Keeping this quick, already posted today! I am just editing the diffuse, normal, and specular maps and building them up as I go. Painting out errors.. adding in details.. This will go on for quite a while. Cheers! 

Today I spent the morning doing some finances and sending out invoices (boring) and then I worked on my first thesis character a bit more. Trying to figure out what color scheme will work well for him. Really wanna get this part nailed down so I can paint out all these errors all over him and add in some more detail. Below is a screen grab from marmoset 2 showing this morning’s work. Now I have to go start a new miniature!

I’ve been plodding around in a few projects the past few days. finishing some stuff up for a few clients, sculpting on my second thesis character and still working on getting my first thesis character’s final assets done before the semester starts. (I’m a bit behind on my schedule and I need to hammer out stuff and reassess where I stand)

Anyways, I woke up early this morning and started retopologizing the Architect’s modified FNscar. I never work with guns and it was a learning experience. I think it came out great but I need to add a bit more geometry to the barrel to get rid of some hard edges. Below is a shot of the gun with base colors, and a normal map. I put it into DDO and used find edges to highlight them for my texturing. I don’t like to use DDO often, it can be a crutch but for doing simple tasks I think it’s a great piece of software!

Below that I tossed an updated diffuse for the architect. I might need to bring the colors on this gun a bit closer to the brown, yellow, or green spectrum though. Both diffuses are coming along. He’s a bit further along though.

Today I kept working the diffuse of my first thesis character. don’t have a ton of time to work on it today but I added in his knife and began painting out errors and softening some areas while making other highlights and shadows more harsh. Going to finish the port on his other shoulder tomorrow and keep painting/removing highlights. Also will be adding his facial hair and a bit more fleshy tones to his face to bring it more life. Oh and of course skin pores with dirt in them, YUMMMM. Cheers!

This year has been probably one of the biggest of my life, I think I’m going to take a step back and write a bit about what happened this past year to preserve the memories a bit.

I began freelancing full time this year and picked up a really important client to me. Sword & Board took a chance on me and I took a chance with deadlines I promised. I learned to sculpt miniatures more efficiently than I imagined I ever would and now I can crank them out with accuracy and efficiency. 2 factions were created so far for a game totaling 14 models. The second faction, the mining guild was a huge accomplishment for me, they are stylized and filled with life. I couldn’t be happier with the response I’ve gotten for these sculptures. Throughout 2013 I actually made a total of 48 models, I think that’s quite an accomplishment personally, I wonder how fast I’ll get in 2014!

What else.. what else.. Oh, how about the fact that I drove across the country with my high school sweet heart on a journey for a more exciting life than the mediocre living we felt we were doing in Hagerstown. No offense to small town charm but we seem to thrive in a big city and feed off it’s energy. San Francisco is beautiful, the people are great, and the opportunities aren’t so few and far in between as Hagerstown.

We just went for it, with metal on the stereo and wanderlust in our hearts we blasted through the US. I reflect back on the trip frequently actually, the sights we saw were just breathtaking. From the east side of the Rockies that were beautifully rich with vegetation (I was surprised about that, never pictured that to be honest.) to the arid, terrifyingly quiet deserts of Utah, and of course the grand canyon which was the most silent place I’ve ever seen. So strange how sound just seemed to go into that bottomless pit and never come out again. We also almost drove into the damn canyon at night trying to get to our hotel! Terrifying after a 15 hour drive and getting lost at the biggest hole in the world in pitch black with “WARNING: PANTHERS AND GIANT HOLES” signs all over the twisty road.

We finally made it to Cali, drove up north to our new home and started settling in! We’re still trying to figure it all out, there’s a whole lot out here and it’s a bit overwhelming. Also the fact that the rent is about 10000% higher than Hagerstown is always interesting! Just another layer to the onion that is San Francisco. Each layer is weird or new or fantastic or scary but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I suppose I should get my lazy ass back to work and deliver some miniatures to clients, eh? Cheers.

First post of the year is a short one. Quick thesis update because I’m hung over from celebrating the new year. I’ll write up my final thoughts of 2013 tomorrow!

