Some Old School Stuff

Going through my computer, I found some work I did for my final end of year project in my year 12 Design Graphics class.
The project was pretty much a free for all, do something based of a subject that is important to you. I'm quite against war personally, any kind so this is my project entitled 'Aspects of War.'
Its three separate scenes depicting three different variations of war and fighting.
They weren't doing anything partially special except taking up hard drive space, so I mind as well post them here!
They were hand drawn, scanned onto the computer and then coloured in with Photoshop.

1) Revenge!

2) Freedom

3) Justice

Back Story

To tell the truth, I've been a bit lazy with my current 3D render project Future City Above A Flooded World because I've been working on Delta 9.
I do however have an 'official' bit of text that describes it, which I wrote up when I failed to submit it to the CG Society. It goes like this:

In the future there will be some sort of world wide catastrophe which will end in the world getting mostly flooded.
In a rush to accommodate the civilians of the world, a united world government is set up to control everything. These cities are built in massive rows that can accommodate anyone who can pay, meaning this is pretty much a rich only area.
Poverty is everywhere else though, with even the most advanced countries suffering because of a lack of land.

Its not much, but you can tell that it interweaves with the Delta 9 story line. They probably won't meet each other directly, but its all in the same universe at least.

Talking about Delta 9, I've been working on it a lot and will have some more updates soonish, so stay tuned! 

Delta 9

Here is some more information about my first Unity game and some screen shots. It is in its fetus stage right now though, which shows so please don't bag me about lack of detail.
The story goes like this:

The year is 2063, after natural disaster after natural disaster the world is a completely different place with only one government controlling the whole world. Its called The United Government of Earth, and its pretty much a totalitarian rule. The government likes the people to think that they're completely controlled, but the reality is that underground gangs and gang violence is out of control.
The only sign of hope in this whole screwed up civilization is a deep space station called Delta 9. It is used for research, outer space exploration or just plain holiday makers.
Construction finished in 2054, and since then the population has grown to about 80,000. It is self sustaining in every way, and new sections are always being added.
Last year all contact was cut off between there and Earth. It had people baffled. Any rescue crews sent out would disappear as well, their radio contact stopping as soon as they neared the space station.
No one is sure what to do, no one wants to go near it now because of the mystery that surrounds anyone who goes missing near it.


The character you play is called Gene Bova.

Gene is part of the underground gang scene but isn’t really associated with any one gang. He did mostly contract work which involved him doing serious crimes such as murder, armed robberies and ‘roughing up’ people who owed money or whatever.
His last task was to rob a government office and find plans for the fate of an old apartment block that’s in gang territory.  This went wrong however and he was caught red handed and he killed a government guard. The police didn’t catch him but they know he did it and now he’s a wanted man.
He’s in hiding now in an apartment that a friend of his owns, and he’s pretty much trapped there because you need a Civilian Security Pass to travel around the cities main streets (he needs to go through back allays, people apartments etc).

The starting story goes like this:
Gene is in the apartment and he gets a call from his friend who owns it to come and meet him in a back allay, where he says he has an acquaintance who will help him escape to the country side.
Gene trusting him automatically arrives to the allay to see his friend at gun point by the gang he was previously doing work for. They think that he screwed them over and actually sold the plans to another gang for a higher price, because now another gang owns it.
He pleads with them and says its not true. They don’t believe him and threaten to kill him and his friend. He offers to do anything in exchange, to prove him self.
They say that they have an important acquaintance with information they need who went on holiday to Delta 9, but never returned and broke contact.
They make it his mission to go to Delta 9, and retrieve him.
Gene agrees.
They say find out what happened to him or they will kill his friend.
They shove him in a space craft, and the main game begins (the Earth bit at the start will act as a tutorial as well).
 
Here are some screen shots of the Earth level I've started to build:

The apartment you start out in.

Its in shots like these where you can see that some detail still needs to be added. Its a food replicator machine, kinda like out of Star Trek, and Space Quest who copied it out of Star Trek.

I keep meaning to finish it off, but it just keeps getting pushed back further and further.

