Bors the Robot

Hey all, since school is going to start again soon and one of my main classes will be Introduction to Photoshop, I thought it would be a good idea to practice a bit. I don't know that much about real ART in photoshop, but I've used it before and picked up a few points that help. So I thought I'd start with some coloring. I went and found a pencil sketching of a robot online and used that as my reference.



I got this sketch from a guy named Jeff Bell. I didn't think I'd do very well, but I liked the results so much that I contacted him and got his permission to post it on a couple sites. If you're looking at this, Jeff, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Same goes for everyone else. I'd like all the criticism you can come up with to help me improve. And while you're at it, go and support Jeff by checking out his site and work.

Jeff's Site
Original Sketch

Class Project

Finally, we got this thing scanned and assembled. Well, actually, -I- scanned it and assembled it. Oh well, I had fun putting it together. (Many thanks to Dad for showing me how to manipulate layer opacities that one time)

This is a class project from Color Theory. We voted on the image, cut it into strips, then made them bigger and each took a strip and recreated it as you see it here. I had a lot of fun with it and I like the end result.

I did the blue strip. Worked with the people above and below me to make sure all the lines lined up. :)

Enjoy! Click for a monstrous size.

AC Cobra Daytona Coupe

Well, here's that inevitable piece that every 3D artist simply has to do or they can't call themselves 3D artists! The car. Yup, I finally got around to modeling a car for the first time, and I'm pretty pleased with how well it came out. The body work isn't that smooth, but I can learn how to do it better later on. For now, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Enjoy!

Update, walkthrough, and future projects

Okay, so this post isn't about any new piece I've done, but just a little bit about what's going on, what the self-portrait is all about, and what I have in the works.

First off, school is going good. I have hardly any time to breathe, let alone sleep or do my own projects, but getting the education in is still worth it to me. I just passed the year mark for at ASF, and I am now collecting vacation time each paycheck! Woot! Aside from that, life proceeds as normal. My current term at school will end in another couple weeks (next week, maybe, I think) and I won't have to go back until I believe the second week of January, so I'll have a nice break from things.

For my future projects I've got a bunch of things that will most likely not ever be finished, but I still have high hopes for. For instance, I'm still working on my robot legs and motorcycle, though both have kind of come to a standstill. I've also started a car model which is progressing better than expected but is already losing steam. I've also got a stamp idea that I really want to make. It will be hilarious if I get it done. Aside from that, the chopin music video is still sitting on the shelf for the moment, but hasn't been forgotten. I just haven't had the time to work on it at all, and I'm still wondering what the other musical elements will be in my scene.

And that, my friends, is what I'm working on!

Now, to the meat of the subject. An explanation of just what I was thinking when I drew my self portrait. I had the first general scene idea when my professor presented the project. It evolved quite a bit from it's conception, but I still crammed as much information as I could into it. SO. Let's begin in the back, shall we? Many of the symbols work together, so bare with me while I try to get them all.

First, the giant chess pieces. These serve two purposes. Obviously, one is that I like chess. It's one of my favorite board games, though there's hardly ever anyone around who wants to play. Secondly, I used them to reinforce the idea of my way of thinking. I think logically, as you can probably tell, and the chess pieces work with the gears you can see in the floor to put forth that idea. Gears and chess seem to me to both be pretty logical, wouldn't you say?

(side note: those gears are under glass. Did I get that across in the illustration?)

Aside from the above symbolism, the gears don't serve any other purpose.

The books on the lower left should be pretty obvious. I like to read. So...I put lots of books there.

On the right hand side, the blue thing is the logo for the 3D modeling program I use. Cinema 4D. Just kinda laid it on the floor like that to keep the perspective, and drew the blue lines to reinforce the idea of 3D. That's there as a sight of my hobby.

