First Windows App: RAM

I proudly present RAM. My first ever windows app released, working with team members of my friend's start-up XD Studios. It's a bit rough and not as polished as we'd hope but it was made in less than 3 months to enter a Microsoft competition.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/ram/a68b086a-5f11-434c-bb7e-77429c9e5e84

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.

Bleed Girl

Really old, finally finished. It was inspired by the artist Bleedman.

Sculpt Study of David's Head WIP02

I know the lighting sucks... :(

Mage Pouch DIY

Did some DIY today, got me some leather and crafted a Mage Pouch. :)
http://gemmasuen.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5qn5yc

Sculpt study of David WIP01

Joined a cool face study with some polycounters on G+, directed by +Joseph March :)
We're doing these bit by bit every session, progress can be found on this polycount thread.

Here's my first progress shot of David's head. More to come soon!

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:

Victorian Bedroom- Further Progress

Took my bedroom scene from UDK and placed in Maya 2012, rendering with viewport 2.0. Lighting is SO. MUCH. BETTERRR.

A New Roof (WIP)

I've been trying something new with zbrush, making tilable textures and trying to reuse uv space. Overlapping UVs yes. Since I was actually taught not to do that >_>...

Quick Victorian Window concept

Victorian Bed Diffuse/Spec WIP

There really wasn't much to do in terms of the Diffuse Texture or Spec. A lot of the work was done from the normals and AO, even the SPEC brought it to life. All that's left is the aging process. Thought I'd post it looking brand new... also maybe a different bed cover, that looks quite boring!

Bed Normal/Ambient Occlusion maps baked

EDIT: I improved the shape, polycount and everything, also was too dull to realise marmoset wasn't using the AO. Hurp Derp. You can see the difference by comparing them:

---OLD--

Finally, I thought I'd never get this done. I spent a good few hours trying to bake the maps. Xnormal proved to be much faster, but for a few bits like the drapery, it didn't seem to recognize which side it was meant to bake. So then I had to open up Maya and painstakingly wait for the viewer to actually catch up. Anyhow, the diffuse is coming soon, I'm thrilled to have this complete.

Bed WIP

Been working on this for a little while, it doesn't help that I had trouble with baking parts of the map. I decided I'd do each part separately to prevent Maya from crashing! So on the left is what I'm doing in Zbrush at the moment, and on the right is a marmoset render showing off the finished bedposts.

It's a pain, because I made the mistake of using dynamesh and then turning it off which prevented me from going back in sub-divisions. It was also way too high poly even after I halved the polycount. So... lesson learned. ><

Room: lighting improvement

Had enough time to mess with the lighting a bit more, added a lighting importance mass, ambient occlusion to the level and some items like candles. I removed the chandelier because it really got in the way and didn't look pretty. Just not sure if the changes made much difference.

Dissonance: Room improvement

So I've been improving some items for the room, I'm still in the middle of it, here's a few screenshots. I've shrank it down because it was very big before.

(Boring) Cabinet model

I've improved this model more:

Then... altered the texture again.

Cabinet Model WIP

Today I was feeling a bit down, so my progress has been slow with this. I scrapped my old cabinet model because it was so bad and started again. Got some references too. It looks better (much better than my old one).

I'm pretty stuck on how I should alter the geometry on the feet of the legs... they take up 360 odd tris alone.

Bookcase, an improved model

I made this not so long ago, after a bit of feedback I went back and halved the poly count from 1321 Tris/716 Faces to 633 Tris/322 Faces. Thought I'd keep it posted here for comparison.

Old version: 1321 Tris/ 716 Faces

New version is also clearer because I was really silly with the UVs last time.

New Version: 633 Tris/ 322 Faces

Final Version:
Edited the Specular map and normals.

Sci-Fi Soldier Model WIP03

It's been a busy few days, as I had my graduation two days ago :)
Here's the base mesh ready for zbrush. I also took such a long time on the hands! Damn appendages and their awkward edge flow.

The hands took me a day! But I think I understand how to do it quicker next time.

Finished, and added some edge loops to create a more even square mesh in certain areas.

Sci-Fi Soldier Model WIP02

I got some feedback saying he needs a bit of bulking up. I tried to shift a few polys, but I think most of the bulking up will have to be in Zbrush. :)

Sci-Fi Soldier Model WIP01

I've done a bit of modelling, it's going rather slowly. I expect I have really poor technique when it comes to modelling. Hopefully I can learn from this.

Starting with pieces separately, and joining later.

Improved topology and progressing further

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.

Showreel of 2012

What I've been working on this year.

First Encounter of Drunken Chavs in 3 Years

As most people who know me know- I don't really go out very often anymore. I barely leave my computer as it is, with so much work to be done and limited funds, I found better ways to have fun and even socialise. But tonight I was looking forward to finally going out and hosting an awesome games night to raise funds for my uni's graduation show.

It didn't turn out that great. In fact I wish I could have gone back in time and done something different so it didn't have to end this way.

For the past few weeks I've been busy organising the end of year show, I had also decided to organise a fundraising games night and a classmate and I chose a place that had been used in previous years for fundraising. We had the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and a variety of games on each, there was supposed to be a competition held, raffles and just plain fun, but not even thirty people turned up. I was disappointed, mostly because the absences were from the very students involved in the degree show- it was basically for them. The people who turned up made an effort to help and even brought friends over.

So what ended the night with a big bang? Some idiot decided it was okay to enter our area (it was closed off and you had to pay for wristbands to get in) for free, and continued to ignore me, pointing, laughing and no doubt being a racist piece of brainless turd.

It was not so bad when I saw him finally leave the area, he apparently 'knew' one of the randoms that had gotten in (I made his friend pay for him eventually), but then he had the nerve to bring back two orange faced scarecrows and show off his amazing 'ignorance' in front of them.

So I pushed him. Hard.

One of the horrificly tall umpa lumpas went crazy on me whilst I had an awesomly fabulous Princess Peach costume on, and destroyed it by pulling my wig off. Just imagine my pissed off face when she did that. I told them to get out- though I'm sure it was in a horribly rude fashion, since I can't even remember exactly what I said. Then they got banned from the club.

I practically ripped off the rest of my costume, and went to the bathroom, utterly and sourly disappointed with how I handled things. So tonight I express my sincere disgust- at mainly myself.

Three damn years without ever encountering a chav, and I loose my mind when I do. I must be spoiled, I'm in Britain for goodness sake.