Anyone who can spot the Dragon Ball Z Abridged joke gets a free cookie.

That red force field is suppose to be a thing that registers if you're carrying a Civilian Security Pass or not.

The block of apartments courtyard. Kinda resembles a prison.

An example of how nice and friendly the government is.

Its abandoned apartments like this that allows Gene to get around without a pass.

So there you go, you're now informed about my game I'm working on. Stay tuned for more updates!

New header, yo

Tonight I decided to make a new header for this blog, its been getting a lot more attention recently so I thought it deserved a slight make-over.
The old header has been bothering me for quite a while now because honestly, it was quite shit.
This new one is simple, but I like it. Then again nothing is set in stone so I could easily change it again tomorrow if I see fit.
So yeah, story in short I made a new blog header because I was bored and the old one shit me so much.
The moral of this blog post is... well there is no moral, its a bloody post about a header. If you want to learn morals go and watch big blockbuster Hollywood flicks because their full of them, not Avatar though because that sucked.

The Progress Continues... (again)

So I got stuck on my current project, Future City Above A Flooded World. I just couldn't think of what to add next, I was having a major writers block but except in 3D render form.
So I thought, why not? And tried to submit it to the 3D Stills Gallery on the CG Society. They only except high quality work, and of course my unfinished piece got rejected.
This was a big hint to keep going, to finish it off. I was still stuck of course so I pleaded for help in my WIP thread (you'll need to skip to page 3) and the responses I got were truly helpful.
The ideas included:
-Changing the lighting to something like dawn or dusk (to make it more dramatic)
-Add more dirt and grime
-More infrastructure, especially between the different sections.
-More detail to the buildings
One guy even did a paint over for me!

So with all those ideas in my head, I have plenty to work with and I'm not stuck anymore.
Thank you, the internet!

By the way, I've started on my first game which I'm making with Unity.
Not going to give too much away because its still in its infant stages. Or so early I guess I could say its still in its fetus stage.
But here is a small rectangular picture, which probably won't give away much but at least gives a name and hint of genre.
Ciao!

Herp a Derp

Well I've kinda run out of ideas for blog posts about breaking into the industry.
So, this is now my official development blog. Yay!
This blog post will showcase some work that I started a while ago. Still not finished, but its pretty darn close.

So yeah, a bit more post production, maybe a little bit more modeling and I'm done.
Its been made with 3ds Max and Mental Ray if you're wondering BTW.

Unity Game Engine

So I've recently discovered this game engine called Unity, which is a engine that doesn't require that much coding. Obviously I'm instantly in love.
The only other engine I have ever found like this was called Reality Factory. While that was okay, it is currently out of date, by about 5 years. Plus its a pain in the buttsexs to get working with commercial 3D programs such as 3D Max and Maya.
The awesome thing about Unity is that its up to date (currently on version 3.1) and supports the big name 3D programs. Overall that there is a free version which anyone can register for.
I'm still currently learning it, but what I've seen so far has blew me away. Especially for something that cost me nothing.
I've already come up for a concept for a game, even started on the environment art. Its still in its infant stages though, so I'm not going to bother to give much away about it.

I highly recommend this program. Give the site a visit, here.

The Progress Continues...

So some people may be wondering whats happened to me, you might even have thought I was dead.
But here I am! (Ta-da!)
I'm still working on that scene in which I posted a while back. This is what it currently looks like:

 

I feel that its going nicely, except for those big arse shadows that have formed on the water. I haven't figured out how to get ride of those, so if you have any ideas please feel free to tell me.

You can see the work in progress thread on the CG Society here. 

Wow, kind of looks like shit now.

Hello the three possible people who follow my blog.
I recently started playing Delta Force- Black Hawk Down again recently (2003), and it occurred to me how dated it looks now in comparison to when I first played it when I was around 10 years old.
That may of been seven years ago, but its has still aged quite a bit when you compare it to other games released around that time (ie the first Call of Duty).

 

        Delta force- BHD                                                                   Call of Duty

But to be fair BHD's mission maps are huge and you go through the whole things with no loading screens, something that was rare for the time but would have sacrificed the higher details. 

