What's on Draft?

     Here's a rough 3D mock of how i imagined 2 parts of the city being - the Merchant & Guild Quarters (though 'quarters' might be switched out by something else depending on the kind of vocabulary i choose to use in the world). Merchant Quarters are where most shops and bazaars and such are, where as the Guild Quarters are where guilds and things of that sort are located (a lot of quests originate here).




     This is just another angle of the work thus far...closer up just so you can get a feel for the size of the dividing inner-city walls and the larger outer wall. Its all just quick concepts and such right now...so a bit of this might change (or just get greater detail).







     Here's a quick mock i made of archives before working on the town layout - just setting out basic shapes to get a general feel for what may or may not work in the long run. Size/details will definitely change as i realized some of what's in the picture won't really work in the end...but the overall 'feel' will kind of be the same.

Finally!!!1|1|11

    So it's been a long time since i've made a substantial posting, and it probably be longer still ttill there's anything really worth it on here - but i figure since i've got the shit to put on here...why not do it anyway?

     So this is the concept i came up with for the wall that goes around the main/initial town in my story (it would be the equivalent to Traverse or Twilight Town from Kingdom Hearts I/II). I was heavily influenced by the Great Walls of Ba Sing Se (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), but there were a few times where the wall just seemed...funny and whimsicle because of how it rose/fell and weaved along the mountain crest.




     I can understand why a wall built like this would have an ever-changing 'levelness', but since there's elemental manipulation in my story, i don't want to be limited to "real world" mechanics...which is kind of why i find some of these pictures i captured so funny.








     This is a pretty good kind of "middle ground" between the rise/fall of the terrain and the levelness of the wall. Again, i wanted mine to be a constant height, so this would only partially represent my idea.









     This is the kind of...aesthetic i'm going for in my wall design - grand, towering, impenetrable, almost as if it weren't man-made. I mean, the ground at the base of the wall isn't 100% level, but they maintain a constant height all around the inner-city. There's far less terrain near the city of Ba Sing Se than in my story, but the constant height thing is almost a must for me.







    This was a concept sketch i came up with for for my main town (after the post below this one, but before my design for the wall) and it might not make much sense to the viewer without any insight into my story/worl, but i'll eventually have some 3D mock-ups going on to illustrate the train routes and underlying terrain (i was kind of aiming for a small mountain/hill range encircling one larger mountain/hill that would have the Archives library sitting atop it)

More sketches and designs to come soon now that i've dusted off my Wacom tablet and found it far easier to sketch "layered" ideas in photoshop than on paper and then transfer.

A Head On Our Way...

          So since i got kind of board waiting for stuff i'd rather leave up to "professionals", i went ahead and started making some things on my own for the FF/Sonic Mash-Up. One of which is a few facial expressions that a "Hedgehog" character might have (cuz in the Sonic Universe, certain 'species' have different facial feature constuction - like eyes that are connected or eyes that are seperate from one another).






          So I took this "Shadow" (as only he would look so angry by nature) profile picture DJ drew and erased the majority of the arching 'eyebrows'.

          That gave me this picture. I took this image and went over it a couple of times, drawing in the rest of the eyes as they might appear for various expression (much like eyebrows are used.....though evidently Hedgehogs, through some evolutionary marvel, are without eyebrows and have the capacity to camoflouge their mouth when not talking). So after i thought of the most common ones, the ones i'd need to make Blend Shapes for, i put them side-by-side and got this:

          I then started to go over them with pencil to plot out my edgeloops (*wink* Alex *wink*) and how i'd need to deform the default face to get good representations of these expressions. I haven't finished doing that yet, but i'm well on my way. One of the main hurdles is that i haven't plotted edgelopps on the defaul expression.....so i don't really know how which loops would move since i don't know how many and where and what-have-you.

          But to remedy that, i started making a clay head for what Cloud would look like. I only got about an hour and a half on it (a little less after getting situated and figured out what not to do). I only got as far as his 'jaw' and the left half of his eyes (and while i threw a crude ear in the picture....that's no where near what it's going to look like, just to show where on his head it is and how it looks prior to putting in spikes/hair).

          So this is what i got so far. The eye/pupil is just for kicks...i won't need to plot edgeloops on that - so the finished model won't have any iris/pupils. With the exception of the ears and the spikes, the eye/face is probably only every going to get as far as what i've got now, since it's symetrical i only need to model have and just mirror it when i'm finished. I'll model both ears since they'll be helpful in determining where the spikes go on reference pictures.





