Small update

Finally got the floor to have reflections. I actually had it kinda right last time I tried making it, but the reflections weren't bright enough to be seen. Big facepalm.

I followed this tutorial (Thank you Chris Holden!):

THEN, I multiplied the reflection texture by a constant of 20 and got this:

Small victory. I'll take it! Next I plan to add some volumetric lighting. :) 

What have I been working on??

Explanation laterr..... sleeeeepy.

1 Month after 1st day of work

It's been an interesting month living the life of an employed artist. Living in a house that is a step up from the place I was at before. Lacking a car, which has been an uncomfortable experience in the wonderful Florida summer. But I am getting paid, and trying to get into a no-stress lifestyle! You trade one stress for another I suppose. That dreadful November loan payments looming over yonder. I am in good company though, and slowly trying to organize the crazy box of tangled cords called life as I live it.

But on to the important things, the art!

This was something I made to test out how convincing I could make decal thru a sculpt I made. Twas interesting results. I wanted it to work over any surface, and it kind of did do that.

Speed sculpt while testing out new techniques.

Found this neat concept art at Polycount.

I felt that sculpting that face would be fun. And it was!

Other than that, work has been fun. I am predominately sculpting in zbrush, so that is a big plus in my work day. More updates to come! Hopefully I find a car soon! Somebody sell me one for cheap for my birthday! lol.

Graduation! And Post Graduation

All is good. Graduation day came and went. I sat for 3-4 amazing (and yet boring) hours, as I absorbed the ceremonious lectures of honors and encouragement. Got my faux diploma in hand and memories that will last me a lifetime. My parents and grandmother was there to celebrate this occasion with me, which made me the happiest little miss Love in the world. I am blessed to have those that I cared about with me and to see them be just as happy as me.

Graduation may be in the past now, but I got a good future ahead of me. I was one of a good number of students in my department of Game Art from Ringling College to get a job right out of college. I thank all the people who supported and believed in me. And I thank God for giving me this opportunity. I don't take this for granted, and I am still amazed I was chosen as a fresh graduate to be a fulltime employee at Lucid Global, a 3d visualization studio that has worked with alot of medical clients and uses mobile platforms (iPad) to display it's work. Here is a link to a latest article about the studio: link.

My position doesn't start until July 1st, so I am spending some well deserved time with my parents, and some time on personal activities: aka. League of Legends, Learning Python, Modeling something OTHER THAN MY THESIS.

As much as I am happy that I have a job now, I still have alot to learn. I want to get better as a game artist. I want to learn animation and some programing. I've already started learning Python at the internet's very own "Code Academy". A great place to get started learning all kings of languages of coding. I am starting to self teach myself some animation, but I am ultimately still focused on improving my 3d creation skills. I may one day jump from the bleachers and join the people at Animation Mentor, iAnimate, or Anim School, but we will see in time. I don't have the funds at the moment, and I don't want to put myself in financial peril if I can help it.

That is all my update for now.

Job starts July 1st! And I'll be moving into a new apartment. Wish me well! And I look forward to keeping in contact with all my friends that went their separate ways. You guys are great and I know you will all get jobs too. Keep networking!!

Thesis issssss DONE!

And with that note comes the grand opening of my portfolio website: www.estherlove.com

I am very happy with the results of my work and I am ready for more! If you want to see some of the work that I did for it, you can find it on my site. And as much as I would like to show off my thesis, it isn't yet allowed to be shown in public. That date of public release isn't too long now.

Now that thesis is over, the new adventure of finding a job begins! The kind of adventure where the combination of skill, opportunity, and sometimes, I daresay, luck is the path to success. This is the time of year when schools all over America release their students into the world and we all begin to fight for the same job opportunities. So now more than ever I need to show off how great of an artist I can be, how great of a coworker I can be, and how much of an asset to the team I can be when creating new and fun things!

Sooo, job searching commence now!

