Lovelyness

1st Update for the Spring Semester!

2012-02-02T16:38:00.002-05:00

Almost 4 weeks have passed since the start of the new semester, and I already have a few good news to announce that has happened within the last couple weeks.

First, I finished a sculpted hoodie in Zbrush, that was made to show motion!

My 3D teacher, Martin Murphy, submitted my hoodie sculpt, along with a few other students, to a contact he had at the game studio, Harmonix, for extra credit.

I recently got word that my hoodie, received an Honorable Mention (2nd place) Award! For quality, gesture, and realistic folds. I also got a prize in the form of a bag from the company, so that was really nice! He wants a photo of the winners, so I better get some sleep and put my pretty face on! lol.

See more of my sculpt HERE.

Next,

I submitted a small portfolio to get into a Hasbro Workshop, here at Ringling College, and they choose 20 participants out of a large number of applicants.

I was fortunately one of the 20 chosen to attend this great Workshop! They want us to sculpt an action figure character, and hopefully by the end of the workshop, they will choose someone (or a few people) to possibly get a freelance contract with them!

This was the work I submitted:

Lastly,

I got a kind request to have one of my old illustrations added to a website for, Thatgamecompany, a very well known independent game studio.

You can see the illustration here on this page: http://thatgamecompany.com/fan-art/fan-art-from-around-the-world/#more-2345. You just have to scroll down a bit. But here is for your convenient viewing:

This last 4 weeks have been VERY VERY busy, and it has no end in sight. I am working on a Thesis Pitch, which will be voted on by the faculty next week on Friday. I hope it passes! I won't be back for a while, but hopefully I will return with good news!

Have a great day!

BTW, updated my portfolio website, check it out! http://estherlovedesign.blogspot.com/

Gestures

2011-12-31T15:23:00.005-05:00

I used the website http://lovecastle.org/draw/ to get my references. And it's great!! You can put how long you want the image to stay, and there are different categories of photos you can choose. Hands, horses, cats, heads, draped figures, and naked figures. :) This is becoming my favorite place to go now.

Thanks to Andrew for referring me to this place!

2011-12-31T00:59:00.000-05:00

A quick sketch that may possibly represent a 3d scene that my friend and I will work on in the next month. I'm doing the human character, she will be doing the environment.

Christmas Day!

2011-12-25T15:04:00.000-05:00

From Batman and I, Happy Christmas Merriness Day!
And Happy Birthday Jesus! :)

(is currently playing Batman: Arkham City on xbox360)

Doodle of the day!

2011-12-18T02:53:00.001-05:00

SURVIVED!! +1 at life.

2011-12-17T02:01:00.004-05:00

I'll talk about school next time, but Winter Break has started and I'm in a drawing mood.

Thank you ABC Family channel for showing me UP twice in one night, and making me see that Russel has a cute bright face mode. BTW, I just noticed that the old man parked the derigible in a handicap parking spot at the very end of the movie.

2011-12-04T02:54:00.001-05:00

Just one more week.....

Boss Character

2011-11-28T21:26:00.001-05:00

No time for long descriptions, but here is my "last" DFG assignment for the year. I designed a boss character for some imaginary video game. I will be modeling and animating this character next semester. Looking forward to it!! Now to finish off my last 3D project for the semester..... Wish me luck!

Final Concept Art

Sketches

I am sooo done with this project!

2011-10-27T22:17:00.003-04:00

Bioshock & Journey inspired.

The assignment was to pick an existing game and draw an environment based on it. I chose Bioshock & Journey, because I couldn't make up my mind.

Progress work:

I first started out with thumbnails, just to get the general composition of the illustration. I liked the buried look for my building, so I came up with these three. I liked having the pillars frame the scene. I wasn't sure what kind of pillars, but definitely something Art Deco, for the sake of Bioshock. The idea was that I would have some kind of Art Deco architecture in a Journey like desert environment. I kept a faint backstory idea that the ocean had dried up, and turned into a desert.

I decided that Journey alone wasn't interesting enough, because the main goal of this concept art was that I would eventually make it in 3D. I didn't see enough sculptural detail in Journey for it to give me the opportunity to have a portfolio worthy scene. Journey looks more like a lighting and physics game, than something that showcase high poly modeling.

Once I chose which thumbnail to develop further, I started with a line drawing to begin my blocking.

I felt that the dome was taking up too much of the visual space, so I trimmed it into a cylinder shaped "dome". I also added a tiny "dome" in the background to balance the composition.

I wasn't quite feeling the last drawing, and my teacher suggested to lower the character to make the dome feel BIGGER! I went back to the round dome just because I liked that shape better. Moved the smaller dome closer, and turned the pipes in the last drawing into glass walkways.

Then I started coloring it! I found out that I had some trouble trying to develop a scene completely in black and white. I normally can draw a scene in value with my pencil, or even on Photoshop, but I was in quite an artist rut! The only time things seemed to have been going right was when I just went straight into blocking flat(ish) colors. I added some water to emphasize the dried up ocean idea.

As I entered polishing stages with my illustration, I realized that logically, there would be trees and bushes around the desert stream, but I didn't want to add that kind of visual noise. Journey is completely void of nature and almost empty. So I removed the water, researched more Art Deco styles and architecture, and sweetened up the illustration!

Any Questions on my process? Email me! EvolvynArt@gmail.com

Alternate concepts:

Some alternate ideas that also came from thumbnails, but decided to not go thru with it.

Now on to finishing my Realistic environment! Soooooo much to do still with that, and it's due on Monday. Oy!

:'(

2011-10-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

If I survive this semester...... I would have proven myself wrong.

Weeks of craziness..

2011-09-28T18:53:00.000-04:00

(week 3-5 of school)

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to make a blog post. I feel guilty about my time right now! But as a personal thing, I really want to reflect on what happened.

