lecture at UAT's technology forum. It should be a good opportunity to spread knowledge. Anyone who attends, please feel free to say hello.

10/15/2006

Way too long without an update, so to make up for it, this is a double update! Mr Mint, my personal project of late, is completed and uploaded on the 3D page. I've also finished part seven of the Delilah series, UV layout of the gun in Unfold 3D magic and 3ds Max. My Gnomon class got canceled again, because only two people signed up. I am however taking "Intro to Unreal" and I have a project planned using the knowledge I gain in that class. I'm aiming to get all the tutorials uploaded by Thanksgiving, it's already been too long as it is.

 

08/31/2006

Part six of the Delilah series is up. This part covers the gun modeling, and is on the tutorials page. As usual, it has a yellow *new* next to it. There is no PDF in this zip as it uses all the same tools covered in the part four and five PDFs. Two weeks ago I got to go on my family vacation in Kill Devil Hills, NC. We spend a week there every year, and I had a blast as usual. This upcoming weekend I'm going up to Lake Arrowhead for the artists retreat, Terra Nova. I went last year and had a blast. I've been hard at work on Tony Hawk Project 8 and it's looking awesome. I got to make one of the secret characters in the game, and I'll post details on how to unlock him, as well as screen shots, as soon as the game hits shelves. My Gnomon class will be starting Sept 10. This is the link to my class page. They've updated the text, but not the example image unfortunately. Here is the link to my profile. It thrills me beyond words to see that. I feel finally validated as a teacher. That said, the students I will have are in for some serious work.

08/16/2006

Finally, part five of the Delilah series is uploaded. It's late, so this post is short. Tutorials page, Delilah tutorial. Look for the yellow *new* next to the thumbnail.

07/26/2006

The zip file for the Fantasy Dragon is now up, slowly but surely I am getting all of my personal project source files uploaded. The link is located in the textual description above the thumbs. Many wonderful links hide in these text areas, one would be amiss to overlook them. This Saturday I head back east to visit my family and relax on a well needed vacation. I will be in Nags Head, North Carolina, anyone living in the area is encouraged to email me, as I'm always up for hanging out with other artists. In addition, I have gotten my greedy hands on a copy of Mudbox, the digital sculpting program from a splinter company of Weta. Let me assure you, Zbrush is officially dead. I would love to write more about it, but NDA's are a drag.

07/18/2006

I've gotten some awesome feedback about the formal training article, which has caused me to re-write the article extensively. One of the things I like about html, is that I can make changes and they go live instantly. I consider my papers alive and malleable for the first few days after publishing, and most go about a few revisions. The formal training article now contains a lot more information about finding a good school, and should read better. It is also shorter.

07/15/2006

After having been asked about what school to go to multiple times, I've written a paper on this very subject that can be found at the top of the tutorials page. It is titled Formal Art Training.

07/13/2006

Thank you Romania, thank you, thank you, thank you.

07/05/2006

Added some new pages from my sketchbook just scanned in, they can be found on the 2d page. My class at Gnomon was cancelled for the summer, as not enough people signed up. The good news is that they want me to teach it for the fall, which will give me more time to prepare. Anyone interested in taking it should be looking for the fall schedule to go live, I'll link it here when time approaches.

06/25/2006

That took way too long, but part four of the Delilah series has been uploaded to the tutorials page (look for the neon yellow *new*). It's a hefty 140 mb zip file, but I couldn't get the fast timelapse to compress any smaller without the quality seriously degrading. I can't imagine how large the texture zip will be, I'll most likely have to break it into chunks. My class at Gnomon is still officially on unless I hear otherwise. It will start next Saturday.

06/19/2006

I've finished the PDF for the fourth tutorial, and it's up for download on the tutorials page. Now all I have left to do is record the audio, compress and upload, which should only take another night or two.

06/19/2006

Here is the link for my Gnomon Class. Currently the enrollment is low. If more people don't register this week, it will be canceled. If anyone is in the LA area and wants to attend, please sign up ASAP so that the class will happen.

06/13/2006

Not dead! I've been hard at work on tutorial four in the Delilah series. Here is a teaser page from the pdf for proof. It's six pages now, and is nearing completion. This is the most involving PDF because it contains all my modeling tools. I'm aiming for this weekend or next week, and the body modeling should follow soon after since it's using the same PDF which is the majority of the preparation time. My Gnomon class is confirmed, starting June 26th. Anyone in the LA area is encouraged to sign up. It's a bit pricey, but Gnomon set's the tuition. I'd do it for free if I could. Character Creation for Games will be Saturdays from 4-7 PM. I'm pulling out all the stops for the curriculum. I'll be uploading my schedule and notes in PDF format here, but it really won't be able to convey the same as ten, in-person, three-hour lectures from yours truly. Our Neversoft company picnic was tons of fun. Tony Hawk showed up with his family, and he even got in the dunking booth, as did our company president. Tons of good food, joking, jousting, and bungee races were had. Got a bit of a sunburn, but was otherwise an awesome day. I've also added an artist to my links page that should have been on there long ago, so check out Vitaliy Naymushin's portfolio.

05/24/2006

Shipped title number seven, head over to the resume page to check it out, though it was a minor contribution. Also, the Naruto zip file with texture, maya file, and max file (max file is rigged) has been uploaded.

05/22/2006

I took a break from editing the tutorials to enter the polycount challenge #24. The brief was to create a super-deformed demon in 1024 triangles with two 512 maps. I ended up using only one. I wanted to go for a slightly different style with this texture, after playing Kingdom Hearts I wanted to attempt something similar to their textures. The finished asset is on my 3D page. In addition, you'll notice a new link in the description for an SDK (skin development kit). This isn't a standard SDK, because it includes not only my final texture in TGA form, but also my PSD with all layers intact. I've also uploaded this same type of archive for my general, Delilah. I'm in the process of creating one for each of the models I've done in my personal time. It took a lot of thought, but I feel that you can learn a lot from looking at another artists final product, so I've decided to freely share mine. Next time I update the rest of my personal models should have SDK's up.

