3Ds Max, It's Been A Long Time

With a new 3D Virtual Environment project beginning at University next week I have been fiddling around with 3Ds Max 2012, getting to grips with the controls having barely used it since my first year in college. I immediately find it easier to do everything with the user interface being much sleeker with the shading effects in the perspective view and lighting being much easier to add, no longer flooding the area with white or making everything black from the lack of it. The structure I made below was just a experiment with Extrude and Bevel tools to make complex shapes from a simple cube, adding a bit of Boolean for so additional interesting shapes.

Looking forward to this new project after having a little practice the software and seeing the variety of interesting objects I can make with the different tools.

February Snow

Just a few images I took the other day, getting to grips with my new camera and taking advantage of the usual English weather.

Shadow Graphic

 An experimentation with blurs in Adobe Illustrator to produce a series of shapes that imply a face by acting as the shadows. I think, apart from the nose area, this works quite well and was an interesting task to visualize the dark areas of the face rather than the face itself.

Concept Sketch

A quick concept sketch I made for an idea I've been toying with. Not sure its going to become reality anytime soon but thought it best to post it up here to remind me, rather than losing it in the random pieces of paper I have lying around.

Skyrim again!

A quick image I made on Adobe Illustrator inspired by Skyrim.

Tigers

A few tiger drawings I did, the first done by sketching and then using my artist pens to go over it. The second was just sketched out with a little more detail. I wanted a more tiger cub for each and I think it came across quite well, however the seconds ears don't really suit it as I wanted them to be over-sized and cartoon-like, but it doesn't match the rest of it's style.

A Delayed Christmas Post

Since I started this blog a week or so into January I didn't make a festive Christmas or New Year post, however browsing through some of the images I had made I found this Santa pixel art I made during my break from university over Christmas. I am a big fan of pixel art and love the simplicity of it that can produce a nice looking image, so will most likely post more of these in the not to distant future.

It's a Dragon

A sketch I did of a dragon after playing Skyrim for a large chunk of my Christmas. I'm pleased with how it came out as it didn't take too long and I only used a small amount of reference material for the scale patterns and eye details. I feel the perspective and scale of the claw is slightly off in comparison to the head, however this is down to my original concept not including the majority of the head features and just having the eye and surrounding area. I changed this as I found the image to be lacking with just the eye and claw and seemed unfinished with the large areas of white. If this had been done in Photoshop or Illustrator it would have been easier to use a shadow effect to make it so the eye was the only visible part of the head, but thought it wouldn't work as effectively if I had shaded in the majority of the page.

A Drawing or Two

These are a few images produced using a technique I'm experimenting with that is basically sketching out the design first and going over the lines one finished with artist pens of varying thickness. I like the cartoon effect that this creates as well as the simplicity needed to produce the images. Using this method I think will also be beneficial if I intend on adding colour to the images as the bold, black lines define the sections of the image and the way I use Photoshop means that by having each area seperated allows me to add detail that doesn't overlap into other areas of the image.

I'm So Witty

My mind feels like a building site,

Lots of noise with nothing productive happening.

This image took wayyy too long to make for what it is. I'm happy with how it looks but for a couple of hours work it's not that impressive. I really need to learn a way to optimize the efficiency of my work output so I can experiment with different ideas rather than putting a lot of time and effort into one image that consumes time needed to toy with multiple designs.

A New Year, A New Blog

This blog is intended for when I have something witty or enlightened to post. Needless to say I won't be posting often, but for when there are times when I have nothing interesting to post I might attempt to improve my drawing and graphic abilities and show my progress on here. I'm not calling this a New Years resolution because that means it won't last a week, but I do hope to stick to it for as long as possible.