I finished my Drawing for Games texture/silhouette assignment. Instead of the render shading that I wanted to do, I ended up just putting flat shades onto my drawings to fill the minimum requirement of the assignment. I spent alot of time on the line drawing by re-drawing & redesigning all of my chosen concepts on paper with pencil, inking them on paper, then fixing up the lineart in photoshop.

I also spent alot of time on my 3D assignment instead of Drawing for Games, because there was a modeling crit due for my still life scene.

The still life project is over now. Overall the project was challenging, frustrating at times, fun, and a work in progress...still. I didn't pass the assignment due to bad tessellation, texturing, and lighting. I modeled just fine, just my end result did not reflect the beauty my high poly models had. I have a lot to go with texturing and high to low poly baking.

I've also come to realize that I tend to start strong in a project, then crash somewhere near the end. I should really be crashing at the beginning, if anywhere. I need to work on my timing and texturing.

Here are some pictures from the still life project "Vanitas":

And the final product:

Project had to be under 7k polygons, a total of 4096 pixels for texture, a skull, a peeled citrus, a vessel, and a cloth with recognizable folds.

I will continue to make my still life look better, but for now we are on to our next project: Realistic Environment. We had to choose an existing game so that we have a definite style we are emulating, so I choose Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Just starting it now, so progress pictures on that some time later. I am also starting concept drawings for my fantastic environment, which will (for now) be based on Bioshock.

I have some older pictures of what happened with my 1st 3D assignment, "Modular Kit Construction" and the "What happened here?" concept art.

For my modular kit, I also need to work on that when I have time (2nd priority to my Still Life, because I actually passed the modular assignment) so that it can eventually become a portfolio piece. My concept art was ok. Not my favorite, but a good first try on doing something was not really a matte painting, but kinda was.

Cruise pool deck, Modular Kit

What happened here?! Location + Disaster =

Abandoned coast of Hawaii, 10 years after a nuclear war.

Hawaii being rediscovered after 100 years.

What have I learned?

Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger;
more than ever hour after our work is never over.

Busy Week 2

2011-09-06T00:24:00.002-04:00

So alot went on this week, personal and school related.

I am happy to say that my dad is doing well after experiencing some discomfort earlier in the week! I thank God always for watching over my parents. Sadly, my dog passed away recently (marked in my last post), but he will always be with me in my memories. My dad put together a wonderful frame for my words of reflection.

For my Drawing for Games class, I've developed 50 silhouettes! It was a fun process.

And then from 10 of those silhouettes and 5 other sketches, I came up with these!

There will be more of these silly looking characters later!

My modular project came to a completion, and it was alright for a project we were basically given a weekend to do. I learned alot of optimization skills, and experienced many mistakes that will make me more prepared on my next assignment. (Check the grid sizes first, then see if its all to scale with the player!) I will post up pictures once I update it later on this week.

Our next assignment is a 3D Still life, so some small scale details will be the main focus! Whipping the good ol Zbrush program out, and testing my sculpting skills.

You will be missed my dearest friend...

2011-09-01T21:45:00.003-04:00

Sable

(2003-2011)

We have been the best of friends since my early years of Highschool. He was intelligent. He was fast. And he was very small. We named him Sable because of his dark hair that was not quite black, but a very dark brown. He had a mate named Tory, who was 2x his size, and had 5 children (1 of which we kept for a while, named Tess). All of his children, even the runt of the litter, was bigger than him. He was a miniature Pomeranian.

He was a smart dog because no matter what barricade we used to keep him away from the bedrooms, he would sneak thru the smallest hole in the corner, or bounce off the gate enough times to make it fall over. He would do whatever he could to get to my room. He slept on my bed whenever I could sneak him into my room. He would hide food or pig ears in my room, and sometimes inside my shoes, because his wife was a greedy eater and eat his food. He would always listen when me or my parents called him. We trusted him outside with no leash because he was that good. He had a bad habit of peeing over anything plastic in the house. He has been to an Anime convention, and got to sleep in a hotel. He went with us almost everywhere, except into restaurants.

He passed away 4am, Wednesday, August 32st, 2011, due to health complications. My mother was a trooper who went all the way to another city by metro train to get him to see a doctor. She was told she needed an appointment by 2 places, but one place finally took him. He had my mother at his side, and she never gave up on him.

My dad reminded me of the movie "All Dogs Go To Heaven", and he said that Sable is definately there and will be waiting for me. I hope he has fun playing with the angels. Goodbye, Sable. I love you.

First week of school, FINISHED!

2011-08-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

Starting the school year as a JUNIOR! Only 2 more years from now til I graduate...heh!

And within this week, I've already bought Corel Painter 12 (for $10!), have my 1st big assignment due next week, and up to neck in HW! I've also just recently told myself that I actually really love MODELING!

I hope I can consistently show what I will be doing this year. I know there will be alot of amazing things happening this year! So maybe blogging once a week!

I have a modular building assignment that I will getting my butt in gear on as soon as I finish this post. Cruise Ship Pool Deck was my choice. I have to create 2 differently organized pool environments in 2 weeks. This week was already taken up to do research and start on the building blocks. I have to have blocked out the 2 pool environments by this Saturday, so.....by tomorrow! Wish me fun and good health! lol.

My schedule for this year is pretty sweet:

Working my 2 times a week job in the office, so I really need to organize my time well. (Blogging is a good use of my time, im sure.)

Marty is an awesome teacher, who came from an Art Director job at Midway. I look forward to improving my skills greatly with him as my teacher.

Cooksey is awesome too! He majored in Philosophy, quickly got into computer scripting, and is constantly updating the curriculum for Ringling's Game Art Major. His mind is open and very knowledgeable.

