Final Design

Resume and Business Card

I've thinking about my business card design and resume for quite some time now, but I've finally made the time to sit down and get 'em done. Hard copies should be available very soon.

Here's the newest on my resume and business card:

(Click to enlarge)

(Front of the card is on top, and the back is on the bottom)

Final Nikodemus Base

Okay, so I've given him some hair, teeth, a tongue, and fixed his hands.

Niko Base Mesh Update

I took him into zbrush and moved his limbs around so it felt a little more natural, and did some really basic sculpting. (I didn't up the sub-Ds at all) I also spent quite a bit of time in the head/face and managed to eliminate the nasty mess of loops in the nose area.

Nikodemus Base Mesh

Well, I'm not done with the base mesh yet, but here's my start. I'm still refining the facial features, since they're pretty blocky right now.

Construction

Frag Fest, Spring 2010

FragFest, (A 24 hour competition in the Digital Animation & Game Design program) had the theme "Goblinoid," and categories for level design and 3D modeling.  I was on a team with Wesley Mayle and Luke Garnsey to create a level and I also submitted the 3D assets that I created as an individual 3D modeling entry.

This year went a lot better than last semester.  I was just "in the headspace" more, or something.  Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly (more or less.)  I had a blast working with Wesley and Luke, and it was really sweet to get to see my work running real time in the Unity engine. (We were allowed to use either Unity or Unreal III.)

Our level design team (click here to see our team's progress blog) didn't get placed in the top 3, however, I came in 1st place in the 3D modeling category with the assets I created for our map.

So, here's what I spent most of my time working on:

Basic Character

This is a basic character mesh I created using Softimage and simple box modeling.

Here is my final product:

Here is the concept that I was working from (Provided by my professor):

Nikodemus - Development

Nikodemus is an ancient goblinoid who was once a considered a great warrior among his people. However, he left those days behind him long ago and now works at his local library. Grizzled, irascible, and rather hairy, Nikodemus is the terror of all who do not return their books before the due-date. Preferring solitude, this crotchety old goblinoid spends most of his free time pouring through dusty tomes into all hours of the night.

Personal Assessment

My name is Tyler "Zane" Devon and my email is: zanedevon@gmail.com.

I am an artist seeking to merge storytelling and eye-catching design to create high quality, compelling graphics.

I specialize in:
• 3D modeling
• Character Design
• Texture painting

I am proficient with the following software:
• Softimage (Previously XSI)
• Roadkill
• Crazy Bump
• XNormal
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Bridge
• Flash
• Acrobat
• ZBrush
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• Windows Movie Maker
• iMovie
• Macintosh OS
• Windows OS

I have a basic understanding of the following software:
• After Effects
• Premier
• Final Cut
• Dreamweaver
• Fireworks
• 3DS Max
• Maya

Relevant classes that I have completed:
• Animation I   (3DS Max)
• Animation III   (Softimage)
• Intro to XSI   (Softimage)
• Digital Sculpting   (ZBrush)
• Programming I   (C++, C#, XNA)
• Multimedia I   (Flash)
• Digital Imaging   (Photoshop)
• 3D Visualization   (Analog)
• Drawing I   (Analog)

Other work and education experience includes:
• Alumni of Compass Film Academy (2006)
• Intern at Grey Matter Group (2007-2009)
• Employee at Grey Matter Group (2010-present)

Ten of my best pieces:

Endings and Frontiers

So, my plans for a big post with all the final pieces of my work form last semester kind of fell through.  At least, in a timely way.   It may be kind of late, but here's my final ZBrush project: (Admittedly I've been pretty busy celebrating Christmas with my relatives.)




And here is a time-lapse of me working on it:




Also, breaking up with my girlfriend on New Year's day kind of really sucked too.  It's hard to believe that it's only been three days already.  I've been such a roller-coaster of emotions... I'm just starting to go numb.  But my heart still jumps into my throat every time the phone rings, or I that I got an email.  Then it falls rather quickly down into the vicinity of my toes.  If I was ever to write a song about it, this would be one of the lines: "I can't kill time fast enough to get away from you."
However, even though it sucks, I've been handling it a lot better than I thought I would.  Excepting for lots of sighs and relatively short spats of depression, I've actually been able to live a rather normal life.  Actually, it's felt good because for some reason the grief makes self-control really easy.  Most of my usual struggles have all but disappeared.
I'm trying really hard to just get over it and move on as fast as possible.  I don't want to be depressed and lonely; it doesn't do me or my family any favors.  I've been spending rather massive amounts of time in prayer, trying to get as close to God as I can, and in turn, heal as quickly as possible (to say nothing of keeping up my spirits.)  To be completely honest, I almost wish the pain wouldn't go away so that I could stay this close to God all the time.  However, it's still really hard to just trust him to rule my life.  I was so sure that she was the girl for me that I never seriously considered what would happen if we broke up.
It's almost funny, looking back.  There are so, so, so many red flags.  Heck, the "song that I inspired her to write was entitled "Nothing New."  I don't know what I was thinking to ask her out, honestly.  I guess simply that I'd follow God wherever he led me.  He did lead me to her, I have no doubt of that.  I don't regret the relationship, really.  It just hurt a ton and took so much of me.  I spent nearly 1/10 of my life trying to to win her heart.

Well, aren't I remissy today?

When I'm not feeling down, I'm pretty excited.  I can't wait for who or what God has in store for me out there.  I know he knows what he's doing, and I trust him.  I just have to learn to accept that I can't know the future, that this relationship wasn't a waste, and that God does in fact have a very, very, very specific plan for me.

I feel like I'm a frontier again.

As I said on Facebook the other day.  "This year can only get better."  I'm looking forward to it.

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: