Learning VFX

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last posted.  I haven't forgotten, I've just been crazy busy working on ZBrush homework.  Oddly enough, I don't even plan on posting that work just yet since I'd like to do some more work to it before I make it public.

Today I'm showing you my first visual effects project.  This project was... different.  It wasn't hard, once I understood what I was trying to do, but it was so unlike anything I've done before that I had trouble getting into it.
Enough rambling about naught.  The objective was to get a 3D object into some live video footage.  Thankfully I didn't have to shoot the footage or do the tracking on it.  Most of what I had to do involved  matching lighting and tweaking colors to make the digital footage match the live footage.  Here's what I got:



Overall, I found this project to be gratifying.  It's really great to see something I've done pull together like this and actually see it in an actual environment.

Here's a sneak-peek at my next ZBrush project.  I've been trying my hand at designing a character from the ground up (the right way).  Here are some quick silhouettes.

A Taste of ZBrush

Here is a pair of time-lapse videos of me working in ZBrush on my next project. I have so creatively named her "Centaur Girl." (Though, I may tone the name back a bit for the final turn in.)

It's kind of funny, actually, because since yesterday morning when I created these I've totally reworked everything you'll see. Maybe I'll get to uploading those later. For now, here's a taste of ZBrush.

Speck of an Animation

So, I finally got around to getting Speck animated. It's quick, rough, but it's an animation.

Though I found this project rather frustrating when it came to the rigging and animation, it has been enormously satisfying to actually see Speck come to life.

On another note... My life has been incredibly busy recently, and yet somehow I haven't been finishing a ton of projects or anything. Unfortunately. I feel like I have a time leech attached to me somewhere and I can't figure out where.

Hopefully I'll find myself becoming more productive very soon, so keep checking back.

Without further ado, here is an animated Speck!

Well, not quite... Here's my beauty shot.

And here (because I spent like 2 weeks rigging him) is a pic of Speck's wireframe and the custom rig I created for him.

O.K. Now we get to the animation. Enjoy!

Wolf Bust

Another week goes by, and another project is due.

... and several more are added to the queue. In fact, I've got so much going on this week I don't even have time to write about it just yet.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then I can give you a couple thousand words without a problem. Here is my latest ZBrush project:

(Click to enlarge)

Meet Speck

That's pretty much it.  Meet Speck:

Endings and Beginnings

The last week has been pretty rough, though is seems to have concluded rather well. I'm approximating that I spent 40+ hours on my "game model" project. I'm going to be in shock that I'm done for... quite some time. I feel like I've been released from prison.

Anyhoo. All in all I'm pretty happy with what I got considering the time I put into it. Obviously, being a perfectionist I always have things that I'd like to improve, but really they're all pretty minor things.

Here are the modelsheets of the three variants: (Click to enlarge)

And here is a turnaround video:


So, that's the ending. Now for the beginning! I'm actually getting kind of excited about this coming project in my Animation III class. It's an animation project (meaning the focus of the project is on the actual animation of a character, not the modeling, texturing or lighting.) So yeah. It will be fun, I hope. I haven't had a project yet where I was able to put much time into the animation side of things, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do.
Also, I like the idea of departing from the realism side of 3D to something a little more cartoony. I'd like to prove that I can do both.

Enough talk. Meet my new freind, Speck. (Click to enlarge)

Elixir Logo Design

Here's a first look at a project I've been working on for a while now. The logo was designed for Elixir Post Production, a film company that does, well, post production. Imagine that.

The project actually started out as website design work, and the logo somehow the logo ended up in the mix too. The website portion of the design should be finished in the next couple weeks, so check back for more from Elixir.

This is the "official version." Obviously, since it's shiny.

And here we have the pure black version that could be printed.

The Prosperity Gospel

This video really says more than I can, so watch it.

Eidolon Concept

Okay, it took me longer than I thought. I'm not even done yet, really. I simply don't have more time to play around with the design and need to start modeling.

The assignment is to create a game model (2,500 polys max) for a game of our choice. We also have to create 3 variations or animations of our model. Oh, the project was also limited to buildings and vehicles; no characters. Being a one time Halo geek, I decided to design a Covenant walker. It's approximately twice the height of an Elite, and could be piloted by Elites, Brutes, Marines, and of course Master Chief.

