Creature Comforts

Submission for ArenaNet Internship Program

2011-09-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

So this is what I've been busy working on for the last month. I'm SO GLAD it's done.

In other news, I start my Zoological Drawing class at Gnomon on Saturday! YAY!

Now time to indulge my exhausted self in sweet, sweet Diablo 3-ness.

Blog gets no love!

2011-08-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hi, Blog! I'm sorry you've been neglected all this time. I promise there was good reason for it!

Look at all this stuff I've been hard at work on!

Sabrewulf was my favorite character in Killer Instinct Gold -- I played that game all the time once our neighbor lent it to us. He's not finished at all, but I have to put him on hold for now so I can work on more pressing projects.

I've been working on so much 3D I haven't been drawing much, but here's a doodle I did earlier this year.

Do you forgive me, Blog? I promise I'll be posting much more artwork very, very soon.

Love, Lynda

P.S. - Later this September I'll be attending an animal-drawing class at Gnomon. Expect lots of animal drawings. :)

Niik: Current Progress

2011-04-20T23:58:00.001-07:00

I had to do a LOT of slimming down and tweaking on him to make him look more like the concept. I like where it's going!

Now I've got some textures happening.

Niik the Unlucky

2011-04-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm starting on my next model. This time, it's a beloved character of mine. Here's an image of him for your viewing pleasure.

I'm using as reference the book "Digital Sculpting: Human Anatomy" by Scott Spencer. So far I'm getting very nice results!

Will have more updates soon.

New 3D!

2011-03-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile! I should probably post some art, huh? I've HAVE been doing some!

So, as of yesterday my Gnomon class is over. It was amazing! I feel very proficient with ZBrush now. Expect many more 3D sculpts!

As for my final project... here it is! It was so much fun to do. I'm quite proud of it. :)

And here's a turnaround...

A larger version can be found on my Vimeo here.

I'm surprised I never posted this... this is a painting I did for my sister for Christmas. It's her D&D character, and she absolutely loved it. It was wonderful.

And here's one of my own D&D characters... D&D is very good for me because (1) I get to create lots of characters, and (2) it gets me to draw. A lot.

That's all for now... I'll try to update more frequently.

First Gnomon class

2011-01-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

So I just got back from the first session of my Digital Sculpting class at the Gnomon School. It was... an adventure.

First off, parking in Hollywood is a nightmare. I circled maybe 5 times before I finally found somewhere to park. By the time that was finally finished, I had 2 minutes to get to class. So I went into the office to find out where my class was: Lab 5. Cool. Where is that?

Long story short, I got lost. The Gnomon campus looks like a First-Person Shooter level -- lots of pipes, concrete walls, and metal grate staircases and walkways. For some reason "Lab 5" turned into "Lab 3" in my head, so I ended up in the wrong class.

After exiting in the middle of the class intro, apologizing to the teacher for my mistake, and being snickered at by the students, I was on the brink of tears. Not because of being laughed at, but moreso because getting lost makes me extremely frustrated. EXTREMELY. Anyway, I got to the right class and everything turned out okay.

Anyway, the class seems like it'll be REALLY informative. I'm pretty excited. And it's interesting that our final project is to create a fully-sculpted dragon model -- it's perfect for me!

Anyway, just figured I'd write down my epic failures today. Hopefully I learn the layout of the campus better.

Education vs. Job

2010-11-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

So, I had some interesting things come up this week.

Not sure if I mentioned it (I probably did, but I'm a bit under-rested right now so a little brain dead), but I currently work part-time at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. Obviously I would prefer a "real" job, but JoAnns has always made me happy. They hired me right after I graduated from high school and I worked there for a year before attending DigiPen. So when I was desperately in need of money this summer, I happened to stop by a JoAnns that needed someone pronto to help stock in the early mornings. I was a prime candidate because I had prior experience, so it was almost an immediate hire. Honestly... I got lucky.