The architect is coming along. I ened to add all his extra assets. I think those really bring the character to life. need some batons, knives and guns ready to smash up some enemies on this guy! Anyways, building his diffuse right now, adding in dirt/grime and tweaking different levels and so on. Rendered in marmoset 2 (which I love)

Thesis stuff is still coming along. Changing gears tomorrow and cranking out some freelance and some sculpting for another thesis character to keep my mind agile and so I don’t get completely stuck on one aspect of my project.

I did a render the other day of the second faction I made for Sword & Board. It appears my time working for them is just about at an end. They are changing gears and it means they might not need anything from me at all. Possibly they will need sculptures in August but who knows! That’s ages away. The render came out great, and it represents my time spent working for them. I’m twice as fast and three times as knowledgeable about 3D printing and miniatures in general after working for them. Thanks for the experience guys!

I’m trying to focus on my thesis for a week or two and really hammer out this first character. Iv’e learned so much in this process already and almost completely redone this character once already. I decided it’s time to press forward and get his game model done because I still have so much to do and getting caught at the last minute is not an option.

Without decals and extra wear/tear below is a textured version of my character’s torso. His normals came out great, I redid a few things in his topology to give his silhouette more detail. Things I added were his straps on the chest, buttons on his collar pad, and a bit more information around his belt buckle so from a 3/4th view you can see it protruding out.

Right now I’m working on his leg topology and it’s pretty rough going. He has a huge knee pad that I’m torn about how I want to handle. I really don’t want more polygon pieces hanging around than absolutely necessary but if today’s tests don’t look good I’m going to be separating his kneepad from his leg and possibly his boot (I would truly hate to remove the boot, it feels like a defeat)

my test is below, I’m going to burn some occlusion,colors, and do a bit of processing using DDO, NDO, and some textures I have laying around and see how the low poly looks with some maps on it besides normals.

Big things are happening right now, my thesis is coming along great (but slowly because I seem to erase as much as I sculpt) I have my first client who’s actually making video games and I’m building lots of models that aren’t going to be 3D printed for once in a long time. It’s overwhelming but great, and is feeling more natural finally.

Here’s a shot from my thesis last week, I’m beginning to simplify my character’s silhouette so that remetoplogizing won’t be the worst thing int he world. I’m trying to add in some different materials close to the body and interesting stitching with fabric changes to add realism and style to my guy.

His mask will be removed on the next update, I got smashed about that because I’m hiding his face and I shouldn’t. Stuff like that happens when you are just scribbling in ZBrush looking for a solution to a problem. Big updates will be coming soon, I’m finishing up his weapon, going to modify his pistol and add another melee weapon to his other leg. That’ll be bad ass enough I think. Lets hope so!

I need to contact a few clients to see if I can post up some work on my website because I’m really loving what I’m doing on some projects but I’m under some NDA’s right now 🙁 That’s the name of the game though I suppose!

I have been SO BAD with posting lately! I’m under some NDA’s right now and also have a ton of work so it’s been skipping my mind to write about anything I do. Going to try to change that and I’m starting right now! I’m working on my thesis every morning during my first cup of coffee so I have a space to consistently build up the models.

I’m not sure if I wrote about reworking my first character from the ground up but I basically tore him apart and am trying to build a sleeker more bad ass soldier. I ditched his huge pack, gave him a handle that the pariah grabs to throw him to hard to reach spots and gave him padding all over to protect him during landings. I made more detailed straps for all of his armor and gave him a knee pad. Loving the direction he is going now, some pieces on him are barely touched but soon it’ll all be detailed and painted.

I’ve been teaching myself hard surface sculpting techniques by working on his FNscar to modify it to something more unique. It has a monitor for gun information like temp and ammo, as well as some knobs and switches that will light up and give some more personality to the weapon. The gun below was entirely made in ZBrush and there are a few graphical errors in this render because of my decimation process.

Oh! Also in the shot are the detailed ammo packs ready for texturing and retopo.