Thursday, December 13, 2012

Dresser competition

(edited 2/4/13) - I made a mistake in the winning entries orders...its updated now.

Results for the dresser competition are out. I didn't get placed, but life moves on right? ahaha
So I would be lying if I said I'm not disappointed at all. I spent a lot of effort on this... but I won't even get to keep the dresser. You could say I've grown a bit attached to it. However, I also know that the winners spent just as much time and effort (maybe even more than I did) on theirs so I think everyone had an equal chance of winning. I definitely think the winners deserved the win.

Here are some progress photos of mine.




Cream brulee latte is back for the holidays! Had to get some Starbucks for dinner...

The top and bottom are actually painted dark reddish brown, but it looks black in my photos. When I first heard that these drawers were to be auctioned off, my first idea was to aim for a practical design. Something that was simple but not too simple, something that should look good as a decor piece in any room. Turns out, the judges were looking for something radically different hahah


























First of all, I have to apologize for the horrible quality pictures. It definitely doesn't do any justice to how great these pieces look in real life. If I get a chance, I will bring my real camera to shoot some pictures and re-post this. These are dressers designed by other students. I don't have everybody's name down so I'll just post pictures..

If im not mistaken, this was the first place winner. Painted with a very very nice shiny lacquer-like surface. The artist was smart about using Ikea products for it. The eyes also lights up.





This is third place winner if im not mistaken. Once again, picture doesn't do it justice. This one is pretty crazy!! The artist carved out all the silver lines and the white area is actually some sort of white plexi glass. The drawer includes this really hi-tech remote where you run your finger through and the entire drawer lights up and changes in color. You can kind of see it in the last picture. Very impressive.

This one was designed by a faculty member so it didn't count for the scholarship. It looks amazing in real life and really took the spotlight. I would totally buy it.























This one was made out of old ties!! Very creative! Looks even better in real life.



This one had some really beautiful details on the peacock's feathers. I thought the concept was very nice as well (using the dresser's knobs as eyes).

Second place winner made their dresser into a tree.

More 3d stuff

I'm almost done with the term...it's been a ridiculous two weeks and I'm happy to be able to get normal sleep again. This term was by far one of the most intense terms I've had (although im sure it will be worse in the future). I loved and enjoyed almost all of my classes, but I've been pretty disappointed in myself throughout the whole term. I felt like I wasn't able to do as well as I'd thought I would. I feel a bit hopeless when I look at industry standard work and realize how far behind I am. Art is definitely an endless journey of hard work, dedication, and new discoveries. I don't think anyone can ever reach the 'top' as it doesn't even exist. If there is anything I discovered within these two years, it is that I will never be good enough and I should never think I am. Well guess its time to keep climbing.

I'll be updating again later with other works, right now I'm still iffy about them so im not in the mood to post them up. For now, I'll post some of models I've been working on this term. I'm proud to say I no longer fear Maya (well for modeling and rendering anyways). I've definitely become a lot more comfortable with modeling although im still nowhere near great.















I've posted this one up before, but I re-rendered it using a new method which turned out a lot better. I'm not sure what happened to the shadow but oh well.


















One of our project was to model something assigned by our instructor. .I was assigned to model a Hobart meat slicer. The annoying thing about this project was that almost every meat slicer was different (even though they are the same exact model number). For some pictures, due to angles, I could only see part of the pieces.

















For our final assignment we had to design our own Lego figure. It must be something that hasn't been released by Lego yet. My original idea was to design a set of Disney's villain characters, but I really wanted to model some weapons so I went with Final Fantasy XIII (Noctis and Lightning). The hair was probably the biggest challenge...as well as the hole behind the lego's leg (which you cant see in these renders)

Based on this picture. (Lightning is the best female game character ever designed imo)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Werewolf Boy

...is currently one of the most popular movies in Korea. I've been wanting to watch this but I have to wait till somebody sub and streams it. I looked at the movie posters and though they were extremely well done...plus, I haven't done any portrait drawings in a long time. I learned a lot of new digital painting techniques in class so I was able to put them to good use. These were supposed to be quick paintings but the first one took longer than I'd expected. I print screened some progress shots.



