Here is the progress on my Mini-Beryl. I got the normal and the AO projected and I am currently cleaning those up before starting the texture. It's close to being done!!
The gun is a little over 1800 tris (900 polys)
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Reboot
It seems to be the story of my life: falling into ruts and not getting anything done. It amazes me that I can sit in a work atmosphere and get about 7 hours of solid work done everyday, whilst thinking about all the things I want to accomplish when I get home, only to arrive and do absolutely nothing. And then I go to sleep...I wish I was back in school again. Somehow, when I was in college, I could go to class for sometimes 10 hours a day, go home, and work like mad. Maybe it's because all the work I did were projects that needed to be done. But for some reason I can't convince myself that all the personal projects I have before me today are important enough that I need them to be done. My mind says I am more than content just leaving all of these unfinished projects lying around. Well I'm fucking sick of it.
I see peers who have moved on and are achieving great things. I know people who are either still in school or have graduated and are pumping out so much work it's ridiculous! I figure they have to work nonstop all the time in order to get stuff done, but then I find out, they are also further along in Skyward Sword than I am as well. It's frustrating and I am so jealous of their work ethics.
So I have decided I need to reboot myself. I believe I have done this before to no avail, but it will never truly happen unless I keep trying, so here goes...
I keep this blog as kind of a way to track myself for future reference. Hopefully in the future I can look back at all of these pathetic journal entries and laugh. Hopefully....
But this post is going to be the starting point of a new initiative. That gun up there is something I started AGES ago, and I'm going to finish it here soon. I have also started a new game project with a fellow graduate. I'll probably be talking more about that later.
So here's to working! If I start to slack off, I expect someone to kick my ass back into gear. If that someone has to be me, than so be it.
mutha fucka, im ill
Sunday, July 24, 2011
TeamCoco Flaming C
My Flaming C fan art from my last post made it into the Flaming C gallery in LA during this years ComicCon! Someone snapped a photo of it here http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/24/conan-obrien-flaming-c-art-gallery-comic-con-san-diego/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook
I can finally say I've been in a gallery (sans the one or two times from high school). This is cool though!
Anyway, I'm still building up the portfolio. I have a plan and have been scratching through it, making a little progress here and there. I'll post more stuff once I get it done. I'm also in the middle of a job change which will be extending my morning commute from 6 minutes to 20; and on 95 degree days like we've been having this summer, driving 20 minutes with no AC could be pretty unbearable. But I'll finally be making a fixed salary and have DENTAL!!! PRAISE THE LORD!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Plan
I'm involved in a lot of project right now. Probably too many. I'm starting the design phase for that flash game I mentioned in my last post. It needs an art style and concepts for everything. I also started working on YouTube again. My first partner channel is still making money but I'm working with a friend to get my second channel partner ready so we can continue making videos and get even more cash. Then there's my internship which I only really ever have to worry about when I'm actually "at" their building. But then of course there is the local animation group that has started a video project that also needs concepts for. And finally the mod projects that I've been making 1 or 2 small assets for but can never find the time to work on. All of this is caked onto all of the personal projects I want to make and for some reason I manage to sit and do nothing for long hours while a home....
It amazes me because I work I can sit and model something for 8 hours straight, but once I get home, I'm hard pressed to have any inspiration to work on anything. Maybe it's the detraction of playing Pokemon White or all of the peanut MnMs, but who knows. But I at least know what I want to do. I have my next demo reel all planned out. All I need is to make everything on my list while dodging through all of my other projects.
Here are some things I've made recently:
Tonight is the last WWE pay per view at the local bar that I get to watch with my friend Brad before he moves away and gets married... Hopefully John Cena doesn't go and win or anything.
It amazes me because I work I can sit and model something for 8 hours straight, but once I get home, I'm hard pressed to have any inspiration to work on anything. Maybe it's the detraction of playing Pokemon White or all of the peanut MnMs, but who knows. But I at least know what I want to do. I have my next demo reel all planned out. All I need is to make everything on my list while dodging through all of my other projects.
Here are some things I've made recently:
Tonight is the last WWE pay per view at the local bar that I get to watch with my friend Brad before he moves away and gets married... Hopefully John Cena doesn't go and win or anything.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Blogging
What a chore blogging is. Am I right?
Anyway, I never updated all of you non-existant followers to the results of the Polycount contest! Welp: I lost.
But don't worry, the amount of crazy good entries was ridiculous. Suits me right for going up against a bunch of seasoned professionals. My only gripe is that the game industry judges only got to vote for the winners out of the top 5 entries chosen upon by the general polycount public. So even though the contest was to have the most creative redesign of a character, they let everyone just vote for Cammy from Street Fighter because people love Cammy from Street Fighter. And then she ends up winning! (it kind of helped also that that entry landed the front page of Kotaku while the contest was under way) I'm not saying the winning models weren't bad. Because they weren't. They were absolutly astounding! But just the fact that a lot of other people with actual "creative" ideas got over looked because they didn't make super popular (or sexy) characters is what seems shitty about the whole thing. Even the industry judges commented on every winner about how it wasn't "the most creative idea", but it won, so who cares.
Here's my entry for anyone who cares:
Like I said, not the greatest, but still a cool idea. You can see more renders of it on my site.
ONTO OTHER THINGS! I've started a flash game project with a couple guys I knew in college. It's sure to be the next greatest game of all time. But modesty aside, it's going to be a side scrolling, platfomer/puzzle game similar to Limbo, Braid, and maybe with a few Portal elements. It should be interesting. I'm working the story and soon to be art style while my friend Bryon roughs out gameplay mechanic designs and puzzles and Nick conjures up magical programming. It's probably the greatest team ever assembled. More info on it when we actually make something.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Contest and Work
Hey folks! A few updates. I am currently working on a character model for a PolyCount competition. You can see my thread here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82636
The idea is to take any character used in any fighting videogame and "re-imagine" them. I took Captain America from the newest Marvel vs Capcom title and an making him into a homeless war veteran. The poly count is 12000 tris so I have removed his legs in order to make room for the wheelchair. I have until May 17th to finish it up. These are some renders of what I have so far!