Jason Bennett is new to the Ringling Faculty, but hes got great skills and is fresh from the industry. Ringling Alumna. He will make a great concept teacher. I'm excited!

Ok, well time to eat and get back to the grind. Next week!

Hello everybody...

2011-06-13T00:34:00.001-04:00

Don't have any school work to show you at the moment. Too lazy to get back into dem old files. They are like haunted grounds with memories of late nights, lack of sleep, and looming deadlines. But what the heck?! That just represents what the industry is like too! Kinda scary. Tho it's actually "fun" while doing it, the aftertaste is so bitter.

Sooo... Instead of going into haunted files, I am here with a wip teaser. Heeya!

My Summer House! Its like being inside The Sims build mode, but in the EXTREME. Create EVERYTHING from scratch, AND make it functional functional funtional funal funnel CAKE.

Urkel say whaa~

Finished low poly!

2011-04-08T01:02:00.003-04:00

I would love to go back into this and improve the textures! But there she is. UDK ready mesh!

This is in game render.

Game Illustration WIP

2011-03-24T22:25:00.003-04:00

An illustration for my 3d sidescroller game.
It still needs a lot more work, cuz I believe this illustration is going to have the title on it, so I need some title space. Not to mention, I'm going to remove the dood in the middle. But I actually like having a character in the middle. :(

1st iteration looked like this:

Articles I read:

2011-03-20T23:55:00.000-04:00

Interesting read: http://gdc.gamespot.com/story/6302597/aaa-developers-offer-job-advice

Selling Advice:
http://www.blitz1up.com/articles/full_article/152

3D sidescroller level Tutorial Map!

2011-03-19T16:42:00.000-04:00

I made my setting in somewhat a cave like location. Ofcourse why is there moving platforms in a cave? ...You tell ME and Ill let ya know if you got it. ;)

Below this point are 3 illustrations that show how to interact the physics obstacles.

And that is all for this part!

Boss Character Drawing!

2011-02-23T00:18:00.003-05:00

Meet my Level Boss Character, Tzarr!

Latast WIP pics of sniper chick

2011-02-17T09:41:00.001-05:00

Not no way, no how near done. But this was just to show off my color scheme and design for the texturing process. Still needs more modeling! ALOT more. And shes only asian FOR NOW. I tried to fix her face last minute, and it turned asian on me.

More coming!

3D for Games Semester Project!

2011-02-10T17:19:00.002-05:00

Here is my character that I will be spending the semester on!

I've redesigned her since then, and still trying to add interesting details onto her body. This is still not the finished concept, but getting there!

Modeling is fun! Especially when it starts to become like a puzzle, and you have to figure out how to reach your goal. (ex. just the right curve in the model)

Below are some of my WIP screenshots of the character now. Still need to model her face, and her armor ofcourse. But coming along nicely!

More to come!

Winter.... and Break!

2010-12-19T16:48:00.001-05:00

Things I wanna do (right now): Do more sketches. Start drawing up designs for a small game I came up with. Read more of the Game Design book. Draw megaman, for a megaman book art request. Animate in CS3's photoshop. Play more Assassins Creed (somehow).

...And, as I segway into another topic:

A short animation I did for a concept on friend's game.
http://megaswf.com/simple_serve/88121/

...Articles that are changing the way I thought about things:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=280419
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6216/the_brain_that_couldnt_die
And this book so far has been giving me understanding about what it is that I enjoy so much about games, "A Theory of Fun for Game Design"

...Annnnd, a sketch/painting I did recently:

Click here for a progress GIF

3D updates will come next month, because I poorly transferred any screenshots I had of my work with me.

I most likely will add my game board documentations to my Game Portfolio Blog!

Slowly populating level....

2010-11-25T00:27:00.000-05:00

...with props and walls!

Had to redo my statue, if I wanted it to be awesome. And I did want it awesome. ;p

Have to draw more animal heads... and monster heads too... for game design.

New update!

2010-11-20T01:11:00.000-05:00

HEY!

Go look at my "portfolio" blog! http://estherlovedesign.blogspot.com/

I've got some new updates! :D

Crystals!

2010-11-11T11:15:00.000-05:00

And an update on the statue. Zbrush-ing it now!

yey renders!

2010-11-10T22:36:00.001-05:00

These are rendered in Maya, so they aren't in their highest potential of existence, but I really wanted to show something! When I get them into UDK, I'll take a screenshot of that too. :)

Little bit 'o progress

2010-11-08T23:17:00.001-05:00

Just showing ya what I'll be working on. I'm going to be sculpting detail into this guy in zbrush real soon! But I did pose this guy into what he looks now. He was pre-rigged, so all I had to do pull on certain things.

I have more screen shots of other things I have been working on, and they will be coming up soon!

Another Game Design Illustration

2010-10-17T00:31:00.000-04:00

Rough

What I got so far, but needs a whoooole lota work.

Illustration for Game Design

2010-10-17T00:19:00.000-04:00

Rough

Final Version

Still gonna fix up some things tho.

Childhood Memory

2010-09-17T22:53:00.002-04:00

It's interesting to think that something that my teacher did to me as a punishment, still haunts me today. I forgot what I did to be punished, but she punished me by having me sit at a desk in a corner of the wall and a shelf. It was time to watch some sort of movie, that I'm sure I was looking forward to seeing, but to add injury to insult, the TV was right on the other side of the shelf. So I sat so close to the TV, but couldn't see a thing. I saw the glow of the TV in the dark room (cuz she turned off the lights), and saw colors change around, indicating stuff was happening that I wouldn't ever be able to see. And I heard my classmates laughing at things I wouldn't never know about.

I don't remember much from grade school or the movies I watched in class, but I sure do remember the time I DIDN'T see a movie.