This was already pretty finished value-wise...but I wanted to take it a few steps further.




















I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to capture his expression that well (probably because I overdid the values). He ended up looking more fierce and less vulnerable/innocent than the original. I'm not sure how long this painting took, I was working on it while doing a million other things at once. I didn't pay much attention to the hair or areas under his face. On a lighter monitor, you can slightly see the other side of his face but my monitor is dark so I didn't bother.






























Unfinished piece I started working on last night. I'll be paying more attention to the hair for this piece. Will update this entry when the piece is finished. I might also go back and fix the first one.


11/10 Update! Finished!



Recent works

In digital matte painting class we had to turn a morning scene into a night scene. The first part of the project was working off a step-by-step tutorial (which was extremely annoying for me). The second part was picking our any picture and transforming it. Here are before and afters.




























Adding lava to a scene (before and after). I'm still working on this one so its not completely finished.


























My final painted design for the World of Warcraft instrument. Honestly, I'm a bit hesitant to post this since it turned out quite horribly. I don't know...something about it irks me a lot. And its my first time painting something from my head digitally so cut me some slack? :P






























Moving on to a marsh creature design. These are my thumbnail sketches. Tried to go crazy and get as much variety as possible.


























Quick tonal sketch of what the final concept may look like. My instructor asked me to go for another design so I won't be using this one (which i don't really mind since I was able to go with my first preference).

















My first entire nurb model of a tire. Definitely had a lot of issues I couldn't figure out. I actually had to restart this entire model after working on for over 10 hours. Got a good critique on it but I don't think I'll be going back to fix it. Some problems were- tire tracks too thick, edges of rim weren't rounded enough (had issues with nurbs on this)..my instructor said it looks extremely odd without the caliper and I agree. I actually modeled the caliper but it turned out horrible so I left it. Yeah now I know everything about tires!























For my next modeling assignment, we were each assigned a different object based on our modeling style and abilities. I will modeling a meat slicer. I wish somebody could give me an actual meat slicer so I don't have to kill my brain cells figuring out what certain parts are supposed to look like in 360 view.





















Finally finished assembling the Ikea dresser for the competition. It was a big pain...in other words, I will NEVER assemble an Ikea dresser by myself ever again. But I'm glad I can finally start painting it, thats the most exciting part. I don't what genius decided to make art students assemble dressers. Its the worst idea ever. I won't be responsible if this dresser falls apart hahah.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Concept Design class...

IS AWESOME! I'm learning a ton of amazing new techniques, especially in digital painting which I was  really horrible at. I find it way harder to control a tablet than a paintbrush or pen...it's a little frustrating, but the process is becoming more enjoyable because im finally getting somewhat satisfied results. I love how freely I can work without worrying about making that mark-of-no-return. I'm still better at mixing and matching colors with physical mediums, on the computer I tend to make my colors look too muddy.

Anyway, here's what I've been up to...

This is an apple digital painting practice based on Dice Tsutsumi's great tutorial (he did a lot of amazing digital concept pieces for Toy Story 3). Took about 45 minutes total.






























Thumbnail sketches and final design in different views. Assignment was to design a musical instrument for World of Warcraft. My instructor opted for a simpler design since we're all kind of noob at digital painting =P




















Very quick practice in digital matte painting class to distinct background, foreground and middle ground elements. Ahh tangents everywhere!! I worked too slow and wasn't able to get anywhere near finished haha. My first time working with environment sketches this way but it was fun.



























Warm-up assignment in digital matte painting. We had to fill in the rest of the drawing with our own ideas. Would've added a lot more if we had more time, but it was just a quick warm-up.


Oh and update on Ikea X Ai competition, I made it to top 20 so I will be getting a dresser to dress up soon.