COD maps on the other hand were more linear meaning more pixels could be squeezed in.     

It got me thinking though about how much video game graphics have evolved over the years. 

I remember when I first saw Grand Theft Auto 3 and I thought, ''wow look how realistic it is, it will be tough to match that.'' How wrong my little self was. 

These days you have the likes of Mass Effect and Crysis. These will probably look dated in another 7 years though, and I'll be linking this in some sort of future blog (wow the future!).

Of course I thought some games looked shit even when they came out *cough cough Driver 2* but I guess it depends on the system it was released on. 

I'm looking at you, Playstation One.

What really bends my mind though is how good sprites still look.

    

                                      Space Quest FTW

These don't age. These still look as good as they did 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. Especially ones that are hand painted. I guess you can't really make them any better.

3D technology advances so quick, something that was made even 3 years ago looks outdated compared to something released yesterday.

It will be interesting if 3D ever actually reaches its limits.

You're Awesome Because You Read My Blog

Well, its been a while.
I would love for my excuse to be that I'm to bogged down in school work to post here, but that would be a cold, hard lie.
I'm not doing TEE (Australian exams). If there were exams for Computer Graphics I probably would be doing them, but there isn't so no pressure for me. I'm easily passing Year 12 with my easily passed non-TEE subjects. I'm going to TAFE after all, I don't need exams. The VET I did at Central TAFE last year is enough for me to just simply stroll right in next year (actual words of my guidance councillor).

So what have I been up to with all my school work free time? A new 3D project of course.
BEWARE! WORK IN PROGRESS!

The back story is that these mammoth structures were built to accommodate towns and cites after some sort of world-wide disaster (I'll leave that to your imagination).
I'm only working on the one so far, but when its finished it will be copied to the handy pre-made concrete structures you see behind it. What I'm working on right now is populating the rooftops with shit.
You can see a work in progress thread on the CG Society here.

Mixing Media

The last couple of days I have been searching through the sites of 3D studios in Perth and one thing I notice that they all have in common is that they all do architectural renders.
A good example is this.
Its great how they create the building renders and then mix them with an actual image, it must be some kind of gypsy magic.

So I thought I would give a crack at it, and the result was this:

Any Perth natives out there may be going ''hey, what the hell is that huge monstrosity doing looming over Fremantle?'' Well fret no more, I just used that picture because its the only picture I could find which I took that shows a good landscape to work with.
The model is from a tutorial, so I modeled it but didn't design it. Direct all building related hate too that tutorial.
I'm pretty happy with how I got the perspective and lighting to match. If you disagree I welcome you to tell me in the underused but perfectly capable comment system.

3D Wins

Just a short post here (for the people who have the slightly smaller attention span than average).
In my year 12 graphics class at school, one of our assignments was to make an entry for the 2010 National DG Design Competition. My entry got into the Notable Entry category.

The main picture was made with 3D Max and the titles in Photoshop. Its based on the Kowloon Walled City.

To tell the truth I'm not really that happy with it because I wasn't that experienced with 3D Max back when I actually made it. Its missing simple things like bumpmaps and proper materials, its even using the default scanline renderer. Ah well, at least it got in.

You can see it on display here.

Inspirations

Inspirations. Every kind of art form is inspired by something, and 3D is no different.

These are the things that inspire my 3D and my art in general.

3.) Other work that is full of awesomeness.

There are a trillion-billion other 3D artists out there in the world wide interwebs. One website which I frequent is the Computer Graphics Society. There are some great 3D forums there and a lot of the worlds professionals gather there to talk 3D. Its great, you learn heaps while at the same time you get inspired by the magnificent work that gets posted there.

2.) Life/Dreams

I put these in the same category because I'm the all mighty overlord of this blog and I will do whatever the hell I want. But think about it. 

Thinking?

A lot of good shit happens in life and life related dreams, so much so that art is made out of it. This includes stuff you see in the news, internet, drunk mates etc. It all has potential. 

1.) Music

Music is a big part of my life. I listen to it and play it everyday. 

It can just be the pure sound of a song that gets me going, or the mood/meaning that feeds my inspiration.