Now, moving on to the figure in the middle. First off, he (I never intended the figure to actually be me) is sitting on a swivel chair, holding a keyboard. Both work to convey the obvious fact that I love computers. (we'll get to the....decals later) The hair choice was deliberate, and Elicia got this right, to a point, that Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite movies and characters. Not really a "I want to be" kind of deal, just a symbol of a "like". The hair coincides with the clown mask. The clown mask shows, not that I hide behind humor, but that humor protects me. Think of it like a hockey mask. When things get stressful and insane, I try and use my humor to maintain my sanity. The coloring of the mask is better suited for a frowning clown mask rather than a smiling one, which helps reinforce the idea of my innate sarcasm. The mask, along with the hair also portrays my black humor. I've found that a lot of people don't appreciate black humor, but I enjoy it quite a lot, and Sweeney Todd is all about black humor.

Lower down, you have his white shirt. The kind and color of the shirt aren't symbolically important. The white shirt, however, is in stark contrast to the black background, which serves to make the figure pop off the page and also draws the viewer's eyes to it. Not only that, but it's mostly positioned right in the center of the page, which also serves to draw focus there. The blood seeping through the shirt was kind of a silly addition I decided on. I was thinking a Pink Floyd "Bleeding hearts and artists" kind of analogy. An artist should have a bleeding heart, should he not?

The jeans are similarly not important in and of themselves, but I guess they do show my difficulty in finding good-fitting pants. That was an unintended symbol, I guess. The shoes, on the other hand, do have significance. They are rough recreations of the sneakers I wear currently, but I tried to make them worn and dirty. I don't think I got the worn part very well, but they do have a brown tinge to them at the bottom, don't they? They symbolize how I enjoy hiking, especially where the dust is brown, red, and deserty. Moab, specifically, was on my mind when I did that.

Now, the shield the figure is holding has it's own significance to it. I decided to portray how I've learned to shield myself from others, not so much as the recluse that I am, but just being able to ward off what people say about me. Kind of like having thick skin, but drawing thick skin is kinda hard. A shield worked just fine. Not only that, but I also tried to make it worn and broken in places, showing that I HAVE had to use it. Most people have, you see, but I included it for myself.

And, finally, the blood on the keyboard shows that typing, writing, things like that, are my weapon of choice when fighting back. Granted, this doesn't always work well, and people DO get hurt, some of which don't deserve it, but nevertheless, that's how it works.

There you have it! I don't think I missed anything, did I?

Windmill and Self Portrait

I've got a couple new pieces from school today. They are both very color related, naturally, so let's get to it!



Here we have a windmill scene done in an analogous color scheme. Which means three colors in a row on the color wheel.



Here is our psychological self-portrait piece! Woo! This was a ton of fun to make. Let's have a little friendly competition and see who can name and explain more symbols? Something like that? :)

Oh, and I'd also like to draw your attention to the newest feature on my sidebar. Dianna suggested I make some kind of progression post for my Chopin project. It gave me the idea to put the videos somewhere accessible without constantly posting videos that have only tiny changes. So instead of posts, new links will appear on that list. Keep an eye on it!

Chopin 0.3

I made a little bit more progress on my chopin music video. I'm trying to get all the elements put together before I tackle the rest of the animation. In this version I'm posting I made two important changes. First, the crystals give off their own light, and I also added the bass element to the scene.

Enjoy and critique plz. Kthxbai.

UPDATE 0.3:
I've made a couple minor changes on the video. This time around I've centered the crystals on the platform (they were hanging in the air ABOVE the platform before) and tweaked the lighting effects to make a more realistic look. I've actually got the lights casting shadows now. Also, I improved the timing of the bass object. Next version will include some kind of object for the electronica sound you can hear.

Other Incompletes

Here are a couple of other projects I've just started on, and hope to finish later. I can't guarantee when of IF they'll be finished, but I have high hopes for both. Presented here for your enjoyment and criticism.


Front wheel to some kind of motorcycle. Ran into a snag making the bodywork. We'll see.


Robot legs from a blueprint I pulled off the internet. There isn't much of a body shown on the blueprints, so there might be some personal innovation. We'll see. :)

Enjoy all!

Chopin Sneak Peek

I went back and tried to do this project again after meeting with no success every time I tried it on my mini. Now, with my hackintosh, it seems to be working alright. Here's a quick preview of my little music video animation that I've been wanting to do for a while now.