If I have time I plan to rig the model and write a little backstory. It should make a nice portfolio piece, since I don't have any vehicles (good ones) or any low poly models (with the exception of all my props.)

Anyhoo, here's the design:

ZBrush Props

'Ya know, I don't know.  Yeah, that's right.

I'm going to break my regular blogging pattern and post an update.  Scary, I know.  Hopefully it won't be such a rarity in the future.  I didn't really intend to get locked into the whole 'blogging once a week' thing (and I guess I didn't really) but only meant that to be the bare minimum.
Yeah.  Wow.  I ramble about the most random things.  I guess everyone doesn't need to know (or care) about my blog posting psychology.  I guess it's one of those lonely computer geek things.  Anyway, I'm going to cut this thought off and get to the meat of the matter.

Ok, so maybe the meat of the matter has already been picked clean by the Aegypiinae.  "At what am I looking?" you may ask.  (By the way, you may not ask, "What am I looking at?"  That is grammatically incorrect and I will smack you with silence if you do.)  Well, to answer your properly phrased question, you are looking at my first ZBrush sculpture!

It was fun to play around with, and I'm pretty please with the results.  However, I'm suffer no dillusions and realize that it really isn't all that great.  For one thing the proportions are lacking rather badly (though, considering the time I spent on it I'm ok with that.)  So yeah, that's that.  You're looking at about 2-3 hours of doodling with ZBrush.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a vase.  Yeah, I know it's awesome.  It's also what I whipped up at the beginning of class so that I had something to turn in for my review.  It was also the time that I discovered the Macintosh ZBrush files aren't compatible with Windows ZBrush. (I couldn't turn in my skull!!!  Urgh.)  Anyway.  It's a pot.  I had a lot of fun with the radial brush as you can probably tell.

Here are my final two props.  You did know that I was making "props," right?  My teacher gave us a list of different categories of stuff we could do and each had their own point value.  All of our props had to add up to 10 points.  Anyway.  I made these last two because everything else on the list looked really boring (Who would want to sculpt a sock, honestly?)  If you don't recognize them, they're the helm and cuirass of the Uruk-Hai from Lord of the Rings.  Predictable, I know.  I guess it was fresh in my mind from doing the Mighty Muggs.  Or maybe it's because I can see eight books related to Lord of the Rings from where I'm sitting right now. (That isn't counting the trilogy itself.)  Yeah, I'm a geek.

So, that's what I've been up to... last night.  And I guess some of it is from last week, too.  That's all for now.

Stay tuned, I hope to be posting some concept art for a new project in the next day or two.

Double Stuffed Blog

Things have been crazy, crazy busy for the last two weeks.  Gosh.  Where do I even begin?  Well, I guess the beginning would probably be a good place...

So, to kick this off I'll start with Monday last week.  All in all, it was a mostly uneventful day filled with homework and other such fun stuff.  However, that evening I started up a Theology Study group at my church.  It's a year-long study that we're spending going through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.  So far it's been a really great experience, and I think I'll learn a lot.

Let's see.... What next?  Well, obviously, there are the every day classes which are pretty unremarkable.  However, I suddenly found myself with the free time and inspiration to put together the poster for my girlfriend's Jr. Recital.  I don't think I've ever had quite so much fun working on graphic design stuff.  Here 'tis:

As far as class projects go, I was assigned to create five 'props'.  Low poly,  scene filler type stuff.  The props were split into two sections; three due the first week and two on the second (next Tuesday).  I ended up staying up until 3:30 on Monday, to finish my props in time, and then my teacher gave us an extension on it in class the next day.  I was kind of frustrated.  Oh well.  It gave me the opportunity to tweak them a bit and render out some better pics.  Now they're ALL ready to go, and pretty spiffy.  (Though, as a note, I was assigned to create the fence and trashcan.  Those weren't my idea.)  Here are some pics:

So, that's a large part of what I've been working on for the last two weeks.  Though, as a matter of fact, I've also been assigned to create props for my ZBrush class, so expect to see those up soon.  As far as class work goes, that pretty much sums everything up.

