Starman Junior

I've recently been playing through Earthbound again, and felt like doing something quick on the subject. 3 hours in this one. :)

Stone Rhino

I've finished my Stone Rhino model for presentation. A total of roughly 15 hours of work. Next step is to texture and rig it for animation.



A bit more cleanup is needed before I can call this one completely final though. After posting the model on a forum I frequent, I've been contacted by the project lead for MechWarrior Living Legends. I am a huge fan of this mod and if all goes well, hopefully my mech will become a working in-game asset.

Streaming

Last night I did a Livestream broadcast of myself modeling for about 5 hours. I had peaked at 13 users watching at one point, which was hugely motivating for me to keep working. A few of the viewers were asking questions about modeling techniques and some interesting industry and technical discussions had started as well.

I am about 12 hours into this model. I plan to texture, rig, and animate it as well. I will definitely be doing another live broadcast soon.

Other Things

I've been working almost exclusively on Pod & Rodney lately, creating new visual assets and animations for that extra polish that Greg and I are looking for in our finished product. There isn't much else to say or show besides an unfinished render or two, since the game is more the sum of it's parts, rather than each individual model/animation.

Other than that, I've been striving to better myself in a few different areas besides portfolio development. I've been trying to work out more by running a few miles a day. I've also been trying to eat less in the evenings and generally becoming more conscious of my health. I'm usually not that attentive to things like that, so getting into the regular habit will be a bonus for this summer's quest of productivity and self improvement.

Rodney Walk Cycle

Here is the first finished character animation for Pod & Rodney:



It took me about an hour to complete. I have a lot more to go after this one, but I think I'm off to a good start!

Living Level

I've shifted my focus back to Pod & Rodney, and things are moving along very nicely with that. Tonight Greg and I got a few finished animations and environmental assets working in his code, and I have to say it was one of the greatest highs I have ever felt. Seeing what we have created come to life is just an incredible feeling that I cannot explain. We have worked very hard to get where we are, and we have a ways to go. Him and I are both very excited to be this close to a finished product.

Once we have a tech video posted on the official Pod & Rodney blog, I'll post it on here as well.

Next Step

An internet buddy of mine, 'Shpladoink', has taken over the Plague Doctor mask for exporting and optimization. He knows quite a bit more than I do about creating assets for Source Engine games, so this has been a huge help, and a great learning experience for me. So my next challenge is to finish my Stone Rhino mech and get Rodney exported for rigging. I'll probably work on both back and forth so I don't lose productivity momentum, if I get a lot done on one or the other, bonus.

Here is a screenshot of my Plague Doctor mask in-game.

Finished Plague Doctor Mask

I think I'm done with this one. Total of 4 hours to make. The TF2 contribution site suggests that any community developed hats be 800 polygons or less; when I checked mine it came out to exactly 800 polygons, what luck! Now I just need to export it and test it in-game. :)

Plague Medic

A Plague Doctor mask and hat for Team Fortress 2's medic class. About 3 hours into modeling it. The colors are just temporary placeholders before I add textures.

So Far

I'm starting this blog to document and journal my portfolio progress this summer. Here is what I have done prior to starting this blog:




This first image is a Morrigu tank from the Battletech universe. It took me about 10 hours to model.





Next is a level for Team Fortress 2 that I recently finished. It's called koth_barrel_shoot. About 16 hours of work in this.





Here is my unfinished Stone Rhino mech, also from the Battletech universe. I'm about 7 hours in so far.





Development is still on-going for Pod & Rodney as well, an independently developed puzzle game by a friend and I. The image links to it's blog.



The models are done in Maya, and the TF2 level was made in Hammer.