Enjoy and critique, please! :)

Brass Hourglass

Here's another older project that I had set aside and forgotten about. I was going to use this to build a scene to showcase another object, but ultimately scrapped the idea and did a different scene. I kept the hourglass though for future use. Here it is for all to see and enjoy. :)

Old Model

Here's an old project that I had forgotten about for a long time. I was holding onto it, hoping to do something special with it, but that just fell through. So I put it away and didn't think about it until today. I was browsing through un-finished projects, and this came up. And now I present it for all your criticism!

Enjoy :)

Icarus 2 and Other

Finally, I've got some other things to post. Took me a while to get these other pieces scanned, but now that I can use the scanner at work, it won't be quite as difficult. As always, click to view the larger version. And Enjoy.


Finally, the second Icarus poster. I'm pretty pleased with how this one came out. It is staged inside a large cavern overlooking a mining camp. Featuring Ziti, of course. :)



My first project for Color Theory. Most projects in Color Theory involve different kinds of color schemes. This image is not mine. I traced it from a photograph I found online. The color scheme here is Triadic, which is three colors on the color wheel, either Primary or Secondary colors.


The second project. This one has a complimentary color scheme. Colors on opposite sides of the color wheel. Again, the image is not mine.

Creatures

Hello all. I know I said I'd have the second Icarus poster up LAST week, but the prof. held our portfolios for grading. I have it with me now, and I just need to get it somewhere I can scan it so I can post it. The new term has begun, and I'm taking another 3 classes: Color theory, College writing, and Personal Relations. The latter 2 are general ed classes and mostly throw-aways if you ask me. Color Theory is going to be a lot of fun though, I can tell. Will have stuff to post for you soon.

In the meantime, I've been playing around with Spore. The Spore creature creator, to be precise. It's a lot of fun to go and create your own creatures and have them automatically come to life! Here are a couple of vids for you.

First, Bill and Bob. It looked to me like there were two creatures, one attached to the other, so I called them...Bill and Bob!



The second I made especially for those in the know. :P I call him Bumpy.

Icarus 1

Finally, something to post! I finished up with the first poster of two we're doing for our last project in art class. The second is all penciled in and ready to be colored, and I'll have that ready to post next week.

Enjoy, and please critique to your heart's content. :D


(click to enlarge)

Pictured here is a poster of a game idea I came up with for this project. The game name is Icarus, named after the first inter-solar colony ship of humanity. This colony ship, built and sent as a global effort to show off man's colonial prowess, was sent to Alpha Centurai. On arriving, an Alien Slave race took the colonists into custody so that they could do the "Keeper's" manual labor. The game takes place 30 years later. The character portrayed on the poster and the main protagonist is the player's character. Her name is Ziti, and she works as a scout for the mining operations taking place. She is used to treacherous terrain, close quarters, and working alone. In her free time she works for the Human Resistance Group.

As part of the Alien's attempt to maintain their control and avoid any kind of resistance, they bolted shut the mouths of all human beings and the offspring thereof.

Update

My blog has been quiet for a while, hasn't it? Well, this post is to let you all know that I haven't posted anything recently because I'm working on my class's final big project, and it's taking some time. I've got to draw and color two posters for a game idea I came up with, and I've still got two weeks to work on them. Until those are done, I doubt there will be any other posts to make.

But just so everyone doesn't stop reading just because they think I died or something, rest assured I'm very proud of the posters thus far. ;)

Pumpkin Dinners, and Parallel Dimensions

Time for another update on College work. The education scene is going smoothly thus far, and I have a few new pieces to present.

So let's get right down to it, shall we?


The first is our first project using markers and colored pencils together to color a piece. We got two objects that had complimentary colors and put them in a still life scene, drew them, then colored them. I found that halfway through the project, I was slapping on colored pencils with abandon, not really worried what the final outcome would look like, and my professor claims that the more colors that are present, the richer the color is. So I guess my recklessness payed off.


Next, I revisited my Age inking you've seen before and did a little preparatory project. This time around, we used various shades of gray markers to map out the shading and shadow casting of our cities. I found that it was pretty intuitive once you've picked out where the light source is. That may be a side effect of having done 3D modeling in the past. In any case, this was very helpful to look at when I was actually doing the big project...


