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Posted 2 years ago

End of Semester and New Website

After a tough 4 months of a semester its finally over. 

Its fair to say that this semester has been one of the most stressful I’ve ever had to endure. I may be over exaggerating a little but it really hasnt been easy. The group project took most of my time and it has made everything else slip behind. I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be like that but it has. Maybe my organisation needs reviewing. Actually it really does, when dealing with such a big project organising things can usually be forgotten but its it really does bite you on the arse. 

So basically group A has spent the whole of the year making a level for our game Ceberus. We presented our level of the train station on the 11th april. I was working on the udk solid till the afternoon of the presentation which really shouldn’t of happened. The presentation could of gone better but it could of gone worse. We said we did a solid 20% each between the 5 of us, which in a way feels true. I think at the end of the project we had done an equal amount of work. However alot of what we planned to do didnt get done, this was pointed out by our lecturer. 

Big news, I now have a website: www.surfingonintegrity.co.uk  of which I have post some of my 3d and 2d work. It also has some work in progress stuff which I want to keep updating.

I have recently started work on a character called ‘Crazy Robot’ which is outcome of photoshop not working at university. I just wanted to make a funny character with no limits. 

here is a render if you havent seen it:

It took me about 5 hours to model and I’m rather happy with it so far.

I have also started modelling one of the weapons he will be holding:

It looks a bit boring, I want to add as much to it as possible, I have been researching a few different influences such as Warhammer 40K army the Tau as well as District 9 and Despicable me. 

I want to go back to my digger at some point.

Im thinking about moving this blog to blogspot or blogger as I think it will fit better there.

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Posted 2 years ago

One Week Left

So we have one week left for the group project. One week…I can believe how fast its gone?!

Today was be working very hard on the UDK putting everything in the level. It was taking forever. tried doing some more at home but the laptop isnt as powerful as the 8 gb ram mac’s at uni.

This year on the whole hasnt been what i expected….in the summer i felt that i had came along way from the 1st year but really i still have so much to learn. From modelling to even time keeping. 

The group project has been very hard, its been taking up most of my time. My group has worked hard, they have done what i have asked and in all honesty i dont think i could of asked for a better group. We have encountered problems though, mainly size issues and  people turning up late. but the work has been done and we’ve all supported each other.

In other news i have been working on the official surfing on integrity website :D

should be up in a couple of weeks once i’ve sorted out hosting.

hopefully post a blog with an other zbrush creation that ive done ages ago, i want to figure out how to render in zbrush.

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Posted 2 years ago

Zbrush and a dusty Wacom Tablet

It had been ages since I used my tablet and my copy of zbrush. I had some spare time i was recently inspired by this: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=114935

so i thought i’d have a go. just a 4 hour sculpt, its not the best, and its not textured. I made it out zpsheres and then made an adaptive skin (or an unified, i cant remember) and just worked up the subdivisions. Its not complete and i may work on it.

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Posted 2 years ago

Long Awaited Blog

I havent done a blog for a while so i thought it was about time to write one.

Group Project

At the moment Group A are trying their best to succeed in creating the train station level. A year in the making and its slowly getting there. We have been biseiged by on going problems with our measurements making the 2 weeks of measuring seem pointless. Trying to ignore the gloat of my lecturer after proving me wrong about a certain measurement, I reply with my usual reply ‘We’ll get it sorted’

Hopefully we will, and the level will be a success. All of my group have worked hard, no one has just sat on their bums doing nothing, all in all it has been a group effort.

Personal Project

I’ve been uving for what seems like forever. I left the bridge has it was irritating me with its complex shape. So ive just been working on the mess of objects i have populating my scene. 

Next years Personal

Thanks to my friend Jessica Lucas and her blog (http://jessicaonpaper.blogspot.com) it inspired me to think about my project even though i wont be starting it until september.

The project is an idea thats been used to death but i wanted to twist it. Ive told a few people about it but im keeping quiet on here until its been fully explored and written up.

I know that it will be the concept of a film and i will model characters, environments, weapons and vehicles 

The working title (i stress it is a working title and will most probably wont be the final name) is FLESH ROTT

Side Project

I have a building site outside my window so i thought i would model a digger. I’d been thinking about it for a while actually.

this is just one of 30 photos i took.

this is the ambient occlusion render

Im trying to model in under 5000 poly’s. its about 3000 at the moment so im going to have to trim it down a bit more.

Been modelling it a few hours a week for the past 3/4 weeks, its only for fun.

I’ll hopefully post an other blog sooner rather than later.

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Posted 2 years ago
Final Project: Bridge Environment I havent shown anything of my final project yet and this week my work has come a long way. I have been playing around with lighting when I shouldn’t since i havent done any texturing. I have started unwrapping the bridge and finalizing the building work. I have been looking at sunsets as well as taking pictures of the sunsets to get a better understanding. My scene is far from finished and to get this much done in what time ive had is nothing to be proud of, I should of got more done. In other news the unwrapping of the train station is taking longer then i thought, its frustrating business as im keeping Jessica Lucas (my groups lead texture artist) from doing an important job.   Zoom

Final Project: Bridge Environment

I havent shown anything of my final project yet and this week my work has come a long way. I have been playing around with lighting when I shouldn’t since i havent done any texturing.