I'm sure it wasn't the teacher's intention to "scar" me mentally like that, but it's funny how something so insignificant like that would still be in my mind today. I guess I'm still curious.

Atlantis: the Lost Empire - Trial by Fire

2010-09-15T21:35:00.002-04:00

So I actually read the whole article in IGN about Disney's FPS of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and I was moderately intrigued and amused. His review sounded like a bias avid gamer, who 'really tried his hardest to judge neutrally and give the benefit of the doubt to this Disney game', but when I finished and finally went to take a look at the screenshots, there really was barely any props or interesting characters with interesting characteristics. And most of all:

..... the environment was very uninspired, very geometrical, poorly visually detailed (it apparently had no shadows in the game), and from the sounds of it very badly designed layouts. At list price of $30, I guess you get what you paid for, because even back then games were atleast $50. But if Disney hires a company to make a game, and this is what they came up with... Even game art students can make this quality, and even better sometimes! What's worse is that Disney was actually ok with this! But I can't ignore the fact that this was made 9 years. And ironically enough...produced by Disney (despite my last comment). You'd think that a multi-million corporation like Disney would want to produce high quality stuff all the time, but if you look at their "ToonTown" online game and current TV shows, I guess it's too be expected with them if it's not theme park or animation related. Especially since Atlantis wasn't their top selling movie.

Buut....off my musings. I will get back to my work that very desperately needs my attention.

P.s. Their Lion King game "Timon and Pumbaa's Jungle Games" was 100000000x better and it was made in 1995!!! 15 years ago! It was a different type of game, but the quality of challenge, fun, and experience was alot more paid attention too than in Atlantis.

sketch

2010-09-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

Old drawing I found, for a scratch board preliminary.

Moved to new blog address!

2010-09-11T18:56:00.000-04:00

I moved my art blog to another address, since I needed something proffessional and 100% art.

http://estherlovedesign.blogspot.com/

Follow me on there for my art and game progress!

This blog will just be my musings related to art/school/personal topics. Might have some sketches put on here, but anything visually noteworthy will go to my new blog. See ya there!

Finished concept!

2010-09-03T08:15:00.000-04:00

Shinjuku, Japan

My finished concept art for my theme pitch in 3D class. My theme came in third place, so I feel decidedly proud of myself for making it that far. What I've learned from the experience is calm down when doing a presentation and don't talk so fast. My other learning experience is...Even when I work on my hw casually, I still had to pull an all nighter!

We are going to be doing "Submerged Atlantean and Steampunk ruins" for our semester long level making. So you can expect alot of gears and columns to be made. And since it's Atlantean/Ruined Greece, there will be alot of crumbled stones and rocks. Our teaching is still debating how much of that we will be making. But yey for that theme winning, I choose it as one of my top 3.

Now onto working on my first assignment in UDK, making a level! Whoo!

concept 1

2010-08-29T22:58:00.003-04:00

quick looking, but not so quick painting of my concept. beginning of something.

I think...

2010-08-23T23:53:00.000-04:00

I will very much enjoy making games. :)

1st day of class, a success! Very excited about it. Definitely will be updating.

muh

2010-08-04T20:51:00.000-04:00

Uh, so this whole Florida Residents thing is more complicated than I thought? I thought I read things right, but apparently not? I don't know. Humm.

Hopefully I can get pell grant next year. Definately move off campus next year.

Federal and State really do their best to make it as hard as possible to get some aid. Sighhhhh. I say that being an out of state, dependent, and not too wealthy individual.

I really just hope I graduate! Really do. Im gonna work hard to get an internship! My graduation may be on the line if I don't get enough money to make it another 2 years. I just realized that my friend who wasn't able to come back this year, she would have been able to attend another year if she was rehired as an RA. It's things like that you don't realize is a big thing until you get the letter 5 months later and find out yer short some thousand dollars. WTF.

If things don't work out, I pretty fucking determined to get to my goal. If I slip 100ft down a mountain after climbing it for so long, I'll climb another fucking 100ft and then some.

First, I need to find myself a good source of tea to keep me awake. I'm like a narcoleptic. SHIT. Where did my energy go? I have a mountain to climb!

Another asset done!

2010-08-02T02:21:00.000-04:00

2nd one!

I made a barrel!

2010-08-01T22:27:00.001-04:00

1st succesfully made 3d object!

2010-07-28T22:18:00.000-04:00

Stomach feeling slightly weird today. I think I've worried myself enough to give me stomach aches again. Oh well. I have such an emotionally sensitive stomach. hehe. (plus, having coffee on top of it all never helps! ha)

Random Note: BBQ chicken pizza from Domino's is great!

I've started turning the wheels of my vacation plans today! Had my bosses know that I plan to ditch them in about a week. lol. Nothing is set for sure, but I have some ideas what I want to do. But even if all I do is just stay where I am right now, I'd be happy.

Points of Interest for the day? Twin Peaks. Assassin's Creed Lineage Series. Alan Wake Prequel Shorts.

Btw, a friend I know has very unsupportive parents. It's a shame. She's a very good student, and deserves alot more than that... I hope she reads all the supportive comments that people left for her online.

Once again

2010-07-27T18:22:00.002-04:00

...I did it! I wrote my letter and sent it in today. Woo!

2010-07-27T08:31:00.003-04:00

I woke up feeling horrible in my stomach this morning. I didn't even know why! It took me a few minutes of staring at the ceiling before I figured out what was bothering me.

"Hmm... I finished signing my loans. That can't be it.
I've talked to all the people I had to yesturday.
I haven't lied to anybody or did anything bad....

....oh! Send in that addendum to the committee."

It sucks that my mind was worrying about it all night even though I had forgotten about it for the meantime. I suppose it's my body's way of reminding me things that are extremely important. But I need my rest! I worry about stuff like that while I'm awake already.