All in all, I recommend music in general to a friend.

The main bands that I like include Nirvana, KoRn and Pink Floyd. 

Of course there are a CD rack load more but I'm not going to fill this blog with every single band I like. I'm sure you get the gist of things.

Money For Nothing

So I don't exactly have a job in the industry yet, but that doesn't mean I can't make money from it.
What I'm talking about is selling your 3D models on websites, like TurboSquid or Exchange3d.com, I've just started myself.
The idea is that company's or individuals can buy your models so they don't have to make them themselves (kind of like freelancing).
The beauty of it is that your models don't only sell once, you can sell as many as you like (of course you have to wait for people to buy them first).

Here are the following models which I'm currently selling:

Wall Fan

Available at TurboSquid and Exchange3d .

Portable Radio

 

Available at TurboSquid and Exchange3d.

Those two models are from renders I've made. I was making those models anyway so its good that I can possibly get some revenue back from them.

Just make sure that if you do decide to start selling them that you've made the models and textures yourself.

3D ''3D''

Lets talk about something different now, but still relevant to 3D. Its either that or the epic struggle between me and my teachers for the right to wear black jeans instead of navy blue cargo pants.
Lets talk about 3D televisions.

Is it the new technology? Is it whats going to revolutionize our lives and influence our foreseeable future?
Short answer in my opinion, no.
For me the cons for this piece of technology heavily out-way the pros.
Whatever you do, you can't get around the fact that you have to wear those bloody glasses every time you want to watch some TV.
It totally takes out the social element that is television, I rarely watch TV (too many ads) but when I do its with friends and family, or while on the computer or my phone. The ability to do this gets taken away by those glasses. It just isn't what I interpret as television.
Also another con of glasses is the apparent health problems. Nobody is sure what the long term effects are because no studies have been done, but short term effects can include headaches, eye-strain and nausea.
It really is unknown territory, who knows what the effects could be.

Another thing I don't like about it is the lack of current content. So far its just been sports coverage in Australia, and frankly I really don't care about that at all. Call me a geek but I find nothing more boring than watching some dudes kick a football across a field for a couple of hours. BUT ITS IN 3D! you say.
Woopdy fucking do.
Also the amount of 3D Blu-Rays out there are minimal as well. And did you know that you need a 3D capable Blu-Ray player to play these? No, not the brand new Blu-Ray player you just bought but a 3D one. Its only another $400 (*sarcasm*).
But to be fair it is new, and the content should increase if it takes off.
If in a couple of years its still the biggest thing since spinach and ricotta rolls and the content is everywhere then maybe, maybe I will think about it.
I still have heavy doubts that it will though, those glasses take away the whole 'OMG kind of like real life' factor for me.

Especially since I hear there is a type of 3D in development that doesn't involve glasses, not as in like holograms, but that 3D still has the same effect without glasses (I won't lie, I don't really understand how it works).
Nintendo is already working on a handheld that uses this technology, its called the 3DS. There were playable prototypes on display at this years E3, and reports are that they seem to do the job, they just need a bit of tweaking.
Sounds to me that were gonna have 3D without glasses in the near future after all, unless a full nuclear war breaks out tomorrow, but I doubt that it will.

 

So Lets Talk Money

Hi! How are you? Good? Thats great.

So, me in the industry.
Where to start? Well an actual job might be good.
So where do I begin? As far as I can see there are two possibility's:
1.) I get a full time position at some kind of production house, it would be a real 9-5 office scenario.
2.) Do freelance. Potential customers see my portfolio, and BAM! They outsource work to me and I work from the comfort of my own dwelling.

Lets look at number one:
The whole 9-5 office scenario stereotypically seems to be a bit daunting and boring, but then again it would be my dream job. Its only daunting and boring when you consider it to be daunting and boring. I would enjoy a job like that very much, I would turn up to work everyday with a smile on my face and leave with the same one on. I do this type of thing in my spare time a lot as a hobby, if I was getting paid as well I would be well and truly over the moon.
I live in a growing city in Australia called Perth. As far as I can tell, the following studios are based there:
Last Pixel
Constructive Media
Torpedo
3D Millipede
Well their the ones I could find on Google anyway. There might be more, if you know of any leave a comment (especially if you own one (and especially especially if you want too give a certain blogger a trainee ship of some kind!)).