I have started unwrapping the bridge and finalizing the building work.

I have been looking at sunsets as well as taking pictures of the sunsets to get a better understanding.

My scene is far from finished and to get this much done in what time ive had is nothing to be proud of, I should of got more done.

In other news the unwrapping of the train station is taking longer then i thought, its frustrating business as im keeping Jessica Lucas (my groups lead texture artist) from doing an important job.  

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Posted 2 years ago

In the previous post i talked about my group project. I thought I would show some screen prints of what my groups level looks like. Obviously its not complete but you can get a basic idea of what we have going.

the work shown was modelled by me and Kiran Ajith.

I modelled the building on the platform with the roof, with still more to add to the level.

Kiran modelled everything on the track area as well as the bridge with the slope. The issues we had we’re basically the budgeting of polygons as Kiran had not been restricted to the game work ethic. 

The tracks are the wrong size as we didnt go with the regulated gauge that is set for tracks, bit of a mistake.

On wednesday 16th feb, the whole class was sat down for a meeting with our lecturer Maxwell Robertson. He was very honest with the way things were going for both groups. At this rate if we were to hand our level only me and Kiran would essentially pass. This led to what my fears were; My lead character modeller in my group is my good friend David Lindop. He had created 2 very good head models however he had created them in Zbrush, a high poly creation software. It is mainly used in games for normal maps rather then modelling something from scratch. 

David bascially needs to retopologies his charcter models to then put them in the engine. It would be a real shame if he was unable to do so.

I will be posting a weekly update on my groups work.

I will hopefully be posting an other blog after this with a render of my new version of Ernie the cowboy

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Posted 2 years ago
Train Model completed I have completed the train, though I’m being my normal self and still feel I could add more to it. I have started unwrapping the mechanical part at the bottom, i plan to just unwrap one half and then use the same map for the other half. I want to use this blog more and give more of an idea of how i work and how i feel about it.  I’ll try and do a weekly post, even if its just writing something rather then a render. Zoom

Train Model completed

I have completed the train, though I’m being my normal self and still feel I could add more to it.

I have started unwrapping the mechanical part at the bottom, i plan to just unwrap one half and then use the same map for the other half.

I want to use this blog more and give more of an idea of how i work and how i feel about it. 

I’ll try and do a weekly post, even if its just writing something rather then a render.

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Posted 2 years ago
Train Model (not completed) This model is for my 3d game production class where we have been put into groups to then create a level based in Carlisle. My group chose platform 1 of Carlisle Train Station and this is a train that will be seen in the level. Obviously there is a story within the level and the way the train looks applies to that story. I plan to get rid of a lot of the polys at the moment its a big 24K. The model isn’t finished yet and I only started it last week and I reckon I’ve done well so far. Zoom

Train Model (not completed)

This model is for my 3d game production class where we have been put into groups to then create a level based in Carlisle.

My group chose platform 1 of Carlisle Train Station and this is a train that will be seen in the level. Obviously there is a story within the level and the way the train looks applies to that story.

I plan to get rid of a lot of the polys at the moment its a big 24K.

The model isn’t finished yet and I only started it last week and I reckon I’ve done well so far.

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Posted 2 years ago

Character Brief: Failed…but not defeated

So I would post a picture of my latest 3d project but things didnt go to plan.

I thought I had planned out my approach fairly well: I wanted to create a robot cowboy called Ernie.

The model looked good I felt, though I could of made some bits better and more consistent.

It got to the unwrapping part and this is where it all went wrong. It took me much longer to complete which meant by the time it came to actually texturing I had a day to do it. This of course was impossible and I ended up handing in an incomplete project.

I was completely gutted.

This does not mean the end of Ernie, he will be completed and I shall for my portfolio and gallery.

Once I get my sketches back I’ll post them up here.

Now to focus on my personal project.

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Posted 2 years ago
Spent 6 weeks on this piece. Brief was to create a weapon out of 1000 polygons. I really need to work on my texturing, some bits i like and others are a bit off. The overal modelling is a little basic, i think i could of been a bit more adventurous. I want to model an other weapon at some point and try and push my concept even further. Now for the 2nd project we must come up with a character base around our weapon. Modelled in 3ds Max, textured in Photoshop and Zbrush, Rendered in Mental Ray. Zoom

Spent 6 weeks on this piece. Brief was to create a weapon out of 1000 polygons.

I really need to work on my texturing, some bits i like and others are a bit off. The overal modelling is a little basic, i think i could of been a bit more adventurous.

I want to model an other weapon at some point and try and push my concept even further.

Now for the 2nd project we must come up with a character base around our weapon.

Modelled in 3ds Max, textured in Photoshop and Zbrush, Rendered in Mental Ray.