I did eet!!

2010-07-26T21:31:00.000-04:00

I finally signed that loan of dooooooooomage! yey.

So now all I have to do is wait on the school. Hmmm... waiting is another excruciating challenge for me. But it'll be worth it if all works out!

Cross fingers for me internet!

Loan update

2010-07-26T20:18:00.000-04:00

Nervous! Still haven't signed the darn loan thing. I know... yer thinking, "well just do it already!" and I will! I actually got alot done today. Talked to people that I needed to deal with for business reasons. I tell ya, I've been anxious about it all weekend. My dreams have been getting kookier and kookier. Thankfully, I don't remember what they were about, but it sucks waking up to it and feeling troubled. Once school starts, I should be done with all this. All having to do with money ofcourse. Going to college is such a rough lesson in real world money management.

I promise myself I will sign today.

But I lost a really good friend to loan/money issues. She is a really great and passionate Graphic Designer.

Housing arrangements will remain to be seen by Friday, hopefully.

[...Just got distracted for about 30 mins...]

Ok, I'm back! uh.... In conclusion....

I know I can hang in there! It's a scary step in life, but I will keep pushing to stay on top of it all! And I have no better source of inspiration and strength than my sweetie ♥

Costumes and Memories, oh my!

2010-07-07T21:06:00.001-04:00

So looks like I won't be getting that pell grant this year, but I'm not too worried yet.

So I've just finished watching all Anime Expo 2010 clips of the masquerade. More accurately, I watched only the awarded skits. hehe. Reminds me of when I used to just watch convention skits for fun and then for inspiration. On that fateful summer of 2007, I actually went up on stage myself. Fun fun times.

Heres a video too of it! Embarassing to look back on it. I could never watch a performance of myself. But it was damn fun DOING it!

Note my glowy-ness!

And.... I'm pretty sure I wanna make this soon. TAKOYAKI! Yum!

I miss my best friend, Stephanie! We did such awesome artness and costumeness! (I miss my other best friend Krystal too!)

Sorry for the random posting. Not feeling quite myself, but this is helping me I'm sure.

It's that time of year again...!

2010-07-07T12:58:00.000-04:00

Scrounge for money and loans!

Already hit my first patch of rough dirt in the financial process, but it should be taken care of by today, hopefully. And Trouble is not to far from my friends either. I hope we all make it thru this college tradition/obstacle of "Who will survive [financially] for another year?" In more than one way, they were right when they said to us on our freshmen orientation, "Look to the left, look to the right, one of them won't be here by your senior year."

What an adventure, huh?

On a good note- I inactively sold a painting of mine. It was actually a painting I disliked, but apparently someone out there liked it enough to buy it right of my dorm hallway. Cool! I feel like I should do more painting now. hehe. And as cool as digital work is, I think unless you are targeting and/or selling online in specific communities or at a convention, traditional paintings sell alot better anywhere.

And I don't know how most people feel, but the almost inevitable feeling of doom kinda makes you wanna work harder when you survive it. I guess thats a well known reaction to close call things like that, but I've definitely already had my share of it. Enough to think how fortunate I would be to continue another year. And to think I will have 2 more summers like this after this year! 2 more times I will have to worry whether I will have another year Ringling under my belt. As far as budgets within my control, I am doing pretty good! First time I've ever had to pay rent consistently and buy a car while I'm at it, I would say I'm managing very well. I've adapted to this whole working/paying thing. lol. Living life happily with my sweetie too!

Just need to get this loans business taken care of. But giving up is definitely not an option. There will be other solutions, and I will work at those until I've exhausted all I can, and move on to another possible solution.

Anyways, yey college. I can't wait to look back on these blog entries, and say to myself, "Yeahhh, I remember that."

:)

progress

2010-06-17T20:27:00.000-04:00

So I found a way to make an image plane without using the image plane thinger on Maya. Just make flat plane and add a new material and then use a file (your reference for the photo). Yey self teaching.

Yey!

2010-06-11T11:39:00.002-04:00

A relief!

Fav. Games (constantly updated)

2010-06-01T21:47:00.000-04:00

Alan Wake - I loved the level of interaction with the environment, and the small things that were not necessarily important but fun to experience. Like when the minor characters (ex. Anderson Brothers) would talk to each other and include you in their convo.

Splinter Cell: Conviction - I liked the option you got on how you wanted to interrogate the enemy. It adds a level of personalization to the gameplay. Then you also had a certain amount of choice in how you wanted to take out the enemy. And in general, I also enjoyed watching the NPCs interact with the surroundings.

Heavy Rain - Interaction like a movie. You made the choices on how a scene went.

GTAs - ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the different stories you learn when doing missions and side missions.

Lost Oddessy - Depth of story, lore, history, and characters in the game.

Final Fantasy XI - I have great memories from this game. It left me with an experience that was personal to my gameplay. Plus I enjoy(ed) the FF series.

Warcraft - Deep deep history & detail of story. Side missions, countries, and characters all had their story that weaved together the world of warcraft. (standalone and the online version)

Portal - Enjoyable puzzle game with wicked physics. The main evil character was very interesting too.

Half Life - Lots of story told in the environment. I felt sympathy for certain characters. Cool puzzles in the game too.

Yakuza 3 - Interesting types of interaction with the environment and the people in the game.

Assassin's Creed 2 - Just like GTA but more puzzles and historical amusement.

Bioshock - Story told thru the environment and each level had a story behind it, that led me to want to know more.

Dead space - same as Bioshock.

Fav. Genre - Adventure, First Person Shooter, and RPGs. Horror, Sci-FI, and Fantasy.

(written because i felt this would be the most productive to my development at the moment)

more rambling!