If any of you know a good person or studio to connect with, OR if you know somebody that could use a modeller/3d Sculptor/environment artist like me, send me a message to my email! :)

elovedesign@gmail.com

Some digital paintings I've been working on...!

What Dugongs were mistaken for in the past!

WIP. My take on the Nightmare King from the Rise of the Guardians books. This is his early years, back when he just became the Nightmare King and didn't have full control of his shadows yet. (not canon)

Interesting...

"Michael Faraday, who had little mathematics and no formal schooling beyond the primary grades, is celebrated as an experimenter who discovered the induction of electricity. He was one of the great founders of modern physics. It is generally acknowledged that Faraday's ignorance of mathematics contributed to his inspiration, that it compelled him to develop a simple, nonmathematical concept when he looked for an explanation of his electrical and magnetic phenomena. Faraday had two qualities that more than made up for his lack of education: fantastic intuition and independence and originality of mind."

Quote from a predominately nonsensical book "The Medium is the Massage an Inventory of Effects" by Marshall McLuhan.

I know he is some famous guy who predicted technology's effect on people. But unless I am really tired right now, I can hardly understand what he is writing about. Sounds like "fine art" analysis of psychology and technology.

Every once in a while I'll stumble upon an example of this concept that actually makes sense or just sounds cool.

Last week of February!

So today seemed like a good day to bring up some updates!

First of all... The last full faculty crit I'll ever have on thesis is this Friday. No pressure, I guess. I need to rig both my characters, pose both my characts, light my characters in the scene, and then texture them to extreme awesome in the next 2 days....  Hmmm....  Well, maybe I can wait on the extreme beauty textures for the final product. Oh, I almost forgot! I need to re-export my entire thesis trailer with the updated models.

Now that I summarized that out, I suddenly feel the urge to stop writing this blog post.............

But I'm already here.......

Aw man.....  Guilty conscience....

Guess I'll have to postpone what I was going reflect on until the next post.

I'll just leave you with a doodle for now. Time to write my todo list!

Interesting Links about Low Poly..

That I still need to read:

http://jcricreate.tumblr.com/post/5649547699/the-ultra-map-a-workflow-tutorial
http://jcricreate.blogspot.com/2013/02/tutorial-getting-most-bake-for-your-buck.html
http://wiki.polycount.com/AmbientOcclusionMap?action=show&redirect=Ambient+Occlusion+Map
http://eat3d.com/free/xnormal_overview
http://www.handplane3d.com/download.html
http://lowpolylinks.blogspot.com/

Pretty much done..

Could be worked on more! But we shall see.  :) I should have a mood painting to go along with this dress sometime in the future.

Dress designs!

I wanted to work on something that I hadn't really done before, and that was make dress designs. I am often trying to create a design that would allow the character to very active, independent, and mobile. But there are many wonderful characters that don't really move alot  fight, or do much more than just look pretty. So I created a character that was inspired by Beauty and the Beast. 

I was interested in the concept of the flower in the glass case. And in my alternative version of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is a large monster (dragon) that has captured Belle, and imprisoned her in a large bird cage-like garden, where Belle sits on a swing of thorns. Belle IS the rose. I wanted her dress to reflect that. So far these are the most recent sketches after doing a bunch of smaller ones. I've never done a dress before, so I wanted to learn how to draw the gesture of a dress. Once I got that part practiced, I moved on to these.

More to come.

What do I do for a hobby?

http://lovelysnack.blogspot.com/

I make food!! My newly revamped, and recently updated Food Blog for those who are interested. A healthy 3D artist is a fed 3d artist, who cooks for a hobby! :D

My interpretation of Biodiversity

Unfinished Christmas Drawing

Jack Frost didn't have a home, so I imagined that on Christmas season he would feel lonely on those days when families got together and had beautiful Christmas trees sitting near their windows. This would be the closest he'd get at having a Christmas moment. It's a sad thought, but for those who've seen the movie, he eventually does get a family!