Anyway, I received some unexpected news yesterday. I was in the stock room, minding my own business (aka wrestling with the boxes and the very small space we have to work with), and my main manager comes back and explains to me how, if our store surpasses a certain amount of revenue this year, they have the option of hiring an RTL - "Receiving Team Leader". I didn't realize that the manager I work with to unload the shipments every Monday morning is actually filling two positions since a former employee left. So anyway, she asked me if I'd be interested in filling that position starting in the Spring-- which is more or less what I do now, just with full-time hours and more paper work.

Honestly, I didn't expect it. I feel like I fumble and fall over myself at work on a regular basis, but I guess I must be doing a decent job in reality. I told her I was interested in the position. I mean, increased pay AND full-time hours? It probably means benefits, too. I don't even know what those taste like!

The longer I've let it sink in the more I've started to feel apprehensive. I really should focus on my portfolio so I can get a job that pays much better, is what I want to do, won't sap my life energy and won't require me to be bad-mouthed by rude customers. (It's probably just the holidays, but work hasn't been nearly as fun lately.)

On that note, I had a one-on-one consultation at the Gnomon School today to discuss my options if wanted to take some courses. I cannot describe how relieved I am at the councelor's response to my artwork. I think his wording was more or less, "You're pretty good!" He basically let me know that my art foundation is really strong -- I just need a little more 3D knowledge to "fill the gaps". He recommended a few courses which, unfortunately, will be too much for me to pay for out of pocket alone.

As unappealing as taking out more loans is... I really feel it's the quickest way to guarantee my success. Gnomon has a lot of close industry connections, so not only would I get a priceless education and access to professional assistance, but I'd also hear about any positions available at nearby companies. I think that's worth going a little more into debt -- just a bit. I'd rather work really hard for one year and spend a little more money than flounder and struggle with my motivation for the next five years. I have a life to live!

Anyway, it's probably about time to start packing and head to bed. Right after work tomorrow Tom, his sister, and I are driving up to Oregon for Thanksgiving. It'll be a great vacation -- I've really been craving seeing some snow! L.A. is beautiful, but it doesn't have everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!

WIP Crab - Texture Pass

2010-11-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

Been fixing up this model like I mentioned in the last post. Here's some progress I made yesterday -- I have the self-illumination turned (meaning light won't affect the surface) all the way up right now so I can paint in shadows.

He's actually too green right now -- in the original concept I realize he's bluer. I'll fix be sure to fix that!

Update on life...

2010-11-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

A.K.A. "Where did Lynda go?"

Well, within the last several months, not too much has changed -- at least in terms of career. I did have two interviews -- one at Treyarch in Los Angeles for an internship (which fell through), and one at Junction Point Studios (Disney Interactive) in Texas (which I didn't get). I have learned a lot merely from those experiences so at least that's worth something...

Otherwise, I've been really trying to stay on top of my motivation. Before I moved back to Los Angeles during the summertime I took an ArenaNet-run ZBrush class. This was all I needed! I never learned this adequate piece of software which is SUICIDE in this industry. I can't believe I tried to get by without it! I merely need to expand my portfolio work using that. Also, next week I have an appointment set up with the Gnomon School to see what would work best for me... I feel like there are some theories and art concepts I'm missing that I need to continue learning, so hopefully come January I'll be enrolled in some individual classes there. I'm thinking of taking some digital painting and more ZBrush classes.

Non-career-wise, I've sort of realized that only people I know and family really read this blog, so... I've decided to expand it and include updates on my actual life -- you know, those things that happen around you while you're fretting about art and employment. Yup.

So, for now, I'm working a part-time job at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts to pay my bills, and to not feel completely useless! It helps -- though it usually leaves me extremely tired as I have to wake up on a regular basis anywhere from 3-4 AM. Augh!

So, you want proof I'm still doing some art? Fine, I'll give you proof!

Luckily, playing D&D is actually good for me -- it makes me want to draw! This is my character Kel'landra, a Rogue/Wizard multiclass, soon to be taking the prestige class Arcane Trickster. The cat familiar is named Caran'dae, and I made him an Abyssianian because they are the most charming cats in the world.