2010-06-01T21:15:00.000-04:00

Found a car... bought the car... now I need to find car insurance, get registered (tags and Florida license), and then fix the AC in the car. I feel like when I'm in a video game, you spend all your money to buy that awesome armor or new weapon, then you have like zero to spend on potions, armor repair, or that measily glove upgrade you really needed too. Yup.... Back to camping them bunnies.

Aaaanyways, things are getting better in a minuscule sense. But better is butter! Uh, better is goooood. I mean it its hard to hit your so called "rock bottom" and then NOT see/cherish what good things you do have. One example, life with my cutie and his brother is great! Buying a car with my own money? Woah. Holding 2 jobs and commuting? I've never done that before!

I've been so stressed, worried, and overwhelmed, that I couldn't seem to enjoy the small things I've always found satisfaction in. Things could be worse. And that is really a good motivator for enjoying the present.

I'm trying to mod a game, not sure where to start but I've got UDK and SDK.

Oh, and I wanted to list out game I really like. That'll be in a seperate post.

Love my mom and dad! Their anniversary was last week!

Btw, I beat Alan Wake. It was great! Ending was a "wait, what?" type of deal. I foresee a sequel.

2010-05-31T21:31:00.000-04:00

bleh. Got a car. Need some fixin'. Will update later on it. And how the heck do you mod a game? seriously... i try real hard to look for tutorials or whatever, but i can't seem to find a place that can tell me what to do first. Im downloading UDK. We will see what happens. Im still in a stump right now. Trying to pick myself out of it. Too much that I am too incapable to do. Sigh.

2010-05-26T11:11:00.000-04:00

Worst week yet of this summer. Out of the pan and into the fire. I can't wait to get my car and live off campus.

results

2010-05-25T09:08:00.000-04:00

Well, I checked out the car. But it wasn't worth the trouble. I look forward to another opportunity!

Getting my financial aid stuff done tomorrow. Whoo! I pray it all works out!

Not sure how I am going to work out my job thing. I was offered another job on campus today. And it seems like a pretty good job. But do I really want to work 6 hours a day for the rest of the summer, or just do 4?

I think just 4.

I still have quite a few books to read, and articles to read, and games to play for the summer, and I want to get to them! Alan Wake is still waiting for me.

Definately going places!

2010-05-24T09:54:00.003-04:00

Well, I am working my two jobs right now. Hoping to get a car with the money I saved up at this point. I was not able to get my hours clocked in for it to be distributed to me in time. My account for clocking in is not letting me have the option to put in hours for one of my jobs. Sad. But I know when I do finally get my check, it'll be a big one. 6 hours a week right now. I hope to lower it to 4 hours only after this month. I was overloading to get a good sum for my future car. I will be looking at a car tonight. Hopefully it's the one.

I also have an internship that I am hoping to drop later on today. It hasn't started yet, which is good, but I weighed the earnings for the internship with my 2 jobs, and I am getting more money with the two jobs than I would with the internship. Right now, money is more important. Mostly because I want to get a car, need to pay for florida liscence, fees, AND I want to buy a computer for my new major. So I can work at home if I wanted to. I am a little worried about that, because I don't want to cause inconvenience, but I have to do this. It is not helping me with my goals.

And something else that I have been worried about is my financial aid. I always seem to have a problem each year with something. It worries me alot. I hope to get this little thing over with so that I can not worry, get my loans (hopefully), and continue my education. I should talk to the financial aid office about scholarships..

Lastly, I think I will.. talk about what I am worried about more. Not on here tho. This will most likely be the last time I.. well, or should I put it here. This is my portfolio blog....sorta. Uh, I think I will make a seperate blog for my portfolio. I have decided, this will be my college progress blog. I will journalize my process. Assignments and the like. For those prospective students or curious people who would be interested in seeing and reading about the day in a life of a Ringling Game Art Student. (I feel kinda staged for saying this outright, but I like title-ing my stuff. Current chapter: Summer for a Game Art student. gasp!)

Phew, I said it. It was scary. I am a Ringling Game Art Student now!

Anyways, so I will make a separate blog for my finished stuff and professional updates.

P.s. Today was kinda scary for me. I hope it gets better. And I would like to say that I wouldn't have accomplished this much so soon if it wasn't for my cutie.**

After 3 weeks into Summer of 2010..

2010-05-19T21:00:00.010-04:00

I've realized that I do alot of my research from looking at people's blogs. Alot of the things that I am looking for are from upperclassmen or students with classworks that I am interested in seeing.

I can safely say that I am happy where I am now. Or, should I say, happier.

My zest for drawing has returned (or rather mentally returned, cuz i haven't actually drawn anything yet, lol)

I don't feel so...highly expected to make next to godliness work anymore. Not that i'm saying I won't be trying to make masterpieces.

I felt like an outsider. A feeling imposed by me, onto me, i'm sure. I love to draw, and yet I lost the feeling of excitement when I drew.

I will spare myself, and you [the reader], my ramble, but the point I will make in this post is..

I have changed my course of study, and will now pursue something that I very much look forward to making my life career!

Uh.. I feel like my excitement about this is not fully realized, but I am about to play Alan Wake. lol. Brb!

update on portfolio

2010-05-11T21:21:00.003-04:00

portfolio on my blogger page has been updated with the mermaid illustration! :)

I should be getting my paintings in soon too.

Self-Promo postcard art

2010-04-28T12:36:00.003-04:00

done

2010-04-27T15:42:00.003-04:00

Not at all happy with the grading tho.

I'm done with painting until I can get the bitter experience that these paintings gave me out of my system.

Close ups later i guess.

preview of 12x12s

2010-04-26T12:55:00.001-04:00

And heres a painting I did in Figure Class:

stuff

2010-04-25T20:59:00.000-04:00

2 more 12x12s, then fix up the bad ones, then work on notes for my film language final, then finish illustration, and on friday show cooper my revised paintings. And then I'll be DONE!