04/30/2006

Part three of the Delilah video tutorial series is uploaded. The video is about setting up orthographic image planes in 3DSMax. Simple, but hopefully useful. I get asked how to set up image planes frequently, so this one isn't specific just to this series. I'll be in the Netherlands for ten days in June, exploring around the country. Not sure the exact dates or what cities yet, but I'll post when I know, and hopefully some of my Dutch readers will be interested in hanging out.

04/24/2006

Part two of the Delilah video tutorial series is uploaded. For the first few days after part 1 was uploaded, it was using a new zip encryption. Only winzip 10 or 7zip will decompress that version. However now a new zip file is up for both 1 and 2 that use the old style compression. It's a little larger, but it seems many people who downloaded were unable to compress the first zip uploaded. I'm most likely going to turn the PDF's attached to each video into an HTML version for the tutorials section, as there is some information in them that should be able to be grasped without the need to download the entire zip file. I saw Bill Bailey live tonight, he's a british comedian who had me in stitches. Seriously one of the funniest stand-up comedians I've ever seen. Afterwards, myself and Arshlevon, along with his girlfriend and a concept artist from Neversoft, hit up this 50's diner and just gorged on amazing food. Sweet potato fries, garlic cheddar fries, omelets, bagels, and we all finished with a giant milkshake that we shared around. I hurt, I was so full. I've found out more about the class at Gnomon, looks like it is going to happen. I have to learn Maya for the class, but I'm already working on my syllabus. When I find out the information to pass along for anyone who wants to attend the class, I'll post it in the news section here. Also, three new panoramics have been added to my panoramic picture folder. I've added a link to that folder on my pictures page.

04/19/2006

Long overdue, but as promised, part one of the new low poly character tutorial is uploaded on the tutorials page. This series should be quite a large improvement in quality and presentation. Each zip file contains a PDF with all major commands used in the video. This way a viewer won't have to re-watch an entire video for one tool or workflow improvement contained inside. The videos are time lapsed, and I added audio after the fact, so I should sound less distracted, they should contain fewer pauses, and if I mess up with the audio, I've been re-recording. The PDF functions as a type of "crib sheet". In addition to the tutorials, I'm in talks with the Gnomon School here in LA about giving an entire course. The class is titled "Character Creation for Games" and will be held on Saturdays during the Summer semester.

04/10/2006

Minor update. On the 3D page, there are several links added in the description area some sections. Under the assets made for Imperator, there is a link to several high poly models that I created. The in game versions didn't turn out as well as the four primary assets displayed, but the high poly versions came out well. You can see the smooth shaded and wireframe un-smoothed version of each asset. Also I finally re-linked the GUN assets. In addition to the thumbnails leading to full sized images, in the description area there are links to collages of in game screen shots for each character.

04/09/2006

New video tutorial online as promised. This one was for my second entry into the dominance war. I partnered with a coworker at Neversoft. He did the concept and is in the process of texturing it. I did the model and UV's. It was a fun collaboration, since he'd never done anything in 3D before. I taught him how to use Bodypaint, so he could texture it at least semi logically. Next video up will be the concept for my general. I need to add audio, and compress to a good level. Also, I have a mirror, so when the bandwidth approaches the limit on this site, I'll switch the links over to the second site, it should work invisibly, and no downtime this month. Hurrah. Also, E3 is coming up, I'll be in attendance on Friday, along with the rest of Neversoft.

03/20/2006

It always depresses me when I go this long without an update. I have a semi good excuse, as I've been in Europe. I finished my general for the dominance war, and I'll be uploading her soon. I recorded the entire process, and on my to-do list is editing and uploading them all. I'm headed to GDC this year. I'll be wearing either my shirt or my hoodie with my logo on it most of the time. My logo being the green face to the upper left. I always like meeting new people, so introduce yourself if you see me there.

02/14/2006

I've been making progress on my Dominance War entry. These assets will be migrated to the 2d and 3D pages when it's finished but for now they are here (concept) here (finalized costume orthos) and here (model progress). Also, here is an animated gif as an example of how the tutorial will be formatted. The gun, and her head are captured from the viewport I was working in, but the body itself will be a timelapse from the front and back from a stationary camera. I also made a video tutorial of setting up image planes to model off of.

If anyone is attending the HGB in Leipzig, Germany, please email me. Likewise if you can put me in touch with someone who attends that university.

02/02/2006

The majority of the site is rotated over to the new site design. I think the 3D and tutorial pages are particularly improved as far as readability and user experience goes. I'm participating in the War of Dominance challenge. This is going to be the largest video game competition held on the web as far as talented participation. Just check out the sponsors list at the top. I donated my Neversoft duffel bag as a prize. It's a competition between CGchat which represents the side of good, versus Polycount, which represents the side of evil. I'll be repping the black and green (polycount). Even cooler, I'll be videoing the entire process, and putting out a new video tutorial series. This entry is going to be female, and utilize high poly both in max and in zbrush, as well as specular maps, rigging, and lighting. I'll be covering it all and the videos will go up after I get back from Europe. Speaking of, March 3rd I leave the shores of Los Angeles for Cologne, Germany, where I'm staying for five days, then it's off to Lyss, Switzerland, for five days, and then off to Edinburgh, Scotland for five days before returning home. If anyone lives in those cities and wants to hang out while I'm there, just let me know by email.

01/24/2006

Minor update. As cool as I think the expanding menus are, I'm removing that functionality. The primary reason is that the text wasn't searchable, which I think is important. The secondary reason is that it was a bit cluttered looking, which was what I was implementing the feature to alleviate in the first place. I'll be removing the "click to expand" text on each title bar tonight as well.