School isn't everything though, and I've also been working on a website and logo for a friend of mine (in all the fractional bits of extra time).  I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a handle on all my homework and stuff so I have some extra time to do more 'fun' work.

I'm also really looking into how I can break into freelancing and actually earn some money, since my finances are running rather... low.  Quite low.  So.  I really have no idea how I'll be able to do this on top of everything else, but somehow, no doubt, I'll figure it out.

That concludes this week! (And last week).  I think I'll have time to post on time next week, so please check back soon.

Goodbye Earth, goodbye Earth.

Goodbye Earth,

Goodbye Earth.

The stars are spiraling overhead,

Somewhere, there, my dreams have fled.

I hear them whispering my name,

"Goodnight Zane, goodnight Zane."

Goodbye Earth,

Goodbye Earth.

I seek to catch my dreams again,

To hold them here within my brain.

So once I've found them; gripped them tight.

From beneath my hat they will not soon take flight.

Goodbye Earth,

Goodbye Earth.

It's time I dream my dreams.

Week Two

First of all, I have to think of some more interesting titles for these updates. It's going to get boring really fast... actually, I think it already is boring. I just don't want to get to the 16th week of this semester and call it: Week 16. Boring!

Okay. Now that I've ranted about that, I can get on with the update.

Where to begin? A lot has happened this week. I guess I can kick things off with my first finished homework assignment! (First one of interest, anyway.) I had to pick a character (any character) and create textures for a Mighty Muggs based on that character. Of course I went with Lord of the Rings and picked an Uruk-Hai. Because they're cool. Also, I thought that the shape of their helmets would work well with the shape of the Mighty Muggs.

My "beauty shot":

Other than my Mighty Muggs turn in, most of my school work has been pretty hum-drum so far. However, this week Ferris hosted "Frag Fest," which happens the second week of every Semester. The Frag Fest is a 24 hour game design competition, which (this time) was focused on 3D modeling.

This semester was the first time that I've attended/competed, even though I'm a sophomore. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to go this time either, since it landed (rather inconveniently) on the evening of my birthday. However, I ended up going and teaming up with Wesley Mayle and Steve Reister.

The theme for this Frag Fest was "Alternate History." So, we had to model something that was somehow related to a short story that we wrote about a way that history could have been different. We thought it would be cool to go with the idea that dinosaurs didn't go extinct, and the Native American Indians used them to combat the European explorers.

We broke it down into three main parts: a utah raptor (that was used as a mount), a Mayan warrior, and a ruined temple. Steve modeled and textured the raptor, while I created the Mayan warrior, and Wesley did the scene/lighting. Toward the end we did things up a little, since I enjoy creating textures I painted the stone texture for the ruins while Wesley unwrapped everything in the scene and set up the materials.

All in all, the finished project turned out pretty well. Though the lighting and composition could have been a lot better. Also, I think a stronger initial concept could have made ours stand out a bit more. As it was, we took 5th place among 7 teams.

Personally, I'm really unhappy with how my character looked at the end of the night. I felt like I simply didn't have the time to refine him until I was happy. I think he looked really wooden and unlife-like. However, I still like the design and idea, and hope to return to him an do a better job. Anyhow, enough of my rambling. Here are some photos/renders:

Applied Technology Center, Lab 172:

And next door in Lab 174:

Also, durning the competition there was a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tourney going on in the auditorium:

The concept I did for the Mayan Warrior:

Some renders of what I worked on for my team's entry:

Our final product:

So, that was Frag Fest. Like I said, it was also my birthday... but obviously, I did't celebrate it on Friday night. That got postponed until the next evening, when I went out and got dinner with my family at Applebee's. The point being: I love mozzarella sticks.

That aside, I also spent considerable time this weekend installing Windows XP and Boot Camp on my iMac. I think I've finally got it running properly, though I'm still missing the two most crucial software packages (being Softimage and ZBrush.) With any luck I'll have both of those by this Saturday.

That concludes my weekly update. I hope you all have a great week! See you next time.

First Week

Hey all, time for an update!

I've been thinking that I'm going to try to post an update at very least once every week with photos of any cool school projects or other random things from my life. I know that if I don't set the time for it aside, I won't post another update until sometime late December.

