Colour Study

Going to be posting my work on Tumblr, so follow me there if you prefer that platform! 

Maka from Soul Eater

So last month I got back into watching anime properly after ditching it for nearly four years. Of course I went straight for Soul Eater which had this awesome wacky style and I fell in love with a lot of the characters especially the little annoying fella Excalibur!

I'm also kicking myself up the butt a bit to do some personal art, because I'd been feeling rather low about my work lately (no particular reason, maybe just not enough fun art and too much work art).

Oysterworld - Disguising polygons with hand painted textures

Published at Oysterworld blog
When it comes to creating textures for relatively low poly models in game, you have the freedom to fake detail when necessary. The idea is to create an illusion with your paint work and make it seem like the object you are creating a texture for has far more geometry and detail than it actually does in polygons. This is not far from Street Art Illusions where it tricks viewers in seeing a massive hole in the ground where there is just flat road.

Some artists seem to like following the edge of the polygons of their UVs when they paint their textures, this may be because it seems right to follow when you've modeled them purposely to be the edge of a material/object, but a few tricks can improve the shape and look of the object- especially if the surface they are on is relatively flat.

I've created a padlock with an unfinished texture to show you the difference it makes to cut corners (literally and not figuratively).

The freedom of this style is you can paint all the detail you want in spite of the geometry. When painting your texture, try your best to treat it as a painting, and not worry so much about the what geometry you have modeled. It will most likely turn out better than you expect.

Art Tests Ep. 1

I have been looking for a job for a while now and most required an art test- which I will probably never put up on my portfolio site... but it will give you an idea of the standards they require. Two of these were for junior positions.

Mind Candy

I started working on this, and then suddenly the positon was taken away- not filled, just... disappeared. :(

King

I was very proud of this one, it got me into the interview, and even now I claim to have been accepted to a second. But no matter how many times I called they wouldn't give me a straight answer... not even a rejection, haha.

MiniClip

This is actually on my portfolio for a lack of similar type of vector art. Unfortunately I didn't fit the bill. But I guess my 2D work is lacking in comparison.

The Unfortunate Outcomes of Freelancing Ep. 1

I've decided to post some of my freelancing experiences, maybe to help warn newbies of the risks they will need to take and the inevitable side-effects of life. It's easy to catch out those who want to trick you into making something for free, but sometimes tragedy strikes and it is genuine (or just a really cruel lie).

When there is no contract involved, you always run the risk of not getting paid- no matter how trustworthy you think the client is. Something life-changing may happen to them that will stop a project suddenly, and is likely to stop them from paying your work's money.

The lack of a contract of course means you have every right to show your work, and use it as you please, so there is always a silver lining.

A rough monster I drew for Giles Ruscoe, he and I are concepting a monster for each other to sculpt in zbrush. :) follow up sculpts will be posted soon.

Here's Giles Ruscoe's sculpt of the derpy dog thing:

Sci-Fi Soldier Model Ref

Here's the soldier ref. I'll be posting the block-out tomorrow...

Sci Fi Soldier Concepts

I've been helping out a friend for a competition. He says he wants a soldier model to pose on his vehicle. It's all very quick and rough, he chose the second design, so I will probably detail it a bit more and start blocking out the character soon.

WIP - Lux from League of Legends

8K Kiriban work-in-progress. Finished picture found Here.

Right-click, open in new tab to see the full size.

Dissonance Monster WIP

Final Major Profject

BLITZ Open Day soon

Blitz Open Day is peering around the corner. It's a chance for university game orientated students like myself to get a better insight to the games industry, and this would be wonderful to qualify for.
By qualify, I mean you need to prove your worth by submitting one of the following: 2D, 3D, Animation, Audio, Games Design or Programming.

I initially didn't think my work would be good enough to submit, since I heard from some friends that they pick only the top 100 of each field or something like that. But they have also convinced me to give it a shot...

This is a collection of work from my Major Project: Dissonance. It's a game concept I need to design and partially complete by the end of this academic year.










I also helped out my boyfriend with his submission, here is a small preview:

Cintiq

Today, I tried out a Cintiq 21UX at my university (which quite ironically do not let students use). And I was amazed beyond amazed. This stuff costs almost £2000 if you can get it somewhere else, it can even be £1500 but still... Jesus. I felt skeptic towards the Cintiq, now I see why it's such a big deal.

When I came back home, I went straight onto my Intuos4 tablet (medium size), to try to quickly compare. And obviously it completely dominated it. However I have not too much trouble with my current tablet, I notice whatever I draw on the Cintiq is quicker, and comes out correctly. Unlike trying to draw without seeing, or when your monitor is a different widthXheight ratio as your tablet. I realise.... Cintiq is totally the way to go.

12WX is a smaller and cheaper Cintiq, and I was considering saving for that but the 21UX was so bloody impressive, I don't know what to think.

Starting back on my Final Year

The semester has just started and already I'm going a little CooCoo from anticipation of thinking up a really bad game idea. Yes, this year us third year Games Design students need to concept and make a game. While I love the idea of painting out concepts, I am also given the task of 'designing' the actual gameplay. Tsk, this is my fault for wanting to work alone.

I've started a new blog for that (yay, I must have zillions by now) and called it something rather boring like Final Year Project...

I'll at least say that my game idea is Horror themed- and by 'themed', I mean it's not necessarily the type that will creep and scare, it may thrill people though. I'm pretty excited/scared this year :) the busy-ness might cause me to not blog so much (except for the blog meant for the project).

Any-who. Just thought I'd make a post explaining future absence and lack of blogging. Here's also a caricature I  just finished for fun (it's me by the way).

I'll be linking my Project blog on the side.. and here-  gsfinalmajorproject.blogspot.com

Alsie WIP

Work In Progress'

I have SO much work that I can't show. It really sucks when you're creative energy is spent but you have nothing to show for it. Luckily I've had some time (and by that I mean when I get home feeling really tired and have an ounce of will left to draw something) to work on my 4K Kiriban image(s). I have also been working on an image for a friend's novel, I'll probably update the work in progress, but here's what I have so far...

Puddle Puzzles, mobile game released!

Great news! The mobile game I helped work on during my internship at ChaosTrend (ended May 2011) has just been released in the iphone/ipad/itouch app store. ^^ It's the first ever game I helped make being released... even though I only did some artwork, I'm still quite excited about it. I think it will only work on 3GS and above, the HD versions are for retna screens (in other words higher resolution screens).

Full Game HD
Full Game non-HD

Free Game HD
Free Game non-HD

I Won My First Competition

On DeviantART. That's a journal entry to announce the winners. Just found out half an hour ago, and I'm so bloody happy!

Among many other prizes I received this wonderful image from SiegeRedWolf: -

It will be coloured, printed and sent to me eventually :D

Gopoh

Original Character does not belong to me. Second Entry for the contest :)
http://rikona.deviantart.com/journal/39983057/

Inertia's Rebellion

This was made for a contest being held on DeviantART. The character does not belong to me.

Work in Progress

Happy Father's Day

Work in Progress