01/24/2006

Finally an update. The reason for the long wait is the new site design. This is the treatment all pages in the site will receive, with usability increases all around. It's now laid out to fit 1024x768 resolution instead of the old 800x600. It's fully CSS compliant, and now has the nifty javascript expanding collapsing menus. My apologies for having to remove the video tutorials for the time being. I have used two hundred and thirty-eight of my two hundred and fifty gigabytes of bandwidth and it's only the twenty-fourth. I will be putting them back up for download February first. I'm excited about the new site design as I think it's a huge improvement over the old. I've been learning a lot of back end web design stuff that will come in handy in the future. One particularly new feature in the news besides the expanding menus, is that all 3D update entries will be accompanied by a thumbnail of said 3D art. All old 3D updates have been equipped with a thumbnail as well. I am working on making a tutorial thumbnail format as well. There is another tutorial in the works, covering brand recognition, web site design, and general marketing. It will be assuming the user is already working hard on the quality of the portfolio, or has a high quality portfolio already. The tutorial will be for helping in the personal representation of the portfolio for maximum exposure.

01/03/2006

First post of the new year! Neversoft gave us a ten day break, which was awesome. I hit West Virginia to see my mom's side of the family, Northern Virginia to see my dad's, and then back to Richmond to see my friends from high school and college. I've uploaded my Christmas pictures, (which can be found on the paw print drop down menu with the rest) but most of them will hold little interest to anyone but my immediate family. A few good sky shots and horse reference is scatter in the bunch, as well as some shots from walking to work in the mornings here in LA. I'm still working on my high poly project, I got some Zbrushing done on the pants, and I'll most likely be done with the high poly soon(ish) even though it's approaching a year since I started the concept. I don't feel too bad as I've accomplished a ton of other projects, a new job, a move across the US, and several tutorials, so it's been more of a back burner super side project, that I've finally moved to the front burner. I also managed to take some amazing panoramic images in Richmond. I love that city. It's where I was born, so I'm a bit biased however. This is from the river in the middle of downtown. One and two. Also, I took these with my cell phone camera. The first one is made of five images, and the second one is made of three, but it shows how nice the quality is. I've also added a mailing list submission form at the top of the page for anyone who wants an email when the website is updated.

12/04/2005

The Neversoft Christmas party was insanely awesome! They flew us all out to Los Vegas, where we partied hard. I had a blast and got to know everyone a lot better. I didn't end up gambling at all, but that didn't deter me. There was an Impressionist exhibit at the Belaggio which I checked out, had several interesting original pieces. The real reason for the update is that I finally uploaded the animations I did for Bloodrayne 2. Most didn't make it in the game. Scroll down to the Shadow Legion marked with *new* on my 3D page and check them out.

11/27/2005

This is getting ridiculous. Updates 4 all! I added a Naruto menu rotation, hitting refresh will eventually land the random choice on Naruto. The meat of the update, is my adding of my SDK's to the 3D page at the bottom, as well as a new tip jpeg available on my tutorial page, that shows how I arrange my layers and utilize masks in photoshop. Any questions on masks are most likely answered in my masks tutorial also available on my tutorial page. I've been contemplating creating a theoretical game course curriculum for practice, and for any teachers/persons wanting to learn in a structured manner on their own. I've thought about it before, but lately I've been moving it up the to-do list.

11/8/2005

The full size images from GUN have had to come down. Activision wants full control over what's released to the public, and as such, has a heavy hand policy about releasing work in any regard. I was unaccustomed to the policy as I've worked for smaller developers so far, where the NDA is lifted the day the game ships. The art does belong to Activision, so it's completely within their right to have such a policy. If you really want to see the art, go buy the game! Eventually I'll get permission to put the full size images back up.

11/7/2005

Yay, a regular update! First the reason for the update, which is a new tutorial, the one on Gradient Maps I've been promising, which is on the tutorials page. On another note, I'm researching fine art schools in Germany. If you know of any that focus on traditional art and technique and don't dive off the deep-end with the artsy-fartsy stuff, give me an email. On that same note, I'm currently trying to learn German on my own. I bought a few books, and some CD's to listen to while I'm on the computer. I had this past week off, and I spent the majority of it playing Painkiller Black, which is such an awesome game. I recomend it, especially now that it is only twenty dollars. The black edition comes with the expansion pack and the editor on one DVD.

11/3/2005

Quick update, the pawprint above is now a javascript pop up menu that has my pictures, links, email, and a shortcut to my sunrise page. I will be adding any miscellaneous links to the menu there to keep everything uncluttered. Also, this Saturday at noon, if you live in the Southern California area, a bunch of artists are going to be meeting at the tram station for the Getty. Parking is seven dollars per car, and there is a tram to take you up the mountain to the museum. We will be meeting there at noon and will wait for twenty to thirty minutes for people to show up.

10/27/2005

I'm back from Prague. I had such a blast hanging out with the European crew from Conceptart.org. I took a ton of pictures, and I decided to move the link for my pictures to the above menu. Too many people were confused thinking that the picture links were my only site content, so now I want the menu to be blaringly obvious. I might make a longer type up of my trip later, but for now I need sleep. Also I uploaded a few panoramic shots I don't have linked in any gallery, but here are the links. 1 2 3 4 5 These are in upwards of four megabytes in size, just as a warning.

10/16/2005

System Shock 2. If you haven't played it, get it and play it. It's old, but I'm playing it for the first time. I don't even care about the graphics I'm having such a good time playing it. I'm also working through Blackthorne, (old blizzard game) and Anachronox. I bought Painkiller Black, Farcry, Deus Ex, and Deus Ex: Invisible War. I'm on a bit of a gaming binge. I had my lectures at Carnegie Melon and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on Friday. I think it went pretty well. I will upload the video when they give me a copy. I ended up not covering too much actual technique and instead talked about general theory of game art development. I stayed with some really talented and hardworking guys from the AI. We stayed up late each night playing Counterstrike: Source, and Day of Defeat. It reminded me of my college days when we would lan into the far hours of the night. I need to find a group here in LA that does that. Here is a picture I took right outside Carnegie Melon, and used some new software I found called Autostitch to put it together. Four days till I visit Prague!