So, I'll get right to it since I'm kind of busy. This semester I'm taking three classes at Ferris and two at GRCC, so I'm downtown Tuesday through Thursday. My Ferris classes consist of DAGD 335 - Animation III, DAGD 380 - Digital Sculpting (ZBrush), and DAGD 225 - Programming 1. So far I'm enjoying them! Though, as of yet I don't have any presentable pics of any projects yet. Unless catastrophe strikes, that will change in next weeks update.

Admittedly, however, I'm not big into programming. It isn't bad yet, and I'm hoping that I'm not drowning in code by the end of the semester.

So. That's Ferris. At GRCC I'm taking a straight up Trigonometry class and a General Psychology class. Trig won't be bad since I'm only taking it because I need to and not because I need to learn it (I went well past Trig in high school.) Psychology is really interesting, but simultaneously, highly sleep inducing (at times.) Our teacher is cool, but a little bit older and talks rather slowly/deliberately... though he has a knack for raising his voice just as one begins to nod.

School work aside, this weekend was a holiday! Though, to be honest I didn't even know until like Saturday. That's how I roll.

Speaking of Saturday, I went into Grand Rapids with a friend of mine and shot some photos to add to my ever growing collection. Here is a sample:

Then, obviously, there was Labor Day. I ended up abandoning my homework and running off with my girlfriend and her family to picnic in Townsend Park for the afternoon. Here's a picture of me being brilliant:

Well that pretty much concludes last week. Stay tuned!

Computer Bug

This is where the term "computer bug" came from: http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug.htm

An Abrupt Return to "Real Life." Whatever that is.

So, many of you know that my family took a two week vacation out West. We visited such places at The Black Hills in South Dakota, the Tetons in Idaho, and of course Yellowstone in Wyoming. Thankfully, the plan (mostly) worked out without a problem. We did run into some car trouble and had to spend a day in Mitchell, South Dakota when our van's radiator burnt out.
Some of our adventures included: spelunking, horseback riding, hiking, and visiting such things a Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore. In addition to all of these things, I also managed to get some quite time alone and use this vacation to further my relationship with my Lord.

Here's a pic from when we were in the Tetons:

Since we got back... let me see... 5:30 a.m. on Sunday (August 23rd) our hose has gone rather mad. You see, we had a little less than a week to finish our summer long deck construction project before my younger sister's graduation open house. Because of this, I've spent very nearly every waking moment this week out in my back yard working on our deck. Finally, at about 11:30 last night my dad and I ran out of decking to put down and were forced to halt. Even though we can't actually finish the deck before the party, we made some pretty incredible progress and for the most part it is done. (Yay.)

But since I spent most of this week on the deck, I've had precious little time to prepare for school. To say nothing of the fact that the 3D packages I ordered along with my new computer haven't come yet. Next Monday (Thank God I don't have classes until Tuesday!) is going to be pretty crazy.

What else is new? Oh yes. I've been trying to get more active with my church this year, now that I've gotten in the swing of things with college and all (haha.) So on Monday nights I'm going to be attending a Men's Theology Group, which should be really cool. The group consists of 9 guys, with a pretty wide range of ages... I I'm probably going to be the second youngest guy in the group. Anyhoo, I think it will be a really cool group of guys and I'm really looking forward to it.

On top of that, I was asked to help lead a Jr. High boys small group on Wednesday nights at my church. I have to say right off the bat that something like this is WAY out of my comfort zone. However, I feel like this is where God is leading me, so I said "yes."

All in all, this is shaping up to be one of the busiest semesters of all time. I was already planning on dealing with a killer class schedule, but pack in everything else and I don't know if I'll sleep until Christmas.

I think that's all for now. I'll leave you guys with a picture my dad took of me that I thought turned out pretty sweet. (I'm sitting and looking at "Fairy Falls" in Yellowstone National Park.) Here you go:

New Computer

I'll be honest here.  I haven't done a lick of work on the website since my last blog post.  Awful, I know.  Life has been feeling too much its self recently to allow me the extra time (or energy necessary) to work on DM2.