          Since it won't really matter unless I got way further than the scope of this 'Short', i figure i might has well post it somewhere...otherwise it'll just be on paper forever.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

          So everyone pretty much knows the elements that compose a Sonic The Hedgehog game right? Robotnik/Some evil force threatens the world in some way and Sonic is seemingly the only who can stop him with his carefree attitude, disregard for personal safety, and a psychopathic desire for the consumtion of Chili Dogs. Early in the Sonic games, it was possible for the player to beat the game without need of the 7 Chaos Emeralds, but not too long ago (i think it might have been Sonic Heroes as the first game to do so) Sega started making it part of the sotryline to collect all 7 Emeralds in order to completely beat the game. If you didn't have them all, you'd get someone of a happy ending, with a little teaser at the end of it.

          And I'll be the first to admit it....Final Fantasy isn't for everyeone or even just anyone. So not too many people might be familiar with the elements that make a Final Fantasy game (although to a certain extent, they're the same as Sonic sans the Emeralds). So rather than generalize it for a Mash Up, DJ and I picked a specific scene that is basically Iconic in the FF Realm - where Sephiroth kills Aeris (and i really don't care what people say.....it's ends in S not TH!)

          So how we're combining the two is by taking the general character designs of Sonic characters and transfering Final Fantasy 7 characters to match the Sonic universe. We're really only going to focus on 3 characters; Cloud (Hedgehog), Aeris (Hedgehog....probably much like Amy), and Sephiroth (Echidna...so as to allow for long 'hair' rather than spikes). We're retelling 2 parts of the FFVII game; where Seph. kills Aeris, and the end where Cloud uses Omnislash. We're also going to encorporate a "Super Sonic" element to allow for the Omnislash (which will be similar to the upgraded version at the end of Advent Children).

          We'll encorporate the Chaos Emeralds too, although they'll basically be like Materia and have powers by themselves (more than Chaos Control too i might add).

          So below i'll go over the concepts for the Emerald/Materia breakdown as far as i took it (and i'm just using stock imagery of gems, actual materia/emeralds might have their own unique look to them - definitely color).

So here we have the Materia of Force. It allows it's user to control Fire based Magic and gives them great physical strength.

Here is the Materia of Agility. Its user can manipulate Lightning based Magic and gains unparalleled speed.

This is the Materia Longevity. User gains limitless Stamina and the power to control Earth based Magic.

This one is the Materia of Mentality. It bestows upon its user the skills of Air based Magic and great Mental Fortitude.

The Materia of Knowledge grants upon its user Water based Magic and unbelieveable Wisdom in every aspect.

This is the Materia of Being. It allows its user to conjur Spirit based Magic and provides Imortality.

This is the rarest of Materia - it might not even truely exist. It is the Materia of Unity. It allows for the manipulation of Time and all Magic and gives its user the ability to assimilate any and all other magic and Materia.

Weekend Work

     So this is basically what i got accomplished Saturday. Not all day Saturday, but from start to what you see in the renders is maybe 3 hours (i spent a lot of time learning how to 'Sculpt' geometry and then wasted about half an hour trying to paint it...which never worked).
     So this little 'Island in the Sky' is called Rho (Greek letter for "R"). And i've been using it in my story forever, i just never got around to making a good enough model of it.


     There's a whole long reason why it's floating and why there's a 'shaft' coming from it, but i won't go into it now. But the bridge (if you couldn't tell that's what it was) was built because the people of my story's world believed Rho to be the Land of the Gods (similar to Olimpus; able to be located, but no mortal can ascend to the top). This whole scene is incomplete too. At the end of the bridge there's supposed to be a few mountains to which the bridge connects to.




     This is a rendering of the underside of Rho (if it was hard to tell from the render). When i finally finish an acceptable model (as this on is a bit too long and not right in it's overall hieght (when placed over the reference drawing i made a couple posts below, it didn't quite match up...) I'm going to paint it and apply some nice layered texturing (which i also learned friday). It's basically going to be grass on the top (along with more geography like mountains and maybe a small water source), and grass hanging over the side a little bit. Then dirt and soil for a bit, and then it'll transition into real hard rock and earth.
     I'm gonna try and make another model of it next weekend or something, now that i know quick ways to deform the geometry to how i want. Today i'm gonna go learn about Particle Effects:

*Next Up: A Rocket with Particle(smoke) Trail. I might even composite it into the rho scene as i will eventually be using rockets and such in it for good ol' fashioned destruction.

Shadow of the Colossus

     So like my friend DJ did in her last post "A Gray Day" (btw....she mis-spelled grey - or rather spelled it the acceptable way while still being wrong), I took those greyscale art markers and went over some images (this is only one of them...others include the crystal in my blog's header) to further define the shapes and form of the subject so the eye has a bit more to look at then an extreme 2D image with no value. Maybe more later...