10/07/2005

Well it's the weekend and I have the paper I was speaking of earlier completed. It can be found on the tutorials page. I'm expecting the paper to step on a few toes, but I think it's sound advice. The first two sections are speaking from experience, and the last portion is based on theory and observation. I do hope it serves as a motivator in at least some cases. I'm going to take the spots out of the above navigation menu text, because I continually see people visiting my site for the first time that can't figure out that it is a menu. The gradient map tutorial will hopefully be tomorrow. I upgraded my laptop's LCD screen last night and the improvement is drastic. I have an Asus z71v that I purchased about a month before moving from virginia. I've made mention before but I'll list the stats this time. Two gigs of DDR2 ram, a pentium-M 2.13 ghz, Nvidia 6600 go 128mb of ram, SATA 80 gb hard drive with 8mb of cache, 15.4" screen with 1680x1050 resolution, Wireless a/b/g, DVD R drive, two main batteries, and a secondary battery you can replace the DVD drive with for extra power on the road. It's a beefy machine and it screams with everying, from zbrush, to max, photoshop, to battlefield 2.

10/05/2005

Dang, far too long without an update. I've been hammering away at a high poly model that will be posted soon(ish). It's been taking up all my time lately because as soon as I'm done, Sunrise will be my full time personal project. It's undergoing a lot of changes, but here is the site I originally started for it. I will be using the unreal engine, and there will most likely be many unreal tutorials as I learn the engine. I'm in the middle of a paper I will upload this weekend. I really want to make a high poly video tutorial sometime soon as well. I am also planning on making a gradiant map tutorial sometimes very soon, hopefully over the weekend as well. October 14th is my dual lecture at AI of Philadelphia and Carnegie Melon. Then the 19th I fly out to Prague, Czech Republic for the European Conceptart.org workshop. I am taking my bicycle with me and will take millions, if not billions of pictures. I'm really having a blast and I feel so blessed during this time in my life. Game developement doesn't get much better than this, my team is pretty dag on awesome. Gun comes out November 8th so be sure to pick up your copy. I really don't want to have it be as long between now and my next update, I'm fairly positive there will be some type of content update this weekend, either the paper, the tutorial or both.

09/08/2005

This past weekend I went up to Lake Arrowhead with the Church I'm a member of here in LA. The Church is called Mosaic (www.mosaic.org) and we meet every week Sunday evening at the Mayan. The Mayan is a night club during the week, but we clean it up and use it on Sundays. There are screens that the lyrics to the songs we sing are projected onto. The bands that play are amazing, there is always a bassist, an electric guitar, a male and female vocalist and a drummer. The messages so far have been given by the associate pastor, but starting next week they will be given by the main pastor. The next series is titled "Beyond Ordinary". This was the theme of the camping trip at Arrowhead. We stayed at a retreat site called Alpine. The road up to the lake was gorgeous, twisting around mountains and providing an excellent view of LA lit up at night. The trip was for the artists of the church, and there were about 120 people there. We broke into our different disciplines: music, dance, film, fine arts, and acting. Each group came up with something to present at the end of the weekend, and ultimately would aid in the messages of the upcoming series at Mosaic. The fine arts team (where I was) painted two murals and several single canvases. I helped on one mural, as well as painted a single canvas. I only got about two-thirds of the way done before the final message, so I painted on the side of the stage while the service ran (a common practice at mosaic, to have an artist painting during the message). The level of talent at that retreat was unbelievable. I'd been on an artists retreat before while at SCAD, but we were all up and coming artists, not yet trained or experienced. Not so at Terra Nova (the name of the retreat). These were seasoned professionals, some with several years already under their collective belts. The music from one group was so amazing I couldn't believe they'd wrote it themselves. The end of their song met with a standing ovation, people were beating on the chairs and floors, cheering as loud as possible. I've been humming it since I got back. The original comedy sketches had me cracking up while I was trying to paint. The choreographed dance moves really made you want to join in. One cool part of the retreat is we had a thing called "journey through the arts" where you signed up to learn about an art form you'd never done before. I picked the hip hop dance, and learned a small portion of the choreography they did for the final. Tons of fun, and all the DDR I play payed off in helping me keep rhythm. I made a ton of good friends on the trip, and I know I'm gonna feel more connected at the Sunday evening services since I'll know more people now.
One thing that really stuck in my head from the trip. Sunday morning we were encouraged to have a private devotional and to find somewhere by ourselves for about thirty minutes to pray. I headed straight to the top of the mountain, where I knew I'd be alone (lazy hikers, hah!). I had remembered a verse in Philipians we'd read earlier that I wanted to read, but when I got to Philipians, I decided to read the entire book (since it was short anyway). I got to chapter 2, and versus 3 and 4 jumped off the page and down my throat. It felt kind of like a one-two punch from the Holy Spirit. Philipians 2:3-4, "Don't be selfish, don't live to make an impressio on others, be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others and what they are doing." I know that's directly counter to how I've been living my life these past two years. I really took those versus to heart and have been praying that the Holy Spirit give me the strength and fortitude to implement those tenets into my life.
Prague is coming up, I have my time off, my tuition paid, and my plane tickets bought. I'm getting back into bicycling, and I'm going to take a weekend tour coming up soon. I'm also going to be working on a new tutorial soon, I'm just not sure on what subject. October 14th I will be in Pittsburg to speak at the AI of Pittsburg, then Carnegie Melon. At the AI they will be recording my computer and the classroom while I lecture. I'm most likely going to be focusing on high poly modeling and meshflow, so I hope to have that uploaded soon after the 14th. This weekend I'm heading to Los Vegas to hang out with some polycounters and give some one on one tutoring. Should be fun.