Here it is, the big project! A full colored and shaded version of my Age inking. I decided that the best kind of light source for a Myst-ish scene would be sunset, and I used my old Shizukeza piece as reference for the colors. It was very helpful. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the water to look like WATER, but I think it at least is distinct from the sky.

Anyway, please enjoy, critique, and discuss. :D

Repost and New

Sorry to all for the lack of updates here. I haven't gotten very much artwork done the past week or so, as I've been swamped with classes and work and stuff.

I finally got around to getting real digital scans of all my work thus far, so I'm reposting the new scans here. The quality is a lot better, and they are a bit darker than the previous pictures I took. Also, I'm including in this post my latest project, which will be featured at the end of the post.

Short descriptions will follow each image.

Enjoy!


My first project in College. A simple still life of a few fruit with a single light source. Not bad for a first project, but there's still plenty to learn.


The second still life, this one with a few random art supplies. This one came out slightly better than the last. Even so, the shadows don't play in a very interesting way. Even so, the end result isn't bad, if I do say so myself.


Our first project with real criteria. Something reflective, something transparent, something that was once living, and a time piece. I bet you can all guess which is which, eh? :P


The first project we had with a human face. I found an image on DeviantArt that I just couldn't pass up, the expression was priceless. Please follow the link to see the original shot so that the original artist gets their due credit. Tomas Mckeon


My latest work. We have been spending the last week and a half in class working on 2 point perspective drawing. We were required to find some reference images and create a perspective image of a city. I chose a very Myst-ish theme, though I had to include modern building because there is NOTHING in and of the Myst games that have straight lines. I included a couple trademark building from the series anyway. What you see is an island rising up out of the water on natural pillars. Those weird lines that don't seem to go anywhere are where the island meets the water. I will later be coloring this as part of another project later on, so it will be improved.

Face Proj

Here's the product of this week's work. We started out by getting an image of an interesting face and translate it from the photo to the paper. It was an exercise of human faces and shading. I'm pretty proud of this!



I got the resource image from a fellow deviant on DeviantArt. If you like, you can see the original image here: Tomas Mckeon

Last of the Week

I've just got done with the last drawing class I have this week. We did a couple more still lifes, and next week it sounds like we'll be doing some drawings of faces. This will become the common practice as long as I have art classes. I may have to work something special out for some of my later classes. Later I'll have a life drawing class which will include nude models, so it may not be the most appropriate work to post. :P

But anyway, here are the still lifes.


Tuesday, August 12 2008


Wednesday, August 13 2008

School

I guess I might not have been very clear here on what's up with me and school. So here you are.

I'm attending Westwood College near here for evening classes Monday through Thursday. It makes getting enough sleep near impossible, but I'm getting enough to function, and I can catch up on Friday or over the weekend.

I'm enrolled in Westwood's Game Art and Design program, so there are a lot of art classes ahead of me. Westwood is on a term schedule, which translates to 10 weeks of the same classes then a small break. Then the next term begins. After completing 15 terms, I will receive my Bachelor's in Computer Science. Roughly, that translates to 4 years, but there isn't such a thing as summer vacation. There will be some breaks for holidays, I'm sure, but no annual, long break. That's okay with me, really.

I'm taking three classes this term. The first and major class is Introduction to Drawing, which is 4 hours each night Monday through Wednesday. It's a fun class so far. We've begun still life drawings, which is what I'm presenting today. I apologize for the odd coloring, but I could only use a camera to take this and the flash reflected off some of the graphite.



The other two classes are Computer Application and Success Strategies. They both take up 2 hours on Thursday, and they are both generic classes that pretty much everyone takes. I predict that they won't be a problem, as what they're teaching is all the basics on organization and using the computer.

New Stuffs

I've got a few things to present this time around!

But first, news. I started my college courses on Wednesday, August 6, and it's going to be fun. I'll be up late and waking up early, but I've got a drawing class and a couple of more basic classes, so I'm excited to seeing what will happen.

Now, to the artwork.

First, this was something of a change for me. It looks generic, but I worked on making the cage-thing with just the basic tools. I could explain, but I'm the only one who would understand what I would say. :P



The next was a favor project for a friend of mine. She's something of a HUGE Xiaolin Showdown fan. That's some animated series on TV. I've never seen it. But she sent me an image of these coins, and they looked like they'd be fun to make. Thus, here they are!



