All the in the texture painting!

So I started on my pauldron for my character! Still not finished, but its been a good learning session. Finding out what brushes to use. Learning how to mimic the Blizzard detail. It truly combines my love of painting and modeling. I often used bakes to base my paintings off of, so this has been a fun challenge for me!

I also have been taking the opportunity to learn 3ds Max on this, and a little bit of Blender for the base texture & design layout.

Full pictures! Concept fun time!

Hello! Been working on a Blizzardfest contest entry!

It was fun concepting the Naga Druid I came up for the competition. Basically I am suppose to choose an existing "unit", and turn it into a "hero" character. Right now in WoW, Garrosh is doing all kinds of BS in Azeroth and he is pissing off alot of people.  Something is about to happen in the world that will lead to us [the players] to going back in time when the orcs still lived on Draenor, their original homeworld. So I imagine this character originally had a strong love for the land when she was a highborne. At some point after the Well of Eternity exploded, she got separated from Queen Azshara and was left alone to embrace her passion for nature. She is now a Naga of the Forest, living in the rivers and swamps.

By the way, I forgot to mention I am now playing World of Warcraft! The game has changed so much from when I first played back in beta. I have been watching and reading up on the lore of Warcraft, and I am so amazed at how much has happened. I have also been playing alot of Hearthstone, but thats beside the point.

About the contest. I will show you my work from when I started up to the point I am at now.

Loose sketches to figure what I wanted in a first impression. Her personality.

Now I am starting to get into details. Finding armor designs i like.

I love drawing gestures. So this sketch was obligatory.  It helps me to visualize the mood.

At this point I remind myself  that my contest entry isn't the concept art. So I began to photo bash.

This is where I decide a frontal design is more important than a posed character.

Starting to get more comfortable with painting in color. Regaining the old rendering muscle memory. lol

Filling in spots to make this a finished concept.

Done with the front design! Now working on the back. Drew out a general idea of what the tail looks like.

Finished concept!

Working on the model now. I plan to focus on more texture painting, so I won't be going the usually Zbrush sculpt everything route.

I've also been painting for practice, so this was a quick sketch of a pauldron. I really want to get better and faster at doing stuff like this.

Be back later with more progress on the Naga Druid. If you happen to have any good names for her, let me know at Twitter @Evolvyn. lol!

Sketch of the Night

Finally back into art-ing after moving across country!

Btw, I never mentioned that I got a new job! :P Well, I am back on the West Coast! Working at a mobile casino game studio! Hooray for finally making it into the game industry! A step closer to my goals!

As for now, I am working on art at home. So.... I'll be back with more!

Progress on some nature!

I've returned from GDC! Yey! I had lots of fun and met lots of people!

I won't talk about this time, because I have something that I really want to show right now.

I am working on some foliage, and a tree was my first choice! I am not sure how to go about this, but after trying to create a tree in maya, I decided to go my favorite route, which is create it in Zbrush!

I am going off of this concept art I found by Andreas Rocha (http://www.andreasrocha.com/). I want to make a 3D environment that is similar to what is in the illustration. Give me some good practice with foliage. I am UVing my retopologized mesh, so hopefully I'll have a texture for it in the next day or so. Very excited to work on this, since it is something that I am not experienced with!

I will be back with more!

Another blast of FFXIV!

So I have really been enjoying Final Fantasy XIV. I think it is a MMO that is most compatible with my inner gamer. I love the simple yet beautiful aesthetics of the game. I like the quest themes and story style. It is definitely a Final Fantasy. The acting, the personalities, the traditions. The atmosphere of the environments really speak out to me too. I will admit, it doesn't have the BEST graphics or what is now called "next-gen" technology, but I appreciate what they were able to accomplish with the engine and limitations they have. I still want to know how to make a metal shader like how they have it in the game. I read an article in Polycount about something similar to what they do, but I still can't figure out how to do it myself. 

My Pudgy Puk photobombing my picture.

I love the sunset in this game! It is truly based on the timing and view angle of your character.

Sleep time! I really like the sleeping [and wake up, when you log back in] animation if you log out at the Inn.

Btw, GDC in 2 weeks. Eep!

Something completely different!

I am so ashamed as to how long it's been since my last post!

I have been keeping busy at my job. I fortunately received the opportunity to be a Lead Artist at my studio in December. I really like the organization and troubleshooting aspect of the role. Figuring out what the problem is, who to talk to about it, and help get the artist what they need to finish their task; whether it be a review or a technical problem I might know how to fix. I also like making sure that the files stay clean and organized!

On the other side of things, I have been playing games and working on personal 3D stuff!

I was getting into The Witcher (1) and reading the book "The Witcher: The Last Wish". Such a great world to read about. And I really like Geralt. He is pretty much to the point, sly without being cocky, and very interesting to try and figure out. I have played 98% of The Witcher 2, so I am very familiar with the world, but I can't bring myself to finish it off until The Witcher 3 comes out! I don't want the game to end, unless I have something else to continue with. haha!

Here is some 3D work I have been noodling on!

Zbrush

dDo

UDK

I took a tiny break over the weekend to play Final Fantasy XIV. I must say, they've made a believer out of me. They really improved upon FFXI! I used play XI, so I had that as my comparison, and I also play Guild Wars 2, with was another frame of reference for me for a current generation MMO. I really really enjoy the mechanics and aesthetics of the game! Holy crap is it pretty. The lighting, the architecture, the whole environment!!! The lighting is incredible!! Bounce light, environment lighting, weather influenced lighting, ambience, color!!! I am pretty sure I will be taking alot screenshots from the game. Here is one!

I especially got really inspired by how metal looks in the game. It reflects so beautifully! I want to try recreating that metal shader.

This is me currently! Lvl 22 Thaumaturge!

That is it for my update! I think in the coming month(s), I will be focusing on lighting, shader/textures, and possibly delving into DOTA item creations. Also i will be attending GDC in San Francisco! So I will adding that to my future updates when it comes around.

Have a great day!