08/21/2005

Busy busy! I'm still having a blast at Neversoft. The Prague workshop is coming up, and I'm already booking tickets and arranging time off. It should be a good event. If you are going to be there as well, let me know so we can hang out. If not, look for pictures after I get back so you can live vicariously though other nerds! Now for the meat and potatoes of this post, a new tutorial! This one is on using masks in Photoshop, though most image editing programs have an equivalent, just expect to do some translating if you use it for them. Tutorial is on the tutorial page of course. I got to play through the majority of GUN today. I am having a blast. I think that anyone who picks up this game will enjoy it. I found myself tensing during the action bits, laughing at the jokes, and really getting into the characters. I can't say more yet, but honestly you should check out this game. I'd buy it even if I wasn't working on it.

08/08/2005

Man, Neversoft is an amazing company. I just finished my third day of work, but everything about the company exudes experience. That been-there-done-that nonchalance that just instills confidence. I finished my first character and within three minutes was looking at it on the PS2. The workstation they equipped me with is a dual xeon with a quadro video card and two gigs of ram, dual 21" monitors and a ps2 dev kit on my desk. I can make changes in max or photoshop and see them update instantaneously in the game, and I can even run around and play the game as my character. Their tools are top notch and enable me to spend my time on asset creation instead of fumbling with tech that hasn't been tested in a production environment. Speaking of the game itself, not only do I think the art looks really good, but I think the game is tons of fun. It's gonna do really well when it hits the shelves. It makes me sad I wasn't involved longer. But there is always GUN 2! I really feel like I've found a place to settle down for a good long while. I'll see if I'm still singing that tune in another year, but I have a feeling I will.
-- On another topic, I've heard of several teachers using my tutorials in their curriculum. I am very happy to hear this. Please take this as written permission to do the same for your own classes or personal studies. As long as proper credit is given to me as the author of the tutorials. Please if you attend a school that teaches game art, ask if they have it in the budget to bring in guest speakers. All I ask is my transportation paid for, and room and board while I'm there. I'm hoping to get involved with some local schools in LA, as the relationship with the Art Institute of D.C. provided me with ample oportunities to speak and practice my teaching skills in front of a classroom of students. The high poly tutorial is still in the works, but I don't know when it's gonna come. Video tutorials are a real hassle on my machine, but sometimes HTML ones can take a lot of time too. The last normal map tutorial probably logged about ten hours total to complete.
--Oh yeah, other cool things about Neversoft. Free drinks; Sobe, Diet Dr. Pepper (my personal favorate) Starbucks coffee, Redbull, Orange Juice, Root Beer, V8, etc etc. As much as I want, whenever I want, awesome! Neversoft pays for lunches too! I think I'm in heaven. Normally companies try to bribe their employees to overlook ridiculously long hours with a pizza here and there. This is not like that. I feel like Neversoft honestly cares about making the environment fun and productive for it's employees. Regardless of how far away the ship date is. It feels good to finally find a company that feels that way.
During the interview I was asked what I was looking for since I'd been jumping around so frequently, and my answer was that I wanted to know the rest of the development team was as good and competent at their job as I am at mine. So far I think that I just might have found a place like that.

08/01/2005

Movers came today and packed up all my stuff including my motorcycle. I have my bicycle, laptop, and a giant duffel bag of clothes I'm taking on the airplane with me. I spent the last two weeks relaxing, and the past week at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with my family. Pictures from my trip. I had a blast spending time with them, especially since I probably won't see them again till Thanksgiving. I'm very excited about starting at Neversoft. I fly out Wednesday morning and start work on Thursday. I'm planning on attending Quakecon, so anyone else who will be there, email me and let me know so we can hang out. I'm still working on a second high poly model, and I'll be posting that as soon as I get it done. I replaced my desktop with a laptop, and it's rocking. I am so glad to be completely mobile now.

07/20/2005

I have finished the normal map tutorial which you can find on the tutorial page.

06/24/2005

New paper up on the tutorial page. It's in the paper section, called Analytical Thinking. Here is a direct link. With this paper done, that leaves this weekend to hopefully finish my normal map workflow tutorial. I have a normal mapped model I just finished that has a color, normal, and RGB spec map that I'm going to use as an example. Either way the model itself will be posted this weekend, and hopefully the tutorial along with it. Thanks for all the words of encouragement relating to my last post. I checked and I actually have a bit more than four readers, it turns out I have around 500 hits a day, which is quite a bit for a site without daily updates. Makes me wonder what would happen if I started adding a daily comic or some such.

06/15/2005

Update of a different kind. I'm a Christian. Not just the kind of person who confesses to believe in God, tries to do good things, and goes to church. I believe I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who I believe is the son of God, came to earth as a man, lived perfectly, and then died for my sins, so that I could have a relationship with him, and spend eternity with him in Heaven after I die. Until just recently, I'd let my personal desires get in the way of that relationship, by pursuing things displeasing to God. I noticed the distinct lack of the comfort and guidance that he provides when I'm actively pursuing God's will. I wasn't communicating with him, I wasn't trying to glorify him in my words, actions, and thoughts. I had a wake up call just recently, that really made this apparent. I've asked for forgiveness that only Jesus can provide, and I am pursuing his will for my life, and it reminded me how fulfilling and wonderful living this way is, and can be. I of course, had to make a post on my personal corner of the interw3b, letting all four of my readers know exactly what's going on in my life. Feel free to email or IM me with any questions or thoughts about this post, as you would with any of my information about Game art or theory. On another note, I got asked to speak at both the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Melon Universities Entertainment Technology Center, which is a huge compliment, for which I feel blessed and very grateful.

05/29/2005

I finally got my copy of Bloodrayne 2 and played through it. It was very exciting to get to see all my characters on the screen in action and part of a finished product, and not just in 3dsmax. Severin has a ton of screen time. It's definitely one of the moments that I've been most proud, looking at all the stuff I helped contribute on the game. The blood storm effect was super awesome to do over and over. I didn't like how the combat turned out, so I just turned on God mode so I could get through the whole game and see everything. I did blood storm a lot. A lot a lot. That, and I would go into freeze time, target the enemy, and then start using blood hammer, and just unleash a whole volley of them from all directions, unfreeze time, and they would all collide, killing the enemy instantly. On another note, I went last night with my college ministry to have dinner, and then we went to a crisis pregnancy center to paint one of the rooms for them. One of the members of the group volunteers there, and they really needed the place repainted. I had a blast, making jokes, and getting to know those guys and girls better. It was also good to give up some of my time for others.

