2D/3D Art Homework #18: Vehicle Concepting with Maya

For this week we were tasked with something similar to last week, except our focus was on vehicles instead of environments. Amongst us in the Channeler group, we decided on three different vehicles for the three different districts. I chose that which would be associated with the manufacturing district: a kind of rail vehicle for the transport of all of the boxes and barrels of manufactured goods that were produced in that area.

I looked specifically into railroad handcars, thinking having the touch of spirits manually getting the goods from one place to another would be interesting. I also found designs for steam handcars, as well as other types of vehicles that were powered, so I got some designs with actual fuel being used as well.

I actually did not know that we were doing paint-overs until very, very late in this assignment. That is the reason for the quickness of them, though hopefully this gives an idea of how they would be colored.

2D/3D Art Homework #17: Environment Concepting with Maya

This week we were tasked with making several variations of an environment concept in 3D with Maya. I collaborated with my fellow Channeler artists and we split up the various environments in our game between us. I took on some of the more narrow alleyways and backstreets of Kowloon City.

I ended up making one set of geometry and went into attempting to make it look different based on various modular props we worked on and shared between us.

We've been talking about implementing distinct districts in Kowloon. Our major declensions are a food district, a residential district, and a manufacturing district.

This is the manufacturing district.

Severity was paramount here—there are no doors or windows that aren't functional. Because this is a backstreet, there aren't as many doors into the buildings, and the windows are high to provide light into the building, but not high enough that they are decorative or allow people to look inside. There is a lot of trash cans, piles of refuse, and barrels of liquid (which could be something being produced).

This is the residential district.

I went really heavy with the gates and bars in this one, to make it seem as though the area really is under curfew and lockdown after certain hours. Most doors have bars and gates in front of them, and there are some signs and garbage cans to show that these areas are used and lived in. The lanterns help illustrate this as well, providing light to help the spirits back to their homes.

This is the food district.

A street used to go towards some off-the-beaten-path restaurants, I illustrated this with signs to show that these are the fronts of places to eat. There are a few barrels (deliveries?) and some trash cans and lanterns as well to show that this is a street that is used, even though it is away from the main thoroughfares of Kowloon City.

And that's it for this week!

2D/3D Art Homework #16: Final for 3D Concepting

And... here they are! Working out the glow for the fire was the main challenge with this, as well as attempting to paint in gold that looked metallic but still kind of "soft" (as gold typically is). Hopefully the effort showed through!

I had fun with these, but I'm excited to start on a new project this week.

Capstone "The Channeler:" Final Character Designs

I'm actually pretty proud of how these turned out. After a few weeks of taking these designs against a razer, from the thumbnail stage to this finalized design, this is what the characters I did the art for looked like.

Forecast for next week

Next week, I will be working up three of the designs in Photoshop and ZBrush to a high level of polish. I'll be working on F, J, and L.

2D/3D Art Homework #15: Mesh Inserting

I tried to apply the criticism given, especially when it comes to layouts, order, and the eyes. The mesh inserts, I had trouble with. Removing layers and things like that so I could mess with the geometry caused my ZBrush to crash repeatedly, and at one point my file corrupted and I nearly lost everything! Thank god for saving older iterations.

I think I'm going to do a lot in the paint-overs next week, since I enjoyed it so much in class last week. I'm still struggling with Zbrush through unfamiliarity—I'm going to try to take on more personal projects to become more familiar with it so I don't feel as afraid as I do with messing it all up. I'm getting better, but it's a process.

I used the mesh insert brush as well as the extract for some "armor" pieces. I sort of wish I'd used the extract on C, F, and J, but I couldn't smooth the pieces away to build off of them, so I'll keep that in mind for next time.

I turned the wolfish one a little more so one can see the tail I gave B.

Sculpt Paint-Over

I worked on a sculpt paint-over in class today that I ended up fairly happy with, so I thought I'd share it!

I'm looking forward to this stage in 2D/3D class in a few weeks now, haha!