Over the last couple weeks I've been able to work for much greater lengths of time that I had previously.  I'm really glad that it has turned out like that because I sure need all the $$$ I can get.  (Who doesn't?)

This last month has also managed to be one of the all time worst points in my life, if not the worst.  I'm not going into gory details, but sufficed to say, my girlfriend and I had to work some stuff out between us.  That was one extremely distracting week.

My family has also been putting vast amounts of time into tearing out and refurbishing our deck.  Being the eldest son, I have had to play my part in the deconstruction and reconstruction of said deck.  It is a lot of work to say the least, but after all these weeks of toil it is finally starting to come together.  (Yay, we can actually walk on part of it now!)

This week has been crazy.  We (my family) is taking a vacation (possibly the last that we'll all be able to do together) out to Yellowstone.  Also about a billion places in between.  We're going to be gone for two whole weeks, which I have to say, will be the longest vacation I've ever taken.  It will be interesting to see how cramming 6 people and their possessions into a mini-van for several consecutive days works, but I hope that by the end we will all still have the vestiges of our sanity remaining and can enjoy the rest of the trip.
Oh, did I mention that my sister is having her open house the weekend after we get back?  Well she is, and we have been getting ready for that on top of everything else.

The spot of light among all of this and the reason that I'm making this update in the first place is because I got a new computer!  Finally.  This is the first computer I've ever owned.  Last Wednesday I finally came to the conclusion that God was okay with me spending that much of my savings and that I wasn't being a fool to do so.  I then proceeded to the Apple store at Woodland mall and bought my self a brand (flippin') new iMac, along with the educational CS4 Creative Suite.  To top it all off, I got a free iTouch because I was a student.

So, since I'm going to need 3D stuff for school I decided to purchase and educational version of Autodesk's Softimage and Pixologic's zBrush.  Those should be waiting for me when I return home.  I'm so excited to get into them!  (Though I'll have to run Softimage through either BootCamp or Parallels.)

Here are some pics:  (He's named Jeeves, btw.)

Website Update and the Aftermath of Summer Classes

 I'm still chugging away on "Mark II."  I've had a lot of real (IE: Paid) work this week, so I haven't been able to put as much time in as I'd like in nailing out the last bits of the layout.  On top of that it's been trying time for me when it comes to relationships.  All in all, I haven't been much in the head-space for web design this last week.  What I have done is get a simple portfolio layout set up and decide that I need to rework my entire navigation system... so yeah.  Fun stuff.  I hope I finish it soon. Like tomorrow.

We all have our hopes and dreams.

Additionally, I offered to help a friend of mine come up with a design for his website, so I'm planning on throwing some of my time at that too.  How come I always get crazy busy when I offer to do something like this?  Ah well.  It should look good in my portfolio.

Since my website is coming so slowly, and I don't have any pretty pictures to show for it, I figured that I'd post some of the drawings that I did for my summer classe.

The self portrait I did as a final project.  Done with black and white prismacolor pencils against grey paper.

My second to last project.  Done with charcoal in about 8 hours.

One of my earlier drawings.  We were practicing contour drawing.  This was done over two or three class periods.

My Resume is Hot Off the Press!

I can hardly believe how long it took me to put together such a simple document.

Blasted distractions...

Anyway, I finally have it ready to go.

Dark Marble 2.0 Layout

So, for the last week or so I've been spending a lot of time setting up the foundations of my new Dark Marble website. Now that I have a good base to build off of in Flash, I've decided to finalize the actual layout/design of the website. It has been a bit of a hassle (because I couldn't decide what resolution at which I wanted to build it and kept changing my mind) but I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

Obviously, there will be more to it than these sample pages, but this should give a pretty good idea of what the final product will look like.

The layout design for the home page:

The layout design for the portfolio page:

The layout design for the origin page:

The layout design for the downloads page:

The layout design for the resume page:

The layout design for the contact page:

As happy as I am with how DM2 is turning out, I still have oodles of work to do. I need to get together all the items for my portfolio, put together a resume, put together a demo reel, organize my downloadable assets and put together a tutorial. (No, I haven't actually done one yet, but I know what I'm going to do for it and I'd like to do more in the future.)

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll have another update soon.