05/22/2005

E3 was AWESOME! Though I didn't take too many. Also my fourth title shipped, call Fate. It's made by Wild Tangent. I did two models for them by contract. you can check them out on my 3D page Scroll down till you see the bright yellow *new*. I had a blast and got to see a ton of friends, and meet some people for the first time. Astro Zombie, Jeffro, Rogue13, Fritz the cat, Gauss, Tagheuer (we were roommates), Soul, Cricket, Dane, Cancel, Expendable, Millah, Cluck, and Shine. Apologies if I missed anyone. The Imperator booth was pretty cool, and seemed to go over well. This E3 I had five games on display I worked on. Imperator online, Hellgate: London, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Fate, and Rise of Legends. The Mythic party was unbelievable, and I'll leave it at that.

04/22/2005

The Complete trip pictures and text have been uploaded here. I didn't put up every picture that I took, so if you must see them all, check here. I'm working on a mod now, so I figure I will pimp them here. It's called Dystopia, and it's a cyberpunk mod. I'm working on one of the characters, fully normal mapped. I will post it when I'm finished on the various message boards and in my 3D gallery, so check back before E3.

04/20/2005

Well I'm back from my trip, and recovered from jet lag. I have the first batch of pictures up, here. These only cover the London leg of the trip. I will have the Paris/Strasbourg leg up later tonight. I can't even begin to describe how much fun I had, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. As much as I want to go back right away, the massive black workshop in Prague will probably be the next time I get to. It's in September.

04/07/2005

Tomorrow at 10:10 my flight leaves for london. I got a PSP in preparation for the trip, with Need for Speed Underground. I will be updating this text file when I can while I'm over in moonland (Europe) so you can keep tabs on me (or stalk me). I am taking gobs of pictures, so be sure to check when I get back as I'll have another photo gallery up.

03/29/2005

I added pages from my sketchbook to the 2D page. Now that I sketch on a regular basis I will be uploading them there fairly frequently. I have also signed up for a dynamic figure drawing class and will be uploading scans of my work for that class as I finish it.

03/17/2005

I'm tired of being surrounded by "bohemian/pseudo-intellectuals" that think they can rag on what I like because they determine it's too "mainstream". I accuse them back of altering their own likes and dislikes based on the opposite of what's hip and hot at the moment. They won't *let* themselves enjoy something if it has enjoyed commercial success. The more success, the more they hate it. The more obscure and original, despite any merit it may or may not contain, the more they convince themselves they like it. It's pretty obvious if you just look for it. They enjoy reveling in their "fringe" outlook, they are the "rebels" of society, and they are obviously cool because they like what only a select few like, that the public at large could *never* understand the way they can. Just like what you like, and make no appologies.

03/13/2005

Ok, I got back from GDC, it was fantastic. I stayed with Daz, and his apartment was very nice. He was great to put up with me and drive me around. 8-) I didn't get to go to very many lectures because I just had an expo pass, and I had to borrow a giga pass from one of the other Mythic Employees when I wanted to go to one. My favorate was the talk given by Epic on content creation for Unreal Engine 3. Pete Hayes is a Vehicle modeler for Epic and his part of the talk was my favorate. He outlined his process, and showed several never before seen shots of Unreal Engine 3 content. One of the vehicles he showed us took a whole month to model and used two 2048x2048 texture maps. I also got to sit in on the Unreal 3 demo where they actually played through a short demo in the engine. It was the most amazing imagery I have ever seen in a video game, hands down. Afterwards I talked with Pete for about an hour with how Epic had figured out who would be responsible for what in the pipeline. The Polycount get together was awesome, I met KillingPeople, Dabu, Scott Ruggels (again), Daz (again), TheGodZero, JDinges, Bree, and ToddDinosaur. I had two, TWO, glasses of wine, and it was a bit much, hahah. Daz took me to the Maxis party, where I met up with Scott D from Valve and talked a bit about the HL2 mod I am working on, Dystopia. Overall it was a great trip. I had a ton of people recognize me who I had never met, as that Poopinmymouth.com guy. It was very flattering. I can't wait for E3!

02/26/2005

Blah, too long since an update. First of all, new tutorial tip on tutorials page. Go there now. Second, I had a blast at the Seattle Games Conference. I went a day early and spoke at Digipen Institute of Technology. Abbott runs a a tight ship there, and what I saw looked promising. Lots of good work coming out of there, and it was a pleasure to talk with them... for 3 hours straight. 8-) At the conference itself, I sat on two panels. The first was on transferable skillsets, coming from film or illustration to games. The second was on Resume layout. For both panels I was easily the youngest and least experienced professional there, but they welcomed me as the only artist, and a good time was had by all. I think the crowd that showed up went away with some good information. One of the best things that came out of it, was that I sat on both panels with a member of Valve Softwares developement staff. He had some great stuff to say, and I enjoyed talking with him. We swapped cards and are going to hang out at GDC. GDC is coming up, and I will be attending. I will have on my sweatshirt, so look for me. I will be touring the EA studio while I'm out there, which I am looking forward to as well.

01/24/2005

Long promised, finally here. I finished my latest video tutorial on using zbrush 2 and max 7's render to texture feature. You can find it on the tutorials page. If you found it useful please email me and let me know. 8-)

01/18/2005

Ok, I am working on a model I AM going to port to Quake3. Here is the SDK thread if you want to skin it. Anyone making a nice quality skin will have theirs included in the pak. My progress on the skin is included in the thread.

01/12/2005

Ok, I am back from the MassiveBlack workshop in San Francisco. For the long version, click here! For the plain photo web gallery, click here!

01/02/2005

First post of the new year! I just got back from vacations, and I have pictures here. It was so awesome to go into BestBuy and line up all three games I worked on. Imperator is going along well, and I am really excited about it coming out. It should be a great game. I wish I could say more. Enjoy the pictures, and there is a new tutorial coming up. I am starting an email list for whenever I update the site. Lemme know if you want on the list by emailing me.

10/14/2004

Yesterday, Bloodrayne 2 came out. My first shipped title. I am very excited, and everyone should go pick up a copy. I still havent played it in anywhere near its final incarnation, so I need to pick up a copy myself. The Rennesaince festival is coming up next weekend, and this weekend I am going to mideival times with my art director for his birthday. I am loving it here at Mythic Entertainment. Its a great group of guys, and my fellow artists are so tallented.

9/08/2004

Updated my site design. I hopefully made it easier to navigate, I made the Tutorial section have better organization, and I added descriptions for each link. Hope you like the new design.

8/29/2004

Started my game design page. The projects codename is Sunrise. I am using this as an excuse to do a series of characters, environments, and animations along a singular theme. It is also my first forray into the world of design, and I am using it as practice. Hopefully at some point I can lure a coder into helping me make it a reality. I am sure I will have fun with it regaurdless. The page is empty now, but I will be updating it soon with the general premise and story line. My next personal project after my current one is done, is to create the main character for the game.

8/16/2004

I made a new tutorial. This one is text based and follows alongside my texturing theory paper. You can find the tutorial here, and the original paper here. Let me know how you like it! Email me!

8/15/2004

Wow, Just got set up at my new apt. Quakecon Rocked. I got to meet Rogue13 and Frankie again, and Bearkub, Derelict, and Sledgy for the first time. I also got to meet two of my idols, Kenneth Scott and Adrian Carmack. For those of you who do not know who that is, Kenneth Scott works for ID software and made the creatures for Doom 3, Adrian helped found ID and is another amazing artist. It was great getting to meet them. I also met 4 or 5 programmers and LD's from Raven, and the whole Splash Damage Team, including Frankie. Here are my pictures from the event, along with some from sketch group a few weeks before. I will never miss another Quakecon as long as I live. And next time I am bringing my PC to play. Tomorrow is my first day at Mythic. I am working for 2 months on the newest DAoC expansion, then moving onto Imperator online. Both projects are gonna rock, and I am excited.

7/19/2004

Starting Sept 1st, I am changing employment. I will be a character artist on Imperator Online for Mythic entertainment (http://www.imperatoronline.com). I will be staying at Terminal Reality till art lock on Bloodrayne 2, then Im off to fairfax Virginia. I am really looking forward to the new job. My time at TRI was fun, and I learned a ton. I have changed what Im looking for in a game company, and I feel that it is time to move on.

7/01/2004

BON GIOURNO!!1! Italy was amazing. I had the best time, and I cannot wait to go back. WorldWide Software was a great host. I sampled a ton of local cuisine and wine, and got to see some of beautiful Verona. The trip was short, but amazing. I will never forget. Here are my pictures from the trip.

Forgot to add my pictures, from the massive black concept art workshop in austin. It rocked hard. Got to meet joolz9000, Guass and his two bros, steady, and schoobydoofus. Was just a helluva good time.

6/15/2004

Yesterday I gave a lecture at Full Sail. It was an awesome experience. There were about 60 students in attendance. I spoke about many things, mostly in the form of a question and answer session. I covered general advice for getting the most out of your education, as well as good habbits for applying for jobs. The students seemed to really enjoy the experience. It was weird at first, because I was one of the youngest people in the room. But they were all extremely attentive, and very respectful. I had a blast, and it just further makes me sure that I want to be a professor some day.

5/21/2004

W00T new tutorial up. rigging. Check it out in the tutorials section.

5/17/2004

Man so many updates. I have been contracted by the Italian Gov to create 33 characters for their english learning software. Its an 1 year contract, and to start it off, they are flying me into Verona, Italy all expenses paid. I have never been outside of the US before so this is going to be a treat. I will be talking with the art director and the team about the tech and how the characters need to be delivered. The best part about it is that there is no NDA on the characters I create, so as they are finished, expect them up on the site!!! w00t w00t!!

5/15/2004

No matter what, I will make it to every E3 for the rest of my life. Wednesday and Thursday were some of the coolest days of my life. I got to hang out with Bobo and The_Bird. Was a ton of fun. Tuesday night I went with the ensemble crew to a nice restaurant, everything was on the Microsoft Tab, including drinks! I only had a mudslide tho. Most of us got steaks, then Bobo Bird, and I walked around universal city walk. Wednesday I left my phone on the shuttle, so I did not have it to call everyone with. The line for registration was forever long, and while we waited, these dudes in mullets and mustaches were running around doing stretches and calisthenics, wearing shirts that say, "are you training" I dont think anyone has figured out yet what game they were for. We used all of Wednesday to check out games. The two best for me were Monster Hunter and Shadows of Rome. The sleeper hit for me was Altered Beast. I cant wait to play that game. The bloodrayne booth was sweet, red draperies everywhere and the bloodrayne actress was HOT HOT HOT. Wednesday night we had dinner at the fanciest restaurant, again on microsofts dime, and we even got taken there in a stretch limo. Thursday we walked around the west wing, which was the side booth for the smaller companies. I tried looking up my old alma matter, Warthog, TX, but they didnt even have a booth. Just a cubicle in the back of the west wing, that said warthog. It was kind of sad. Then at noon, I got to meet up with the POLYCOUNTERs!!!! w00000t!! It rocked, I finally got to meet a ton of guys ive been friends with forever. Plus some old favorates (you know who you are *cough* rogue13 *cough*. The trip rocked my sox. I really had a great time. Here are the pictures from the trip (next time ill take alot more)

5/06/2004

Holy cow, E3 is like 5 days away. Im definately excited. I will be meeting Stephen Platt, a few cinematic artists from blizzard, Jay Hawke (hawkprey), and a ton of other people. Im rooming with Bobo the Seal, and chilling with him and The_Bird, while at E3. I will be sure to post pictures and updates when I get back.