Oh, but I get to worry about packing after all that, housing bizness, then getting a job at the library, then wonder if I'll get the volunteer/internship job at school.

MOO.

Nothin' but painting!

2010-04-25T00:10:00.001-04:00

Painting, painting, painting. I am always painting! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Mastercopy

Downtown Painting

small update

2010-04-14T22:46:00.001-04:00

Self-Promotion Postcard wip

Getting started with Maya!

2010-04-13T00:22:00.000-04:00

So I've started up Maya again. Learning some animation things since it seems to be the quickest, easiest, and most interesting way to get familiar with the program (atleast for me). I plan to show my progress here on this blog, so watch out for some pretty rough stuff. I plan to animate something before the end of the semester, which will be May 3. This will be a good trial to see if I enjoy it. But so far I am. Secret: I like it when I'm actually doing something, I hate it when I'm struggling to get the middle click button to work with Maya.

FInished!

2010-04-05T06:36:00.002-04:00

I'm tired, so I'll right more about this later!

updated Portfolio Page with this illustration.

My friend's website!

2010-03-29T23:17:00.000-04:00

Stephanie Marroquin's Game Art Website!

I felt like giving her some love, so check out her work. She going to graduate this Fall! Yey, Steph! Shes my bestest buddeh with whom I've arted with and had adventures with since high school. May her gaming endeavors take flight!

wip

2010-03-29T21:10:00.002-04:00

wip for current illustration project

2010-03-28T02:52:00.003-04:00

Still Life

2010-03-26T21:43:00.004-04:00

Latest oil painting.

Btw, I need to get some work done! I have 12 paintings to do before the semester is over AND an illustration. Keep'on keepin'!

(picture taken with a 3G iphone, and omg it looks great!)

Oh, and today I went to a presentation by Irene Gallo (of Tor Books) and Greg Manchess! Very informational. Since I have tons of oil paintings to do, I think this was the best thing to attend for inspiration. PLUS, Greg Manchess is starting a series on falling figures, which is kind of what I'm interested in - free flowing figures! Fun fun.

Digital Sketches

2010-03-26T21:29:00.000-04:00

Figure Class quick studies!

Addition to blog page~

2010-03-01T14:03:00.002-05:00

new portfolio page up! Check it out! It sits atop the latest blog post, under the title.

Quick link to it!

Notes

2010-02-27T22:27:00.003-05:00

oh yea, lemme try noting what i've learned.

Keep to limited palette.
Sketch gesture-ful, to get detail & ideas.
Keep color in mind.
Atmospheric Perspective.
Get ideas out there, and do it. Then do another idea after that if you have one.
Talk to people and ask them suggestions.
Stay positive!
Don't draw in your head, draw on paper. (teehee)

And I think thats it for now.

Discovery of a Fallen Giant

2010-02-27T22:00:00.005-05:00

I'm done! So this was for the Imagine FX art challenge, "Illustration for an RPG game". This illustration is of a made up RPG, so don't go trying to guess what game it's from.

Next up.....! Fairytale Illustration for a Movie poster with a celebrity as the main characters. yummmm.

I guess I'll speak a bit more about what has been going on:

I had my low for the month, but things are looking forward! I learned alot while being unsure of alot of things. I figured out my process a little more.

Need to do 12 paintings for class still. My finalized theme for the paintings, is a flowing and continuous naked figures that is disappearing into perspective. yey!

Learning alot about painting in my figure painting class, fortunately! In my painting class, it's more like painting practice time. Learn thru experience.

Almost Spring break, and I have lots of plans of enjoyment with friends and my cutie dearest!

Til next time, every...bodyyyyyy!

few more adjustments...

2010-02-25T15:09:00.003-05:00

...but almost done!

I wanna give a shout out to Andrew! Who help me and kept me going on this. Best art director and friend I'll ever have. :)

This was a frustrating piece, but thru all the struggle and attempts at doing this illustration, I believe I've come out of this alot more knowledgeable and stronger. Lets hope my next illustration will come out alot more smoother than the last. hehe.

humm..

2010-02-23T21:29:00.003-05:00

Almost...there...

A wip....

2010-02-12T19:41:00.008-05:00

...thats not going very smoothly. I can't seem to color this. I've hit my occasional "colorist's block".

:(

I can draw stuff, just not color. This is due on Monday for the challenges I'm making it for, but it looks like I will miss another challenge yet again. Self peace within myself is at a low for today. I am so overwhelmed with all the different brushes out there. I would/could do things traditionally, but I haven't done traditional since.... over 3 months ago. And my memory is not the best when it comes to short term learned skills, like water coloring or gouache-ing. I may have been good at it once, but after not doing it for a long time I've forgotten.

Here is my still life painting that I've been working on for the longest time for painting class. Teacher seemed pretty pleased about it. I'm actually content and feeling 100% sure that its done.

And last but not least, some panels I drew in for Film Language class. That class is fun btw. Would not wanna major in it tho.

FInished poster and... a wip

2010-01-26T23:03:00.003-05:00

A challenge piece for CG Hub that I didn't finish on time.

Men in the Moon Challenge @ CGhub WIP

2010-01-22T00:10:00.003-05:00

hmmm

2010-01-01T15:31:00.001-05:00

felt like painting loosely..

Digital painting practice again

2009-12-31T22:28:00.001-05:00

hooray for new year! Can't wait to get back to Florida! And I can't wait for my wisdom teeth area to heal!

something

2009-12-26T02:29:00.000-05:00

Sketch of a hotel room.

What I did today

2009-12-25T17:39:00.001-05:00

I made a table..... Still trying to figure out how to curve the legs..... Yup....

