Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Toning Down the Tribal


Ive been back at the drawing board with this concept and here is what Ive come up with. I had to make a tough choice and get rid of my focal point, which was holding the character back. I am speaking of the golden belt/plate that was so overwhelmingly Meso-American. I loved how it looked on its own and even its contribution to the tribal nature of the character, but It was conflicting with the desired aesthetic I was going for, which was not high fantasy or fifteenth century Aztec. With this sketch I am trying to vamp up the primitive tech look, while still maintaining some of the tribal qualities. Tell me what you all think. I know that in some ways the logical approach would be to drop the technology and move fully towards the tribal warrior look, but to do that would be sacrificing what I am trying to achieve, which would only bother me in the long run.

...Oh and Ben, I will definitely take into account what you said about tying in the main colors elsewhere on the body. I toyed with it for about ten seconds, but I will get back to it.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009


This is a detail painting based off of the earlier sketch. I am still trying to add some more bits of technology to make the character a bit less "high fantasy", or pure tribal. I am not sure that this has been a successful design and am considering heavily revamping the concept. Its always difficult trying to do an entirely realistic character, maintaining a logical feel to their design, and still coming out with something compelling. I tend to get lost in designing details, and forget about the whole of figure. Gestalt theory anyone?

Saturday, September 26, 2009


Some quick color comps of the character. I plan on doing a detailed painting of him soon, but am still up in the air as to whether to paint over this image, or start a new pose altogether. This pose was chosen specifically to map out the costume, so its not the most dynamic.

Thursday, September 24, 2009


This is a WIP sketch of the character I am planning to model. Tell me what you think.

Pitch 2 FTW

The class agreed wholeheartedly that I need to pursue the path of character modeling. This being the case I proposed modeling my rambo reptiles figurine which consists of a bloodthirsty frog firing a large machine gun, mounted on the back of battered turtle. Prof Cookson, suggested that I create something a little less stylized, to balance out my portfolio.

Since then, my friend and roommate Nate Berna and I discussed developing a small scale, art centric mod for UT3 (or perhaps Crytek), that would give me the opportunity to create a fully realized game environment, complete with unique characters. The project would also be something I could continue into Studio 2, so I've decided to pursue this project by using my guidelines for Pitch.2 to create a character for the mod. I figure even if nothing comes of the mod, I will still have portfolio worthy character models irregardless. I've got nothing to lose...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Project Pitches

My portfolio has focused heavily on general modeling as well as concept art; however, modeling has taken priority in recent months. My project pitches focus on either environment or character models, which are both interests of mine and as well as areas that I have previous experience with.

Pitch 1. Develop a fully realized environment for the Unreal Editor

  • A small scale, intimate environment set in a canyon
  • Focal Point will be a shoddily constructed outpost being suspended within the canyon by massive steel cables - featuring air docks, a bar and elevator for reaching the canyon floor
Pitch 2. High Detail Character Model(s) using Maya and Zbrush
  • Fully modeled and Textured
  • Low Poly w/ normal and specular maps
Pitch 3. Unearthly Challenge - Environment
  • Using contest guidelines and constraints to create an environment for Unearthly Challenge Competition