3/26/2004

Well I had taken the news portion of the site down, so I havent been updating. But I missed it, so it is back up. New site design, been tweaking it off and on for a while with the help of Qubism. I have made a ton of friends recently. I have to give a shout out to my best friends, in no particular order, B1ll, Qubism, Peppi, Mr Rockstar, MangledPoly, and Darxbag the best roommate ever. I could not keep going without hanging out with you guys to talk and spur me on.

I have been hitting www.textfiles.com pretty hard. Awesome information there about how the online scene worked before the internet was around. Makes me nostalgic, and I was not even there.

1/30/2004

Man, 12 hour a day crunch is killer. I did find some time to create a set piece, which you can see here.

1/24/2004

Added some tips to the tutorial section, one on ears and one on good shoulder deformations. Gonna try to be putting more and more of these up.

01/05/2004

Well, I am back from Vacation with the family. I will upload my pictures from the trip this evening. I had a great time hanging out with all my friends from richmond, and I loved seeing my family. On the plane back, I had to stop over in Atlanta. Well my plane was supposed to leave at 6:50 to dallas, but we did not get into Atl till 6:40, and the stewardess gave me wrong directions, and I missed it. but it turned out good because I got to talk to a soldier on his way home from Iraq. he was only 21, so I knew I wanted to go talk to him, since he was my age, it made it more personal. This dude had had to bury several friends, and had killed multiple people already, at 21. Im going to be corresponding with him by email even after he goes back, but man, it sure makes me appreciate my life, and my freedom.

12/22/2003

wow, two updates in one day! w00t. Well i was searching google for my name, because we all know im a narcissist, and lookie what I found! A drawing from freshman year that the teacher photo'd he liked so much.

12/22/2003

Udated with tons of pictures from my out and about happenings. We got Terminal Reality Christmas party, Six Flags, and Ice Skating. Eat it up.

12/16/2003

So I am reading this color theory book by itten called "the elements of color". and it is really freaky, here is an excerpt from the book. "Light blond types with blue eyes and pink skin incline towards very pure colors, often with a great many clearly distinguished color qualities. Contrast of hue is the basic feature. Depending on the forcefulness of the individual, the colors may be more or less luminous." For those of you who do not know me or my artwork, that is a picture perfect description of my physical self, and my artwork. I mean to a T. I was seriously freaked out.

12/12/2003

New tutorial added on modeling and texturing eyes. I love love love my job at Terminal Reality, but I hate hate hate non-disclosure agreements.

12/07/2003

Wow, a month since last update. Well I am still loving my job at Terminal Reality, and I have finished my first character. I am waiting to hear how the publisher likes it, but the team here seems very pleased with it. I have started on a new personal project viewable on the WIP page. I cannot wait to get home and see my family for Christmas.

11/07/2003

New 3D work added. I am moving to Dallas tomorrow. Today was my last day at Warthog Texas. I had a great stay (6 months) and really had a good time getting to know the team. Alot of really talented artists coders and designers. I am however looking forward to my new job where I will be a full time employee, rather than just contract.

10/31/2003

Updating the site, and removing those stupid frames! I uploaded my sword and its texture, and some more 2D work. My Work In Progress page is updated as well. I will be adding my UV tutorial and a Normal Map tutorial soon. I am working on a 10k poly challenge for Polycount, that is due midnight of Halloween (my birthday). I also got an MP3 player for when I go running, and it is awesome.

09/21/2003

Man, I lost control of my motorcycle yesterday, and slid about 20 feet on the asphalt. I have a scraped up hand and knee, but nothing worse than I would get from falling from running or rollerblading. What really pisses me off is the damage to my bike. I broke of the left mirror, left clutch lever, left foot peg, bent the gear shift, broke off the clutch lever fluid resevoir, cracked the fairing, and the worst of all, put a 2" dent in the gas tank (the most expensive part of the bike). To get it totally fixed will prolly be $1000. For now just gonna have em get it running again, and then work on the cosmetic damage slowly. On a plus note, I have been researching an RV. I dont want to keep paying on this stupid apt I will never own, and hardly stay at anyway. I am always at work, and I want a more mobile living solution, should I have to move for a new job. I am looking at the kind you tow, about 22 feet long. Very nice. yes that means I would be parking it in a campground (NOT a trailor park). Its cheaper than my apt by about 150 dollars a month, and I am working towards owning it. On another plus note, I got to model the main player character for our first playable demo (internal). Very awesome to be trusted with that responsability.

09/03/2003

Hey everyone, Update!!!. Not much in the way of art to show, (as in nothing) been so busy with work related art, havent had time for any personal art. I registered for a Life drawing class here in Austin, and I just signed up for the Austin Game conference on Sept 11, 12, if your going, you better hit me up before hand so we can say hey! I love work, and I am workign on some really killer environment lately. I just recovered from strep throat, that was a nasty way to spend Labor Day. I got some books on Drawing and Color theory from Barnes and Noble, and the color theory book is amazing, its already helping me at work with my color. Doing Atkins is working out great as well, I have lost 11 lbs so far. Pretty soon I should have some more personal art to put up.

07/05/2003

Well I have been in Austin for about 3 months now. I really love this city. It gets kinda hot, but I am in the air conditioned office during the worst of the day. My beautiful new bike is doing great (maybe a little too great, if you catch my drift). I have been fixing it up and I am probably going to start showing it soon. Since I started as a Junior artist here at Warhog, I have been making a ton of environments. I do not get to start on characters until October. So I do character work on the side. You can check my 3D section for my latest character, done for the CG chat competition. It is me as a 12' tall paladin (sooooo narcisistic aren't I?) I am going to be doing a collaboration this month with Mop. We will probably be doing a Gorilla and Elephant baby duo. I am doing the elephant, and he is doing the Gorilla. We have 2500 polies and a 512 texture sheet each. i hope you all like the latest site redesign. I certainly do! 8-)