Here's some low-poly 3D assets I made for Exato Game Studios while I was there for their game "Progenitor". Wondering when it will be released? So am I. Guess we'll have to wait and see!

Tom Murray (for people not in the know, my boyfriend/college classmate) and I got a job to make a presentation video for the next volume of "Writers of the Future" earlier this year, and I modeled and animated a Sci-Fi worthy book based on Tom's concept. It's not the best piece of work I have ever done in my life, but it's really my first experience doing hard-surface modeling, and it was a lot of fun! I may include a bit of the animation in my next demo reel.

I actually created this for a shot at an Arena Net internship (which I didn't get... darn) but I'm actually touching it up because I think I can do better. The main reason I'm posting it in this incarnation is because this is my first actually SUCCESSFUL sculpting and baking experience to date. FuturePoly was truly a life-saver!

I think that's a pretty good sum-up of the last several months of my life. If anything else happens I'll let you know!

2010 Portfolio pages

2010-03-03T23:02:00.001-08:00

Getting my portfolio ready for GDC... and I'm pretty worn out. Here are some things I've cleaned up and finished up for that:

This one obviously isn't done -- but I love the model.

Finally, he's done! A vast improvement from this time last year. :)

Same with these guys.. I updated their texture files since the ones from last year needed updating.

My demo reel comes next!

A job!

2010-01-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

So that test I did for that company did paid off. I got hired! I start Monday. :D I'll be working part-time on an XBOX Live Arcade title at Exato Game Studios.

I'm really excited to start! It's great to finally be able to get some job experience, and get myself some exercise. lol

I'll have lots of off-time so I'll continue working on my Chaos Imp. Hopefully I can get him done soon... I'm so close. O_o

Chaos Imp WIP & Misc. Paintings

2010-01-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Still working on-and-off on several projects at once.

Here's my current progress on my Chaos Imp texture. I really like where it's going, but I feel like I still have a long way to go. I think it'll pay off in the end. :)

An environment painting I did for a company.

A character I'm designing for a contest over on DeviantART. It's merely a way for me to keep my creative juices flowing. I was provided with three words and an image for inspiration. The words were "swift", "gritty", and "steely". The image was some avocados. ;) I'll be trying to flesh him out some more, because he's really grown on me.

Digital paintings from the end of 2009

2010-01-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

I'm still hard at work on my portfolio -- still working on the imp's texture, which is coming along.

As for 2D, here are some other pieces I've been working on!

Two characters of mine, Cxuca (pronounced "shuu-kah") and Vanessa. Cxuca is an alien from another solar system, and Vanessa has been shunted into this world. It's a story I crave the time to develop and turn into a graphic novel.

This is a one-hour doodle I did in Photoshop last month. He's my personal creation I just call "Claw Beast" that I don't draw nearly enough...

An image I did for an LJ community I'm in, CritterxChange. This guy is someone else's design, but I took some major liberties with it. It's a great excuse to continue toying around with extra features in Photoshop! :)

Chaos Imp Re-texture

2009-12-16T15:16:00.001-08:00

I'm currently taking a brief break from my Mudbox project to re-texture this model I did last year. Here's a current work-in-progress shot. :)

Orc Barracks Render and fanart

2009-12-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have so much to get done... But luckily, I did get one project finished! The Orc Barracks from Warcraft II:

I'm a huge fan of that old game :) I always enjoyed playing the orcs best, and my favorite building in the whole game was this building, the barracks. It was a load of fun to do!

And speaking of games I'm a huge fan of, I also did this piece of art in tribute to an old Amiga classic "Shadow of the Beast".

Lastly, I did this last piece as a Christmas present for someone who enjoys the movie "Flight of Dragons" as much as I do. :D

All three of these games/movies had a huge influence on my art and interests as a child. :)

The She-Demon

2009-11-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

Another speed painting. Took about 2.5 hours.