There use to be a lot of game development studios in Perth as well, but they've gradually closed down over the years, which is a crying shame. If there are any by the time I'm ready for work, I could get a job at one as an environment artist. Which would also be fricken awesome.

Now lets look at the second option.
Freelancing sounds like a very appealing option.
There are a lot of studios all over the world that outsource some of their work to freelances so they can cut cost, lots of them do it all the time which means the potential for work is huge.
But then again there are already a lot of freelances out and about, so that means competition. To stand out from the crowd you need an excellent portfolio so that you get picked. This is why I'm getting into the whole render thing before I even start proper education, I want to be the guy that gets picked.
If I don't get picked, I don't get work. If I don't get work its the dole line for me. Which isn't what I really wan t in life, I'm sure you can understand.

So as you can see I have a bit of work ahead of me, if I want this career I'm going to have to work hard.

/END
  



    

And So It Begins

I'm gonna call this my first blog post.
Disregard the other one, its just a 'WELL HOWDY HO!' post.
Don't even think of looking at the one that is now at the bottom of this one, the fact that this one is now on top shows how unimportant the other one now is.

So I want to get into this industry right? I certainly hope so because this blog will loose all its meaning if I don't. Luckily I do though so everything seems dandy.
I've been practising my 3D quite a bit lately, mostly because my Year 12 school year is nearly up and I will be going to TAFE soonish. I want to already know what I'm doing before I get there so I have an advantage, well that's the plan anyway. 
I've been practising making 'renders.' Renders are pretty much 3D scenes complied to look pretty. All the photo-realistic 3D pictures you see? They don't look like that when their in the workspace, in fact they usually don't look pretty at all. A lot of stuff doesn't come up until you render (bump maps, some lighting etc) which is fair enough because today's computer wouldn't be able to handle all that in real time, maybe in 5-10 years though, who knows.
Anyway the render I'm on right now is inspired by certain restaurants I saw while on a family vacation too Hong Kong last year. Their pretty amazing; steam, cheap plastic stools, tiled walls, which are usually all cramped into a space no bigger than my bedroom. Their full of character.

As you can see its a work in progress, one the of the main features I want hasn't even been added yet which is the steam. 

Learning 3D this way is so much better than just doing straight tutorials and nothing else. The amount of stuff I've learnt while just making this very piece is enormous. Its very learn as you go. I've come across heaps of problems and its simply a case of looking up a tutorial and applying it. I get what I want and I also learn something new. Win win. 

Of course sometimes it can get a bit hard finding the exact tutorial I want, but I guess its all part of the fun.

Also while I'm blathering about Hong Kong, I thought I would show you this picture I took and then attacked with Photoshop:

                            

  

Its the Hotel Ibis, near a part of Hong Kong which I can't remember the name of.

It really does stick out like a sore thumb because its the only splash of colour among a whole lot of stained white and grey, so I thought I would promote it with all its individualist glory. 

Anyway that's me for now, please check back soon!

-B-DAWG (pronounced Brendan).

The Introduction...

Hey you! Yes you! The dude lurking my brand new, shiny blog. Welcome!

My name is Brendan, and this is a blog about me. More specifically it centres around my hobby that is 3D. One day I would like to turn it into a career, but that is a while away. I've been doing the modelling aspect of 3D for a few years now, but I've only just got into the whole rendering side things. Its been a lot of fun so far, but I still have a bit too learn. Next year I start doing TAFE full time (a collage in Australia) where I plan to further my skill.

A bit about me more personally.

I love playing guitar, drawing, writing (even though I don't do as much as I would like), listening to music and hanging out with friends.

I plan to integrate this type of stuff a little in my blog, but nothing too boring.

So yeah, that's about it. 

I'm going to update this frequently, so please check back as much as you like. Don't be shy to comment either, I will read everyone with the love it deserves.