And finally, another request from my friend. In a fit of late-night foolery, she suggested I make a corndog. So I did! Enjoy this one....look tasty, I think.



And to round it off, a stamp. This was from an online discussion with my girlfriend as she was describing a class she had at school. It involved a lot of >> and <<, so I just had to make a stamp that highlighted the little smilies. Enjoy.

Cathedral Lights

Just a quick post about the only thing I've made since the LAST post. This took me forever and it made my computer cry alot. I want to use it in something else, some REAL scene, but my computer simply can't handle it for some inexplicable reason. Just need an upgrade.



Click for larger image. It's dark, I know.

More work

Alright, here we go again. Some real modeling and some stamps. Lets get to it!

First, the modeling work:


Here we have just a little side project I took up to make something weird, but interesting. I think I accomplished that!


Those of you who have played Bungie's old Myth game will recognize this. This is called The Tain. In the game, this is used as a weapon to trap your foes inside of it. The player is trapped in it and has to find their way out.

Now for the Stamps:


Sorry everyone. Inside joke! But I still think the penguins are cute. One for me and one for her, obviously.


I listened to Weird Al's Your Horoscope for Today song, and had to make some stamps for it! Didn't do them all. Did one for myself and one for Blue.

Enjoy!

I'd play....swords!

Some new stuff here. First off, I'd like to display a work in progress. This sword model I have here isn't complete yet. I'm getting some help from a friend with some little designs and detailing for it, so this is just what we have so far.



And then this pair of stamps


I made these for my friend and I. We're both Sweeney Todd fans, obviously. She'd play Lovett, I Todd.

TOO MANY STAMPS!

Oh, and one actual modeling bit.

First, let's touch on the actual modeling. It was meant to be another Marathon translation, but I personally don't like it much. It just didn't turn out. If I choose to redo it, it will be from scratch.



Now, for the myriad of stamps I've been making lately. I'll give little explanations for each, so be sure to scroll for the entire post.



On DA, they have a comment feature (much like the one here on blogspot) where anyone with a DA account can leave a comment. I can hide any comments on my page that I feel NEED to be hidden. This stamp addresses this, of course.



This was a favor for my good friend Blue. She has a friend on DA who gets a lot of flak from viewers who claim that the Anime she draws isn't art. (Bologna)



A pair of stamps created in response to a discussion I had with a friend. Since many people on DA use stamps in their journals and whatnot within the site, it was only appropriate to make one for each gender.



One of my friends, Jeshi, is so absolutely adorable and also absolutely insane. To most anything, she will respond, "Don't worry, I'm a doctor." This stamp is for her.



I made this one because.....they do....and I don't.



This is my latest work, and sprouted from another stamp on DA which read "I support beating you with a stick". This popped into my head rather quickly after reading that.

Stamps and Drones and Trees, oh my!

Here are a few things I made recently. None are that ground-breaking, but they are all slightly entertaining.

First, my recent Growth Test animation. It's just a quick little thing where a tree grows. The tree is kinda interesting, but doesn't really look like a tree. Still, I find it fun.



Next is another piece featuring my drone model. What's unique about this piece is that the wall behind it is directly from the Marathon Aleph One Texture Enhancement pack. (Say THAT five times fast). It works very well in the Cinema4D universe, and may see some extra use in other projects.



Finally, a little background info. On DeviantArt, there's an entire section devoted to Stamps. They're just little animated or stationary gif's that people use to convey messages, express appreciation for other's works, etc. I looked, and there were very few stamps devoted to the cute Kiwi! animation, so I decided to make one of my own.



You can view the original animation here: Kiwi!

Marathon Infinity: Drone

I feel like I'm beginning to get a hold on this modeling business. The secret is having the polygons fit to the form of the object rather than making a grid like pattern across it. None of you understand what I just said, but that's okay.

This is my rendition of the Drone character from the old Marathon Infinity game by Bungie. This was simultaneously one of the most annoying and helpful characters in the game, as you would fight with and against swarms of them.

Anyway, enjoy. As always, click to enlarge.


A banner like image showing all sides of the Drone


A closer look at the front.