In-progress Mudboxing

2009-11-25T13:40:00.000-08:00

I'm hard at work. Have the basic structures blocked in now. :D

Some speed paintings from this week:

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

Model ready to unwrap!

2009-11-18T19:18:00.001-08:00

So day two... I believe I'm finished modeling the basic structure. I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out! :) Currently it's about 7,000 tris.

Next I'll start unwrapping. After that, start adding some more smoothing edge loops, then... Mudbox!

Heron Deer model.

2009-11-18T09:56:00.001-08:00

Okay seriously... I don't know what to call this thing.

Here's the model sheet I doodled up yesterday:

I guess it's more-or-less a hippogryph. I love herons and deer (both indigenous species to Western Washington) and really wanted to combine the two. I decided this would be a great excuse to do a high-poly model. :)

I'm trying to prepare my portfolio to GDC, and have been updating and fixing up my website -- which, by the way, is here.

Anyway, here's my start of the model. This is three hours of work, and I'm not quite done blocking in everything yet.

I'm pretty excited to see this one done!

It's been awhile...

2009-11-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

So, since last time I posted, I graduated form DigiPen Institute of Technology, finished the werewolf project, and all summer struggled with my personal motivation.

Anyway, all that's over now. I've begun working again, and up until now I've been primarily working on digital painting and drawing. So I'll post some of that work here.

But first, the finished werewolf renders because I never posted them! Graduation was so hectic I completely forgot.

I also did a run animation because I've always been interested in how creatures move. It was VERY difficult making this guy run like a wolf when his front arms are as long as his spine! D:

Also, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why 3ds Max was making my animation hitch the way it is... well, that's what I get for not focusing on animating. :)

Otherwise, here are some pieces of art I did during the summer and recently. I mostly spent my time experimenting with different techniques in Photoshop.

I'll continue with my latest model in the next post.

Degu Model

2009-04-09T21:59:00.001-07:00

My friend Kiyome is working on a project in the same course I'm creating the werewolf for. She asked if I could block in a model for her, so here's what I have so far.

Not much to say. I'm tired. :)

Werewolf, revisited!

2009-04-08T00:25:00.001-07:00

It's funny... whenever I finally get to my computer to post, I completely forget everything I wanted to say. Bummer.

Recently I've found time to work on my werewolf project again. I finally decided on an environment to put him in. Yay! First, some color thumbs.

The way the light is being cast is a bit off, but I didn't really have time to adjust it. :\ But at least the idea is there!

In the end I plan on taking three or more different staged renders of this scene since not only am I not an animator, but I am shorter on time than I would've liked. His original design ended up looking really doofy, so I decided to add a lulling tongue. So far it's been a blast!

I've been tweeking the model quite a bit, and added some elements. His texture map is a 512 x 512. Here are some work-in-progress renders:

This is my scene so far with the lighting scenario from the color thumbs above. The sky image is leftovers from a course I took awhile ago and is just a place holder for now... It almost makes this scene look like it's on an elevated building or something!

This wolf likes trash, apparently. One of the compositions will involve him digging through the trash in silhouette like this (or recently having done so). Another one, as seen above, will be him in the dumpster with a banana peel draped across his face. He's a classy boy, indeed!

Demo reel!

2009-03-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've been so quiet because I have been hard at work on my demo reel and website!

And now, after putting in about a month of 12+ hour days, I introduce to you my demo reel!

I am so tired. :(

Also, check out my desktop. I'm so proud of this model!

GDC next week. We'll see how it goes!

Chameleon finished!

2009-03-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

After quite an anxious and panicky time, I finished the chameleon! I'm quite pleased with how he looks. :) The pedestal hasn't had real color or texture put on it, but I might keep it plain on purpose. I just wanted him to have something to grip.

Here are some close-up shots. I gave this guy yellow eyes like my chameleon Ridley. :3 Also, there's a lovely close-up of that tail.

A finished cricket model will follow this soon, and I'll be doing more poses with them both together.

And now for something COMPLETELY different...

