6/23/14 Thorn's texture pass and more concepts!

Hey everyone!


More work done on Thorn and I'm nearly complete with his first texture pass! And overall a bit of everything this week!

More concepts!  This week's set of drawings are for a video game concept.  This game idea involves the partnership and upgrading of a robot counterpart, but I'll spare you guys the details for now.

These are quick gestures with the only goal in mind of getting down as many robot ideas as possible with couple design rules set in place.  These designs would be for starting character frames with a couple more advanced designs tossed into the mix of these.

Then to test both my modeling speed and proof of concept I went ahead and made a base model for one of them for fun: 

This model was created in less than 30 mins and I'm really pleased with the results.  I'm thinking about taking this little robot further and continuing to use him as a speed tester.

More stuff to come next week so stay tuned!

Until Next Time!

-Jordan

6/16/14 Texturing and a week of Ink Sketches!

Hey everybody!

Lots of stuff this week and Ill get right into it!

First up Thorn texturing!

His body mesh is nearly complete.  I still need to hide my seams a bit and once that's completed I'll be moving onto weathering! (Battle scars, dings and scrapes!) And then of course his armor!

Onto Ink sketches!

Everything from quick storyboards to Sidekick versions of my characters! (Sidekicks- Miniature versions)

Next week I'm planning on finishing up the overall base texture for Thorn as well as more sketching action! Also considering making some new blog tabs for old sketch work that's been buried on this blog and then separating it by series of work!

Until Next Time!

-Jordan

6/10/14 Ink Work and Ink Washes!

Hey everyone!

So after watching and being very inspired by the Double Fine documentary for Broken Age, I remembered that the most important part of being an artist is really letting yourself think outside of yourself.  So many times I find myself looking inward for solutions when others have solved my creative/design problems multiple times and better.
The second part of this is remembering to let go. While in animation its never a good idea to do the straight ahead method, I'm finding its beneficial when doing either concepts or art in general.

What I was working on yesterday is exactly what I've been saying above,  I let myself go into my art, constructed a wall of inspiration for myself, and consulted far more accomplished artists for help!

These images were all done on cardstock in Ink pen and then ink washed over the top!

While I wont go into detail on who each of these possible characters are, I will say this-- They're the cyborg looking characters are a representation of the 7 cardinal sins.  Greed, Envy, Lust, Pride, Wrath, Sloth and Gluttony.

Until Next Time!

-Jordan

6//9/14 Tomorrow!

Hey everyone!

I didn't want to make this post but anyone who currently keeps up with my blog will know that Monday is Post Day!  Unfortunately today's post will be postponed until tomorrow.  I'm catching up with a lot of real life stuff along with the fact that I'd rather keep drawing tonight and have some awesome stuff to show tomorrow than to just stop and attempt to scan everything before midnight and rush the process!

So!  I will see each of you viewers tomorrow!
-Jordan

6/2/14 Thorn Texturing

Welcome to the first week of June everyone!

Was able to actually get started on Thorn's real texture mesh!  After much experimenting and research I was able to find exactly how to make texture noise.  For the past week I've been daunted by the task of creating texture noise due to my lack of knowledge in the area of painted textures.

When thinking about exactly what kinds of textures I'd like to see on Thorn, World of Warcraft immediately came to mind.  From there my journey began as I examined character models for poly counts as well their painted textures.  I formed a plan in my head to replicate the texture noise that's so amazingly done in WoW models and I put it into action!

What you now see before you is the first steps of my journey down painted texture noise lane!

The only part of his armor with work currently done on it is his shoulder-pad.  I'm currently experimenting with different texturing ideas.

I realize that some of these areas shown will be covered up by armor but for the experience of it I want to go ahead and do a little bit of it.

I'm extremely proud how Thorn's texture has come out so far! One of the things I'm following and taking into account is Thorn's natural poly edges.  I'm using the natural creases in his muscle definition to do a bit of the work for me, as less work is always better! And it would be unwise to ignore any way to save time!

I feel I'm really starting to get the hang of painted textures and I'm extremely happy with how fast I'm picking it up!  Its fun to see a character just pop out into the living space!

I'm currently looking into a program called Sketchbook Pro to use as a short cut for my real sketchbook.

 I-Wei Huang, an artist I now follow swears by it when it comes to his sketching. I've been following the work of  I-Wei for a bit now and I love his work process when it comes specifically to his Skylanders.  If you'd like to check out some of his work, here's a link to his blog! http://www.crabfu.com/

Until Next Time!

-Jordan