Let There Be Light

So my homework for FND 116: Perspective was to take the drawing we did from the first week and add value to it. So here's what i'm turning in for a grade. I'm probably going to go back (because this isn't the 'original' work) and add more detail - more cables...steps on the other staircase, metalic floor panels.

It's based off of an idea i'm going to put in my game, so now that i have a pretty good design for it, i'll probably make it into an actual model and animation during the summer before i have to go back to taking ANM classes for Maya.

I don't think i'm going to go back and revisit my below rending in Isometric perspective - with my work schedule being so hectic, i think i'm going to focus on what's for school and my violin practice.....ohhhhhh - speaking of which

*grabs violin and starts practicing*

Rho, Rho, Rho Your Boat...

Here's a wire-frame rendering of something i made in Blender that was from the story i'm developing to be turned into whatever medium it can be (cartoon series, VG, book, w/e). It's supposed to be a raised piece of earth, and obivously the thing on the bottom is the crater created from it.

The shaft running down the middle of both is a way for certain large items to be lifted to the top (as there's a small city and research-like base up there). So i'm deciding to revisit it, but rather than do it in 3D, i'm going to try doing it in the isometric style of perspective (like the drawing below this post).

So i'll be working on the rough tomorrow at my favorite cafe in town after work (i should have a few images tomorrow (assuming i remember to post them) of the basic outline...blocked out using simple cubes, pyramids, and basic shapes like that.

After which, once i get it to a level of detail i like, i'll practice shading it using the technique i learning for applying light/shadow to an isometric drawing. This might take a while, but i should hopefully post as i go alond.

Figure Drawing assignments next week.

IDK

Man....I've really fallen out of the habbit of making somewhat-regular posts.....gotta break that.

Well there's been quite a bit going on since my last post (my last big post....the one below was just so my friend could see my torso rendering - i actually finished it.....so maybe i'll post that here too).

I went and had another outting with my friend McKay shooting his rifles (and i gotta say i'm developing a taste for it). There's a few videos of us shooting his cop killer an the german, trying to hit two frozen 2-liter bottles of water.







Um.......how about......Animation always has an appropriate place in my posts.


My current ANM project is dealing with character modeling (which includes modeling, riggind/binding to a skeleton, animating the skeleton, facial deformations - like make an "O" mouth - and creating a walk cycle).

First step was to pick a character and do a profile sketch in what's known as the 'Bind Pose'. The Bind Pose is the pose animators use to model characters before binding them to a skeleton (if you ever take a video game and make an 'image' of it on your computer and pull the 3D character models out of it, they'll ALL be in this pose by default).

So whether the character already existed or was one we created didn't matter, all that mattered was the pose and picture for reference.

So i chose Shadow the Hedgehog (basically the evil twin of Sonic).




So far, acording to my friend DJ, it's coming along nicely (and i agree despite how frustrating it is working with the type of 'geometry' we're using).

Here are some renders of what i've gotten done so far...the head won't need to be done until the middle of next week:








The Chaos Emeralds (glowing gems) i threw in there for fun because that's what all the games focus around and to give it a little something extra to make up for the fact that i think it's not as good as it could be (i might actually redo the model during the winter break).



Oh yeah - i was a Mormon Missionary for Halloween:

(which is funny because everyone...practically everyone, i work with is mormon and because everyone else i know knows where i work. (And the woman in the picture is one of the 'Ladies' at the justice court i help out at, Kimberley)

So here's me and McKay, both Mormon Missionaries (funnier still because he is Mormon):



My Grandma dressed up too, as a 50s cheerleader:

psst....don't tell her this is here....i don't think she'd like the fact that this is on the web when she's making that goofy face - i took the picture when she was saying 'shoe'.





I took the Arch of Constantine (the first Christian Emperor or Rome) and made a 3D model of something i want to put in my game (based off the design and concept of the Arch of Constatine:

Arch:



My Arch:



I guess that's it for now, i'll try and post something by friday, or on friday, to show you how everything else is coming along.

Late


Song of the Evening:
Monica - For You I Will

Archives Layout

Here's something i worked on today for my story. It's just an outline of the place known as Archives.....5 guesses as to what it is. It's basically al the things i had known were going to be in Archives since i decided on it. The only reason i decided to kill some time drawing/planning it all out was so that it's finally down on paper and not fluid in my mind...the more that's on paper means the less it'll change if i have other ideas.