2009-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

I am not going into animation because it just doesn't grab me as much as asset creation does. However, I've learned the 12 principles of animation and can do it. Here's one of my better animations that I never got around to showing anyone. It was a final I did for my "Voice Acting for Animation" course last semester. We were to choose a piece of dialogue and animate to it with the provided character, "Generi".

My family will appreciate the sound clip I chose. :)

"'Ey, what's that? Oh, it's my shadow! Heey, even my shadow's lookin' nice! I'm lookin' nice... my shadow's lookin' nice... what a team!"
-The Cat, from Red Dwarf

Mudbox Project

2009-02-24T19:59:00.001-08:00

Every entry I show something different! D: I hope I can get some of these done soon!

Here is yet another model for my portfolio. He's a creature I designed awhile ago and I love his large claws. :) Here's a drawing of him. I started this model this time last year and forgot about him for awhile... I decided he would be a prime candidate for Mudbox.

Also, a friend of mine offered to rig him, so soon I'm going to hand him off to her now that he's unwrapped. I'm excited that it's going so smoothly so far!

Here are some simple renders of him currently. I had to adjust his edgeloops so now he's a little under 10,000 polys! Once he's put through Mudbox he'll surely be about one million...

I'm quite excited to see how this turns out! Mudbox is deceptively easy to use, so that helped out my confidence in the matter...

Hopefully, soon enough, I can stop spending 10-hour days at school, but we have 17 days until Career Day and 31 until GDC...

Sadly, these longs days won't be ending any time soon.

Werewolf model

2009-02-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today I did some more tweaks on my werewolf, and now I can call him officially "done". I collapsed his symmetry and consolidated some edge loops to make him even lower poly. :D He's down to 527 Tris.

Seeing how little time I actually have left, I'm no longer planning on doing a high-res version of him... instead, I'm going to create a small low-poly environment for him to exist in. I'll begin doing some sketches for that soon.

For his unwrap and texture, I'm going to be using Alpha channels to give him extra fur texture and emulate the 2D artwork. Below is an image showing the parts of the mesh that are planes that will have transparency:

Fascinating. :D

Anyway, I also did some color thumbs, which I actually can't properly choose from until I know for sure what his environment will be like. I'm fairly partial to the grays.

Hardware failure! D:

2009-02-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

So recently I have been having issues with my beloved MacBook Pro performing crawlingly slow, so I figured reformatting was in order. Sadly, it appears instead to be caused from a dying hard drive. :( I really suspect it might've been Boot Camp that did it in.

I've ordered a replacement, and I'll have it installed and reformatted next week. It will be great to be able to work again!

In the meantime, here are some things I've been working on lately for my portfolio. All of these are low-poly models. (I'll have specifics at a later time.)

Here was a model I was intending on having in a game, but it didn't end up working out. Instead, I've fixed up the polys and added a tongue for extra posing capabilities! :) As of yet he is untextured.

Another model for the same game is the chameleon's food-of-choice: a cricket. He'll be posed with the cricket for my portfolio.

Lastly, here's a model I have been designing and making for a production course at school. I wanted to create a stylized werewolf. I'm kind of a classical monster nut. :) As an aside, here's my research and exploration.

I think he's rather charming myself!

So far I have the low-poly version completed. I wanted to make a high res version as well with an environment, and have both models in my portfolio as a comparison.

The low poly will incorporate Alpha channels so I can get the emulate the shapes in the 2D artwork. Here's the untextured model:

Aside from school, I have been suffering from slight anxiety. With graduation fast approaching and many responsibilities to be aware of, it's proven to be a bit overwhelming. With so many things up in the air right now, I'm sure things will be more settled in a week or two... I sure hope so!

The beginning...

2009-02-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, look what I did. D:

I'm so terrible at keeping in contact with people because I'm so busy all the time. So here's my solution: A BLOG.

Here I intend to show just WHAT I'm so busy with all the time, and just overall updates of what's going on with me for my family and friends.

Lets get this show on the road. ;)