My first Year

In my first year of University, I found 3dsmax terrifying, there was countless buttons and numbers flying at me and it was all overwhelming. Our first project was to make a landspeeder from StarWars. It got me to grips with making basic shapes and edge loops.

My next project was to make a small street object. I designed a bin, it was incredibly low poly and not very detailed, I tried to make it realistic by using texture reference from a real bin. Unfortunately when I unwrapped it it went all circular and so it morphed my textures. I now realise you can easily rectify this by doing a different sort of map for your UVs... But it's all about the learning curve.

For my second project, we had to do a building we liked in Cardiff. I chose to do my friends house as it was quite worn on the outside and an aesthetically pleasing shape. My modelling skills were still very basic and I really struggled with the front window as it required lots of edge loops. Again my texturing wasn't great, but that's because my photographs weren't great and a lot of them didn't quite fit the maps.

Third project: For our next project we had to design our own vehicle, it would be on the side of the road in a racing game and required good graphics on the outside. I looked a bit weird taking photos of peoples vans in the road, but it was worth it as I was happy with most of the textures. Trying to meld the front and the sides was difficult and the windows on the side didn't work out but overall I was really happy with it.

Group project: As well as the app project, we did a group project to create a monopoly type scene to practise level design and group modelling. My group ended up with the 'sport' theme. We decided to do a football stadium. I was in charge of modelling the main stadium. We based it on Cardiff City football ground. I looked up the correct measurements of a football pitch to try and make it as detailed and life like as possible.

Creature project: For the final project; we had to create our own mythical creature. I decided to do a werewolf. We had to import it into z brush to practise our skills. I was happy with my design but let myself down when it came to texturing. I like the fur effect but the colours are a bit poor.

All in all I had a great year and felt like I really improved my modelling skills. I still need to work on my texturing and Zbrush skills. But these are things I can work on now.

First Post

So I'm relatively new to this whole blogging thing... I think when I was a troubled teenager I used to write one about the trials and tribulations of youth. So here is my new professional blog.



About me: I have been painting since the age of 15 and have always loved fine art. I've experimented with etching, wax resist, acrylic ink,Gouache and even painting with twigs and mud. While at Art school I discovered the works of John Martin, which blew me away. The depth and atmosphere in his paintings was so inspiring. One of the reasons I got into Game art was to try and recreate that depth and atmosphere and design an environment you could walk around.

One of my favourite paintings by John Martin

My final piece at Art School

For my final piece at art school, I created 3 paintings: Heaven, Hell and Eden. They were done using acrylic ink and fine liner. I was happy with the results, but I know I still have a long way to go with painting.

University Pieces: In our first year, we had to create a 2D animated game. I saw this as an opportunity to improve my digital painting skills. We had the idea of doing an around the world stacking game, which meant I could paint some famous sites. 

These are the two concept paintings I was the happiest with. For our actual game we used Adobe: Illustrator, which meant the paintings weren't quite as detailed, but I was still happy with them.