Blitz - Lecture

I remember the last year Blitz lecture very well and to be honest I didn't clearly understand everything back then. Somehow I couldn't see the whole picture about the industry and the way how to evolve as an artist. After the first year I have acquired some understanding of how certain things work and it also has changed my ability to spot things as an artist.
That is why this year's lecture was compleatly different for me. I know that most of it was basicly the same but I have to say that not only the lecture itself was prepared better but also I was more prepared for it.

I was hoping that both Aaron and Jolyon will talk more about the industry itself. I was very curious about how it is in other companies. What requirements are in them and what kind of people are they looking for. I thought the lecture was great but I would like to hear more about their career before blitz. How hard was it for them to get a job. How the industry changed, how hard is to get a job at the moment and what did they have to go through etc etc. I defenetively would like to have a longer chat with Aaron. He helped me understand some mistakes and improvements that I could make towards my Blitz-Treasure Chest project. Personaly I think it would help me with the way I am modeling right now. Pinpoint my mistakes and how to improve. That would be cool.

What I enjoyed the most was the talk about how drawing will affect your artistical judgement in creating 3D artwork. All the advices were very spot on and actually that is what I needed to hear. Painting over constantly when creating art will make me spot and fix problems more often.
The Q&A session was quite good but what we all need to do for the next one is to prepare some question before the lecture so that we can get more precise answers. The problem with most of the questions was that they seemed to apply to an overall view of the industry. For example I would like to here more specific answers which would help me to develop even further.

Texture Hunting pt.1

Today I have decided to start my weekly journeys around town to find interesting surfaces and textures. Things that surround us might just look and feel boring but If we look close at some of the interesting features that has been build by a human hand we can surely spot something that is great in an artistic way of thinking. I think it just comes down to way how people see the world. I try to think of all surroundings as potential art objects that I could use as reference for my uni and personal work.
Each week I will try to lure myself out further into town and find interesting peices of architecture and surfacing. I think that with this way I'll try to update my texture library with unique materials. Here is just a bit of what I photographed today.


Interesting what kind of elements you can find in town. I really like the design of this lamp post. Reminds me of the old 60's & 70's sci-fi movie props.
Next dose of photos next week !

Reflection on year one, and ambition for year two !

Year one went pass really quickly. At the start of this course I had no clue how to model in 3Ds max or how to properly draw and paint thos with some of them I am still strugling ang getting better at. Boot camp is the correct term for year one. All the technical skills that we have acquired last year will be put to test and polish stage this and next year. I have tried to carry out as much information as possible from year one to make my journey easier in the later years. Well this is exactly where the fun starts now. Second year will be more demanding with each project. For this reason I am trying to stay ahead with learning new stuff. I have already started to learn UDK to be prepared for the group projects. Instead of wasteing 2 weeks on just learning the engine I could spend this time doing more important to the project stuff.

Year two is also a time to choose "the path". Well not exactly in that meaning. Everybody has a goal to reach in the 3rd year and that is why we need to focus on our weekneses, developing key skills and our artistic judgement. It also means approaching projects from different views and constantly producing something. Ben Mathis in his "Put your money where your mouth is" little text mentioned some really interesting and true stuff of how students are trying to land their first jobs in the industry without even trying to present something good.

"If you say you want to be an artist, but never work on your art, you only like the idea of being an artist, not the actual act itself."

I really like this quote becouse its so true. I understand that to get a job and to be really got at something you need to push it as far as you can. Keep on working and adding different pieces of work into your portfolio. It's important to work on the course projects and make them look very good but we can't forget about personal work. I enjoy more doing 3D work and that is why in my free time I am doing side projects to fill my portfolio with some additional work. There is also a time issue with that. With all the projects we have set up its rly hard to find time do do our personal stuff. I think that it is very important to do additional work. For example what if after graduating everyone would apply for a job with the same portfolio full of the same work ? Putting that additional work will make you stand out and would clearly sugest that you enjoy working on that perticular subject. But let's not get into details here. What about my 2D work ? Hmmmm... as I said erlier 3D work brings me joy and nothing will change that. I know that the art side is very important and that is why I am not abandoning it. That is why I have set up my own goals for both 3D and 2D art.

Witch each project I try to forfill my own needs and golas aside to the ones that are required by the brief. With the first 3d project we had, the treasure chest, my goal was to create a good mesh topology and really good textures. That is why I have spend alot of time to model it properly and alot of time on texturing. With 2D work I am trying to focus on my weakneses like tonal values, colour and line drawing.


Ok I can see I went a little bit too far with it .... lets get back to the core question of this entry.
Ambitions for year two ? Work even harder than year one ! Learn as much as possible and develop my artistic judgement further. My main goal is to get a job as an 3d Artist at a good company when I finish the course. BioWare would be a dream come true to be honest. Since it is very hard to get a work over in the states or Canada I will work hard to and do as much as possible to even try to be noticed.

AT-ST

Not so long ago I've started working on my AT-ST model. Main goal for it was to create a low poly model in 10.000 Tris limit, then create the high poly and bake all the details down. I have just finished modeling and unwrapping it. Here are some AO renders


More update on it soon when I get some free time to work on it further.

BioWare does it again !

I know it came out a month ago but its still worth writing a littlebit about it.

With the latest DLC for Mass Effect 2 that company proves that they can make the best shit in the world. The DLC focuses on Liara T'Soni and her quest to find the Shadowbroker. With the help of Shepard they both get involved in a thrilling action and car chases packed adventure. So far its tbe best Mass Effect 2 DLC. It was the first that compleates the story between 2 and 3 (Not Released Yet) game. They already announced more DLC's.

Here is a bit of great music from that DLC.

Blitz - Treasure Chest

Ok ! So lets start off with some latest 3d Work. On the last 3D project I had on my game art course I had to create a wierd tantacled treasure chest from a concept art supported by a games company called "Blitz". To be honest the concept had some minor mistakes, especially with perspective. I had to make some decisions in terms of modeling it the proper way so that the object would work.
I have spend some time on getting the silhouette correct. Thought that the legs have to bend inside the chest a bit so that it will have an interesting shape.
Where I could I have simplified the topology. Shinked down the tri count. Tho we had 2500 triangle limit for this one I have managed to model it less than 2000. The texturing stage took me some time. Wanted to learn abit and polish it so it would be perfect. I am really satisfied with the outcome.
Here are some rendered shots.