In other news, I landed a part time, paid internship at a local advertising firm. I am doing 3D modeling for various projects and it's pretty fun. I'm still not sure if this is the kind of job I would want to have forever, but I feel if I was offered some kind of full time opportunity, I would be foolish to turn it down.
In other news, I landed a part time, paid internship at a local advertising firm. I am doing 3D modeling for various projects and it's pretty fun. I'm still not sure if this is the kind of job I would want to have forever, but I feel if I was offered some kind of full time opportunity, I would be foolish to turn it down. The problem is, I LONG to work in a bonafide game studio. Working on assets for video games in an actual game studio is something that I've been dreaming of all through college and to accept an opportunity working solely for an advertising company feels like short changing myself. NOT that this current place is bad by any means! I love the people that work there and they have some amazing stuff in their portfolio, it's just a very different environment from what I had prepared myself for.
I'm just kind of stuck at the moment. I really have no idea where I'm going. I know where I WANT to go, but I don't know exactly where to find it or how to get there. I suppose if I have to hang around here for a little while until I can figure all of that out, so be it.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Convoluted Ideas
I wanted to write my last blog article about this, but as I started writing I forgot because I got caught off guards by Kotaku. Ironically enough, it was Kotaku again that reminded me of this point. The best videogames (or at least game stories) are made by either one person or a team of very few. I can explain why this is because of the experiences I've had going to school for my bachelors degree Game Art and Design:
I've worked with numerous design projects, game mods, what have you, and the usual outcome is not great. A bunch of people will get together, all with their own ideas of what can be good (this is especially bad if you are all trying to get together 'just to think up a winning idea') and they all go at it. One person pitches and idea, and then another person pitches something and that gets added, and then another person changes that for a new idea. It sounds reasonable, but as everything starts to morph along with every new addition, the original idea gets beaten into obscurity.
I enetered into a design club while in school and they were looking to create a really ambitious mod project. Everyone had really nice ideas at the start, but then as everyone plugged in their own ideas, it became the same old game you see 100 times on the shelf at any store. It's kind of like when the WWE reinstituted ECW for the last time. One night for ratings they had 4 of their top guys face eachother in a 4 person matchup. The problem was, all 4 guys were so egotistital that they had to hit their finishers before the match ended. So these 4 guys go out of their way to throw people around, setting them up for these moves, which they all eventually hit. The match just became a huge mess because no one wanted to let the other man come out on top in the audiences eyes. If one of those wrestlers however would have just held back, took one for the team, and got hit with a finisher and rolled off to the side to open the stage for another, the match would have flowed so much more smoothly.
The same thing occured in this design club. If we would have just took somebody's one idea and ran with it, making minor changes here and there, but sticking close to the original concept, I think it would have been a better project.
If I had a team of 6 working to create a game, and all of them had really good ideas, I would rather we take the vast amount of time to make 6 original games than spend time making one big convoluted one.
This is the same reason I feel uneasy in a game studio where the head states that every employee has a voice in the game creation process. The entire company meets in order to give their two cents in order to make the games. I think it should be the opposite. I think they deisng heads should be the only ones that put the game ideas together, and if another artist really has a good addition, so be it. But the head designers should be forced to have to change a lot of things just to fit that one artists idea into the game.
This is my opinion based on past experiences I've had. They could change once I land a job in a higher end studio, but for right now, this is how I see it.
-Matt
I've worked with numerous design projects, game mods, what have you, and the usual outcome is not great. A bunch of people will get together, all with their own ideas of what can be good (this is especially bad if you are all trying to get together 'just to think up a winning idea') and they all go at it. One person pitches and idea, and then another person pitches something and that gets added, and then another person changes that for a new idea. It sounds reasonable, but as everything starts to morph along with every new addition, the original idea gets beaten into obscurity.
I enetered into a design club while in school and they were looking to create a really ambitious mod project. Everyone had really nice ideas at the start, but then as everyone plugged in their own ideas, it became the same old game you see 100 times on the shelf at any store. It's kind of like when the WWE reinstituted ECW for the last time. One night for ratings they had 4 of their top guys face eachother in a 4 person matchup. The problem was, all 4 guys were so egotistital that they had to hit their finishers before the match ended. So these 4 guys go out of their way to throw people around, setting them up for these moves, which they all eventually hit. The match just became a huge mess because no one wanted to let the other man come out on top in the audiences eyes. If one of those wrestlers however would have just held back, took one for the team, and got hit with a finisher and rolled off to the side to open the stage for another, the match would have flowed so much more smoothly.
The same thing occured in this design club. If we would have just took somebody's one idea and ran with it, making minor changes here and there, but sticking close to the original concept, I think it would have been a better project.
If I had a team of 6 working to create a game, and all of them had really good ideas, I would rather we take the vast amount of time to make 6 original games than spend time making one big convoluted one.
This is the same reason I feel uneasy in a game studio where the head states that every employee has a voice in the game creation process. The entire company meets in order to give their two cents in order to make the games. I think it should be the opposite. I think they deisng heads should be the only ones that put the game ideas together, and if another artist really has a good addition, so be it. But the head designers should be forced to have to change a lot of things just to fit that one artists idea into the game.
This is my opinion based on past experiences I've had. They could change once I land a job in a higher end studio, but for right now, this is how I see it.
-Matt
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