Near end of 1st semester

2009-12-08T22:11:00.004-05:00

Finished Hellboy Color Assignment.

Finished Stone Assignment in color~

Finished "Every Hair on a Dog" painting.
Basically about trying to paint strands of hair (detail) in acrylic. Ever since learning this technique, I now have a new respect for acrylic. ADD LOTS OF WATER and LAYER!

My scratchboard! Not my most favorite medium. Bleh.

Trying to do scratchboard.....GAH!

2009-11-29T01:06:00.001-05:00

This isn't scratchboard, but I'm trying to get used to the idea of scratching out to get white. And thinking what could possibly look good in that technique.

Let's see what happens, but heres the Digital Drawing version of it:

Close to finish!!

2009-11-12T00:42:00.001-05:00

Need to work on the girl more. It's getting there!

Wip 2 of the Hellboy Assignment

2009-11-09T19:11:00.003-05:00

This is due Wednesday! AhhhhH!!

Oh and I just found out that the Portfolio Review for Megacon is next Tuesday. Oy, I don't know if I have enough to show the judging panel.

To make this clear, my illustration class just got the word last week that the Megacon Trip was back on. This trip is a highlight for Illustration students to show what they have and possibly get money from it! Limited number of students are chosen to represent Ringling. Mostly upperclassmen, but they do try to take atleast 1 or so sophomore(s).

Burrrrrrd.

2009-11-09T01:48:00.002-05:00

Birdage for media class!

Pencil Rendering.

Daft Punk inspired art!

2009-11-08T04:29:00.005-05:00

I just can't get enough of their stuff sometimes. Especially with the new Tron movie looming.
Oh yea, and I seriously just did this instead of hw. *gasp!*

Color roughs for Media on 50% size drawings - after rendering drawing completely, and then progress on hellboy illustration.... Need to redraw pose! Look for reference! Serious business.

Quick Update

2009-11-04T21:29:00.002-05:00

I has put up workz on deviantart. yeyz.

http://evolvyn.deviantart.com/

O, where does the time go?

Revised Hellboy Illustration!

2009-11-02T20:00:00.006-05:00

Regular Brightness

Adjusted Brightness

We are now doing a color version of the Hellboy assignment. We had the choice to just color our old black and white illustration or come up with another concept. I decided to draw another. This time I decided I wanted to make myself into a summoner. I have a lion-like mount from which I cast arcane magic on. hehe.

Having some trouble with color, since I have a certain handicap in color theory, but with help from friends and my instructor, I believe my progress is coming along nicely.

Oh yea! And my Illustration teacher really liked my Red Riding Hood illustration! YEY!

2009-10-28T18:46:00.001-04:00

sad

Red Riding Hood Final Illustration

2009-10-26T19:09:00.005-04:00

This is the illustration before I added lettering onto it.

Mixed Media: bleach, pastel pencil, color pencil, goache

Oil painting at the beach!

2009-10-24T08:11:00.003-04:00

I've finally finished painting something other than still lifes!

My first complete non still life painting!

color practice

2009-10-20T02:38:00.002-04:00

process work...

2009-10-18T02:30:00.001-04:00

...for Red Riding Hood assn.

Illust Entry

2009-10-13T21:30:00.003-04:00

...Which didn't get in, but was fun to do nontheless.

Made out of paper cuts. I dedicated this piece to my roommate.

I am currently reading, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and so far I am enjoying it. I ended up buying 4 issues of the comic book version of this, and to be honest, I think thats all I am going to buy from that series. Because the comic book is word for word from the book with illustrations. The illustrations aren't bad, but they are so spectacular that I'd wanna buy the comic book series just for that. Especially since I can just read the story thru the book, and in a way not ruin the visuals I have created in my head already.

I also started reading the Surrogates, which is what the movie is based on. As far as I hear, the movie doesn't do it justice. My opinion on the graphic novel itself is very positive. The style that is used inside is a mix of what looks like ink pen and photoshop. Now talk about art that gives me a reason to keep reading - this graphic novel has it. Very interesting concept too for a sci-fi genre. People that adopt android bodies and use that body instead for everyday things instead of their fleshy selves, which lays in a reclined seat the whole time as they are doing VR in their androids.

As for artist inspiration, really digging Adam Hughes style right now. If you haven't heard of him, his art is very awesome.

And speaking of artists, I still don't get what the hype is about Frazetta. Not attracted to his art style at all, nor do I see anything amazing about him compared to the other artists of 'ol.

To end this unusually long post, my next project is Red Riding Hood for Illustration I, and I think I have a pretty good idea going. Updates will be made for that shortly!

ideas!

2009-10-05T23:30:00.000-04:00

Talk to my roommate and she inspired enthusiasm in me! I will finish my tunnel illustration, complete with monster and scared lady! Do this green lady trying to catch a fairy (this may stay digital or turn into a painted piece), and then a construction paper cut out piece.

WISH ME LUCK

Illust of Ill

2009-10-05T23:15:00.000-04:00

I really wanna put something in for illust of ill, but I've waited too long, I think, to finish a piece. I have nothing really prepared except for a few drawings. MUST TURN SOMETHING IN! Besides that, I've been working on watercolors in Illust Media. And I also have the Red Riding assignment for Illustration.

As for school in general, I was nominated to be a student Ambassador, so i'll officially be representing the school soon enough. Kinda wish I could join this other thing, but the meeting will be at the same time as this ambassador thing. Oh well. Lets see how things fare in the next couple of days. I will make special updates for this.

2009-10-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

“There are two goddesses in your heart, the Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you.” – Joe Vigil

Old Environment digital painting

2009-10-03T21:43:00.001-04:00

Original Brightness Setting

Lightened brightness for dim screens.